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Gartner Executive Programs Says CIOs Must Develop World-Class Merger and Acquisition Integration Capabilities

July 19th, 2010 Posted at Organization Behaviour, business, management

acquisition, business, M&A, Stakeholders, strategy

Analysts Highlight IT’s Role in Five Critical Integration Phases

STAMFORD, Conn., July 7, 2010 — While merger and acquisition (M&A) activity dipped during the recession, it is widely expected to rise again, especially strategic M&As, in which one company buys and integrates another, as opposed to pure financial plays. IT’s role is becoming ever-more-critical in ensuring integration success, and Gartner’s Executive Programs analysts say CIOs in both the public and private sectors must develop world-class M&A integration capabilities.

Gartner Executive Programs analysts believe that M&As are among the biggest challenges for enterprises and their IT organizations to navigate and that conventional leadership and management techniques often are not enough.

“Reaping the benefits of a merger or acquisition is a notoriously tricky business. There is no established governance body spanning the whole enterprise, there are normally aggressive goals and time frames, and there are often many surprises along the way, as each side learns about the other,” said Dave Aron, vice president at Gartner. “On top of all this, the business must continue to serve clients, run operations and execute in the face of major, often disruptive, integration activity, making IT’s role in M&As critical.”

Mr. Aron explained that IT plays a key role, along with other parts of the business, in five critical M&A integration phases:

The Due Diligence/Planning Phase, in which a basic plan of action is sketched out. In the most successful integrations, integration planning happens concurrently with due diligence and data gathering, with an initial hypothesis that is refined as information becomes available. That integrations must be conducted quickly is a myth. Rather, planning and communication should be conducted as quickly as possible. The speed of integration depends on the context and goals.
The Welcome/Signaling Phase, in which a limited number of visible changes are instituted to signal the new reality that the merged organization brings. Tactics include giving everyone harmonized e-mail addresses, phone accounts and security badges, and moving key people to different physical locations. Important outcomes center on setting expectations, reducing uncertainty and motivating key staff.
The Initial/Commercial Phase, in which the most urgent practical changes are instituted. This initial phase of the actual integration addresses urgently needed outcomes, which vary depending on the nature and goals of the integration. Common activities include addressing legal and regulatory issues and achieving transparency through integration of financial and management information. Other goals may include presenting one face to the customer and addressing human capital management disparities. Execution risk is highest during this phase, as a high level of personal uncertainty, along with transitional governance and project management, normally exist.
The Main Integration Phase, in which most of the big process and system changes are executed. In this main phase of integration, the pieces of the post integration landscape are put in place over time, in a series of waves. For absorption-style integrations, it means bringing everything in the target organization onto the parent platform. For best-of-breed-style integrations, it means putting the integration architecture in place.
The Reap-the-Benefits Phase, in which the remaining benefits such as cost synergies or increased market share are harvested and monitored. This phase can also help capture lessons for subsequent M&A activities and other major transformations.

“A good rule of thumb is that roughly 25 percent of a typical M&A integration effort will come from IT, but the time and effort that each phase requires from IT vary significantly,” said Mary Mesaglio, research director at Gartner. “For example, a large amount of IT resources is typically needed for a relatively short time in the initial/commercial phase, whereas a smaller, but still substantial, IT effort is needed over a longer period in the main integration and reap-the-benefits phases.”

Each phase of integration breaks down into workstreams — with IT representing one workstream, while functional areas and business units represent others. IT also normally has a role in the other workstreams, uncovering their dependencies and coordinating between them. The IT workstream normally breaks down further into substreams, such as data conversion and end-to-end integration testing. This creates complex areas of activity requiring high degrees of coordination, project management and governance both within IT and with other business workstreams. In enterprises where IT traditionally has strong project and service management skills, IT has an opportunity to play a larger role in the integration.

The different phases of integration may have multiple subphases, or waves — particularly Phases 3, 4 and 5. For example, Phase 3 may have a pilot wave to prove, with minimal risk, that the integration approach works. Similarly, Phases 4 and 5 may be implemented first by geography or by line of business to reduce effort and risk, and to maximize improvement through ongoing learning. Phases may also overlap — especially the due diligence/planning phase, which may continue through Phases 2 and 3.

