I made certain we were in compliance with all the laws and regulations, that no one was discriminated against in any way, that our salary and benefits weren’t deterrents to hiring and keeping our people, that reviews were done on time, on and on of necessary and important but not very visionary or strategic activities.

My day was spent running interference for the people who actually ran the organisation. Yet long-range decisions were being made that I could and should have been involved in. And, more importantly, I was a valuable resource that could have improved our thinking and decision making….if I was involved. I felt like the under-used ball player shouting “Put me in, Coach!”

I have since moved on to M&A Partners, LLC and I head up our organisation's culture services based on my most recent book, Culture Clout: Mergers, Acquisitions and Organization Cultures. The focus of my work is making certain that clients are prepared for and successfully deal with the cultural challenges involved in business combinations. It is relevant and important work because research shows that seven out of eight mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve their intended results. And cultural issues are the leading cause of failure!

HR can be a powerful resource in planning, executing and achieving better M&A results if they can get off the bench and get involved in the action. After all, in whose lap will the outplacement, severance packages and re-organisation fall if the deal fails? Why just clean up the mess when you can be the strategic star who keeps the mess (and all of its ripple effects) from happening?

In the past, culture was a known concern of the business development team but regarded as being a “soft issue”, that is, unable to be quantified like other factors such as market share, profitability and return on investment.

But QUOCA™ or Quantitative Organisation Culture Assessments puts culture on par with other M&A data by dollarising the opportunities and costs of cultural characteristics. Thus, Human Resources can sit next to IT, Production and Marketing when making go/no go decisions on deals as well when calculating the synergies and determining the payback periods of mergers and acquisitions.

For example, let’s assume your company has invested heavily in the training and development of your production people. Your management team has empowered the workforce to actively look for better, faster, cheaper ways of doing things. Your core values reflect an organisation of people who take pride in their work, handle conflicts in an open, cooperative way and, consequently, you enjoy little rework, have high productivity and your cost of sales are the lowest of your competitors. To meet production needs, your business development officer has found a company with excess capacity that could easily be converted to meet your expansion plans.

But, what about their people? Are they the reason the company is operating below capacity? A QUOCA™ would compare the organisation cultures to identify the important differences between the attitudes, values and opinions that form the cultures of the two organisations. Are the differences so great that the deal will never work? Or are there some particular areas such as training, empowerment or development of core values that can be addressed to quickly integrate the new business into a productive and valuable part of your company?

With objective culture characteristic information, HR can advise executives on the challenges of a deal, help factor the challenges and costs of organisational integration into the calculations of the offering price and contribute to more accurate calculations for the cost and schedule of integrating the combining organisations. HR’s unique contribution can help the company win in the competitive marketplace by actually making M&A succeed in their strategic plan.

And HR can expand its contribution to a winning corporate strategy by taking the lead in M&A integration training so that executives and managers who will be interfacing with their counterparts in the target business will have the skills to optimise the Big Five of teamwork - collaboration, cooperation, coordination, creativity and conflict resolution. Experts cite these five key organisational behaviours as being either barriers to or facilitators of M&A success. Proactive and ongoing training and development can address these issues before they can impede a winning deal.

As the performance measurement player in the organisation, HR can also play an important role for setting goals and monitoring progress for the integration of the two management teams and their key players. It’s only natural that HR should lead the celebration of victories and provide the resources to improve the success of people and their organizations.

Human Resources with the right tools and information in hand can become the key to successful strategic planning and business development. Earn your right to be a powerful member of the management team. You don’t have to be a line of defence in the company game plan. Become part of the offense and score points in your company and its competitive market. Tell your boss, “Put me in, Coach, and I’ll make a difference in how the game is played!”