Combining the integration knowledge

Combining the integration knowledge

While this week focused on the integration side of things, it is good to keep in mind that the intent and focus is to prompt self-reflection on the state of your current business.

More than anything, this this the most important part. As the proverbial saying goes, you can’t really know where you are going unless you know where you are at. Knowing your infrastrcture and people will ground you on what is possible, and hopefully this past week will prompt an internal SWOT analysis.

For those not familiar, a SWOT analysis is a strategic tool used to evaluate your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. From an acquisition standpoint, it provides a framework on what your current organization can do, as well as the possibilities that can be realistically unlocked.

At the end of the day, the integration is more of an implementation details post close. What I tried to highlighted this week is a prompt for self-reflection. That is perhaps the most iportant this you can do from the due diligence side.

Just like any other strategic planning session you’ve done, the SWOT analysis allows you to establishes a baseline. When you start looking at the capabilities of what you are planning to purchase, this, more than anything else, will provide the base for what to work with. It will also allow your integration team to hit the proverbial ground running.

I will add a caveat that it applies only to the crown jewels of the acqusition. From an organizational standpoint, there are many other things to be tracked and kept top of mind, and I’ll be going into those details later.

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