MAGEE Integrating YOU, Inc.
for Global Business Wellness
Twelve Lesson’s that’ll Bite You if Ignored when
Merging Your Business with Another
The path to global wellness in your business
may be the route of alliance partnerships,
collaborations, mergers, or association with
other organizations that can exponentially
accelerate your business footprint. The
lessons of integration are critical for
that pathway to succeed. Whether your
intentions are altruistic or mere dollar and-sense,
the integration of sides (B2B,
B2C, P2P, I2I, or whatever the combined
assets are to be) is a dance that must be
choreographed smartly from day one and
throughout the integration process to
ensure the net outcome is one of ethical
quality and that no one party naively enters
into a lion’s den.
Here are twelve lesson’s that are not at
the MBA level and which most M&A
professionals are clueless about. Consider
some of the Lesson’s Learned from my
personal work with Fortune 100 Firms,
Government Agencies and private
Businesses as a check-list of before entering
your next merger or alliance:
1. Lesson - Are “Your” and the “Other
Party’s” involved in the intended new
alliance/merger of similar Values,
Mission and Vision Statement
standards? If not, this should be a red
flag for conversation or it may very
well come back to bite you!
2. Lesson - Do you or any one Party
want the new alliance more so than the
other person(s)? If so why? Make sure
you talk this through with all Parties
and if any one person is hesitant that
may very well come back to bite you!
3. Lesson - Before entering into any
new alliance or before any one person
actually moves from one geography
to another to be a part of the new
alliance, are all Parties equally vested
into the future success? Does the move
really serve both parties professional
and or personal long term objectives?
If at any point something seems one
sided that again should be a red flag for
conversation or it may very well come
back to bite you!
4. Lesson - Have you actually vetted the
Parties involved or are you making this
alliance merger based upon emotion, a
honeymoon relationship, or a different
situation that may cause different
personalities types to surface in a new
venture endeavor? If you have not
vetted, this should be a red flag for
conversation or it may very well come
back to bite you!
5. Lesson - Just as you should provide
all others with your credentials/
vita/resume, you should also get all
the Key Players, Equity Owners,
Executives, Leadership Team, or
other Key Stakeholder’s credentials
that will be a part of the alliance or
merger and vet to ensure that all of
the individuals are who they say they
are. It is critical that you know what
the human capital abilities are of all
individuals that can be drawn upon for
success. Conduct an internet search to
ensure that all Parties are who they say
they are or even consider leveraging a
third party to do a background check?
If someone’s credentials don’t check
out, or if someone has lied about their
employment history, this should be a
red flag for conversation or it may very
well come back to bite you!
6. Lesson - Request a copy of all Parties
“certified” financials (Daily AP/
AR, Monthly AP/AR, year-to-date
comparisons) for the past several
years, explore where their money
really goes, how people have been
compensated, and what the financial
trends have been and are presently.
Make sure you actually talk one-on one
with the CFO (or equivalent)
of the merger to be organization.
Talk with their outside CPA firm for
forensic validation to what you have
MAGEE Integrating YOU, Inc.
for Global Business Wellness
Twelve Lesson’s that’ll Bite You if Ignored when
Merging Your Business with Another
Jeff Magee, PhD, PDM, CSP, CMC, the “Thought
Leader’s Leader.” Jeff is the publisher of Performance
360 Magazine, Editor of Performance Execution and
Performance Driven Selling blogs, a former nationally
syndicated Radio Talk Show Host as well as a published
author of several books including Performance
Execution, The Managerial Leadership Bible, The
Sales Training Handbook, and Your Trajectory Code.
He is also a columnist and highly sought motivational leadership
speaker. The recipient of the United States
Junior Chamber’s Ten Outstanding Young American’s
(TOYA) Award, and the United States National
GUARD’s Total Victory Team Medal for civilian contribution
to the Armed Services. He can be reached at
DrJeffSpeaks@aol.com.
www.ProfessionalPerformanceMagazine.com
Jeff Magee
ProfessionalPerformanceMagazine.com
been provided and to what you believe
is the business merger to be conducted.
