Managing corporate identity in post merger integration
Yvonne Kaiser
Master's Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,0 (A), University of Applied Sciences Ludwigshafen (IMC-MBA), language: English, abstract: When corporations are merging a tendency towards standardisation of organisations,processes and systems arises. Mergers of companies also lead to a concentrationof increasingly larger trusts and holdings. Still the corporation is supposed toremain unmistakable and unique in order to preserve its attractiveness for customers,employees, suppliers, investors, in short, for a network of stakeholders. Only corporateidentity (CI) has the efficiency range required to address and reach all these groupswhose needs have to be considered.This present work examines the concept of corporate identity, its application inthe corporate environment, and the opportunities for the targeted and strategic steeringunder the background of mergers and acquisitions. The goal is to develop a conceptand an approach how to start working on corporate identity and to set interventionsduring the postmerger process to support a successful integration.For the reasons of the different meanings and the different understanding ofthe terms 'Corporate Identity' and 'Mergers & Acquisitions' (M&A) the present work developsboth a structural model for the analysis of the individual components of corporateidentity and a phase model for the configuration of integration. Based on thisanalysis the contexts of effects between and the opportunities for influencing the individualdimensions of CI are proven within the scope of postmerger integration (PMI),and instruments for the targeted impact and steering are represented. The validity ofthe elaborated approach of CI management within the framework of PMI is examinedwithin the frame of two case studies of the two largest telecommunication companiespresently operating in Germany. Activities are deducted from the results of the secondaryanalysis and from the empirical studies and are summarised in terms of a CIorientedmodel of procedure for postmerger integration optimised for success.
