M&A deal closed! The following steps will determine whether the estimated value in the acquisition's business plan will actually be achieved.

The period following a merger is a very tense time for the entire M&A process. Delivering, that is, making what's on paper (the acquisition plan) viable, requires a lot of planning and understanding of what the parties involved will be like operating as a single entity. What comes to mind for many people are the synergies being established and the magic of those companies operating together. But how?

Factors such as cultural integration and change management are often underestimated. They shouldn't be. After deal, deliverables can be compromised due to cultural differences. For example, one company's culture may be heavily focused on cost efficiency, while another's is focused on commercial efficiency. Consequently, the agility advocated by the new leadership may be met with completely different understandings and reactions from the teams involved in the integration.

This wear and tear and lack of alignment compromise value generation.

Each M&A transaction is unique; there is often a disproportion between the transaction value and the energy expended to close it. Smaller transactions may require excessive energy relative to their value. The same can occur in a post-merger integration (PMI: post-merger integration). Differences in the way companies work are ingredients for this disproportionality.

Therefore, the sooner the integration process begins, the better it will be to incorporate the estimated synergies and, most importantly, maintain the new consolidated organic revenue intact. The sooner cultural issues are mapped and change management is implemented, the greater the success of this PMI.