Leading an Acquisition with Change Management During a Digital Shift

Our customer, a founder-led medical publishing company, was recently acquired by a US publishing group. They are now dealing with a shift from print to digital. Additionally, the rapid acquisition of five US companies has led to a tenfold increase in full-time employees (FTEs) over two years. This has brought significant challenges, including mixed legacy tech systems, high employee turnover, and new leadership teams on both sides of the pond. This is where Project One comes in.

After 18 months of deal negotiations with the US, the UK teams were left with a continued passion for their brand, but without direction or purpose, with a culture of low accountability and a sense of uncertainty about the future. The previously successful model in a Print world focused on quality outputs, but not customer data or feedback – whereas in the digital world data is everything. Without a shift in focus and a rapid reversal of the revenue trajectory, the business was at risk of failing altogether.

Definitive and urgent action was needed in the UK to create a shared set of goals and transform the culture – while at the same time developing an optimum design and integrating the UK business into the US group to drive efficiency. 

Over the first 3 months, we developed a vision and strategic goals working with the US and UK leadership, completed a current state assessment across every lens of the operating model, designed the Target Operating Model (TOM) and developed a business case and roadmap.

The lack of a US TOM and fragmented and fluid landscape in the US have presented challenges of course – but as usual the cultural and people aspects present the greatest risk to success. Behaviours and beliefs are deeply engrained in a business’s personality, and they take time, skill and tenacity to change. We started with leadership workshops focussed on aligning behind common strategic goals, developed these through team level contributions into individual performance management objectives. We built operational governance to manage the delivery and keep the organisational focus. We ran listening sessions with all teams and heard what the had to say – using this as a template for leadership priorities over the coming months.

In parallel, we’re now delivering the first stages of the transformation including introducing new capabilities, software migrations and process redesign – plus a series of ‘test and learn’ activities to find ways to boost the revenue and profits. 

Our involvement over the first 6 months has played a crucial role in providing clarity of vision, direction and purpose to our customer. We’ve made significant progress in shifting the culture to one of accountability and customer centricity – while at the same time driving practical steps on the transformational change roadmap. This may be the start of the journey – but there’s now a clear destination and road ahead for everyone.

Unlock the full potential of your business with our expert insights. Contact us today to discover how we can help you achieve your goals.

theteam@projectone.com