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The M&A cultural practices of advanced acquirers

Findings from the WTW M&A Culture Group

March 10, 2023

Based on the findings from a highly experienced group of M&A practitioners, we share the current state of leading practices in cultural work for the M&A situation.
Mergers and Acquisitions
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This series is designed to provide insights into the current state of leading practices in cultural work for the M&A situation.

It is based on the findings from a unique and highly experienced group of M&A practitioners, where each firm’s participants were drawn from their in-house M&A functions, representing either corporate development, business development or corporate strategy (the term varies based on each firm’s internal definition of the role) and their Human Resources M&A group. Throughout the series, the content reflects the discussions within the group and not the sole practices of any one firm.

The distinguishing feature about the group is that cultural investigations are an accepted part of their M&A process. Consequently, in this series we focus on:

  • What they do in culture work
  • When and how they do it
  • Why they should do it

About the types of transactions in the group’s discussion

The discussion is centered on bigger firms buying smaller firms with an emphasis on “talent” based deals, meaning deals where the people at a target are deemed the most important asset, among all the other assets at a target. For most buyers, the deal strategy centers on acquiring to expand their capabilities (also known as “scope deals” in M&A circles).

We did not consider any transaction that transformed a company to such an extent that creating a “new” culture, or third culture was required. While these transactions do happen, they are a very small percentage of actual deals. Likewise, large industrial deals, and mega-mergers, while discussed within the group, are not the focus of this paper. The consensus is that the size, scale, and global scope of these deals made it difficult to incorporate the approaches discussed here early, and that there were many other “assets” in the combining firms, well beyond just talent and employees.

Finally, the issue of growth or erosion of shareholder value as a specific goal, as seen through buyer stock price changes, is not typically a goal of talent-based deals and was not a factor in our analysis. In contrast, larger deals lend themselves better to share price comparisons with peer companies, since this data is publicly available and can then be analyzed by consulting firms and academics alike.

However, the general principles reviewed here can be adjusted and applied in varying “doses” to most deals.



  1. How advanced acquirers approach culture in M&A

    By Jim McKay, Craig Keller and John Bremen

    We explore the cultural framework developed by a highly experienced group of M&A practitioners to facilitate cultural discussions specific to M&A.


  2. Building the business case for culture in M&A

    By Jim McKay

    This paper focuses on how advanced M&A practitioners created the business rationale for incorporating culture as part of their M&A process.


  3. How to present the results of M&A cultural assessments to stakeholders

    By Jim McKay and Kenneth Kuk

    Advanced acquirers embed culture work in the M&A process and customize their approach for each deal and their findings for each stakeholder group.


  4. How M&A cultural assessments are used to realize deal value goals

    By Jim McKay, John M. Bremen and Craig Keller

    Cultural investigations are focused on the value issues and the relevant changes needed to realize that value and the people who drive it.


  5. How advanced acquirers develop talent to run a cultural workstream for M&A

    By Jim McKay, Amanda Scott and Duncan Smithson

    Learn how our work with a group of highly experienced M&A practitioners led to a series of workshops that helps train and develop people to run a cultural workstream for M&A.


  6. Check this page regularly to learn more about the M&A cultural practices of advanced acquirers. Questions? Contact our M&A experts below.

Contacts

Managing Director, Global M&A Client Experience Leader
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Global Leader of Change Management and Organizational Transformation, WTW

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Senior Director, Work and Rewards
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Managing Director and Chief Innovation & Acceleration Officer
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Managing Director, Global M&A Leader

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