OWI labs

Merger & Acquisition

The deal closed. The integration has not.

Most mergers succeed financially and fail operationally. OWI models how each organization actually operates, workflows, dependencies, and operating norms, and shows leadership where the two are compatible and where they will conflict.

The problem.

Eight months after close, the org chart shows one company. Operations show two, duplicate processes, competing management layers, separate systems, and synergies that exist on a spreadsheet and nowhere else.

Integration is not a strategy. It is the execution that makes the strategy real. And it is usually designed from org charts and assumptions, because no one has a reliable model of how either organization works at the workflow level.

What OWI does.

OWI models how each entity actually operates, not its org chart, but its real workflows, system dependencies, and cultural operating norms. We map where the two are compatible, where they conflict, and where the highest-value synergies actually live, so integration follows operational reality instead of a deal thesis.

Who it's for.

Companies 3 to 18 months into a merger or acquisition that have completed the legal and financial integration but have not yet achieved operational unity.

What the model captures.

People

  • Role overlap, redundancy, and decision-making authority across both entities
  • Informal influence networks and key-person dependencies
  • Cultural operating norms that govern how each side actually works

    • Process

  • Equivalent processes performed differently across the two organizations
  • Integration points that will create friction
  • Workflows that depend on institutional knowledge not yet shared

    • Systems

  • Overlapping tools serving the same function
  • Integration gaps between platforms
  • Data ownership conflicts