Growth | Maximizing the ROI on Your M&A

Learn how to maximize ROI on your mergers and acquisitions with proven strategies. Explore expert insights on due diligence, integration planning, and value creation to ensure long-term success and profitability in your M&A endeavors.

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Okay, folks, I am really excitedfor today's episode of the SCORR
cast. It is actually a replayfrom a LinkedIn live that SCORR
marketing hosted in 2023 with astellar panel outside of just
myself. We have Roger Boutin,who is over at Fortrea. We have
Alyssa Kent, who is the VP ofDigital Strategy at SCORR

(00:31):
Marketing. And then we haveRandall Hein, and the discussion
today is about maximizing theROI on your merger and
acquisition. And the team hereis extremely experienced in this
process. We walk through the keyelements of ensuring once you
have that merger andacquisition, how do we

(00:51):
capitalize on it moving forward,what are some of the pitfalls
that teams fall into with all ofthe chaos that happens in an M
and A and really, how can weensure the best use of the
dollars in the time in theimmediate three months before
the during you know that threemonths during the acquisition,

(01:13):
and then the three to six monthspost acquisition, where we're
trying to make a splash in themarket? Randall, Roger and
Alyssa are fantastic. You aregoing to enjoy this episode.
Alright, Roger, Alyssa, Randall,are we ready to have we ready to

(01:36):
have some fun this afternoon?
We're ready? Yes, awesome. Well,we, we've got
about 15 people right now. Iexpect more to be joining
throughout the the rest of thesession. And for everybody who's
watching right now andwondering, Will this be
recorded, this will be, it willactually be live on our LinkedIn
for the rest of the day, andthen tomorrow, the rest of the

(01:59):
week, next week, you'll be ableto go back and you'll be able to
watch this recording. So wereally encourage a, asking your
questions, because you'll beable to not only get the answer
today, but B, you'll be able togo back next week and engage
with this content again. And soif you're only able to come for
the first 1520 minutes, stillfeel free to put in your

(02:20):
questions and then make sure youfollow up and watch the rest of
it, because I think it is goingto be a really entertaining,
engaging and value drivensession. With that being said,
let's go ahead and get started.
So thank you everyone forattending today and joining us
for SCORR marketing's secondever LinkedIn live and the first
in a two part series on M andA's. And today we're going to

(02:43):
really focus on two topics rightteam. We're going to focus on
the importance of Communicationsand Strategic integration with
your M and A, and then reallyeven a level, bit deeper, we're
going to focus on maximizingyour ROI within your M and A.
And so right after this, I'mgoing to go through some
introductions to our lovelygroup of panelists that we have

(03:04):
here, and then we're going togive each of the panelists an
opportunity to hit us with anopening statement as it pertains
to m and A's. And then we'regoing to go through we're going
to highlight some of the commonobjections, pitfalls and problem
areas that we see companies gothrough when they're going
through their own M, a we'realso going to solve some of

(03:25):
those issues by providing somesolutions that we're going to
walk through and give you actionitems that you can implement at
your organization today or foryour next M, a however, the best
part about this event is it'snot just me talking the entire
time. It's not only that, butit's also not just us lecturing
you for the next hour, we'regoing to spend time answering

(03:46):
your questions. So I actuallyhave the LinkedIn live pulled up
on the right side of my screenhere, where I will be reading
your questions and asking themto Randall and Alyssa and Roger,
and they'll be answering them.
This can be generic, high levelquestions. It can also be
specific questions about anexperience that you've gone
through, or that you might gothrough. So please feel free

(04:09):
engage with those questions, andwe certainly will answer them
throughout this time. Now forthe introductions, my name is
Alec McChesney. I'm the Directorof Business Development here at
SCORR Marketing, and my jobtoday is really to act as a
guide through this event, and,more importantly, not talk very
much and let the focus be onRandall, Roger and Alyssa and so

(04:31):
up first, we've got Alyssa.
Kent. Alyssa is the VicePresident of Strategy at SCORR
Marketing, where she serves asan executive on key client
accounts and also leads thedigital marketing department,
inclusive of marketingautomation, organic and paid
media, social media and ROIreporting. Prior to alyssa's
role at SCORR, Alyssa had ledseveral Marketing and

(04:52):
Communications internaldepartments in both the medical
device and life scienceindustries. Her expertise
includes leadership and managingcomprehensive strategic
marketing and communicationplans, mergers and acquisitions,
marketing automation, branding,public relations. Applications,
digital and social media andevent management. Alyssa has

(05:12):
vast experience managingintegrated communication plans
and brand rollouts for mergersand acquisitions, having gone
through five acquisitions in thepast five years herself, Alyssa
has sat on both sides of an Mand A and has a unique
standpoint of what is neededfrom both an acquiring company
and from the acquired companyperspective, Alyssa, we're happy

(05:33):
to have you here. Of course, upnext, we've got Roger Boutin,
along with being SCORR VP ofcommunication, Roger leads our
dedicated M and A teamdelivering strategy and
execution for companies goingthrough the M and A process
while at pra Health Sciences. Heled the marketing component of
numerous acquisitions rangingfrom regionally focused

(05:53):
transactions in the US, Europe,China, Japan, Russia and India,
as well as a global acquisitionthat nearly doubled the size the
company. And in the past yearalone, Roger has worked on a
dozen M A transactions for SCORRclients, helping them maximize
the ROI and optimizeintegration. And last but not
least, we are so thrilled tohave Randall Hein join us today.

(06:14):
Randall is the founder andpresident of Heinsight LLC,
where he provides advisory andconsulting services to the
investment community and earlymid life, early and mid market
life science companies.
Previously, he was the presidentof advara Consulting and Chief
Development Officer at advara,which provides Institutional
Review Board, institutional biosafety committee, research

(06:36):
technology solutions and globalregulatory compliance consulting
services. Here Randall wasresponsible for leading M and A
and corporate integrations, aswell as strategic and
organizational development, inconjunction with the Board of
Directors Gen star capital andexecutive leadership. He was
also responsible for the globalconsulting services

(06:56):
organization, providing gxb, QA,regulatory compliance and human
research protection services.
Prior to advara, Randall was thesenior vice president of
clinical research, clinicalresearch services at pra where
he oversaw research operations,including clinical scientific
medical and data services.
Randall has significantexperience in clinical research

(07:17):
development, phase one throughPhase four, clinical trials,
clinical research technology,patient recruitment and
engagement and emerging researchtrends. Randall has served as
the lead executive on target,identification, diligence and
integration activities,supporting nearly a dozen
completed M and A transactionsexceeding 600 million in total

