Work with your people to make the integration smoother

This month Smart Business is hosting its inaugural ASPIRE Conference in Cleveland — bringing together entrepreneurs, business owners, deal-makers, investors and advisers for a daylong conference to discuss issues in the M&A and business investment world.
Dealmaking is a huge part of business, and that’s why I wanted to put some focus on it here in Smart Business Columbus.
Several of our columnists shared their thoughts on the topic, and I specifically sought out companies with M&A experience for the feature and cover story. (For a little lighter reading, don’t miss the Uniquely Columbus on the Ohio Machine.)
Don’t forget the people
Rick Milenthal has done a lot of deals in his career, so he’s well experienced with integrating companies under one umbrella. That umbrella is currently a joint venture called The Shipyard.
He accepts that you’ll have conflict and issues during the integration.
“You just really need to deal with people in a forthright way, and with absolute clarity on what you feel the facts are, the situation is and the truth is,” Milenthal says. “When you do that, you can make it through a lot of challenges, you can make it through a lot tension.”
He also pays attention to the structure of the deal because that creates stresses in the future, if it’s not done right.
Milenthal has moved from focusing on financial aspects of a deal to equally looking at the qualitative pieces.
If you are just opportunistic and financially oriented, rather than making sure the people and cultures go together well, the results won’t be nearly as positive, he says.
Communication comes in many forms
The year since Glimcher Realty Trust and Washington Prime Group Inc. merged into WP Glimcher has been a busy one, as the company added new personnel and systems to run its real estate assets.
Michael Glimcher says it was hard but being good communicators has helped. Just like Milenthal, he and his team put a lot of time and energy in working with their people.

For example, Glimcher Realty Trust had a program, where every mall team — the manager, marketing person, operations person and leasing person — each has a mentor. They expanded that program in the new company, where it helped lighten the burden of the home office.