[Shelly Barnes]

In almost every M&A integration I have been involved in, cultural alignment has been treated as something to address after the real work is done. Financial close, systems integration, org design, process alignment, and then, somewhere further down the timeline, culture.

But here is the question I keep coming back to:
By the time most integration teams turn their attention to culture, is it already too late?
From Day 1, employees on both sides are already forming opinions, filling silence with assumptions, and deciding whether they see themselves in the future state. Leaders are already signaling, consciously or not, whose way of working matters more. Norms are already being established in hallways and on calls before anyone has designed them intentionally.

So would appreciate your thoughts:
• At what point in the deal lifecycle do you think cultural integration work should begin, and who should own it?
• Have you seen cultural differences between an acquirer and an acquired company assessed in a structured way, and if so, what did that look like in practice?
• When you have seen integration succeed or fail, how much of that outcome do you think was actually a culture problem wearing a different mask, whether that was governance, technology adoption, talent retention, or something else?

I have my own views on this having worked through it in a number of deals, but I am genuinely curious what the team has experienced. Would love to hear where others have landed on this.

[Dr. Jesse Core]

Great topic, Shelly. I don’t think culture can wait until after closing. In my opinion, it starts during due diligence. That’s when I’d want to understand not only how the target company operates, but why they operate that way. Every company has habits and traditions that helped make it successful, and those deserve to be understood before anyone starts changing them.

To your second question, I haven’t used a formal cultural assessment tool, but I have spent a lot of time talking with employees at every level of an organization. Those conversations usually tell me more than an organizational chart ever could. You quickly learn how decisions are made, who people trust, and what they value.

As for your last question, I think many integration problems that look like operational or technology issues are actually culture issues underneath. If people don’t trust leadership or don’t understand where the company is headed, even the best systems and processes become much harder to implement.

Coming from the beverage industry, I’ve also learned that culture shows up on the production floor and in the marketplace every day. Employees, distributors, and customers all notice how leaders behave during a transition. If leadership communicates clearly, listens, and follows through, people usually buy into the integration much more quickly.

[Shelly Barnes]

Dr. Core – thank you for your response and insights. I continue to develop various assessment tools to help guide the teams I work with to getting a better sense and understanding of challenges, traditions, values and the like.

[Daniel Wu]

I completely agree. In my experience, culture isn’t a post-close workstream—it starts the moment the deal is announced. If employees don’t understand the “why” and see consistent leadership behaviors from Day 1, uncertainty quickly turns into disengagement and resistance.

[Mette Nymand]

I completely agree that culture should be addressed early in the M&A process, ideally during due diligence and integration planning rather than after closing. However, I also believe that cultural integration is not about changing one another or deciding which culture is “better”. Instead, it is about building awareness and understanding of each organisation’s values, behaviours and ways of working. This awareness helps identify potential challenges, improves collaboration and allows both organisations to adopt the best practices from each other while respecting their differences. In my experience, successful integration is achieved when people feel understood, not replaced.

[Olena]

I agree that cultural integration needs to start much earlier than Day 1. I’m currently involved in an acquisition, and I can already see how quickly employees form opinions based on communication, leadership behavior, and even small differences in how the two organizations operate. I also think culture shouldn’t be viewed only as an HR responsibility — it needs ownership across leadership and the integration team. Sometimes what looks like resistance to a new process or system may actually reflect a deeper cultural difference in how people are used to working and making decisions.

[Laura]

I agree that cultural integration should begin during due diligence, not after closing. A structured cultural assessment can identify differences in leadership styles, decision-making, communication, accountability, and employee expectations before they become integration barriers.

Ownership should be shared by executive leadership and HR, with leaders held accountable for modeling the desired behaviors from Day 1. In practice, many issues labeled as poor governance, resistance to technology, or talent loss are often symptoms of deeper cultural misalignment. When employees do not understand the future organization or feel that one company’s culture is being imposed on the other, trust and engagement can quickly decline. Addressing culture early is therefore not a separate HR activity—it is essential to the overall success of the integration.

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