(07:37):
enterprise value. And we'rehappy to say that Randall is a
member of SCORR strategicadvisory board as well. Randall,
thank you so much for joining ustoday.
Thank you for having me. Andit's always great to get these
recorded so I can share themwith my mom. I appreciate
it. That's That's exactly right.
I love it. Well. With that beingsaid, as a reminder, go ahead

(07:58):
and start filling in with somequestions about M A that you
have want to get started withthis. This, these opening
statements. And I think it'sreally important to just
acknowledge that we understandthat in today's day and age,
growth is at the forefront forhealth science companies. And M
and A's represent a wonderfulopportunity for that. It will
position you as a company movingforward, diversifying your

(08:20):
products, your services, andeven your long term prospects
for your business, theseopportunities give you access to
capital services, employeetalent and much more. And the
value that you can receive fromthese can be exponential, but
there's also a risk at play whengoing through a merger and
acquisition. Randall, I'm goingto toss it to you for your
opening statement,great. Thank you, and thank you

(08:42):
to SCORR for inviting me to theconversation today. So one of
the things I'm sure we'll talkabout a lot this afternoon is
really around the significantinvestment in time and capital
that it takes to do anintegration or to do an
acquisition. You know, I wouldsay that it typically takes at
least six months to even find atarget. Ideally, have those

(09:05):
conversations, go throughfinancial diligence, go through
structural and organizationaldiligence, set your objectives,
but that's just the first part.
Then you have to integrate thecompanies, which is what we're
going to talk about today. Thateasily takes another six to 12
months. So all in here, you'retalking about a year, year and a
half easy to complete thisprocess. And one of the things

(09:28):
that sometimes loses focus,there's so much intensity on the
actual deal getting closed, andon the diligence that you
overlook what happens afterthat, and that even longer
period of time, six months to ayear, to actually do the
integration. So we're going totalk about today what some of
those pitfalls might be. Some ofthe strategies might be to

(09:49):
address some of thosechallenges. I've also noticed
that there's also a lot of focusearly on, on market
communication, but that is alsojust one part of a. What you're
talking about with yourcustomers or or with the market,
you have to also effectivelyengage your customers and keep
them informed, make sure thatthey know what's happening every
step of the way, and as or moreimportantly, you have to keep

(10:12):
your team informed. And it's notobviously just dumping a press
release, it's it's a full planand communication that you have
to put in place in order to makethese things successful. And
speaking of a plan that doestake a well thought out plan, I
think, to do a successfulintegration, and that usually
takes a dedicated leader who ismanaging that, but it also takes

(10:34):
dedicated operational leads fromall the functional areas, from
both companies that you'retrying to trying to bring
together. And as you do that, Ithink it's important to not only
have a diligent plan, but makesure that you acknowledge where
you have gaps and figure out howyou're going to fill those gaps,
and do it early, even before youclose the integration. We'll
talk about in a bit how muchwork you really should have done

(10:55):
before you even get to the pointthat you're actually doing your
close. So I'll leave it therefor now and then look forward to
having some conversations moveinto it about some of the common
problems and mistakes and someof the strategies you can use
for mitigation.
Yeah, I love that. Randall and Ijotted a couple of things down.
I think there's gonna be a tonof questions based off of your

(11:18):
opening statement alone. So I'mexcited to dive into those. And
before we do that, Roger, let'sgo to you for your opening
statement here.
Yeah, thanks, Albert. You know,I think playing off of what
Randall talked about is theamount of investment that goes
into m a is, what is the impactthat it has. And you can, if it
when it's done right, you canhave. You can exceed your

(11:41):
expectations in terms of impact,but if you do it incorrectly,
you can really you can reallyshort yourself. So when you
think about an acquisition for alot of companies, this is one of
the few truly newsworthy events,and so just handling that
lightly, you're missing out onopportunities to get your

(12:02):
message, get your company out infront of a lot of people who
otherwise wouldn't be exposed toit. And so from a, from a the
amount of noise or the amount ofimpact that you have with it,
you need to take advantage ofthat. And you know, the other
thing is, Randall talked about,you know, internal folks as well
and customers. How you handlethe announcement of this, the

(12:25):
communication of it signifies toyour employees, to the employees
of both companies, the acquireand the target. It signifies to
your to your customers,signifies to the to the market,
how important this is, and so itreally is an opportunity to put
your best foot forward, but alsotalk about this new company that

(12:49):
will now exist, that you've gottwo companies that have come
together. They're typicallycomplimentary. And so you have
an opportunity to talk about howyou can better serve your
clients, the benefits that youbring to clients because you've
joined together. And so I thinkthat's a theme that we'll talk
about, is the impact that youcan have as you're working
through this, and not, asRandall said, not just at

(13:10):
stopping at the announcement,but continuing through as you
move forward.
Yeah, that's great, Roger. Thankyou so much. I think one of the
key things that we're going togo back to is, you know, all of
these pitfalls are alsoopportunities. So as we're
talking about things that couldeventually be obstacles, it's
also an opportunity to takeadvantage of within the
organization. So appreciatethat. I think it's a great segue

(13:32):
to Alyssa for your openingstatement.
Awesome. Thanks, Alec. So Ireally think marketing
communications for m&atransactions is a key factor for
maximizing ROI. Um, I reallybelieve in leveraging a merger
or acquisition as an opportunityto get in front of your clients
with a strong cadence ofcommunications, both internally

(13:53):
and externally. Um, like Rogerjust mentioned, there's a reason
the two companies came together,right? So remind your audience
of the services and solutionsthat both companies provide,
along with the combined companyvalue prop, use this as an
opportunity for lead gen. Getyour audience used to seeing
these two companies workingtogether. This gains and builds

(14:14):
acceptance, both internally andexternally, and like Randall
mentioned earlier, there's somuch emphasis on announcement
day communications, but reallythat's just where it starts. Or
I think the real meat andpotatoes is, is a communication
during the integration, youknow, as things start shifting
and staying engaged with yourclients and employees is key

(14:35):
with clear and transparentcommunication. I think that's
the most important.
I love it. I love it. Well, thissets the stage for the next what
do we got 45 minutes here offun, and what I want to do is
just one more kind of call outand acknowledgement that the
goal of this is to be anengaging session with the

(14:57):
panelists and so happy to answerthose questions. As you guys
start dropping them inquestions, comments, things like
that. But we do have somepreceded questions. We've got
some topics that we're going todive into and really, Randall, I
think, I think we want to startwith you. And one of the things
that we've been talking about issome of these pitfalls, some of
these areas where m and A's canfall short. And we're going to

