How do you navigate change and create unity through a global acquisition?

Client: 

Texmo Blank

Timeline: 

9 Months

Align With Leaders

The Texmo Group and Feinguss Blank were two of the biggest precision castings companies in the world. And so when Texmo bought Feinguss in 2023, it created a new manufacturing giant, with 1,750 staff across five countries in three continents. 

We looked at analogous mergers – both successful and seemingly less-successful examples. We discovered that many consultancies have a similar playbook for how to bring two big companies together, but we felt they were all too narrow, focusing too much on short-term activity rather than long-term integration. 

So, working with the leadership group, we created our own four-stage framework – Anticipate, Influence, Inform and Involve – to guide the strategy and focus on how we wanted people to feel at each stage of the journey.

Become The People

One of the most interesting challenges was that this deal was extremely confidential, and only a very small number of senior people knew what was happening. That meant we couldn’t speak to employees and customers, as we usually would, to understand how they might view the changes. 

And so we had to think more creatively. We went deep into the Glassdoor reviews from employees who had gone through big acquisitions, to glean first-hand insights about what they liked and what they didn’t. 

With our in-house behavioural scientist, we also created a COM-B analysis, which used data and cultural insights to identify the barriers that might prevent new employees embracing the company’s new direction. 

All of this allowed us to create an holistic strategy which would present and position the merger in the most compelling way, built around the many values the two businesses already shared. 

Create New Solutions

To bring the strategy to life, we had to engage people on different levels, inspiring excitement and allaying fears. We worked hard to reflect the care and consideration that had informed the whole process in every new touch point. These included: 

• A messaging matrix and communication timeline to ensure consistency 
• A keynote presentation for the leaders to unveil the acquisition with maximum impact 
• Welcome packs, personal letters and notebooks translated into five languages 
• A new visual brand and verbal identity to mark the new chapter  
• New signage across all company sites to visualise and reinforce the new brand 
• A PR strategy to communicate the acquisition externally in a coherent way 
• A series of fun and engaging launch events across each of the five territories

Deliver Sustainable Change

As we identified from the start, acquisitions that succeed involve long-term thinking that goes way beyond the official announcements and launch events.

We created a set of deliverables that empowered the new teams to drive integration,  and create a genuine dialogue between employees and leadership in the weeks and months to come. These included: 

• New processes and documentation for sales and marketing to create aligned ways of working 
• Unified company values to centre the new company’s core beliefs 
• An ongoing employee comms strategy with a variety of feedback points, and spaces for leaders to show what they were changing based on employees’ input 
• A social media strategy and a toolkit of assets to shape public-facing comms in the right way

Contact Us

If you’re curious how we could collaborate, we’re ready to talk: [email protected]

Improve, all ways.

Services
Strengthen Your Foundations
Improve Your Processes
Enhance Your Brand
Develop Your People