Reinventing Organisational Culture and Identification for Effective Mergers

Abstract

Mergers have a unique potential to transform firms and to contribute to corporate renewal. They can help a firm renew its market position at a speed not achievable through internal development. The reasons attributable to the rise in the merger activity are manifold. Mergers justify the economics of the transaction by enhancing the potential synergies achievable by cross-selling. Companies resort to mergers for financial engineering to take advantage of the tax provisions. Mergers are substantiated on the grounds that they provide expanded outlets for one another’s products and also help in diversification of products and markets. In the banking and telecommunications sector, mergers have helped in building scale through consolidation. Yet another rationale of mergers is that they have the potential to make money to the deal makers. The rationale behind mergers sound concrete and the initial euphoria for the deals also make mergers seem very attractive. But most mergers have not created the value that they had envisaged. Also mergers on an average have not provided the desired financial benefits. Another very disturbing fact is that many deals may have had an adverse impact on internally developed innovation. The reason behind such an adverse impact is the short term view associated with the merger deals. The novelty of the deal, the processes, products and markets account for the rising profitability of the merged organization. This paper discusses organizational culture and identification after mergers: a look into the manufacturing and service sectors.