(15:17):
focus a little bit more on theproblems and pitfalls first, and
then we'll work through those,hearing from Randall, Roger and
Alyssa, and then we'll jump tosome of those solutions and
sprinkle a few questionspreceded and from the comment
section throughout. But withthat being said, Randall, I'm
going to pass it to you. And Ithink this is a high level
question, and we can bouncearound. Is, where do we see m

(15:38):
and A's fall short, right out ofthe gate. Great.
Thank you, Alec, I think thenumber one place that I see
challenges are companies notstarting early enough. And
honestly, this should be aparallel process, not a serial
process, from the time that youmake the announcement that the
time that you get tointegration. And that takes a
lot of planning and effort. Andwe can talk about a little bit

(16:00):
some things that help make thatsuccessful. But by starting
early, I mean that you have aplan in place, and you are
bringing operational leaderstogether before you even get to
close or announcement with yourcustomers with a full plan.
That's probably the number onearea where I see a downfall and
where it takes so much effortand discipline to get ahead of
that once you get into theintegrations, a few areas that I

(16:24):
see as challenge. Points one isjust not keeping your customers
informed. You tell them thatyou've done an acquisition or a
merger or made someorganizational change, but don't
leave them guessing about theservice delivery, their point of
contact in the company, howcontracting is going to work
now, pricing might change,changes to service offerings,

(16:44):
all those things need to beprospectively communicated to
your customers and repeatedthroughout the process.
Similarly, I think another areaof downfall is not keeping your
staff informed, so you get somyopic sometimes on going
through all of the things thathave to be done to get over the
finish line, that you've had achance to process all this

(17:05):
information, and your teammembers have it, it's new and
unsettling news to them, andthere's no such thing, and I'm
sure Alyssa will touch on this,there's no such thing as over
communicating to your staff, andit's important that you're
upfront with them and You'rehonest. People will see through,
yes, very quickly. Does it? Doesit take much and be sensitive
what's important to them? Youknow, it's job security, it's a

(17:28):
paycheck, but it's also benefitsand culture and expectations of
the company moving forward andwhat matters to them. And
finally, I think where I seesome of the not keeping staff
informed fall down is not givingthem clear, clear tools you have
to provide them the training andFAQs messaging is consistent
across the life cycle. Anothercouple of quick areas that I

(17:51):
would highlight. One is nothaving good escalation pathways.
So tagging on the comment ofkeeping your customers informed,
you should have a pathway tohave that information flowing
back to a dedicated team, evendedicated emails that are out
there for escalation points thatpeople can react to quickly,
within the same day or within 24hours. Similarly, with internal

(18:14):
teams have that same sort ofescalation pathway so you don't
allow yourself to get into aproblem. Identify it early,
before it becomes a biggerproblem. And then finally, and
it tags on, probably startingearly, it's not focusing enough
diligently on the tracking ofall the goals and objectives for

(18:35):
integration. And this one'shard. It's a grunt job to track
all of the objectives you mayhave in an integration process,
five or 600 objectives easilyacross functional units that
you're trying to bring together.
And it's a massive task tomanage those, stay on top of
them, and in fact, thecommunication between the

(18:55):
companies is very difficultearly on, because you're
probably not in the samesystems. So how do you even
share a spreadsheet or shareinformation between the two
different companies. So thinkingabout that before you get into
what you're doing with anintegration, and then putting
some good, diligent structurearound it is very important, and
I'll leave it here Lastly, andjust say, probably the last area

(19:19):
that I see a lot is just thechallenge in balancing moving
quickly with making gooddecisions, and probably
somewhere along the way,something's going to get screwed
up. It inevitably does, but it'sa balance. If you know
something's going to change foran organization, kind of the big
things is tell people up frontand the things you don't know,

(19:40):
at least communicate to them thepathway or the means by which
you reach that decision, so thatyou can set expectations
appropriately as things moveforward. Yeah,
that's great, Randall, and Ithink the the be the be fast,
but don't hurry. Be quick, butdon't hurry, kind of comes to
mind there. And one of the, oneof the follow up questions, and
Alyssa. Roger, feel free to jumpin on this as well. But Randall,

(20:02):
kind of follow up question basedoff of that is, you know, you
mentioned there could be 500 600objectives that you're looking
at here. How does this change ifI'm going through a smaller
acquisition, you know, if I'mgoing through one that doesn't
necessarily have that largecomponent, where we feel like it
needs to be this massiveannouncement, massive change. Do
we keep the same strategy? Doesit change? What does that look

(20:24):
like?
That's a great question. Youknow, as a guy who's five foot
seven, I can confidently saythis is one case where size
doesn't matter. You have tostill address all of the issues
around customer communications.
It issues HR issuescommunication challenges. So in

(20:45):
my experience, it's notsignificantly easier or
different from doing a smallacquisition or a tuck in that it
is from a larger one. All thatsame discipline and focus in
order to make it successfulstill has to be there. And so my
recommendation, and in myexperience, follow exactly the
same process. Yes, it's timeconsuming. Maybe you can achieve

(21:06):
some of your objectives a littlebit easier, a little less
complicated, but I wouldn't varyfrom the discipline of a
structure.
And I would add to that Randallthat sometimes it's even more
important, because if you've gota small tuck in that has a lot
of experts, and they're say 20people, and 15 of them leave

(21:27):
most of your investment has justwalked out the door. And so I
agree, there's, I agree thatit's largely the same steps that
you go through, but it can, itcan sometimes be even more
important if it's a smalleracquisition.
And I think, Alyssa, I want togive you a chance here. I felt
like I cut you off there. Whatare your you have any thoughts

(21:48):
on this before we jump to thenext little segment here? No,
I was just going to bring up,you know, I think another huge
risk in any integration is poorand inconsistent messaging. You
know, I think it leads toconfusion around why the deal
happened and what to expectmoving forward. Um, both

(22:09):
internally and externally,right? So on the employee side,
it can lead to job insecurities,performance issues, growth
potential and really just notknowing where to turn. Um, you
know, when you don't take thetime to train your own teams,
whether it be management teamsor account teams, they have a
hard time explaining thechanges, and they don't have the

(22:30):
answers the employee or clientmay be looking for. So really,
just taking the time to developthose things, um, for the
internal aspect of things. Butthen you know, on the client
side, you know where that leadsto brain confusion and
uncertainty in the company,which is the last thing you
want, right? So you know, theclients can ask, do the services

(22:52):
or solutions provided, do theystill exist? Is My Account
Manager, so my contact all ofthose little things like, how
does my day to day Scope of Workchange if these elements aren't
clearly laid out and peopledon't know what to expect, you
really run the risk of yourclients going to a competitor,
or your employees leaving thecompany to find something more

