In our recent webinar, ‘M&A Success Drivers: How to Align Firm Culture and Integration’ we were privileged to have Beverly Flaxington, co-founder of The Collaborative, to share her insights and process on how to identify a strong culture fit and then integrate two firms.
Finding the right firm to sell to or buy is a high stakes decision and a challenge for many RIAs. Firm culture is a critical component to the success of a deal. Firm integration impacts the profitability for all parties.Bev provided insight on the criteria to assess and understand a firm’s culture, how to ready your staff for the changes ahead, and the essentials for retaining the clients through the sale.
As a bestselling author, international Keynote speaker, and college professor, Beverly brought a distinctive and actionable perspective for business growth and success. To listen to a replay of the webinar, click here.
To encourage you to include firm culture as well valuation and revenue multiples, we created a 12-Point Culture Match Checklist as a guide for M&A discussions. The questions, while easy to ask, are harder to vet then one would think.
12 Point Culture Match Checklist
- We have a clearly defined culture
- Culture is part of our strategic planning discussions
- If you asked a variety of our employees to describe our culture they would all use similar words to do so
- Our leaders lead on culture
- We can describe our culture to others in M & A discussions
- The Client Experience at our firm is a strong driver of culture
- We review our culture at least once a year to make sure we are in alignment with what we say, and what we actually do
- We deliberately hire people who are a fit for our culture and confirm this in the interview process
- When thinking about merging or acquiring another firm, culture is at the top of our list in terms of priorities to discuss
- We would walk away from an M & A opportunity if the culture was not a fit
- We have a plan for how we will incorporate culture into a merger once completed
- We have a communication plan for announcing the merger to our clients
