Product Description

If 750f all mergers fail, what makes the 25ucceed?

Mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances are all the rage in today's business world. We have seen and will continue to see in the coming years major shifts in computers, electronics, banking/financial services, healthcare, and telecommunications. Large corporations as well as small, entrepreneurial companies are discovering significant strategic advantage when they merge or align business processes. Joining Forces is a guide to making these combinations successful.

From pre-merger planning to post-merger alignment, Mitchell Marks covers the three key components of a successful transition: hardware (organizational structure), software (policies and processes), and people.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #622750 in Books
• Published on: 1997-12-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Amazon.com Review
Mitchell Lee Marks and Philip H. Mirvis, who separately and together have worked on more than 50 major corporate "marriages," offer a useful distillation of the myriad lessons they've learned about this vital and increasingly common business activity in Joining Forces: Making One Plus One Equal Three in Mergers, Acquisitions, and Alliances. By examining their own projects, along with various other winners and losers, they've identified a number of specifics that can help ensure that such combinations ultimately succeed. Included are details on preparation, managing transition, minimizing stress, and developing an entirely new culture.

From Publishers Weekly
The "one plus one equal three" of the subtitle is the authors' way of signaling that they are focusing here on business combinations that aim to "build some strength or capacity greater than that present in the partners as independent organizations." Marks (From Turmoil to Triumph) and Mirvis (coauthor of Managing the Merger), both management consultants, cover the basics of preparing for a successful combination of businesses in the form of a merger, acquisition or alliance. In their straightforward approach, they discuss the need for due diligence at the outset, and they explain that there must be a lot of psychological work to communicate clearly what is going on to all concerned and to ensure that the companies joining forces can peacefully coexist. Why the need for such careful planning? Because, the authors point out, "more than three quarters of corporate combinations fail to attain projected business results." Succeeding parts of the book take readers through the steps of building a new culture for the combined organizations and reaping the rewards of the union. This insightful guide should aid all managers involved in joining forces.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
MITCHELL LEE MARKS is an independent consultant, author of From Turmoil to Triumph, and coauthor of Managing the Merger. Previously, he was Senior Director at Delta Consulting Group and national chair of the Human Resources practice group at William M. Mercer, Inc. He lives in San Francisco, California. PHILIP H. MIRVIS is an organizational researcher and consultant who has worked with Unisys, U.S. Steel, Chemical Bank, and many other clients around the world. He has published widely for professional and academic audiences and is coauthor of Managing the Merger.