In today’s business landscape, acquisitions and mergers are commonplace, with new partnerships emerging almost weekly. Yet, unlike the fairytale endings we read as children, many of these mergers fall short of a “happily ever after.” Why? While financial and legal due diligence is often meticulously executed, the human element is overlooked. This gap in planning can prevent the successful merging of two organizations.  Key Human Elements in Mergers: Addressing Potential Barriers to Integration Several human factors are  critical to the success of a merger and should be thoroughly evaluated and strategically aligned before formalizing the partnership. Several come to mind, and they can all derail the integration of the individual organizations into a new whole if not thoroughly vetted and a plan put in place to address the inconsistencies. 1. Organizational Culture: Cultural alignment is essential. If the merging organizations’ cultures are incompatible, one party may dominate...

Progressive distributors have learned the importance of tracking and following opportunities in their sales group. For those of you who aren’t following this practice, here is a quick overview of how it works. When sellers learn of a potential for a sale, they log the following data: • The customer - Besides the actual account, it’s best if you log the customer contact who told him about the opportunity. • The product/technology involved – Sometimes it’s hard to identify the exact catalog number of bill of materials, but understanding approximately what the customer may need is required to call this a real opportunity. • The potential size of the opportunity – How many parts will be purchased, how many dollars will the customer spend or what does the current budget for the project look like are all questions which would allow an order of magnitude estimate of the size. For OEMs, we recommend understanding the size of the opportunity per year. For example, $1,000 per machine a...