“M&A integrations are among the most challenging situations that CIOs and their IT organizations will ever face, and they are fraught with risks. However, they also present a powerful opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities and business value of IT, and to stretch the performance of IT team members,” said Mr. Aron. “While successful M&A integration does not rely exclusively on the CIO and IT, they bear a large part of the burden, since integrating people, operations, information and processes requires significant technology investments.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner Executive Programs report “Mergers and Acquisitions: Integration Without Tears.” The report is available on Gartner’s website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1384319.

About Gartner Executive Programs
Gartner Executive Programs is a membership-based organization of 3,800 CIOs worldwide. Members benefit from the convenience of a single source of knowledge, one-to-one counsel, personalized service, the shared knowledge of the world’s largest community of CIOs, and the assurance of Gartner objectivity and insight. Additional information about Gartner EXP can be found on the Gartner Web site at www.gartner.com/exp.

Contacts:

Tom McCall
Gartner
+1 408 468 8312
tom.mccall@gartner.com

Laurence Goasduff
Gartner
+ 44 1784 267 195
laurence.goasduff@gartner.com

About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner deliver the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to approximately 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has approximately 4,300 associates, including approximately 1,200 research analysts and consultants serving clients in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

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Delegate…Empower…Back them up!

June 28th, 2010 Posted at Organization Behaviour, management

leadership, management, MBA, Operations Management

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Often I see managers who delegate but do not empower their staff enough to get things done.
Those who empower, does so with reservation.

For me, I delegate by communicating clearly what is the desired outcome, empower the individual to do what is necessary to deliver the result and back them up ALWAYS when they are being challenged by peers and external forces.

Give your delegates the confidence to get things done. Do not leave them alone when there is trouble. Even if they are wrong, you will support them to make things right. At the end of the day, your employees should be the one getting the credit. Not you as a Manager.

I truly believe in making myself redundant by being that invisible force behind all the successes.

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If you want to be successful, start making yourself redundant now

April 17th, 2009 Posted at Organization Behaviour, management

Getting Things Done, leadership, management, process, project management, redundant, Stakeholders, value creation

| 24 Comments

A successful consultant and project/department manager makes him/herself redundant by selflessly building the foundation that others will use to solve problems, operate a business and deliver results.

To be a successful, you must find ways to consistently add value to the organization (your employer, your own business or your client) you work for. For that to happen, you need to constantly challenge yourself and be innovative.

Click to continue reading “If you want to be successful, start making yourself redundant now”

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Respect Deadlines

April 9th, 2009 Posted at Operations Management, Organization Behaviour, project management

culture, project management, Stakeholders, team, time management

| 7 Comments

The purpose of setting objectives that are tied to dates is to empower, motivate and to measure performance. Date is one of the easiest and achievable metric that we can set for measuring performance.

Click to continue reading “Respect Deadlines”

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What it takes to be a manager?

April 1st, 2009 Posted at Organization Behaviour, management

communication, culture, Getting Things Done, GTD, leadership, management, team

| 6 Comments

To be a good manager, you need the passion to pursue the Art of Management. Have you got what it takes to be a (good to great) manager?

If you are a manager, you have a much wider scope and responsibilities than you can imagine. Management is an art that requires constant learning and practice to get it perfect. There are no hard rules on how you should behave. Different environment and situation calls for different set of management style. You may be doing well in a chaotic environment but using the same management style in a matured IT environment may lead to high turnover and low quality output from your team.

Here are some experiences I would like to share with you. There are definitely more work to be done than those listed here if you aspire to be a good manager and leader.