(23:15):
stable. You know, I think withpoor messaging, there also comes
in consistent messaging, whichis another, you know, huge risk
with so without an extremelyironed out integrated
communications plan that Randallwas talking about earlier,
companies run the risk of, youknow, different account teams

(23:38):
saying different things, right?
So in some places, clients willhave contacts at both companies.
They may get information fromone account manager that's
really conflicting to what theother one's saying, and then not
putting you know, the time totrain your own teams on how they
should communicate the changes.
So when you don't develop theproper communication case and

(24:00):
timing between leadership tomanagement teams to employees,
you really open up thepossibilities of people making
their own assumptions. Andthat's where the rumor mill
starts, which I'm sure everybodyknows that's ever been in any
company. That's you know, it'swhat happens so um, and then
another big thing is just makingsure your messaging is

(24:22):
consistent across all platforms,like company websites, company
intranets, internal, external,FAQs, social media pages, press
releases, BV presentations, sellsheets, you name it. You need to
develop one message platformbetween the two companies, and
then, you know, build all yourmaterials from there.

(24:44):
Yeah, I love it, Roger, it feltlike it felt like you were kind
of chomping at the bit there toadd anything here. Do you want
to? Do you want to follow up onthat?
Well, I think it goes into, youknow, the two year, you know, I
have two areas that I, that Ithought of, and the first one
kind of comes right on, verysimilar to Alyssa. It's around
specifically having incongruentbrands. And so Randall had

(25:05):
talked about earlier thisplanning, starting a lot early,
a lot, very early in theprocess. And I think it's really
important for companies to thinkabout, once the acquisition is
done, are you going to have ahouse of brands? Are you going
to be a branded house? And so ifyou're going to have, you know,
a house of brands, then it'sfine. You can set that aside,

(25:26):
and you can talk about thatbrand as it exists today, but if
you're going to roll them underyour existing brand, you need to
be thinking about that early.
You need to be communicatingthat. And you know, I would say,
personally and at SCORR, we'rebig fans of ripping off the band
aid. And that doesn't alwaysmean on the day of the
announcement. You need sometransition time, but very

(25:47):
quickly, moving to that andmaking it very clear that you're
going to that brand, because Iwill tell you, and I will I'll
fight people on this brands havevalue, and I'm going to drop a
link in the in the chat here,when I'm done talking about the
importance of brand value thatthey bring to companies. And

(26:08):
brands can also be a veryunifying thing. And Randall, you
probably remember this back fromthe PRA days. We had just almost
doubled in size through anacquisition and then rebranded,
and that new brand really helpedunify the company, both
internally and externally. Webecame known externally by that
brand, and people within thecompany really rallied around

(26:30):
that brand. And so it's really,really important that you get
that right. And then the secondthing is, we sort of hit around
this as well as beingtransparent with your employees.
Don't call it a merger if it'snot a merger, because all you do
is either confuse them or havethem doubting everything else.

(26:50):
You say, don't try to protectthe target company's feelings
and say, Well, we're going tocall it a merger even though
we've acquired them. Say what itis. We'll talk later about sort
of nuances and messaging, andthat's fine, but be transparent.
And Randall touched on some ofthese. You know, down the road,
be transparent with youremployees. Tell them what you

(27:11):
can tell them when you can'ttell them or you don't have the
answer, let them know that,because they will, they'll be
sensitive to it. You know,people are concerned about
what's my job? Is my pay gonnachange all of that? So it's
really important that you dothat as well. Yeah, that's
great, Roger. And I think weactually have a little bit of a

(27:31):
follow up question here that Ithink fits in from from the
LinkedIn comments. And it kindof goes to the thought that I've
been having as as Randall andAlyssa, you guys mentioned this
earlier, is, you know, this is alonely place to be, potentially,
as an employee, you whetheryou're a part of the acquiring
company or the acquired ifyou're not sure, you know what's

(27:51):
happening, even if you're on thethe company that was doing the
acquisition, you might not know,is this going to replace me?
What? What is my role look like?
And so the question that we havehere from Drake is, you know, is
there a Preferred delivery ofthese internal messages? Drake
does ask a little bit about theexternal but I'm interested,

(28:11):
really, to start internally,especially it being, how do we
do it? And we continue to do itinternally? Is it just once? Is
it a town hall? Is it internet?
What does that look like? And inyour experiences, maybe, where
have you seen this be reallysuccessful, and then, and then,
potentially, some, some, someexamples of maybe how you saw it
not go as well as well. Would begreat.

(28:34):
I can, I can jump in on thisone. You probably have more to
add up for me. But I think, youknow, I've seen it done a lot of
different ways, right? But Ithink the for me personally,
because I've been part of bothhaving, having, you know,
whether it's done in a town hallsetting or it's done in the

(28:58):
manager setting, or it's done inemail, you know, it's really,
there's really no right answer,but I think as long as you're
using all of the differentchannels and doing it all
consistently, and providing theemployees updates on a regular
basis, like Roger was justsaying, even if you don't have

(29:18):
an update, Tell them you don'thave an update, because if you
don't communicate for a longperiod of time, people are going
to start making up their owncommunications and start rumors.
So that's my answer. I don'tknow. Randall, if you have
anything to add on tothat, I think you're you're
absolutely right. Alyssa, it'stapping all those different
channels. And maybe I can give afew examples of tools that I've

(29:42):
used in the past or my teamshave used in the past, but
there's no right answer, becauseevery culture is a little bit
different, but some of thethings Make sure you've got a
deck right out of the gatethat's ready to go, that you're
presenting to employeesimmediately after or in
conjunction with theannouncement. It, and if at all
possible, if you're an acquireror you're the other company,

(30:05):
have your senior leader orleaders on site giving that
presentation. Because they'rethose folks are going to be very
nervous all the the points thatRoger made about salaries and
pay and do I have a job? What'sgoing to happen? And having that
physical presence there andbeing able to field questions
answer as best you can, the onesyou don't know the answer. To

(30:26):
say so is really important. Ithink the other thing is regular
town halls. So as you're makingprogress to the integration, let
people know what's happening.
Let them know the challenges.
Let them know where you'rehaving successes. Again, set the
expectations, because in thevoid of an expectation, people
fill in their own lines, andusually those are not positive

(30:49):
conclusions and lack ofinformation. The other one is
communicate very frequently. Soin most of the integrations I've
been involved with, we'retalking about weekly pushes of
information that are going tostaff, and it might not be a
lot, it might just be aparagraph or two that comes out
in an all staff email, butremind people what's happening,
and remind them to celebrateyour successes, what's been

