Leading bed bank achieved integration success by maximizing transparency among employees

Challenge

Looking to strengthen its market position, a global B2B distributor of accommodation and ancillary products to the world’s travel industry has purchased a competitor.

To make the acquisition a success, the organization’s internal integration team needed a solution that could track critical activities in the post-deal phase and promote the takeover among employees on both sides.

Solution

The integration involved multiple functional areas and teams distributed across several countries. Given the complexity of the undertaking, transparency was deemed critical to the successful unification of two organizations and their cultures.

Radar was used to plan and schedule tasks and initiatives of the integration program and has been established as the chief source of information about the implementation status and progress, timeline, achievements, priorities, and future activities.

General program updates were shared with all affected by the integration on a defined communication schedule. However, to make people feel more included and prepared for the coming changes, they were given independent access to the system and could subscribe to receive email notifications on items of interest to them.

Results

The integration program was implemented in accordance with the original plan in just 2.5 years.

According to the post-acquisition employee survey, the teams of both organizations were duly informed of the coming changes throughout the integration. Many confirmed to have a clear understanding of their own future and company goals.

None of those who happened to leave the company during this period have mentioned the acquisition among the reasons.