A reason M&A fails - not getting the data and metrics right?

In today's episode of Daily Metrics, we delve into a critical yet often overlooked aspect of merger and acquisition planning - data and non-financial metrics integration. Drawing from 25 years of industry experience, I explore why companies consistently stumble in their post-merger integration efforts by focusing solely on traditional aspects like business synergies, headcount, and financial metrics.

Key Takeaways:

• While financial metrics typically receive adequate attention during merger planning, operational input metrics and day-to-day business process data often get overlooked

• Operational data and key metrics serve as the organization's vocabulary, directly impacting how people think, measure, and are measured

• Merging organizations with different metric vocabularies creates significant challenges in post-merger integration

• Six essential steps are outlined for successful data integration:

  1. Clearly define all relevant metrics and their acceptable ranges

  2. Establish a pre-merger baseline of operational performance

  3. Assess the acquisition target's metrics before closing

  4. Clean up reference data and hierarchies in existing systems

  5. Map reference data and hierarchies between both organizations

  6. Integrate acquisition data into the existing data warehouse early

This episode provides actionable insights for executives and data professionals involved in M&A activities, emphasizing the importance of early planning for data and metrics integration.