Resistance to change: why synergies remain on paper
The synergies of a deal are calculated on a spreadsheet: so many millions here, so many savings there. Then comes the time to deliver them, and that spreadsheet meets hundreds of people who are expected to change the way they work every day.
How many of those synergies survive the impact of organisational reality?
Synergies live in execution.
A synergy, as long as it stays on a slide, is a promise. It becomes value only when someone actually changes a process, adopts a new system, or integrates a way of working different from their own. Each of those steps depends on people, and when faced with a change they did not choose, people can either make it their own or quietly let it slip away without saying so. This is why deals that look flawless on paper produce disappointing results months later: the plan was there, but the commitment of those who were meant to deliver it was missing.
The silent wall.
Resistance to change rarely takes the form of open opposition. It is made up of everyday signals that go unnoticed:
meetings that never reach a decision;
projects that slip week after week;
an "we have always done it this way" that slows everything down without anyone saying it out loud.
And it is more widespread than many think: McKinsey research shows that around 70% of transformations fail to achieve their objectives, with a lack of organisational engagement and commitment among the main causes (McKinsey, Perspectives on transformation). In an integration, this invisible wall is what stands between the synergies promised and the synergies actually captured.
Commitment or rejection: the first months decide.
In the weeks after signing, the organisation observes and decides: it watches whether the new direction values it or is simply imposed on it, whether those leading explain and listen or dictate, whether the first signals are consistent with the promises made. From that reading comes commitment or rejection, and once the attitude has taken shape it becomes difficult to reverse.
Several of the levers we have already discussed weigh heavily here: culture, because unmanaged cultural distance feeds mistrust; leadership, because it is the leaders who set the tone and determine whether people feel supported or left on their own; and the key people, because when those who hold things together do not buy in, the rest of the organisation follows.
Measure readiness before counting synergies.
Knowing how ready an organisation is to change, before betting on synergies, is what separates a credible plan from an optimistic one. Readiness for change is a leading indicator: even before value is created or lost, it shows how realistic the plan underlying the deal really is. For an acquirer or an investor, it is data worth as much as a cash-flow projection, because it reveals whether the synergies in the business case truly have the legs to hold.
A principle that goes beyond the deal.
An acquisition is only one of the occasions on which this happens. The same dynamic, a solid plan that stalls because people do not make it their own, repeats every time an organisation faces a major change: the introduction of artificial intelligence, a reorganisation, a new system to adopt, a new market to enter. In all these cases the underlying question stays the same: is the organisation ready to follow, or will we find out halfway through?
This is the perspective through which ASAP Italia addresses the human factor in extraordinary transactions, within the wider picture of the article When ownership changes.
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