The Morning After: Making Corporate Mergers Work After The Deal Is Sealed [Hardcover]

Steven Wall (Author), Shannon Wall (Author), Shannon Rye Wall (Author), Stephen J. Wall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 2000

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the corporate marriage frenzy had reached fever pitch: the spectacular announcement of the AOL-TimeWarner merger was only the latest in a series of high-profile deals--from Daimler-Chrysler to Citicorp-Travelers--with a total value exceeding two trillion dollars. This phenomenon is not a flash in the pan; today's business environment requires that companies go outside their boundaries to gain access to the resources and expertise that will allow them to compete effectively and increase the value of the enterprise. But after the ink is dry, most experiments in corporate acquisition fail to live up to expectations. In The Morning After, Stephen and Shannon Rye Wall examine dozens of cases to identify the seven common warning signs that an acquisition is in danger and outline practical strategies for making corporate marriages successful in the long run. From pre-merger planning to launching the integration process to defining new roles for executives and managers, The Morning After offers a wealth of concrete tools for leading and sustaining successful collaborations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mergers are hard. Strategies have to be meshed, synergies synthesized, egos massaged and apprehensions assuaged. And even if all goes well internally, regulators can still shoot down the whole operation before it ever gets rolling. It comes as no surprise then that well over half of all proposed mergers fail to realize all of the promises made in the first blush of impending union.

As in the world of human mergers, though, low odds of success have not prevented CEOs from gyrating ever more wildly in the global capitalist mating dance. In an effort to guide awkward executives through corporate connubiality now comes The Morning After: Making Corporate Mergers Work After the Deal Is Sealed, by husband-and-wife consulting team Stephen Wall and Shannon Rye Wall.

Since the authors cite executive sources at major merger factories such as Pfizer, Verizon and Cisco, which has acquired more than 55 companies over the last seven years, readers would be justified in hoping for some major merger insights. Unfortunately, the authors instead provide an Arthur Murray-level introduction to the basic steps in the mating dance. They rely heavily on newspaper and magazine quotes and provide little original research or critical analysis, squandering the opportunity to lay out in a satisfying way what can go wrong with ubermergers such as the AOL-Time Warner deal or DaimlerChrysler – or even better, how to prevent things from going wrong.

The total value of mergers and acquisitions worldwide has risen from $1.58 trillion in 1997 to $3.44 trillion last year, with no end in sight (although there has been somewhat of a dip in dot-com action this quarter). The Walls identify three components driving this growth: "superheated" competition, "supersmart" customers and "superfast" change. Leave out the super, however, and there's nothing new to their "super equation." Indeed, one could argue that business consists of little else.

Equally unsurprising is the Walls' counsel that people at all levels should be involved in a merger as early as possible, from the senior team (brought together through an "integration team" and later a leadership council) all the way down to the guys in the mailroom (invited to workshops that explain the new vision and how to get there).

More disturbing in this increasingly international business environment is that the authors treat international mergers as an afterthought, with advice that sounds as if it's straight out of one of those Dummies books. Developing "cross-cultural skills" and learning the language, as they suggest, is a lovely idea. But that certainly wouldn't have been enough to prepare Chrysler's team for the subtle aggressiveness of their partners over in Stuttgart.

To their credit, the Walls do a nice job in deconstructing the jargon surrounding mergers. Their checklist can serve as the acid test for almost every recent merger story. A few samples: There is no such thing as a "merger of equals"; neither should anybody feel too comfortable upon hearing a CEO brag about simply "buying" the other guys. If somebody tells you it's a "natural fit," they likely are in for a big surprise. And, of course, steer clear of those who assure you that "nothing will change."

Ultimately, though, the Walls fail to connect the dots. "In the urgency and rush of a merger, there is a strange tendency to throw out much of what has been learned about effective motivation and management over the last 40-plus years," they write – and leave it at that.

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Steffan Heuer is a contributing writer in New York. -- From The Industry Standard

About the Author

Stephen J. Wall and Shannon Rye Wall are consultants with Right Manus, a division of Right Management Consultants. Experts in corporate mergers and acquisitions, they advise corporations worldwide and write and speak frequently on the topic. Authors of The New Strategists: Creating Leaders at All Levels, they live in Wilton, Connecticut, with their son, Jack.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (November 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738203718
• ISBN-13: 978-0738203713
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,715,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A weak sister to two masterpieces, December 5, 2000

By 

Nathan Thomas (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Morning After: Making Corporate Mergers Work After The Deal Is Sealed (Hardcover)

As a corporate executive, I am always seeking material that will provide new insights into ensuring deal success. This book doesn't offer much. Many of the major findings I've either read before in newspapers or come straight from the pages of more detailed books on how to succeed at M&A. There is not a lot of detail on following through with particular strategies and the idealism of the authors suggests that they have never been true players in the process. This book seems like a diluted version of the two pioneering books that have already said it all --"Joining Forces" and "Winning at Mergers & Acquisitions". In my opinion, no integration can truly work without implementing the guidance set forth in these two masterpieces.