Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin have helped teams around the world adopt more modern ways of working and on At Work with The Ready they’re sharing the inside scoop with you, too. Whether you’re struggling with a carousel of ineffective meetings, annual strategy sessions that go nowhere, or decision-making churn that never ceases, they’ve seen it all and are here to help. In each episode, they'll break down common workplace challenges and show you the moves—both big and small—to start making real, lasting change. (Formerly “Brave New Work” with Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans)
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Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin have helped teams around the world adopt more modern ways of working and on At Work with The Ready they’re sharing the inside scoop with you, too. Whether you’re struggling with a carousel of ineffective meetings, annual strategy sessions that go nowhere, or decision-making churn that never ceases, they’ve seen it all and are here to help. In each episode, they'll break down common workplace challenges and show you the moves—both big and small—to start making real, lasting change. (Formerly “Brave New Work” with Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans)
32. Why Mergers and Acquisitions Fail (Almost Every Time)
At Work with The Ready
49 minutes
3 months ago
32. Why Mergers and Acquisitions Fail (Almost Every Time)
In most companies, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is treated like a finish line. But the truth is, signing the deal is just the start—and if you haven’t thought deeply about how two operating systems, cultures, and teams will actually work together, you’re already behind. The vast majority of M&A efforts fail to deliver long-term value, not because the deal was bad, but because the integration never really happened.
This week, Rodney and Sam unpack why M&A is so alluring, so broken, and so often misunderstood. From boardroom incentives and CEO ego to missing strategy and magical thinking, they dig into what really drives the endless appetite for acquisition—and why the actual design work of merging two organizations is almost always underfunded, under-led, or completely ignored.
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Mentioned references:
"reorg ep": AWWTR Ep. 31
"70-75% of M&A fails"
Ben Thompson and Stratechery
AOL/Time Warner merger
Microsoft/Nokia merger
"LARPing"
"OS work": The Ready's OS Canvas
"Midnight Zone and Twilight Zone": The Ready's Depthfinding
ecotones
"Microsoft innovation"
Rob Cross and Organizational Network Analysis (ONA)
McChrystal Group
mission-based team (MBT): FoHR Miniseries, Episode 1
00:00 Intro + Check-In: What is something you’ve done recently that seemed like a good idea but has since proven otherwise?
04:01 The Pattern: Companies acquire others for growth, merge goes bad, so have to acquire another
09:54 Big visible activities with very unclear ROI
14:09 Buying innovation because you can’t innovate internally
19:15 Destroying all the qualities that made the target company valuable
24:34 Mergers and acquisitions buy CEOs longer tenures
28:19 Our culture celebrates the big swings, not the steady transformation
30:35 Executive attention vanishes once the deal is signed, but that’s when the real work starts
38:43 Idea #1 - Let acquired company operate independently for as long as possible
41:35 Idea #2 - Use organizational network analysis to find and utilize your leverage points
44:14 Idea #3 - Spin up a real mission-based team around integration, or due diligence
46:18 Idea #4 - During due diligence, look at more than just the financial spreadsheets
47:08 Wrap up: Leave us a review and share the show with a friend!
Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.
At Work with The Ready
Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin have helped teams around the world adopt more modern ways of working and on At Work with The Ready they’re sharing the inside scoop with you, too. Whether you’re struggling with a carousel of ineffective meetings, annual strategy sessions that go nowhere, or decision-making churn that never ceases, they’ve seen it all and are here to help. In each episode, they'll break down common workplace challenges and show you the moves—both big and small—to start making real, lasting change. (Formerly “Brave New Work” with Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans)
