This is obviously a big change for everyone and needs to be well planned to ensure a successful transition. Below I have put some high level Points together that I consider useful for an acquisition kick-off meeting:
- Setup a Kick-off meeting to clarify scope, objectives and what success looks like
- Example: You might have the following teams from the acquiring and the acquired company: Integration Management Team, Business Team, IT Team and cross functional teams (e.g. Go-to-Market, Quote-to-Cash). Everyone needs to understand the Roles & Responsibilities clearly!
- Tell Integration participants about the acquired company! e.g. History, Culture, Revenue, number of customers, number of employees, location of customers, company is present in how many countries, any alliances the acquired company has etc.
- Review/Discuss Integration Strategy (ensure the impact of this is understood by the acquiring and acquired teams).
- The following points should be addressed
- Overall Strategy (e.g. Integrate acquired company into Business Unit xyz with minimal disruption within x months)
- Business Model (e.g. apply business model and operating model from acquiring company)
- Organization Changes
- GTM Strategy (e.g. Integration of sales force and reseller channel)
- Partner (e.g. Integration into acquiring company Partner Program)
- Product Integration (e.g. adjust User Interfaces (UI)of acquired companies Software Program to get the same look and feel as the acquiring company)
- Services & Support (e.g. Integrate Customer Support into one team)
- IP Integration (e.g. Intellectual Property transition to acquiring company)
- Operations (e.g. acquired companies product need to be available on acquiring companies systems within x days)
- Business Functions e.g. transition Professional Services from acquired company to acquiring company
- HR e.g. stock options plans for key executives and employees
- Real Estate e.g. consolidation of offices
- IT e.g. Network connectivity
- Finance
- Tax/Legal e.g. company car policy of acquiring company applies
- Review proposed timeline and milestones
- Review communication requirements (internal & external)
- internal: assign contacts to minimize daily operation interruptions for acquired company
- external: designated one communication contact to prevent any confusion
- Review where the Integration Documentation will be stored (e.g. SharePoint)
- Review proposed acquisition project update schedule (and ensure all stakeholders are ok with that. e.g. all Senior Management stakeholders want to be updated every week, Wednesday)
- Review M&A Playbook (high level review to ensure everyone understands where we are and what we are targeting next)
Take some time to go through this and don't rush it!
