The role of dedicated integration teams in the post-merger management of technology

Summary form only given. Mergers and acquisitions have the potential not only to produce cost rationalisations or `cost-cutting´ as common ways to increase shareholder value, they can also be used for growth opportunities and increased innovation. Since, technology management in M&A can be viewed at two levels, a high-level `satellite´ view where the focus is exploiting the technology commercially and a lower level `telescopic´ view where process adaptation and cross-business R&D knowledge sharing can be engaged, it is important to differentiate the two levels of technology present in multi-national organisations. This paper draws examples from the customer-orientated specialty chemical sector where the main innovation drivers are determined by customer requirements. This paper aims to address three areas: to describe widely used, existing integration philosophies that impact technology, managers at the functional level; to describe current issues in balancing day-to-day management activity versus integration specific activities, including identifying and releasing technological synergies; and to illustrate how dedicated integration teams can. improve the effectiveness of an acquisition by identifying and releasing elusive synergies that otherwise would be difficult to achieve using widely used, existing integration techniques, leaving line managers to conduct ongoing business activity at the functional level