Overview

An important aspect of a change management strategy is to consider how different alternatives may impact future outcomes. Organizations often use the business case method to explore strategic alternatives as it helps simulate a real situation. Such simulations help with identifying business issues and provide critical information that organizations can then use to arrive at their own conclusions.

The VP of business development has asked you to analyze other organizations that have gone through the exit process. Doing so will help you identify common risks, challenges, and best practices related to mergers and acquisitions and apply this knowledge to guide the change management strategy of the life sciences organization. For example, if two merging organizations have extremely different communication styles or organizational cultures, it may often lead to conflict between the management and the employees. The same is true when one organization is acquiring another organization. Therefore, it is important that you identify all potential risks and challenges and include the best practices to avoid similar conflicts in your organization after it has been acquired.

You have decided to research a business case that may help you learn from the experiences of another organization.

The focus of your analysis should be on change management and the associated best practices that impacted the transformation of the organization in the case.

Prompt

Review the case study Bumpy Road Ahead: The Automotive Interiors Merger That Wasn’t. Next, consider the following steps to complete your analysis of the automotive case and apply your findings from the case analysis to your work in the life sciences organization in the course scenario.

Specifically, you must address the following criteria:

Case Study Review

1. Provide a brief overview of the two organizations in the case study that addresses the following:
   1. Identify common characteristics of each organization.
   2. Explain how the products and services of the two organizations differ.
2. Describe the key issues that affected the merger plan and its implementation.
   1. What were the key issues related to organizational cultures and structural integration that created problems after the merger of the two organizations? Support your response with information from the case.
3. Evaluate the postmerger integration and change management strategies used in the case. Your response should address the following:
   1. How did the key decision makers respond to the challenges with the postmerger integration?
   2. What led to the challenges faced by the organization after the merger?
   3. Could these challenges have been prevented using different change management strategies? Explain.

Recommendations

1. Based on your findings from the case study, describe specific areas that may lead to post-acquisition risks and challenges for the life sciences organization in the course scenario. Support your response.
2. Recommend change management best practices the life sciences organization can use for managing post-acquisition integration in a planned manner and avoid the risks and challenges you’ve identified above.

Guidelines for Submission

Submit a 4- to 5-page Word document using double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style.