The major growth strategy for multi-nationals has been heavily reliant on Mergers & Acquisitions  in recent years.  These have often been in key markets and geographic locations; for example there has been significant increase in Eastern Europe and South and Central America.  This brings access to new and growing markets for companies who have plateaued in their home countries, but it also brings cultural challenges in how best to integrate and align these target companies into the established corporate culture. 

The reason that integration and value creation is so difficult in the post-merger organisation is multi-fold.  Many reports conclude that the reasons for poor results are often down to poorly targeted acquisitions, unclear goals and unrealistic valuation of the target company.  However the most frequently cited reason for failure is put down to socio-cultural.  Anyone remember the AOL- TimeWarner deal?   

They may be essential to large, often global organisations, but corporate functions tend to have a very mixed reputation in demonstrating how they add value.   In the Autumn we explored the various aspects of Corporate Functions and the role they play in organisational performance.  

Of course, life without them would be very difficult, as each performance or business unit would require its own suite of IT, Finance & HR skills, leading to expensive overlap in resources.  Yet few would argue that life with a suite of functions to support them is plain sailing.   

So how can Functional teams regain their reputation as time savers and value adders to their organisation?   We believe that there are four key areas that Functions need to address to help them to add value to their organisation. Read more