A global pharmaceutical company had recently acquired a large competitor, along with several acquisitions of smaller companies in the past five years.

The company had struggled with integrating the acquired companies – particularly the large competitor.

Innovisor was asked to generate data-driven actions with two specific purposes:

1. To diagnose the integration and help realize the full potential of the deals;
2. To generate insights and learnings to be used in future integration of acquisitions.

The data confirmed the hypothesis that M&A integration had so far been unsuccessful. The legacy company was clearly a collaboration barrier across the company.

The unsuccessful integrations were caused by something as simple as location. Acquisitions had been maintained in their original locations away from Headquarter.

Another integration barrier was insufficient mentorship programs. Acquired employees with no assigned mentor were integrated 33% slower than those with a mentor.

The location barrier was mitigated successfully through three activities:

1. The highly connected individuals in the locations were connected;
2. The identified key influencers were engaged as integration ambassadors;
3. Employees from the different legacy companies were relocated to ensure network representation in the major locations.

A structured mentorship program to speed up the integration of acquired employees was established.