Post-acquisition integration is when you find out whether you have bought a business ...or a collection of weaknesses.
In an SME, there is little room for error: there is little managerial redundancy, a strong dependence on a few key people, often empirical systems, and deeply embodied customer relationships.
This is precisely why integration is not a transformation project.
It is an exercise in strategic surgery: intervening quickly, without bleeding, and without killing what made the target valuable.
The first error is conceptual.
Acquisition is a legal and financial act.
Integration is an industrial, human, and operational act.
Many executives reason as if value creation will automatically follow after closing.
In reality, the more improvised the integration, the more value evaporates. And it always evaporates in the same place:
Integration is not an incidental part of the deal.
It is the deal.
During integration, business continues as usual.
Customers continue to make demands. Teams continue to produce. Cash flow continues to tighten.
This is where the obsession with synergies becomes dangerous.
In the first 30 days, the priority is not to optimize, but to secure:
The keyword is not "convergence."
The keyword is continuity.
An SME does not have a declarative culture, it has a lived culture: who decides, at what speed, with what level of control, what room for initiative.
When the buyer arrives with their processes, reports, and "group standards," they believe they are professionalizing the company.
In reality, they may be numbing it.
The real danger is not open conflict, but silent demobilization: the best employees step back and look elsewhere.
At that point, integration becomes a race against time that you yourself have triggered.
In an SME, value is based on a critical triangle:
Serious integration governance starts here.
If you don't know exactly:
One of the most fundamental—and most uncomfortable—decisions is this: what do we include, and when?
Integration is not a dogma, it is a trade-off.
Certain building blocks must converge quickly: cash, reporting, delegation rules, compliance, IT security.
Others must remain stable temporarily to maintain traction: sales organization, CRM, brand, and HR practices in the field.
Order matters.
Integrating field-related issues too early breaks the momentum.
A roadmap is not a list of actions.
It is a sequence of intentions.
0–30 days: protect
Establish short-term governance, speak truthfully, meet with key customers, lock in critical talent, secure cash flow, and identify a few visible quick wins.
30–60 days: decide
Decide on key issues: target governance, priority systems, decision-making rules. Few projects, but well managed. Each synergy must have an owner, a metric, and a cost.
60–100 days: accelerate
Activate synergies that truly create value—often commercial, often underutilized.
By day 100, three criteria must be met: the business is stable or growing, key talent is in place, and synergies are producing results.
Post-acquisition integration is neither intuitive nor natural.
It is an exercise in strategic discipline, operational restraint, and human lucidity.
In an SME, sophistication is the enemy of speed.
Speed is the friend of trust.
And trust is the most valuable asset after a deal.
It is selective, sequenced, and rigorously governed.
The rest is storytelling.
And in post-acquisition, storytelling never creates value.
The Alvora Partners team
Ship the deal, not the deck
NextGen merchant banks