Research (Shete, Marathe, & Gupta, 2022) suggests that 50–70% of M&A transactions fail to achieve their intended strategic objectives. Cultural incompatibility is identified as a factor in 67% of M&A failures, reinforcing the importance of professional change management and communication throughout a transaction.
Clear, forward-looking and empathetic communication helps reduce uncertainty, protect trust and lay the foundations for the combined organisation to succeed.
SenateSHJ helps organisations communicate and bring people together through mergers and acquisitions. We work directly with organisations navigating a transaction, as well as with the legal, financial and transaction advisors supporting them.
We bring together deep expertise in reputation and change communication. This means we consider both what employees and leaders hear and experience internally, and what an organisation says externally.
We support clients across three key stages.
We help clients understand the communication environment, anticipate risks in M&A, map audiences and develop a clear narrative, communication plan, key messages and Q&A. We also support scenario planning, announcement readiness and communication around legal and regulatory milestones.
We develop and deliver communication for employees, leaders, customers, partners, media and other stakeholders. This may include announcements, leader briefings, employee communication, media relations, toolkits, FAQs, “Day One” planning and rapid issues support.
Operational integration combines organisations. Cultural integration in mergers and acquisitions enables people to work effectively together and realise the full value of the transaction. We help organisations understand the cultures coming together, build a shared sense of purpose and identity, align leaders and embed the mindsets, behaviours and ways of working needed for the future.
We can act as a senior strategic adviser, a hands-on delivery partner or an extension of the internal team, depending on what the transaction requires.
Our mergers and acquisitions consulting services include:
• M&A communication strategy and planning
• Internal and external communication
• Leadership communication and coaching
• Day One and first 100 days support
• Cultural integration and employee engagement
• Issues, media and stakeholder management.