Be an innovative leader. Having a “Manager” title does not automatically endow you with leadership quality. You can be a leader even if you do not manage a team. You know you are a leader if you take on the challenges (where others shun) to bring your peers (and even your boss) from current to desired state. Read books and articles on leadership and good management skill. Sponsor your own training to enrich yourself with soft skills (specifically skill that can make you a better leader). Most importantly, You must apply what you have learn but be creative in your management approach because textbook style management does not work! Creative management begins with knowing the skill sets of your team, how fast they can adapt to change, what are the goals and purpose of your team in the organization. As a leader, you constantly monitor the performance of your team and tweak your approach to deliver maximize the potential of your team. Take the lead to identify and close the gaps in the organization. A leader does not wait for something to happen. S/he anticipates problems, identify opportunities and accept challenges without being told to do so.
Be reliable. If your actions are not aligned with what you advocate, you will soon lose the respect of your team and colleagues. If you want them to deliver their work on time, make sure you do the same on what you have committed. Do not get into the habit of postponing meetings. You staff has their own set of activities and they may have to re-arrange their time just to fit your schedule (if at all possible). I have come across managers who are habitually late for meetings and have the tendency to cancel their own meetings few hours before the actual meeting starts. These actions send the wrong message to your staff that the meetings you host are not important and they can also make excuses not to attend your future meetings. You must realize that if you lack the energy to follow through all your meetings (especially those setup by yourself) and reading reports submitted by your staff, there will be adverse impact on your team’s morale and quality of deliverables. As a manager, you need to put effort to read reports submitted to you (that you asked for in the first place anyway) and feedback accordingly. If your staffs realize that you did not read their reports, they will not give you quality reports or worse, not submitting reports at all until you ask for it. A structured report is an extremely valuable tool for you to manage your team effortlessly (by not micro-managing them).
Energize yourself. Without a strong mind, you will not be able to manage your team effectively. I encourage you to start a strict exercise regime to strengthen your body and mind. You will be more alert and always ready for actions and the energy aura will affect your team in a positive way. A leader must be strong, make decisions on the fly and accept challenges without a second thought.
Delegate. Delegate and trust your staff to deliver. Never delegate (or for that matter, outsource) responsibilities or tasks if you do not know what you want to achieve. Never micro manage your team – once the plan has been finalized, do not interfere in your team’s execution of their work packages. Steer the direction of a project by analyzing key performance metrics and with regular checkpoint meetings. I recommend creating a register of issues, risks and key activities, then assign an owner to each line item. Monitor the progress of each item with weekly review meetings and dashboard reporting to ensure the team is on track.
Be precise, focused and communicate effective. As a manager, you must share your vision with the team and help them visualize the goal. Use road maps and key milestones to give your team a better understanding of what needs to be done to achieve the goal. If your team does not grasp what you want to achieve, you will not get the desired result. If your strategy or plan is still work in progress, do not communicate to your staff as though it is the final version. You can imagine the confusion and frustration when you communicate a different strategy every week.
Building a sustainable team. Every individual is unique and has a different point of views because of their diverse background. A smart manager would want to have diversity in his team so that s/he can tap on the broader range of experience to aid him/her in achieving goals.
Build a continuous improvement culture. We are constantly challenged in our career. The processes and skill sets built up last year will not be relevant as new business and regulatory requirements are introduced. The only way your team can be effective is to have a continuous improvement mindset. For starter, you need to allow people to make mistakes because this is the best way for them to learn and be fearless when challenging the unknown. If you penalize on mistakes, then your team will not take the chance to “rock the boat” which leads to lost of innovation. No high impact improvement can be made if you cannot innovate and think outside the box.
Stop procrastinating and start getting things done. A long list of “To-Dos” will sap your energy immediately. If you can do it right this instant, then just do it. I like the way Allen advocates on how to “Getting Things Done (GTD)”. He has an excellent system for keeping things under control and regaining productivity with 4 easy to follow steps (extracted directly from http://www.davidco.com/what_is_gtd.php).

Capturing anything and everything that has your attention

Defining actionable things discretely into outcomes and concrete next steps

Organizing reminders and information in the most streamlined way, in appropriate categories, based on how and when you need to access them

Keeping current and “on your game” with appropriately frequent reviews of the six horizons of your commitments (purpose, vision, goals, areas of focus, projects, and actions)

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Writing good reports for success

March 31st, 2009 Posted at Organization Behaviour

communication, project management, Report Writing, Stakeholders

| 1 Comment

I don’t have time to write reports.