Get everything in writing and email
document everything. If you do not
have these or can’t get these, this
should be a red flag for conversation or
it may very well come back to bite you!
7. Lesson - Request a copy of all Parties
“certified” financial Audits for the
past several years. If you do not have
these or can’t get these, this should be
a major red flag for conversation or it
may very well come back to bite you!
8. Lesson - Conduct an internet search
by going to Government and County
on-line public records to see if there
is pending or past litigation matters
with the other Party(s)? Do this
for the County (zip code) the other
Party operates out of. Do this for the
County (zip code) the other Party
is Incorporated out of. And do this
for the County (zip code) the other
Party’s Accounting Firm-of-Record
operates out of if different than
previous locations. Make sure you
cross reference every possibility that
you can imagine. Trust yet verify as
former President Ronald Regan once
said, and a measure of pre work may
save countless problems later. This
should be a red flag for conversation or
it may very well come back to bite you!
9. Lesson - Review the HR employee
roster to determine what the turnover
rates are in the hourly and
salaried personnel for the past several
years is or has been? Evaluate how
the owners treat their most loyal and
senior colleagues/employees, and how
they exit retiring members of the
organization, this is a true barometer
of what you can expect from their
existing culture. Conduct an HR
audit to determine the HR Capital
talent level, remember that a merger
is more than brick-and-mortar and
inventory, it is the intellectual capital
and connectivity as well. This should
be a red flag for conversation or it may
very well come back to bite you!
10. Lesson – This one is very non PC. If
a key stakeholder, Individual/Party in
the context of the business workplace
alliance (exception would be if the
merger or alliance is of religious
entities) carries their religion or
religious views as a dominant public
placard, RUN! For thirty years I
have found this to be a mask for very
troubled and deceitful individuals.
I would like to be found incorrect
with this judgement, but reality has
never proven this observation to be
incorrect with businesses-politicians community
activists-or businesses,
this will come back to bite you! I am
not stating people of honor are not
spiritual or religious, I am stating in
the business marketplace if people
start out with religion as their GPS
and want you to assume their belief
system, then be cautious. This is not to
say that one can’t have personal private
religious convictions that drive their
integrity and actions …
11. Lesson - If the other Party is one
that is in a business that purports to
have business transactions that dictate
that they would be paying sells/use
tax, payroll tax, IRS taxes, do a check
with all associated legal entities,
governmental agencies and ensure that
the other Party has in fact been doing
so and is in good standing. Remember,
if you forge an alliance, the other
Party’s history will become your reality,
and that will be your future obligation
and reputation. This should be a red
flag for conversation or it may very
well come back to bite you!
12. Lesson - Always be mindful at any
point in the courtship or infancy of the
alliance merger if any key stakeholder
puts you into a position of keeping
secrets from other key stakeholders,
you are dealing with very disingenuous
people and you will always be the one
that gets bite in the end. Time for a
major conversation or immediate CYA
and exit strategy deployment!
13. BONUS LESSON – Evaluate how
the key stakeholders in the business
enterprises treat their most veteran
employees and how they treat their
spouses and families, this will be a
direct line correlation as to how you
will be seen and treated in your new
blended business relationship or
enterprise – guaranteed, history does
repeat itself!
Just as more than 50 percent of American’s
in this global community are not married
today, more than 50 percent of marriages
today end in divorce (according to the
American Catholic Archdiocese). And
more than 80 percent of start-up businesses
do not survive their fifth birthday (according
to the US Chamber of Commerce), as well
as 75 percent or Merger & Acquisition
deals implode within three-to-five years
(according to Deloitte), you do not want
to have best intentions of an alliance
partnership end in an ugly separation.
Always make sure you have an exit strategy
(prenuptial) to a business alliance, that the
agreements are vetted, and that it is legally
binding. Imagine if you began with the end
in mind, the exit solution clearly mapped
out, then integrating YOU, Inc. for global
business wellness would be healthy and
then these twelve Lesson’s will not bite you!