This book should have been an short magazine article. The authors basically dissect one concept over and over and over: change is disruptive. There is very little useful information in this book. It points out all of the obvious and frequently-stated problems that come with change - productivity suffers, commitment is lost, etc., etc., etc., but gives no insight in how to fix the problems (unless you count these golden nuggets- "Keep your eye on the ball" and "Provide direction"). The one chapter that I hoped would shed some light on tactics - "Integration Project Management" - was pure fluff. It offered such pearls of wisdom as "It is helpful to look at the integration process as a logical sequence of steps designed to help bring the two organizations together." Not only is this a "Duh" statement, but it shows up in chapter 8! I would expect to read something like that in the introduction. And chapters 5 and 6 state that you should evaluate key talent in the aquired firm - but no where in these chapters does it tell you how to do it! I guess you have call up Pritchett & Associates (and fork over big $$) for the details. My only guess is that the authors kept the book generic on purpose so that companies would call and ask about their consulting services. My advice: save your money for a real book, and just call up Pritchett & Associates for their marketing literature.

As a project manager who picked up integrating a merger as one of his projects, I found this book to be very helpful. Mergers bring out confusion, tension and stress to all sides. This book focused on how to bridge these gaps through effective communication and project management.

Particularly, I found chapter 10 (General Guidelines for Merger/Acquisition Management) insightful and I used the checklists in this chapter in portions of our integration effort. What I felt this book missed were templates designed to immediately pick up and use in my everyday life.

I found the book is a quick read-I read it on one airplane trip. Many of the comments are very simple and fall into the category of common sense. However, in much of this common sense many of the problems of integrating two companies exist.

Despite the breathless headlines about the latest billion-dollar merger, most mergers don't work. In fact, more than half of all mergers fail, derailed by a common set of pitfalls. Companies merge without considering how they'll integrate after the deal; they don't communicate properly with their employees, and executives don't make decisions quickly enough to placate frightened workers. The executives who navigate mergers effectively are those who communicate well, deal with ambiguity and make decisions in times of instability. Author Price Pritchett offers an easily digested primer on the hazards of mergers, and lists hints for avoiding common problems. The authors provide plenty of concrete examples showing how such companies as Sony, Wells Fargo and the Chicago Sun-Times suffered from the dilemmas that accompany mergers. We ... recommend this comprehensive guide for managers on both sides of a business marriage. Caution: Read After the Merger before you merge.