The Relationship Between M&A and GBS

Bringing two (or more) companies together is always going to be a huge undertaking, but GBS arguably has the upper hand, having already gone through the process of standardizing, centralizing and improving processes during its inception.

During SSOW Europe Digital this past June, Staci van Schagen, Head of M&A Integration and Disentanglement for Philips, joined the online conference to share lessons she learned from past integrations.

Post-merger integration

Staci is a post-merger integration (PMI) leader at Philips. She has a lot of experience in both PMI and GBS, and believes that the two practices have a lot in common, such as the need for dedicated resources, efficient operations, and change management.

Staci discussed the key focus areas for PMI, which include value creation, realization of synergies, business operating model, and IT integration. She believes that GBS can play a significant role in each of these areas.

For example, in value creation, GBS can help to identify and realize synergies through process harmonization and economies of scale. Meanwhile, in the area of business operating model, GBS can help to integrate the two companies' operations into a single, efficient organization.

Staci also discussed the importance of communication and transparency in PMI. She believes that it is essential to communicate the goals of PMI to all stakeholders and to keep them updated on the progress of the integration.

Deployment plan

During her session, Staci also provided a list of key steps GBS must complete amidst the integration process. Those include:

• Companies should have monthly pipeline reviews with the head of GBS to ensure that GBS is aware of what's coming.
• Have quarterly functional work stream alignment meetings.
  • Ensure that there is a GBS representative as part of due diligence.
• Ensure that the GBS onboarding process is initiated in a timely manner.
• Staci recommends that companies update their GBS playbooks, M&A playbooks, and functional playbooks to reflect where GBS needs to be included.

This is just a sample of the insights Staci shared during SSOW Europe Digital. If you want to hear more about Staci’s experience in M&A, watch the full video above.