Portfolio Project: Merger Integration
Business Case:
Publicly Traded, global Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) company acquired a privately held CPG company with multiple brands across dozens of categories. The project required integrating all functions – people, process and systems – in 8 months.
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Month 1: Kickoff & Requirements
- Partnered with leadership to hold company meetings to introduce the project and set expectations
- Established leads and teams from every business function in both organizations
- Daily meetings with functional teams to build a detailed project plan of tasks, timing, owners, and risks
- Setup a project site for collaboration
- Established communication plan for updates and issues
Month 2: Design
- Detailed the sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and distribution integrations
- Planned sales, marketing, and customer service consolidation
- Designed the integrated organization structure
- Identified master data (materials, suppliers, items, customers, people, etc) across functions to migrate from MS Dynamics into SAP and all the supporting business systems
Months 3-7: Implementation
- Worked with leaders in both organizations to manage transition of people, process & systems
- Adjusted plan as learnings and actuals occurred
- Implemented a phased approach, with contingencies, allowing for early identification of problems and rapid course correction.
- Planned employee transitions – supporting individuals and a successful integration
Month 8: Go Live
- Finalized go-live checklists, dependencies, and task sequence with all teams and customers
- Worked closely with customers and teams to make sure issues were found and addressed quickly
- Daily KPI reviews with teams to quickly flag and address problems
Post Live
- Close follow-up with teams and customers to find post-live issues
- Kept transition project team in place until sign-off from functional leaders and senior management
- Celebrations and recognition for a job well done
Results:
- Transition completed on schedule, under budget, with no business interruption
- Sales & profits accelerated above plan in the full year post integration.
