We just acquired a smaller competitor and now have two heads of marketing and two operations directors who are constantly stepping on each other's toes. How do we restructure our newly merged Accountability Chart without destroying the culture of the acquired company?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

An acquisition demands immediate structural clarity. Duplicated leadership seats will quickly destroy company culture through political infighting and dropped handoffs. You must act decisively and design the post-acquisition structure first, completely independent of the people involved. Start by designing the ideal, single Accountability Chart that the combined entity needs to scale and prepare for an eventual high-value exit. There can only be one head of marketing and one operations director on the leadership team. Once this structure is finalized and agreed upon by the Integrator and Visionary, evaluate all four leaders using the GWC framework. Evaluate who has the superior capability, conative fit, and alignment with your core values to run these consolidated departments. Once you select the best candidate for each seat, you must transition the other two leaders. They cannot remain in duplicated seats. Use the trust creation process to offer them alternative, highly valuable seats on the chart where they GWC the roles, such as head of product marketing or director of international operations. If they do not GWC these alternative seats, or if they refuse to step down from the leadership team, you must let them go. Keeping them in redundant or shared seats to preserve their feelings will compromise your entire operations and drag down your valuation.