Case Studies
Organizational Culture and Values Measurement, Development and Management
A major non-US insurance company was interested in acquiring one of three insurance companies but not yet prepared to go public regarding its interest or the targets of its interest. The acquiring party had completed its market research and had a clear understanding of the financial aspects of the target companies. As a matter of fact they had already identified which target was most attractive purely from the commercial and financial perspective.
We were asked to confidentially conduct a cultural audit to determine how the candidates’ cultures would interact with the acquiring company’s culture. Based upon ongoing work with our client company we had a comprehensive Cultural Assessment Data Base. Through analysis of public documents of the target candidates’ we were able to define their culture to the extent that we were able to raise questions where there were significant differences.
Ultimately the cultural assessment provided sufficient insight that our client company elected not to acquire the candidate that was most attractive from a financial and commercial basis. In retrospect our client has informed us that to acquire the original first option would have been “disastrous."