Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are when one company buys another company, taking full ownership, or when two or more businesses merge to form one big business. You often see this with banks or construction companies.

M&As are a big change, meaning they require change management and change communication. The problem is that often the people leading the M&A work are so busy with the legalities, due diligence, and finances, they forget about the massive change and communication effort required to help the transition go smoothly. Plus if they do remember, it’s likely going to be at the last minute, which means everything is rushed, and it’s really challenging to produce quality work that will see you through the entire change.

Which is why we’ve stepped out the role that comms has in an M&A, alongside how you can get ready for it.

Get prepared

• Take the brief: Find out as much information as possible—bearing in mind there will likely be quite a few gaps. You might not have exact timing yet or details of what the merger or buy-out will look like, but you can gather information that will help you develop your positioning. What’s the ‘why’ behind this M&A? What are the business reasons and why are they important?

• Map the stakeholders: Identify everyone who could be impacted in any way by this merger or acquisition, or have an interest in it. Think team leaders, the Board, C-suite, employees, customers, shareholders, media, regulators, community, suppliers, consultants, public, and so on.

• FAQs: Highlight where the gaps in information are. Draft high-level FAQs that apply to everyone and then break those down by stakeholder group.

• Develop a leak strategy: Plan for what you will do if word of the impending M&A gets out to the media.

• Document potential risks: Identify and document likely reputational issues from the communications perspective. Ensure the sponsor and project team are aware of them and endorse the mitigations you suggest.
  

  Start planning

• Develop key messages: Based on your brief and FAQs, map out your key messages. Remember, it’s about the audience, not the business. Write from the audience’s perspective and think about what’s important to them.

• Create a strategy: Your strategy is your approach—how you’ll communicate this change. Your plan is the what—the tactics or activities. Use a three-phase approach—awareness, launch, and embed.

• Prepare for scenarios: Consider if the business is publicly listed as certain protocols need to be followed in terms of announcements to the stock exchange and regulators.
  

  Get communicating

• Roll out your plan: Execute your tactical plan, line by line.

• Listen and measure: Keep an ear to the ground and listen to what stakeholders are saying. Include two-way communication channels and feedback loops in your communications, and have other measurement options like monitoring media and social media.

• Adapt: Be prepared to alter your communications in response to feedback and changing circumstances.
  

  Be in for the long haul

• Regular updates: Keep people regularly updated and control the narrative.

• Manage the transition: Communicate about changes in structure, leadership, ways of working, branding, etc.

• Culture integration: Work on merging two cultures. This involves leadership defining the desired culture and role-modelling it before communicating in a way that supports the new culture.

• Facilitate engagement: Bring people together in positive ways, such as sharing stories, and organising events like morning teas.
  

Poor communication during M&As can have disastrous effects on engagement, customer retention, and even share value. Which is why it’s crucial to have a solid communications strategy in place; plus effective communication is the cornerstone of every successful M&A.

Need a template?

We’ve just launched our new template packs! These packs are filled with useful, easy-to-edit templates that can help get your business comms-ready in no time. Check them out here.