The Merger Dividend

by Ron Ashkenas, Suzanne Francis and Rick Heinick

From the Magazine (July–August 2011)

Summary.

Mergers and acquisitions are high-stakes moves, and most executives are acutely aware of the potential downsides of a failed integration. But companies routinely overlook one key opportunity embedded in the integration process: the chance to develop both the current and the next generation of leaders.

A version of this article appeared in the July–August 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Ron Ashkenas is a coauthor of the Harvard Business Review Leader’s Handbook (Harvard Business Review Press, 2018) and a partner emeritus at Schaffer Consulting. His previous books include The Boundaryless Organization (Jossey-Bass, 2025), The GE Work-Out (McGraw Hill, 2002), and Simply Effective: How to Cut Through Complexity in Your Organization and Get Things Done (Harvard Business Review Press, 2009).

Suzanne Francis are senior partners at Schaffer Consulting, based in Stamford, Connecticut. Ashkenas is the author of Simply Effective: How to Cut Through Complexity in Your Organization and Get Things Done (Harvard Business Review Press, 2010). He and Francis are the coauthors of two previous HBR articles on acquisition integration.

Rick Heinick is the corporate vice president of global human resources and transformation at Bausch + Lomb and a former senior partner at Schaffer Consulting.

Read more on Mergers and acquisitions or related topics Leadership, Strategic planning, Developing employees and Talent management

The Merger Dividend

Summary.

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