McChrystal Group supported an advertising technology firm through a complex merger by improving communications and empowering team members at every level.
Why this industry/problem set is relevant in the world today:
Acquisitions and mergers are a difficult time for any company—as structures, processes, and cultures need to be combined and optimized. During this time of uncertainty, it is easy to lose clients, as well as high-performing team members. McChrystal Group’s approach, which emphasizes the importance of collaboration, communication and empowerment, can ease this difficult transition and set-up companies for continued success in their new form.
Challenges
Marketing technology firm, InMarket, is the leader in 360 consumer intelligence and real-time advertising experiences at scale. After a decade of sustained growth, InMarket acquired another company in August 2019, nearly doubling its size. This workforce expansion brought together two company cultures across four locations in the US. As the company expanded rapidly and teams became more geographically dispersed, information gaps emerged.
Need for Empowered Execution
As the company increased in scale, InMarket’s leadership realized they couldn’t maintain their historic level of visibility and involvement in project decisions. Leadership needed to inform and empower team members that were closest to clients and who were better suited to make real-time decisions.
Alignment & Information Gaps
There was a gap in communication between critical internal teams. Functionally dispersed teams exacerbated these communication and alignment gaps. This resulted in slower decision-making.
Top-down, Information Sharing
With the existing, all-company information sharing forum, InMarket’s communications style was straight from the top. Senior leaders shared information to employees and there was no opportunity for frontline team members to share updates, and showcase cross-departmental efforts and success stories.
Solutions
McChrystal Group partnered with InMarket to help them realize their “One Team, One Dream” commitment.
First, we redeveloped their company-wide ‘Pulse’ meetings, transforming them into a space that would fill in information gaps and evolve their newly combined culture. They called this “Pulse 2.0”.
- We collected feedback from across the business. McChrystal Group conducted workshops with key stakeholders through all of InMarket’s geographically dispersed teams to understand what information gaps hindered performance, and create understanding and buy-in of the goals of Pulse 2.0.
- We provided training to leaders. McChrystal Group coached InMarket leaders on the critical behaviors needed to facilitate more productive meetings and drive empowerment.
The newly refined Pulse 2.0 enabled cross-department communications and the sharing of situational context to drive better decision-making at the local level.
We also joined the entire InMarket team at their yearly offsite retreat in support of their ongoing efforts to break down communications silos and build up information sharing between departments.
- We conducted a simulation to help leaders recognize the siloes that existed between InMarket departments. McChrystal Group placed 120+ InMarket team members into a role-playing simulation, which grouped InMarket employees into different teams, showcasing the challenges of tribal affiliation and siloed communication.
- We facilitated an all-company reflection on behaviors needed to create the desired culture within InMarket. Employees also took part in a ‘Stop, Start, Continue’ exercise that spotlighted the behaviors and processes InMarket employees felt enhanced or hindered company progress.
Impact
The team had more time.
McChrystal Group and InMarket’s partnership gave back each employee 52 hours of previously scheduled meeting time. By redefining the purpose of their all-company meeting and fine-tuning the frequency that each team needed to meet, InMarket shifted from two company-wide informational meetings per week to one every other week. This resulted in the elimination of redundant meetings and an increase in employee time and productivity.
The team was empowered to drive revenue growth.
InMarket reports that since McChrystal Group’s engagement, the firm has doubled its revenue and achieved the best quarter ever in company history. While only a minority of merger and acquisition deals prove successful in the technology space, InMarket proved the anomaly—retaining its entire client base throughout the transition, increasing its profits, and increasing employee NPS scores and satisfaction.
The team coordinated the successful launch of a new product.
InMarket witnessed impact through the launch of new product offerings. Thanks to increased interconnectivity and easier identification of key stakeholders, the right teams were able to connect at the right time, ensuring product success in the market.