(31:12):
done, and point out the successstories and the integration
teams that show collaborationand show that you're reaching
your goals as things are movingforward, and then finally, as
part of the integration teamsthat are coming together, it's
also important that the managerswithin that company or within
that site are also sharing howthe integration is going on a

(31:32):
regular basis. It's not all kindof a corporate down discussion.
It's an active discussion fromactive managers, from people I'm
working with on a daily basisthat show that show that the
whole organization is engaged inmoving things forward. So just a
few things, just off top of myhead that we've done in the
past. AndI this one thing I would add in
two quick examples is one, agreewith all those things and be

(31:56):
consistent. Make sure that yourmessaging is consistent in what
everybody has Randall. Youmentioned a deck, you know that
people are singing off the samesong sheet. And two examples,
one at a larger company, theCEO, I had a song where the CEO
met with everybody at directorlevel or above, had meetings,
went around to the differentoffices and met with them. And

(32:18):
then another one, this was aSCORR client where the CEO met
with every single employee ingroups of 10 or less, and had 10
or less because obviously youhave 50 people, a lot of people
won't say anything. You get 10or less, people are more likely
to talk. And so those aren't allnecessarily feasible in every
situation, but I think they'regreat examples of using all

(32:39):
these other tools, but thenbeing in the same room and
speaking to people face to facemakes a big difference.
One of the one of the follow upquestions that that we have
based off of this is, how earlyis too early to start talking to
your employees if you're the ifyou're doing the acquisition, so

(32:59):
you you obviously have thelegality of it, but what's too
early, and how often should webe having those conversations?
So that, or is it, do we want tohave it come out? You know, once
it's officially announced, whatdoes that process look like?
And I can take a stab at that.
That can be tricky, because theinformation circles are
concentric. And, you know youcan't announce something until

(33:23):
it's it's actually happened to awider audience. But in my
experience, that circle is verytight until you're certain a
deal is going to happen, and youknow the date, and you know the
closing you're preparing forthose that next level
disclosure, but usually that'syour senior managers in an
organization, and that is closeto the time of announcement,
maybe that's a week at mostprior where you're sharing that

(33:48):
information with them. You'regiving them some FAQs, you're
explaining why this ishappening. You're giving some
giving them some context to it,so they have a chance to settle
in. And you're also providingthem with some training so that
as this announcement goes liveto the rest of the staff and to
the world. They're ready toshare that message to Rogers
point in a consistent way. So Iwould say those senior managers

(34:09):
are pulled in, and that'sdefined kind of by your
organization. What that lookslike, you know, a few days to a
week before they're brought intoloop, they have some training
and some knowledge about it, andthen all your materials are
prepared, and then that goes tostaff, generally concurrent in
my experience with theannouncement, because you don't
want the world to know beforeyou have the chance to make your

(34:30):
splash. So it is a bit of atiming dance. But in generally
speaking, that's kind of theorder in my experience that I've
I've seen follow.
Yeah, I agree with Randall. Ithink in some cases, you know,
sometimes, like people fromsales or BD are brought in just
a couple days before, just in,you know, to focus on how

(34:53):
they're going to talk to keyparents about it, right? So, you
know, there's you. Developing acommunication for letting your
key clients know is key too. Sothat's a great point, if I could
just add on to that. I think Imentioned that's a point that

(35:14):
can fall down early in kind ofmy opening remarks. And I think
that's a place you can't be overdisciplined about. I think Roger
and Alyssa, you both mentionedthat, you know, it's not only
just contacting those customers,but clients within those
customers stratified. Who'sgoing to contact them? How are
you going to track and reportthat information back? Who
hasn't been contacted? You maywant to stratify and

(35:35):
immediately, prospectively setup calls with your key customers
in conjunction with theannouncement, or even shortly
before, in some cases, ifthey're a key client, and then
roll it out to the rest of theclients in a very kind of
methodical manner. It's greatpoint. Yeah,
go ahead, Roger, yeah. Onlything I'd add there, Alec, is,
if you've got public companiesinvolved, you have to announce

(35:56):
intent, and so then that's athat's a whole different
strategy, because it's outthere, and then you have to
think about how much, how you'regoing to talk about it, and
there's limits to how much youcan actually talk about it. So
that's a whole another ball ofwax. Yeah.
No, I love that. That's a greatpoint, Roger. And I think as we
we're going to transition hereinto some of the solutions, some

(36:19):
of those keys that that we couldbring to the table to maximize
the ROI for the M and A, but Ido have one, one final question
here, kind of on the pitfalls,and it's it goes back to the
communication, but mainlylooking at the external
communication here. I knowAlyssa and Randall, you've said
this, and Roger, in our in ourone on ones, we talk about this
all the time. Is you can neverover communicate from an

(36:39):
internal perspective. We want tocommunicate frequently. Is there
a limit of how much is too muchfrom an external perspective?
You know, sometimes we get thosequestions of, hey, we don't want
to bother our current clients.
We don't want to continue totalk to them about this press
release is enough. We don't wantto do those. We don't want to do
this piece. What's the thoughtshere? And maybe size matters,

(37:02):
but this one, maybe it doesn't.
Maybe number of clients, but I'minterested in your guys thoughts
on is too much externalcommunication to your clients a
possibility?
I mean, personally, I don'tthink so. They're probably, if
you have five emails, they'reprobably going to pick up one of

(37:22):
those. You know what I mean. SoI don't think you can plan to
communicatein these things. And I would say
to your earlier point, Alyssa,use all your channels, all your
modes. So, you know, you canoveruse a channel, I think. So
you know, if you constantly dothe same methodology to
communicate with your customers.