My boss does not read my reports anyway.

I have nothing to report.

Does this sound familiar to you?

Report writing should not be a chore but an activity that you can enjoy (because you achieve the result you want through the report). Here are some guidelines:

Know who are the report recipients. Be it a project or weekly report, you must have an audience to write to. Knowing who are your audience helps you to create a high impact report. You want your reports to be read and achieve certain reactions don’t you?
Establish objective of your report. What is the message that you want your reader to receive? For example, in a project report, you want your readers to be aware of the project’s health (is it on schedule, any new risks identified or issues that requires attention). In a weekly report, you want your boss to be aware of your contributions, achievements as well as problems that requires his/her support.
Develop templates that you can easily insert contents. Report writing should not take more than 30minutes. For that matter, no one says that you should write your weekly report only on the last day. You can spread out your report writing over the entire span of the week.
Identify the areas in which you want the report to help you achieve your goals. A good and consistent report can help you drive the project and getting all the individual activities owner on their feet because the report is being read by all the important stakeholders.
Be creative and sharp. Use pictures, charts, tables, etc, to deliver crispy clear message to your ready. For example, instead of writing how well you have done to maintain high up time for your system and services, it would make more impact if you draw a few charts showing the trends.
Keep it short and simple. Don’t write a 50 pages report. If you do not want to read a long report, what makes you think anyone else would? If someone wants to know more, they will approach you for elaboration.
Be punctual and consistent. If you deliver your report every Tuesday at 4pm, then do so consistently. This will help to reinforce the authority of your report and generate anticipation from your audience.

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Does anyone have the opposite point of view?

March 29th, 2009 Posted at Organization Behaviour, management

communication

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The success of a meeting depends on how how involved are the attendees and whether the chairperson has done enough to facilitate active communication.

I chair at least 3 operations meeting a week with each lasting for 1 hour. This is usually done first thing in the morning so that everyone is prep up with sufficient operational objectives for the day and week.

The challenge is always getting the team to speak up. So what I would do is go round the table to obtain updates from every member. This works well when the objective is to get everyone in the room to realize what is happening within the operations team. Issues that are raised or activities/projects that will be performed should interest other team members as everything in operations are intertwined to deliver the required services to our customers. I reckon that if any team members are only interested to do his/her stuff, s/he is not suitable to be part of an operations team where everyone and everything is dynamic and, again intertwined. Operations manager plays an important role to bond the team, assign the right people for the job and ensure that communications are not inhibited within the team. I will discuss more on Operations manager in future articles.

People do not speak up in meetings for a couple of reasons:

· They do not understand the topic

· They are not interested in the topic

· They are afraid to be penalized if the wrong thing is said

· They are too shy to speak in the room

· They have given up on a particular issue which is being brought up time and again

· The chairperson is not facilitating proper flow of discussion

· The chairperson did not communicate the purpose of meeting and its agenda

(The list can go on forever…)

Going round the table forces people to think and react but the quality of the response may not be desirable due to one or more of the reasons listed above. If you want a successful meeting with quality action items and decisions, you must first understand your attendees and their set of agenda. Do not invite someone to your meeting if they are not interested or can add value in any way. You need to get people to prepare for every single meetings by giving them very clear objectives of the meeting (for weekly meetings, you have fixed items in the agenda as well as one or 2 variables). If you know they are not prepared for the meeting, don’t waste time on him/her. Move on to the next person. If no one prepared for the meeting, adjourn the meeting and call for another one. This is to give everyone a clear message that meetings should not be treated like a time waster.

Dave’s blog (http://blogs.netapp.com/dave/2009/03/does-anyone-hav.html) has a great suggestion on how to get people to argue and challenge a proposal or decisions that are presented in meetings. However, asking, “Okay, I think we’ve fleshed out the argument in favor of the proposal well enough. Does anyone have a completely different point of view?” will not work in a room filled with shy people or people who are too afraid to speak. If they do speak, they could be the “yes-man/lady” who cannot say no to anyone. Prior to using this approach, I would suggest preparing the mindset of the attendees. They have to trust you even if they do not trust the person sitting next to him/her. Create a relaxing environment where people feels more comfortable to speak their mind without being shot down for saying their piece. If you do not feel comfortable being questioned about your decision as a manager or chairperson, then you should not expect alternative views.

