Culture Doesn’t Kill M&A Deals. Leadership Gaps Do
Highlights: M&A problems are often not culture problems — they are leadership problems. After a deal, founders and management may be unclear about their new roles, authority and reporting lines. These things should be agreed before the LOI/deal, not figured out after closing. Good leadership planning protects deal value just as much as valuation, synergies and financial due diligence. When an M&A integration does not work, the first explanation is often: “There was a culture mismatch.” It is an easy explanation. But in our experience working on M&A transactions in IT services and enterprise software, culture is often not the