(37:43):
Eventually they become a littlenumb or immune to that pathway.
But if you're shaking it up anddoing it through a combination
of social media, through acombination of emails, through a
combination of direct outreach,through a combination of
marketing, then I think you canhave a balanced approach. And
you can't, to your point,Alyssa, do too much.
Yeah. And I think, in additionto mixing up your channels,

(38:05):
which I think is reallyimportant, is, is what's the
message? If you come outwhether, no matter how many
channels with the same message,a has acquired B, A has acquired
B, that's all you're eversaying. Then, yeah, it probably
is too much. But you've How canyou creatively nuance that
message to say, of course,initially, that's the
announcement, but then it's,Hey, because of this

(38:28):
combination, we now have theability to do this. We now have
the capability we can now servethis region. So it's it's
getting the synergies that arethere because of the
acquisition, and making surethat you continue to put those
out there over time.
And I think the other big thingthat we've seen a lot of success

(38:48):
with, and I think it goes backto who is doing the messaging.
Is it only coming from the brandchannel? Is it only coming from
the brand LinkedIn, brand email,rather than it coming from
executives, coming from bothparties, coming from managers
and even the sales reps, BDreps. There's just so many
different ways that that messagecan get out on the airwaves that
again, you won't say, Oh, it'sjust coming from them over and

(39:11):
over again, so that you canreally be a little bit more
nuanced with that as well. Andanother
thing people forget these daysis pick up the phone, yeah, call
your clients.
I love it.
Roger, anything else there? Ifelt like, yeah, no, you off
there.
I was going to say, as you'reannouncing, you know, you're,
we're posting these things onsocial media. Is leadership from

(39:33):
both companies, because theyhave a whole network on
LinkedIn, typically, that maynot be following either one of
the companies, and so you you'vegot the ability to reach a
larger audience. And again,you're showing your the
employees. You're showing yourcustomers that leadership of
both companies are excited aboutthis. Yeah,

(39:55):
I love it. I love it. Well, wehave a little over 20 minutes
left here. Um. Has been a greatsession. So far, with the first
40 minutes, we've got a couplequestions rolling in, and looks
like we've got a little over3035, people here. So I'm going
to make sure that one more callout on on questions being
allowed here. We're happy toanswer them. But I do want to
segue a little bit into the keysand so Randall, we're kind of

(40:18):
going to go the same structurewhere we'll bounce around. But
want to start with you. Youknow, you talked a lot about
establishing a strategy with adirection and a plan, and how
that can be really fruitful andmaximizing your ROI. So I want
to start with you really just onthat topic, and then we'll
bouncearound. Sounds great. So I
mentioned a few times kind ofgetting a team together, and

(40:40):
maybe I'll just build a littlebit on kind of what I mean by
that. So in my experience, themost successful integrations
I've been a part of, you'rebringing together those senior
leaders probably about a weekbefore close. You're sitting in
a room, you're getting to knowone another, you're working
through key messaging, but whatyou're also doing is assigning
to those key leaders clearresponsibilities and deadlines

(41:01):
for objectives, at least earlyon that they believe that the
organization believes needs tobe met. It's also a fantastic
time where you're going toidentify a whole bunch of
problems you haven't thoughtabout are going to come out in
that meeting, and it gives you alittle bit of time to put in
place some mitigation strategiesand proactive communication

(41:22):
before you make that hurdlewhere I've seen things fall down
early on with these teams isgoing one way or the other,
where you have an integrationleader, but not a designated
team with clearresponsibilities, or you have
teams with a bunch ofresponsibilities and nobody that
leads them. And so I think itreally is a combination of those
two things coming together inorder to make things successful.

(41:46):
We talked a lot aboutcommunication, and I'll just
maybe give a few examples ofsome tools or pieces that I've
used in the past on integrationsand honestly, even the documents
themselves. Sometimes you mighthave 1520, different documents
ready to go in conjunction withthe press release. What I mean

(42:07):
by that? We've talked about somebut internal training materials
ready to go for everybody, inconjunction with and post
acquisition FAQs facts, not onlyfor your customers that go to
them, but a concurrent internalFAQ that is appropriate for
business development,appropriate for project
managers. And everybody'sspeaking off the same kind of

(42:28):
playbook or hymnal, customercommunication that will that
will go out. We talked about theBD communication plan and the
delineation of who's reachingout. And to alyssa's point
earlier, I think it's criticalthat you're calling your key
customers on the phone. You makethat attempt, and you reach them
live and answer their questionsas best as possible. I mentioned

(42:48):
before the escalation plans.
Know that they're and establisha pathway when there's something
that can't be answered orthere's a concern that comes up,
squash it quick from bothemployee perspective and
customer perspective. Don'tforget about your vendors. If
you're a large organization, youprobably have a bunch of people
that are providing services toyou, and they're they may be

(43:09):
freaking out as they hear thisthat they may be losing some of
their business or contracts maychange, keep them in the loop.
And then finally, don't forgetthose communication pieces to
your to your teams, those weeklyupdates, the town halls, and one
other one, if you're part of acompany that has, you know,
structured board and obviouslyyou're going to need some board

(43:30):
updates and and managing thatinformation and the kind of
expectations, I think the otherthing here is to recognize where
your gaps are. There's a lotthat has to be done, and know
what you're good at, and knowwhere your gaps are, and just
just be honest about it. And youmight not have the internal

(43:51):
staff, for example, that canhandle all that communication or
put all those decks together.
You know, it's okay to work withan outside resource to address
those issues. And you may think,Well, yeah, that's going to cost
some money. Well, it's going topale in comparison. In
comparison to the money thatyou're going to spend for a
failed integration. So, youknow, rely on an external
company to help you with thosethings where you might not have
all the skills or capabilities.

(44:13):
And then finally, Rogermentioned some of this as well.
Celebrate your successes. Youknow, mix up your messages, and
as you have things that getaccomplished, share that with
the world and share that withyour teams. And lastly, I would
say, you know, brands do havevalue. And one of the other
areas that I think can beoverlooked as you're working

(44:35):
through all this integrationeffort and all the challenges
and all the things that come up,you are also at a time that is
opportune, probably one of thebest times in your
organization's development orhistory to get your value
propositions out there to yourcustomer base and build on that
during the first six months or ayear of your integration. And

(44:58):
often that's tough to dointernally. In with everything
you've got going on, but it's agreat platform. Probably never
been in a better position to tospeak to a lot of your successes
and a lot of your new servicesand capabilities. Don't forget
about that,that that's that's fantastic
right now, I think it kickstarts exactly where we want to
go for the remainder of thissession. Quick Add right here

(45:19):
is, you know, a little spot onSCORR, because we are an outside
firm that can come in and help,and that's something that Roger
leads up as part of that M and ateam and really is able to come
in and and fill in those gapsand assist with all of this. So
I appreciate kind of puttingthat out there. And then Roger,
I feel like there was a coupleof things in there that that
lead into your next segment withthe messaging and the documents.

