Amira elAdawi, founder of AMIRA & CO, has worked with the country’s leading firms during their process of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Time and time again, she watched industry experts develop integration plans that seemed foolproof, but fell to pieces after the deal closed.
“Mergers fail for so many reasons,” explains elAdawi. “It’s a difficult time, especially for the company being acquired. Employees see all their external parties – consultants, bankers, lawyers – talking with the acquiring company and coming back to dictate their future to them. It’s human nature to try to find fault with these orders when you feel sidelined, and your input is ignored or undervalued.”
elAdawi wondered why the big consulting firms continued to repeat the same process for the same suboptimal results. She determined to find a better way.
A new way to approach post-M&A integration
Almost without fail during the M&A process, employees of the acquired company feel unheard and undervalued. Those who cannot contribute to the strategy grumble about the consultant’s ideas. The consultant labels the team as resistant to change and defensive. Productivity grinds to a halt. Tensions mount, and the one thing nobody at either company focuses on is working to create a seamless merge.
elAdawi’s inspiration for change came when an old client sought her out for help with a botched merger. He had acquired a company and paid a big-5 consulting firm millions to execute the deal. When elAdawi came on board to help, she found the two companies at each other’s throats and progress at a standstill.
How elAdawi developed an entirely new way to look at M&A
The client asked elAdawi to poke around and diagnose where integration had broken down. She started by interviewing the acquiring company’s management, but she did not stop there. She also spoke with the company being acquired, taking time to listen to each company’s junior staff.
Those interviews gave elAdawi ideas that would revolutionize the M&A space. “It turned out the merger had stalled due to clashing cultures,” she recalls. “The consulting firm had given the companies good ideas. They had worked with a big firm full of smart people who knew all the right answers. Still, the consultants did not understand they were working with companies that had entirely different mindsets.”
In this case, the company being acquired was a boutique startup with a fresh, informal approach to business. The larger company hoped to take on some of that creativity, agility, and innovation, but attempting to merge the mentalities of a flexible startup with a large, structured firm proved problematic.
No one had ensured these companies could work together. No one had shown them a future where employees could continue to be nimble and creative while benefiting from being part of a large company with resources, structure, and efficiency. “There was good on both sides,” remembers elAdawi. “As a consultant, I wanted to find the best parts of each and integrate them into a stronger whole.”
Amira elAdawi puts her new approach to the test
elAdawi decided the only way to merge these companies was to help each party see the benefits they would gain from the other. After the interviews, she created a team composed of people from both companies, insisting on including both senior and junior staff. “It’s easy for the managers to know why they’re merging,” she explains. “They’re the ones who worked on the deal. They understand the benefit, but the junior staff thinks of management as the wizard behind the curtain, making mysterious decisions and toying with their lives. With that mentality, they will always see the decisions as flawed and the senior staff as “just not getting it”.”
Involving employees of every level from both companies in the decision-making process was essential to elAdawi’s approach. Issue by issue, she let employees from each company discuss their brand’s successes and opportunities for growth. “They began to see that the strengths of one company could shore up the shortcomings of the other,” she recalls. “In areas where both struggled, they put their minds together and found solutions.”
AMIRA & CO. brings a new approach to struggling mergers
Most companies are initially surprised by elAdawi’s methods. “Everybody claims they’re different and that they collaborate with clients,” she says. “My clients soon find out that I’m serious about doing this in a whole new way.”
When elAdawi and her project manager come to a new M&A, they carefully assign people to teams. She asks for employees who are creative, visionary, and open to change, but she also seeks out representation from people who are opposed to the transition. “Sometimes, bringing those people on board is better than having them on the outside looking in,” she observes.
Once teams are established, elAdawi begins building trust between them. She assures them that they will drive the change, but she knows they won’t believe her initially. “You can see exactly what they’re thinking,” she says. “They think I’m there to waste their time and then do what I want, despite their opinions. It takes a while for them to discover I’m listening to them and supporting them as they reach their own solutions.”
Building relationships is a critical part of the process for elAdawi. Her most recent clients joked that they should install a longer couch in her office because she is more like a marriage-therapist than a consultant. “When they come and talk to me about problems, we find solutions,” she says. “I listen to everyone and value their input. Once employees see how decisions are made, they take ownership of the process.”
Everyone wants to be heard and have influence. elAdawi turns this desire into motivation. Teams end up united as they root for successful mergers.