[Michael]

In my experience, the due diligence team is not necessarily the Integration team. Has anyone experienced an organizational model that minimizes the “hand off” between due diligence teams and the integration teams that accelerates the transition into detail integration planning / execution?

[Keunyoung Kim]

Hello Michael, I agree with your point that the due diligence team is not necessarily the integration team. However, to minimize the ‘hand-off’ between these teams, some key integration team members should be involved in due diligence. This approach not only reduces transition gaps between the two processes but also enhances efficiency and productivity during both due diligence and integration.

[John Breslin]

There is certainly some benefit with maintaining some of the key personnel for continuity between these phases even if they are considered separate teams.

[Christopher Westerlund]

Michael, the model that has worked best in my experience is to organise diligence around the same workstream structure that integration will use, rather than around the functional silos of the deal team. Each workstream has a named lead from diligence onward, and that person carries through Day 1 and the first year, so ownership of an issue never has to be reassigned at the point of handover. The integration management office is stood up before signing rather than after, even if it is only two or three people at that stage, and its role during diligence is to make sure every finding lands in a single issues log with an owner and a Day 1 or Day 100 tag attached. Done that way the diligence output is already the first draft of the detailed integration plan, which is what accelerates the transition you are asking about. Where I have seen it break down is when the IMO is created only after close, because by then the people who understood the assumptions have rolled off to the next deal and the new team spends its first month rebuilding context rather than executing.

[Maria Peres Panicker]

In my experience, the transition from Due Diligence to Integration needs to be well-thought through.
In my team, we are briefed on Due Diligence findings before the closing date, at least 1 month prior. This helps us prepare and customize the integration materials based on the acquisition strategy, culture of the to-be-acquired company and priorities of the acquiring company.
It also allows us to meet with the different integration workstreams ahead of time and understand where the focus should be for the first 3-6 months.

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