Treat the relationship between the acquiring and target CEOs as essential infrastructure. Investing in this trust early allows you to move faster during diligence and have difficult conversations without derailing the process, as process moves slower than trust.

Instead of arriving with a rigid 100-day plan, CPC advises using the initial post-acquisition period to build trust. The management team is exhausted from the sale process. Forcing immediate, top-down changes is a mistake; the priority should be establishing vulnerability and mutual understanding for long-term success.

Contrary to standard M&A practice where integration begins post-close, Brad Jacobs makes immediate, unrestricted access to a target company's employees and operations a non-negotiable term upon signing. This allows his team to begin the integration process weeks or months earlier.

Instead of secrecy, Chris Huckabee openly communicated M&A plans to all employees, even letting potential PE partners tour the office. This unorthodox transparency built trust and prevented the fear that plagues acquisition processes, ensuring everyone felt part of the journey.

Advocate for a month-long period between signing and closing. This window allows you to ask detailed questions and plan openly with the target team without confidentiality barriers, transforming a potential shock into a collaborative process and setting the integration up for success.

Closing a deal quickly without a well-defined integration plan creates "integration debt." This debt must be paid later through more time-consuming and frustrating efforts to fix post-close issues, ultimately eroding deal value and morale.

Instead of a surprise announcement, new owner Liz Wilcox was hired as SPI's "Director of Community" six months prior. This allowed her to build trust and demonstrate competence by doubling community size before the sale was revealed, ensuring a smooth transition and preempting backlash.

Beyond cultural fit, the key to Cisco's successful Splunk acquisition was pre-existing trust between leaders who had worked together before. This allowed them to bypass the typical trust-building phase, accelerating integration and alignment on a common mission from day one.

During a chaotic company merger, having leaders with a pre-existing, strong working relationship is a critical advantage. This trust allows them to align their teams quickly and confidently execute on aggressive timelines, even amidst organizational upheaval and uncertainty.