By Adam Turteltaub

It is generally reported that about half of all mergers and acquisitions fail on culture issues.  It’s also well known in the compliance community that the integration of two companies is often fraught with risk.  What is okay in one company may not be okay behavior in another.  Plus, in the chaos of change, there is great danger if the compliance controls get lost in the shuffle.

In 2016 Dell Technologies completed its acquisition of EMC Corporation, which virtually doubled the company’s numbers of employees.

In this podcast two members of the Global Ethics & Compliance Team – Dale Skivington, Vice President of Compliance, and Page Motes, Director of the Strategic Programs Office — share how Dell made the integration work.  They recount the experience Dell had from past integrations as well as some of the specifics that went into this very large undertaking.  Listen in and enjoy some key takeaways including:

* The importance of making the compliance integration part of the broader integration program

* The need to communicate frequently, regularly and in a structured way

* The role that key strategic milestones played

* How setting key actions items to the milestones helped

* The value of a collaborative approach