The Human Side of M & A How CEOs Leverage the Most Important Asset in Deal Making

There are thousands of mergers every year and some estimates say thattwo-thirds of them either fail or fall far short of expectations. How canexecutives keep their merger from becoming a head-on collision?In The Human Side of MandA, Dennis Carey and Dayton Ogden argue that mostfailed mergers looked good on paper--they made financial and strategicsense--but the highly important human element was neglected or overlooked. Inparticular, corporate cultures often clash and wreck any chance that the firmswill work harmoniously together. The authors, who have worked with manycompanies in the process of merging, draw on their unique experience to show howto address the human side of a merger, revealing pitfalls to avoid and ways tominimize risk. They describe how to assess the quality of the people todetermine who are the best in both firms. They argue that the CEOs need tocreate a new vision for the combined firm (one that differs from the vision ofthe original firms). And they stress that it is vitally important to movequickly once the merger is approved so that the firms can hit the ground runningon the first official day of operating as a combined company. The book concludeswith a rigorous statistical appendix that analyzes some of the most successfulmergers of the past ten years, validating the book's underlying theme andconclusions.The numbers of mergers vary from year to year, but the strategy of puttingtwo firms with complementary strategic strengths together will continue into theforeseeable future. This book will help ensure the success of thoseventures.

Dayton Ogden is chairman of Spencer Stuart and is secretary and a director of Project HOPE.