🖤 Open Works #019 Building A Culture Integration Roadmap For Your Next Merger

Welcome to Open Works. Every edition we solve a ‘people and culture’ problem crowd-sourced from the Open Org Community of 380+ Startup and Scale-up People Leaders.

💭 This Week’s People Problem

🖤 Our Take on How You Solve It

🏃 TL;DR

Successfully integrating two companies after a merger/acquisition comes down to five key steps:

1️⃣ Define what success looks like.
2️⃣ Map your Target Operating Model (TOM).
3️⃣ Run a thorough assessment.
4️⃣ Gap analysis of where you are vs. the TOM.
5️⃣ Create a practical, phased integration roadmap.

Let’s break it down. 👇

🚀 Step 1: Define What Success Looks Like

Before you dive into the weeds, get crystal clear on the big picture:

• What value are you buying? What’s core to this acquisition—talent, technology, customers, IP?

• What must you retain to protect that value? Are you acquiring a high-performing culture, a great product team, or a specific market position?

🎯 Your goal: Align leadership on these priorities before proceeding.

🌟 Step 2: Map Your Target Operating Model (TOM)

I always find the phrase “Target Operating Model” a bit corporate but i’ve not got a better one so hopefully you’ll forgive me or enlighten me on a better one! 😅.

Plain speak:

💡 Imagine the future state of the combined company. What does success look like at a cultural, strategic, and operational level?

This includes:

• Culture: What key drivers or values must be preserved?

• Operations: How will teams, systems, and processes work together?

• Leadership: What kind of alignment do you need at the top?

🌟 This is your TOM. It’s the north star for every decision you’ll make during integration.

🛠️ Step 3: Run a Holistic Assessment

Integration isn’t just about tech stacks or org charts. It’s about people, culture, and ways of working. This is where the Culture Compatibility Index comes in.

Assess alignment across:

1. 📍 Business Strategy

2. 🧬 Leadership and Behaviours

3. ⚙️ Operations and Product

4. 📣 Communication and Feedback

5. 🎯 Goal Setting and Collaboration

6. 💷 Compensation and Performance
   

   …and more.

💡 By scoring both companies on a 1-5 scale (no wrong answers, just how things are), you’ll pinpoint areas of alignment and potential conflict.

🔍 Step 4: Perform a Gap Analysis

Once you have your TOM and assessment results:

• Score each company’s distance from the ideal future state.

• Identify high-risk areas where significant intervention will be needed.

• Prioritise the gaps based on the value they impact most.

🛤️ Step 5: Create Your Integration Roadmap

Here’s where it all comes together. Your roadmap should:

• Focus on preserving the value you’re acquiring.

• Address high-risk gaps first.

• Be phased and realistic, allowing the team to adapt as you go.

💡 Pro Tip: Build milestones around communication touch-points—so teams understand not just what’s happening but why.

✅ Key Outcomes

By following this approach, you’ll:

• Align leadership on the vision for the combined company.

• Proactively identify cultural and operational risks before they de-rail progress.

• Build a roadmap that preserves value while addressing key gaps.

• Confidently navigate your first integration process.

📚️ Good reads relating to this problem…

📘 The Acquire Blog - good reads for founders on all things M&A [blog]

📘 Carta M&A Essentials [blog]

📘 Culture15 - Navigating Org Culture In Mergers & Acquisitions [guide]

🤓 Want to Share Your Spiciest “People Problem”?

We’re here for the spiciest challenges you’ve got. Hit reply to this email, and let us know what’s keeping you up at night, and we’ll feature next week anonymously!

🖤 John & Adam

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With 🧊 & 🔥 

John & Adam

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