So now, ask yourself, are you able to admit mistakes and accept the views of others? If yes, that’s one hurdle down. The next thing is to build a culture of active communication and involvement

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Is that a question?

March 25th, 2009 Posted at Organization Behaviour

communication

| 2 Comments

Poor communicate skill makes or breaks whatever you want to achieve.

When you are asking a question, do you expect only the answer you want to hear? Are you actually giving an instruction or conveying your request when you put forward a question to your staff or peers?

For example, you would ask ” Do you not want to pick this up?”, when you know for sure that you actually want that action to be taken. How would you feel if the response is a “No”. If you ask such a question, you should always expect a “Yes” or “No” answer.

Communication problems occur when we are being too “nice” by using a question to give instructions or convey a message. It is better to be up front and tell people what you want/need instead of beating around the bush.

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Email – Ineffective communication tool

March 24th, 2009 Posted at Organization Behaviour

communication, emails

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Email is not an effective communication tool as we approach a new era of information explosion and erratic market dynamics.

There are many out there who literary feel lost and helpless without their emails. They get uneasy because the mailbox is their only console that dictates their daily activities.

You will find these people cluttering around the pantry area or chit chatting along the corridor when the email servers are inaccessible. Perhaps they felt a sense of relieve that for a couple of minutes, they are “released” from slavery of their mailboxes.

Mailboxes are often used as a content management tool, a to-do list, reminder list, etc. So used to the email system that users feel reluctant to utilize the right tool for the right job. For example, Reminders can be set in the calendar and things to do should in the To-Do application. Another classic example: Often we need need to keep history of our email thread to make a point at a later date. Ironically, when you do need it, you will not find it.

Emails are becoming a liability and a productivity inhibitor in the organization. There is an urgent need to educate the work force to communicate effectively without abusing the use of emails. Instead of being pushed with hundreds of information bites (aka: emails) in a single day, wouldn’t it make more sense if users pull the information that they need instead?

There must be an initiative in the organization to radically change the way information is being distributed internally and externally.

Can we shutdown the email servers already?

Next article, I will elaborate more on how we can make email obsolete.

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Adding value in your organization

March 24th, 2009 Posted at Organization Behaviour

management, value creation

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Take charge of your life and career by systematically adding value to areas that matters most.

There are a few approaches an employee can take to add value in the organization he/she works in. Through the process of value adding, one can enjoy his/her working life better as well as surfacing new opportunities to enhance his/her career path.

1) Understand your roles and scope of work. You are hired for a purpose. Do not always rely on the job description that you first saw when you applied for the position. Often, the description changes immediately after you sign up for the job. Be prepared to evolve with the company. Do not stand on your ground and refuse to budge when original scope of work has changed. What sets winners apart from losers are their ability to accept changes and continue to add value in their new role.

2) New skills and roles are required in the organization as it adjusts and ride on the market dynamics. Identify skill set gaps in the team, department or organization and fill them up. However, to add value, you must have a good understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Think like a business owner. Seize the opportunities and nullify the threats. Do not wait or expect anyone to pave the way for you.

3) Do not complain about your boss’/supervisor’s incompetency. Think positively and see this as an opportunity to fill the skill/knowledge gap that your boss is lacking. Always be positive in your attitude and support your boss in his/her work. Generate synergy, not conflict, with your boss. Try to understand the challenges he/she face and have an open dialog with him/her. Find out what you can do to help.

4) Provide useful reports to stakeholders (they could be your your boss, peers, team members, top management, etc)Reports are needed for making informed decisions. Don’t create a report just because you are asked to do so. Have passion in your work and put effort in delivering a quality report. Know who are the readers and why they need the reports. Then create reports that encompasses the essence of all these expectations. A well crafted report is a good PR tool. Use charts, figures and trends to make an impact in your report. Always start with how you would expect the reader to react after reading your report.

Feel free to add on how you feel you can contribute to your organization or if you are a business owner, to your client.

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