(45:42):
So we'll jump over toyou. Yeah, excuse me, yes. So I
think Alyssa mentioned itearlier, sort of the downfalls
of having having inconsistentmessaging. And you know, you
mentioned, I lead the M and ateam here, and I talk to
clients, and we have a wholesuite of services that we can
provide. And I've been askedbefore, you know, what is the

(46:04):
most important? And I don'thesitate for a second, it's the
messaging always, because youcan execute everything
flawlessly, but if yourmessaging is off, you've just
wasted a lot of time and moneyand potentially caused yourself
some harm. And so I think firstand foremost is getting the

(46:25):
messaging right. And I think themessaging should start with,
what are the benefits to ourclients, to our employees? And
so, you know, I one of the ways.
And there, there are other waysto do it, but one of the ways
that we approach it is two ways.
Is one, we like, we we like asort of one sheet, cheat sheet,
Executive Summary of, what arethe key benefits? What are the

(46:48):
key benefits of thistransaction, what were some of
the key rationale, and what willbe the benefits to our clients,
to our employees, as these twocompanies become one, and then
we follow that with a BenefitsSummary, which is essentially
filling out the proof pointsunderneath those key benefits,
so that we know if we've said,okay, one of the benefits is

(47:10):
this, this process that used totake three months, we can now
complete in three days. Well,one is that, does that really
add value for clients? And twoyou say you can do this, show
us, tell us how make itbelievable that we can actually
do that. And so that's reallyimportant. And once those

(47:31):
documents are created, Randallmentioned, you know, you have
all these other documents thatget created that becomes your
repository of where you can drawfrom, not always word for word,
but sometimes it has to be wordfor word, where you can draw
from, so that as you create allof your other messaging, it does
the other thing that's importantis that it becomes consistent

(47:53):
across the board, and that it'scohesive, that it all works
together. It's coveringeverything that you need to
cover, but it's doing it in away that as you as you look at a
social media post, as you readthe press release, as you read
an FAQ, the same ideas arecoming across in the same tone.
And then the last little thingI'll add about messaging is you

(48:14):
need to be aware of who youraudiences are. I said earlier,
don't call it a merger if it'snot emergent, but at the same
time, understand that as youcommunicate to employees at a
target company, for example, orto their customers, you have to
understand where they're comingfrom. And so the example I often
give is, if we've just bought acompany, we'll say we've

(48:36):
acquired so and so that sameannouncement from the target
company might be something likewe are now a part of this other
company. We're not saying it'snot an acquisition. It's a
little thing like that. It'stone. It's how you talk about it
that shows that you're sensitiveto the situation and the people

(48:57):
in those situations. Yeah,I love that. And you kind of,
you piggybacked off the questionthat we received in the LinkedIn
comments, which was, you know,how do you determine the
audiences as we're workingthrough that messaging grid? And
so I think that fits perfectlywith that question. Is, you're
creating a messaging grid forall of those audience this isn't
just a one all be all. It'sbased off of who you're going to

(49:18):
talk to, right? Absolutely, oneof the things that I want to
jump back to real quick, andthen we'll go to Alyssa for for
the final piece there is, iswhat Randall you mentioned about
the investment of putting thistogether, right, whether it's
the time or it's the money thatyou might have to spend
externally, you know, an outsidepartner. And I find it really

(49:39):
interesting that companies areso willing to spend x amount of
dollars to acquire a company andbe involved in this type of
investment, but then thiscommunication, this messaging,
and all of the work that we'vebeen talking about for the last
49 minutes is almost looked atas a spend and an expense,
rather than as an. Investment inthe people and in the brand that

(50:02):
we're, that we're, you know,building. Now, there's not
really a question here. It'sjust something that I that I
wrote down when I heard you saythat right now, I'm interested
in your thoughts and everybody'sthoughts on, you know, is that
just a mindset shift that wehave to go through? Why does
that maybe happen? And have you,have you had to overcome that in
the past?
That's a great question. I thinkit is a mind shift that you have

(50:23):
to be diligent about andproactive about trying to
change. I think part of it is,frankly, there's so much focus
on the close of the deal and thefinances around it. And if you
think about the people who arearound the table having those
discussions, you're talkingabout private equity, or you're
talking about investors, you'retalking about people who focus
on money, and you're notnecessarily have people around

(50:44):
the table who are focusing onthings like culture and and I
would argue that it's not justthe money that you know you pay
for the acquisition, for themerger, that you messing around
or messing up a culturalintegration could be Just as
disastrous as messing up afinancial one. So part of it is
to be proactive. And I thinkpart of it's incumbent on, you

(51:06):
know, the managers in anorganization, you know, to raise
these questions earlier and tohave some diligence in putting
together a plan and putting itforward. In my experience, if
you put together somethingthat's not a blank check, if you
put together something that'svery thoughtful. Why I'm asking
for it. Here's the tools that Ineed. Here's why it's going to
help us be successful. That whenit's put in context, normally, I

(51:30):
would see those things beingapproved, but it's probably not
going to come from a genesis ofthe financial people around the
table making that decision. It'sgoing to come from a genesis of
the people who are actuallyrunning the organization that
have to put that forward.
Yeah, that's great insightthere. Thank you so much,
Randall, Roger, I feel like youhave a little answer on that
too. Well. I thinkwhat plays into that is what
Randall, Randall talked aboutbefore, about who you can tell

(51:52):
when, and so, you know, I'vebeen in house where, you know,
you get a call or an email fromsomebody and it's like, oh, so
we're announcing thisacquisition next Tuesday, right?
A little heads up would havebeen more helpful. And so I
think it's changing that mindsetinternally that you've got to,

(52:12):
you know, this planning muchfurther that this is part of the
plan, and the idea that this ispart of the plan that actually
will help with that ROI of theacquisition in the long run.
Yeah, I love that. Well, Alyssa,we're going to throw it to you.
I know we've got a little bitmore coming here and the next

(52:33):
edition of our LinkedIn livewhere we talk about, you know,
more of the integration and thebranding and things like that.
But I know you wanted to talk alittle bit about how we can
communicate effectively acrossall of the channels and do that
consistently. So I'll toss it toyou,
yeah, and I know we've touchedon it briefly before, but I
think it's a huge, huge key. Youknow, after Roger briefly talked

(52:57):
about the messaging grid and themessaging platform, you know,
you develop that right? And thenyou take that messaging there
and you split it to all thedifferent channels. So you need
to develop an integratedcommunications plan that covers
communication across all theplatforms, whether it's web,

(53:18):
graphics, internal documents,social media, email, one on one,
conversations, etc. Um, beprepared to create, I'm just
going to name things off righthere. Create a brand transition
graphic that's this gets youraudience used to seeing the
company logos together, and itleads to quicker adoption, both

(53:40):
internally and externally.
Create collateral and tools foryour teams, especially your BB
teams, because you're going towant to get that information in
front of your clients ASAP.
Develop talking points forclient facing teams and arm them
with the materials needed with arollout plan. Deploy emails to

