An information technology group had acquired a long-standing local sales partner in southern Europe. The post-merger integration of the sales partner included taking over the management team, all employees and the existing business. The interim manager was tasked with ensuring the integration. The EMEA board attached particular importance to organizing the vertical integration peacefully and amicably. The interim manager was selected because he combined extensive experience from successful transformations with expertise in business and agile leadership as well as intercultural skills.
Improving performance through collaborative leadership, communication and transparency
The demanding project was accompanied by challenging circumstances. The economic situation in the country was tense. There was uncertainty among employees about the planned steps. In addition, the local cultural and labor law circumstances had to be taken into account.
M&A and post-merger integrations usually cause fundamental uncertainty among managers and employees, both in the old and the new company. To prevent misunderstandings, the interim manager focused on maximum transparency from the outset in a very hierarchical environment in order to facilitate agile management methods. He repeatedly used checkpoints to encourage an open exchange. He also organized regular contact with the corporate headquarters. This created an atmosphere of trust. Local and international management increasingly felt like an active, knowledgeable and cooperative part of the change process.
Effective navigation of top management and teams ensured
In order to successfully drive the post-merger integration forward, the interim manager developed a consistent stakeholder mapping for management, business units, shared functions and all key teams. He cascaded critical objectives including milestones and defined tactical activities.
In marketing, sales, logistics and business management, the interim manager formed internationally and locally linked project teams with employees from the companies involved. The teams consistently designed new processes that were fully digitally mapped for the future in-house business. Using a GAP analysis of the target and actual state, the members developed concrete steps and implementation plans under the guidance of the interim manager.
Tailored plans for agile organizational and leadership development
For the roll-out, the interim manager worked with the HR department to design tailored programmes for organizational development, talent development and manager coaching. All measures were also aimed at anchoring the new mindset and consolidating the new skills in the long term. As a result, a motivation-enhancing participative, agile management method in teams gradually became the basic behavior and the management team was aligned with new and shared goals and values. The new agile culture now enables managers to navigate their teams in a self-sufficient, participative manner.
Retail marketing: international sales and pricing system developed
The closure of unprofitable and low-margin areas significantly improved sales and profits and also relieved the burden on the organization. The local warehouse was closed on the initiative of the interim manager. By using a regional warehouse and two broadline distributors, the numerical and weighted distribution was increased to well over 90 percent. This created more space for the largest and most important trading partners. At the same time, resources were freed up to redesign trade marketing. As a result of this special recovery program with customers and employees, the in-house market share doubled and, at the same time, the profit on both sides of the business.
Revenue increases by more than 35% after restructuring
In total, the interim manager was able to successfully realign the management team and the entire business within six months. The new agile management culture with redefined processes was integrated into the new company. Turnover was maintained during the merger. It increased significantly during the post-merger period. In the following year, turnover grew by 35% - with significantly improved profitability and high customer satisfaction.
The accompanying management program with leadership coaching and talent development was seen by the Management Board as a key success factor in the transformation. The Executive Board and the management of the local companies as well as the employees involved were and are very satisfied with the results achieved.
