ABSTRACT
Integration is simply 'combining', and as such sounds innocuous, but its importance is critical and is usually ignored. Irrespective of whether the company is seeking organic growth by becoming more competitive, or is in a mergers-and-acquisition situation, culture is often a major problem. In the case of organic growth, the company has failed to develop its culture to match its global competitiveness ambitions, and does not have a culture in which people could contribute directly to its growth or to the achievement of its objectives. People are the least considered aspect of virtually all mergers, other than being seen as a means to cut costs. One of the major reasons why the cultural and people aspects are ignored or bungled is that they are not problems which are easily dealt with, and there is not a great deal of practical information mapping out a better route.