(54:01):
your audiences, like we saidbefore. Don't forget your
vendors. Um, you can create alanding page on your websites
where clients can accessinformation. Um, use this
acquisition or merger as a wayto leverage different lead gen
opportunities as really showinga combined value prop. Post on
social media, tag the companiestogether and playing

(54:22):
complimentary posts, one on topof another, update all your
social pages with your newmessaging. Update your business
cards and email signatures. Forsome reason, every integration
or acquisition I've ever beenpart of, the sales teams always
want their business cards likeASAP, and so plan to have those

(54:45):
ready. It's those the firstthings people ask for. So have a
plan. Update your paid searchcampaigns again, use this as a
way to go leverage lead gen andthen create that communication
for internal teams for the firstmonth, have your lead.
Leadership Team send out weeklyor bi weekly communications.
There's obviously what we talkedabout. There's a ton of

(55:07):
uncertainty with Ma's and byover communicating and really
ease that feeling for people.
Yeah, and last but mostimportant, have conversations,
pick up the phone, call yourclients, call your employees.
There's so much that can be lostin an email or text. See how
people are feeling about thechanges and reacting to the

(55:28):
news. Assess reactions and pivotand adjust as necessary. Be
ready to adjust, because it willhappen. And the last bit, well,
I already said this, but forreal. Final. Final, don't forget
the follow through. It doesn'tstop on announcement day, that's
just day one. Now the phonestarts. That's integration.

(55:51):
Integration is really not fun,but it will be much worse if you
don't have a plan in place.
Yeah, I love it. So integrationcan be fun.
It just depends on how you lookat it. But I think it does segue
into the final question that wehave here of this process, of it

(56:11):
being done right away, or itbeing something that extends.
We've got this question fromHoward, really, what's the
longest M and A in terms ofduration that any of you have
been a part of. And is there astandard End Time for an M and A
is it six months afterannouncement? How do you say,
Hey, we're done. This isofficially done, and we're one

(56:32):
company. What are you guys'thoughts on that?
That's a great question. Sorry.
Go ahead. Randall, in myexperience, is a continuum. And
I think you can objectively say,and you can set goals that are
typically organization goals aredone, say, within six months.
And if you're going much beyondthat, you probably have a fairly

(56:52):
significant challenge,organizationally, but
culturally, that's a differentquestion. And when people feel
like they're integrated and partof an integrated company. In my
experience, that can take closerto a year. If you are still
working on organizationalobjectives and operational
objectives, in a year, youprobably missed the boat. You're

(57:14):
behind the curve. So in myexperience, about six months to
get the practical stuff done andanother six months to get the
cultural and every everythingelse addressed,
right? I'll go to Alyssa andthen to Roger.
I think it really dependswhether it's, you know, publicly
traded or private company. Forpublicly traded, I mean, I was

(57:34):
part of one that took about twoyears, and then, you know, I've
been part of them, that takesabout six months. So it really,
really depends on so manydifferent factors.
Yeah, Roger, I think the answeris until it's done. I mean, it
really is until it's done. Imean, I've been there, where

(57:55):
it's been, you know, a yearlater, and you think everything
is ticked and tied and in place.
And this comes back to more,sort of the cultural things. And
then you see this thing pop up,and you're, you go, what is this
purple thing doing here? This isnot brand, you know. And so you

(58:16):
see, I've seen some of thelegacy companies, sort of people
that didn't want to let go, andthey kind of mixing their stuff
into into a PowerPoint deck, orwhatever it is. And so, yeah, I
think, and I think it's, youknow, to a certain degree,
there's some of the things whereyou say, Yes, we're done, but at
some point you can never reallydo the touchdown dance and say,

(58:39):
We're completely done. And Ithink part of that is whatever
that new brand, or whether it'snew or that combined brand, is
that you have to keep pushingthat forward. And so it's not
always focusing back on theacquisitions, but it's focused
on focusing on where we are nowand where we're going, and keep
continuing to hit that.
Yeah, I love it. Well, we havetwo minutes left. I have just

(59:03):
pulled up my stopwatch that Ihave in front of me. I'm going
to give each of you 30 seconds,and I will use the microphone to
cut you off if you go over your30 seconds. So we're going to
start with Alyssa. We'll go toRoger, and then we'll finish
with Randall. Here, 30 secondseach. Final thoughts, final
takeaways, things that you wouldlove. The the 40 plus people who

(59:23):
are here and everybody'swatching this, to take away and
Alyssa, your time begins now.
Alright,I'm definitely not going to take
up the last 30 seconds, but armyourself with a solid team to
get through this. You can do it.
It may take a lot of people thatyou can do this. And then my
last piece, my last takeaway is,if you think you're

(59:45):
communicating too much, it'sstill not enough. I
love it. And only use 19.2seconds. So that's fantastic.
Roger, your time begins now.
I would say, start your planningearly. And. Your plan in place,
because things will change, andyou did have something, a
baseline to fall back on so thatyou can get back on track,

(01:00:07):
establish your messaging, getbuy in from all of the
leadership, and then make surethat you're taking that
messaging and hitting all ofyour channels, internally,
externally, clients, vendors,everybody, and repeating it over
the slight nuances, so that youcan get the full message out
there and continue to to getthat out there over time. I

(01:00:30):
love it. 32 seconds. I gave youthose two because I was feeling
extremely generous. But Randall,let's finish. Let's finish with
you exactly right. What are yourfinal thoughts? Randall,
be proactive and flexible. It isinevitable that something will
not go according to plan,recognize and be sensitive to
whatever particular issues areinvolved with your integration.

(01:00:52):
Most importantly, don't ignorethe elephant in the room, and
that elephant will change fromintegration to integration. But
if that's benefits, if that'spay, if that's something else,
address it. So finally,acknowledge your mistakes and
celebrate your success.
I love it. I think that is aperfect way to finish part one
of our two part series on theseLinkedIn lives from SCORR

(01:01:14):
Marketing over M and A Randall.
Alyssa, Roger, thank you somuch. I feel like this was such
a valuable 60 minutes, and I'mexcited to see even more
comments come in as as peopleengage with this over the next
handful of weeks. And onceagain, thank you to all three of
you for coming, and thank you tothe individuals who watched live
and submitted questions.

(01:01:36):
Thank you, Alex,thank you. Thank you. Bye.
As always, thank you for tuningin to this episode of The SCORR

(01:01:57):
cast, brought to you by SCORRmarketing. We appreciate your
time and hope you found thisdiscussion insightful. Don't
forget to subscribe and join usfor our next episode. Until

(01:02:17):
then, remember, marketing issupposed to be fun.