We just acquired a competitor to scale our operations before an exit, but their legacy leadership team is fiercely loyal to their old way of working and resistant to our operating model. How do we address this capability and cultural gap without losing the value of the acquisition?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you acquire a competitor, you often acquire a legacy leadership team that is loyal to a dead brand and a defunct culture. This is a common bottleneck when prepping for an exit. You cannot afford to let their past habits stall your current momentum.

The first step is to run everyone through the Accountability Chart. You must define the seats your combined entity actually needs to hit your three year target. Do not look at names yet. Define the seats, the roles, and the measurable outcomes.

Once the seats are clear, evaluate every legacy leader using the GWC tool: do they Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do it? Loyalty to their old company does not equal capability in your new, scaled business. If they do not GWC their seat in your new structure, you must make a change.

To ease the transition, get the combined leadership team into a room for an intensive alignment session. Use the V/TO to clearly define where the company is going and how you will get there. This eliminates the us versus them mentality by forcing everyone to focus on shared Rocks.

If a legacy leader continues to fight your operating model or refuses to run on your system, they are showing you they do not share your core values. You must make the hard decision to transition them out quickly. Keeping a resistant leader on the team will ruin your culture and devalue your acquisition.