Preserving brand reputation during integration

What the worst thing you can do after M&A as a product leader? After 3 in a row, Sowmya Sundararagavan's got a playbook to make M&A fuel growth and not derail product. 👇 Sowmya Sundararagavan, Head of Product for ITAM at Freshworks, joined us on LaunchPod this week to discuss leading multiple product teams post-acquisition. She’s seen what works and what doesn’t. Main lessons below, or check out the whole conversation: 👇 📽️YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ekugjjh2 🎧Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eri2NPtx 🎧Apple: https://lnkd.in/euV-EW2f -- 🙈Worst Thing You Can Do: Forget the Customer Many product leaders make the mistake of optimizing for internal stakeholders—engineering teams, leadership, and operational efficiencies—rather than focusing on customer value. ❌ Instead of asking, “How do we integrate this efficiently?” ✅Start with, “How do we preserve and enhance the experience for existing customers?” Failing to prioritize customers leads to churn, product dilution, and loss of competitive edge. -- 📋 Sowmya’s Post-Acquisition Integration Checklist ☑ Thorough Due Diligence – Understand the acquired company’s customers, product positioning, and key partners to prevent blind spots. ☑ Clear Communication Strategy – Keep both internal teams and customers informed with a structured messaging plan. ☑ Integration Planning – Align the acquired product, team, and culture with the broader organization while maintaining brand consistency. ☑ Monitor Product Performance – Set up key metrics to ensure the transition doesn’t negatively impact customer experience. ☑ Regulatory & Compliance Readiness – Address legal, security, and privacy concerns before making changes. ☑ Product Roadmap Alignment – Merge product visions strategically to create a roadmap that adds value to both companies. ☑ Platform & Technical Considerations – Assess infrastructure compatibility, technical debt, and long-term scalability. -- 🌉 Bridge the Gap Between Old & New Teams Acquisitions often create culture clashes between teams from different companies, leading to friction, uncertainty, and misalignment. Sowmya’s approach? Create shared goals early. 🛠 Hold integration workshops where teams can collaborate on a unified roadmap rather than working in silos. 🤝 Encourage cross-team mentorship so employees from both sides build relationships and knowledge-sharing happens naturally. 🔥 Showcase customer impact and demonstrate how the integration benefits end users to get both teams aligned on a shared mission. -- How Product Leaders Get Acquisitions Right M&A success isn’t just integration. It’s about delivering value to customers while ensuring teams are aligned on a shared future. If you’re a product leader navigating an acquisition, what’s been your biggest challenge? Drop your thoughts below. 👇 Entire episode for more detail: 📽️YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ekugjjh2 🎧Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eri2NPtx 🎧Apple: https://lnkd.in/euV-EW2f

This past week I had multiple conversations regarding the effort to build a successful brand and how quickly its' credibility can be lost. This can be especially true when a brand is acquired by another company, new leadership takes over and they don't demonstrate a level of intellectual curiosity to understand the brand. So, here are some suggestions to maximize the value of the acquired brand: 1. Understand the Brand: Dive deep into the acquired brand's history, values, and market position to lay a solid foundation for strategic decisions. 2. Respect Identity: Honor the acquired brand's identity and heritage to maintain trust and loyalty among existing customers. 3. Maintain Consistency: Ensure consistency in branding, messaging, and customer experience to minimize disruption and preserve brand equity. 4. Capitalize on Synergies: Identify opportunities for collaboration and resource-sharing to create added value and drive growth. 5. Invest in Marketing and Innovation: Allocate resources to promote the acquired brand and invest in innovation to stay competitive in the market. 6. Retain Key Talent: Recognize and retain talent critical to the success of the acquired brand to maintain continuity and expertise. 7. Foster Integration and Collaboration: Encourage collaboration between teams from both companies to facilitate a smooth integration process and align goals. 8. Monitor Performance and Adapt: Continuously monitor performance and be prepared to adapt strategies based on feedback and market dynamics. Successfully integrating an acquired brand requires careful planning, collaboration, and a commitment to preserving what makes the brand unique. Excited to see how these approaches drive growth and innovation! Reach out to learn more. #Acquisitions #BrandIntegration #BusinessStrategy #intellectualcuriosity

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹-𝘁𝗼𝗼-𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿 𝗠&𝗔 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀! In M&A, synergies have become synonymous with deal success. The classic waterfall in the deal thesis lays out cost reductions, revenue enhancement and other value drivers in a sequence. But while all eyes are on delivering the promised synergies, the often overlooked element is "preserving value". Often times in post-merger integration scenarios, value destruction can happen just as easily as value creation. This is particularly true when: - Key employees are pulled away from their day-to-day roles to support integration activities - Customer service levels drop due to changes in systems or processes - Operational disruptions occur due to poorly executed technology migrations The focus on synergies without equal attention to preserving core business performance can result in a net loss of value, even if the synergy targets are technically met. This challenge becomes even more complicated in global matrixed organizations with dispersed stakeholder groups, where competing priorities, cultural differences, and misaligned objectives can severely impact the ability to preserve value while pursuing synergies. 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 Here's how I helped a client with developing a governance structure that incorporates both BAU operations and integration efforts. - Ensure the organization distinguishes between those driving integration initiatives and those responsible for BAU operations. Create well-defined roles and ensure accountability is established at all levels. Develop a RACI matrix to avoid confusion and communicate expectations to each stakeholder group. - Establish dual reporting structures and allow functional leaders to have a voice in integration planning while maintaining focus on ongoing operations. - Integration SteerCos should include BAU leaders to maintain alignment and allow for input on integration decisions that may impact ongoing operations. - Implement guardrails for integration efforts by defining which areas are "off limits" to integration initiatives to preserve value (eg: critical customer facing processes). - Set up an escalation framework to ensure issues affecting BAU can be elevated quickly and resolved effectively before they cause disruption. Ultimately the synergy waterfall maybe a prized trophy, but preserving value is the foundation upon which that trophy must be built. Without it, M&A efforts risk crumbling under their own weight. What are your thoughts? Have you seen BAU operations neglected during integrations? #MandA #integration #governance #synergies #leadership Image credit: Midaxo