“Being as agile as possible is critical in this day and age, purely because our environment is changing. Our customer behavior and needs change.” - Javid Moosaji

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Biggest challenges

The biggest challenge is that many organizations do a poor job at documenting and improving their existing process before they start looking at integrating another process. Organizations need to do a better job of filling gaps in their organization first.

Another challenge is when the integration lead is brought on later in the process. This causes a lack of focus on what happens next after the deal is done.

Role of the integration lead

When choosing your integration lead, it can’t just be a project manager. You need to have someone that is knowledgeable about the business. Ideally, the integration lead should be involved in the targeting stage. It allows them to understand the value drivers early in the process which results in better integration. The integration lead’s job is to validate the corporate development team’s investment thesis and come up with the go-to-market strategy.

Go-to-market strategy

You must think about the customers first. When you are combining two companies, you are indirectly creating a new market condition. Figuring out how to create value around that new market condition is crucial for success.