Book Review: The Global M&A Tango

The Global M&A Tango: How to Reconcile Cultural Differences in Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Partnerships by Fons Trompenaars & Maarten Nijhoff Asser
Published by Infintieideas, £20, ISBN 978-1-906821-05-0

Review by Professor Bruce Lloyd FCMI for Professional Manager

The authors draw on the work of the extensive Trompenaars Hampden Turner cross-cultural database and Cultural Compass to show how widely cultures can differ and that, by reconciling the dilemmas created by those differences, it is possible to effectively integrate those cultures.

Part I of the book focuses on why there will always be M&A activity, as well as exploring what is defined as organisational integration, and the main reasons for failure.

Part II introduces the ten steps process within a three phrase framework. The final part explores the nature of relationships and dilemmas, with a particularly useful table of the top ten possible dilemmas (p172). Overall the authors conclude that the critical success factor is the need to engage in consistent processes, and combine these with a sense of urgency and effective executive leadership and commitment.

M&A is an area where the risks are still unnecessarily high, and this should be enough to encourage those involved to study this readable work.