English
French 
Successful Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances: How to Bridge Corporate Cultures
by The acquisition has been signed! The big multinational (let’s call it Huge Inc) has finally acquired the smaller niche-market company (we’ll call it Small Inc) in order to pursue its strategic diversification. Small Inc teams are interested but not overjoyed even though it means much needed development resources. After all, many of the Small Inc [...]
Read More about Melting the Ice: First Post-Acquisition EncounterSuccessful companies rely on succesful teams. Today these teams are multicultural, sometimes remote or virtual. They can be formed and disbanded in ad hoc ways around specific problem-solving challenges. They involve all kinds of people, functions and competencies.
The competence to put together teams of this sort is a critical success factor for international organizations. These teams have to find the right balance between alignment, consistency and diversity.
ICM proposes a set of tools and activities to help them do this.
The ICM Team Alignment Process is a 6-step process:
1. Meet with the team leader to review the current situation and challenges, and to set objectives for the process
2. Interview team members to gather their views and expectations in order to gain commitment to the process
3. Run a web-based Team Barometer to gather feedback on perceptions key stakeholders have of the team and their interactions
4. Design and facilitate a Team Alignment Seminar to gain shared awareness among team members about the current situation and define ways of moving forward together. This can include producing a “Team Charter”
5. Review results with the team leader
6. Monitor progress 6 to 9 months later with the Team Barometer and debrief results with the team for continuous improvement