HOW TO DANCE THE M&A TANGO IN PERFECT RHYTHM

The title is inspired by an interesting book by Frank Trompenaars, an expert on intercultural management, The Global M&A Tango. The tango is a South American dance with a strong rhythm where two people hold each other closely—a tough synchronising act like in a merger or acquisition.

- R GOPALAKRISHNAN

I am not a great one for astrology, but I am for astronomy. A few days earlier, six planets—Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—aligned harmoniously in a "planetary parade," a cosmic event visible from India. Such a near-precise alignment is required for success in mergers and acquisitions.

Recently, The New York Times carried an interesting piece on what matters more for human longevity: genes or lifestyle. The short answer: up to age 85 or so, lifestyle matters; beyond that, genes matter more.

What about corporate longevity? Lifestyle matters initially; after a certain age, purpose (genes) matters. For companies, lifestyle comprises four factors: business aggression, continuous excellence, innovative adaptations, and mergers/acquisitions.

M&As do stress out a company.

Emeritus professor of the Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, Peter Woolliams, avers in a book's foreword, "It is well known that most mergers and acquisitions fail to realise the expected benefits... Mergers and acquisitions need to be in the business of marriage and not simply weddings."

If the divorce rate among married couples is increasing, the solution is not to avoid marriage. In the same spirit, leaders must learn how to increase the probability that M&A works. I doubt there is sufficient material on what generalisable processes can extract sustainable value from disparate organisational cultures.