Financial Program Strategies, Inc.
50% of the mergers fail, so what would have the merger of two large communications companies succeed?
After building a project plan to meet the merger compressed timetable, it was clear that an effective bi-lateral team needed to be put in place to run in parallel with current operations. FPS staff identified key areas and created a structured approach to address critical merger milestones and prepare for day 1 operations. Part of the challenge involved identifying synergies in processes, systems and headcount for the new 20,000 employee division of the merged company. The cross-functional and multi-cultural team of over 200 people from both companies to be merged was involved in the creation the plan to combine the companies' operations.
The team designed the new organization, P&L structure, portfolio rationalization, resource transition, and end-to-end operational processes. Each team mapped business practices and processes and come up with recommendations for the combined company blueprint. The team executed on every aspect of the plan to ensure operations could run uninterrupted after regulatory approval. In addition, we mapped functions and employees from each business line and identified key areas of synergies
The team met very aggressive deadlines and as day 1 of the merged entity arrived, operations ran smoothly and synergy plans started to be implemented. Integration team members were consistently recognized by the senior leadership for outstanding contributions and were appointed to several leading positions in the merged company. Most importantly, they were able to produce significant results in a cross-cultural and competitive environment until units were merged legally. The project provided over 25% in savings over 5 years, over 80% in the first 3 years