Insights
The value in an acquisition is captured or lost early. The first hundred days set the tone, establish momentum or the lack of it, and determine whether the synergies in the investment case start to materialise or quietly slip away. What happens in that window matters more than almost anything that follows, and what determines success is more mundane, and more about preparation, than most people expect.
By Christopher Fagan
The single biggest determinant of a good first hundred days is whether they were planned before completion. Integrations that start planning the day after completion spend the crucial early weeks improvising, while the value leaks. Those that arrive at day one with a clear plan, agreed priorities and named owners execute while the window is open. As far as confidentiality allows, the planning should be done in advance.
Not everything should be integrated, and not at once. A clear, deliberate decision about what comes together, what stays separate and in what order prevents the scattergun activity that burns the first hundred days without result.
Acquisitions are unsettling, and the people you most want to keep are the most able to leave. Identifying them and securing them early is value protection, and it cannot wait until the org design is finished. See people and change.
Getting to one reliable set of numbers for the combined entity quickly lets the investor and management see what they now own and steer accordingly. Until that exists, decisions are made half blind.
The first hundred days are also about momentum and confidence. A few early, real wins signal that the integration is working and build the credibility to carry the harder changes that follow.
The integrations that struggle share a shape: no plan ready at completion, activity without prioritisation, key people leaving before anyone noticed the risk, and no clear view of the combined business for months. The value assumed in the case is still theoretically there, but the window to capture it easily has closed, and every later month it gets harder.
We plan and deliver integrations, with the first hundred days planned properly. See post acquisition integration or get in touch.
If any of this is live for you right now, the senior people who wrote it are the people you would work with.