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Most acquisitions fail.
40% to 55% of
alliances break down prematurely and
inflict financial damage on both
partners, according to “When to Ally and
When to Acquire”
(Harvard
Business Review, July-August 2004)
The missing element is
professional relationship management.
JPB’s long experience in this area has
convinced them that
the key to success in
international co-operation is to focus
not on cultural but on human factors.
People have to find a way
to work together, not as Frenchmen or
Germans or Americans, but as human
beings. As human beings, all of the key
players will inevitably bring their
personal emotions into the venture,
projecting their hopes and their fears
onto their working partners.
This results in certain
specific
"emotional viruses"
which damage the quality of
relationships and reduce people’s basic
trust in each other. Cultural
differences are often “blamed” for the
problems, but these problems usually
have to do with personality, company and
cooperation structures.
JPB has found that a
breakdown in relations between
international headquarters and field
offices breakdown typically has more to
do with a power and decision-making
balance, rather than national cultural
issues.
Rather than simply
setting up a one-off cultural exchange
workshop,
the expertise of JPB lies in creating a
multidimensional "tipping point" which
is based on the company’s ability to
identify and treat these "emotional
viruses."
Business is human!
Building on knowledge
developed over the past two decades
where we have focused on French-German
mergers with dozens of success stories
to our credit, JPB Consulting is today
bringing its mentalmerger® process
to other international corporations.
The mentalmerger® process
is designed helping business people who
although very professional in business
are not necessarily able to behave
professionally in their relationships.
Consider the minds of
top athletes or sports teams who develop
strong mindsets which allow them to
perform at extraordinary levels. The
mentalmerger® process
is invaluable in
creating efficient internal alliances
between the various silos that exist
within companies.
There is the story of
a man who is down on his hands and
knees, looking for his keys under a
street lamp. A passer-by comes along and
asks, "What are you doing?" The man
replies, "I’m looking for my keys." "Are
you sure you lost them here?" asks the
passer-by. "Well," the man replies,
"actually, I lost them over there," he
says, pointing to an area a few yards
away, "but there isn’t any light over
there."
With global
competition demanding ever
higher levels of performance,
it may be time for your company to stop
looking under the street lamp for the
solutions for problems which remain
unsolved. It may be time to engage with
the experience which has already
increased speed, innovation and trust in
many international companies
It may be time to
consider the JPB
mentalmerger® process
as a way to encourage the establishment
of more professional and productive
relationships with your partners as well
as within your organization. |
