Completion feels like the finish line. For the buyer, it is where the real work begins.
The months after an acquisition decide whether the price paid was a good one. The plan that justified the deal has to be turned into decisions, and the people who will carry it out are, for a while, uncertain about their future. What happens in the first hundred days sets the tone for everything after.
The first priority is the people. Staff want to know whether their jobs, roles and managers are changing. Customers want to know whether service will continue. Suppliers want to know whether they will be paid on the same terms. Clear, early, honest answers prevent the quiet losses that follow when good people and good customers assume the worst.
The second is keeping the business running. Integration plans can distract everyone from the day-to-day work that produces the revenue. A sensible approach protects the core of the business first and changes it in stages, rather than all at once.
The third is acting on the plan. Any savings, price changes or new opportunities that formed part of the case for the deal should have owners, dates and measures from the first week. Plans that are left until things settle down tend to stay as plans.
Retaining the right people often decides the outcome. The founder or key managers may hold relationships and knowledge the buyer cannot replace. If they are needed, their role and incentives should be settled before completion, not negotiated afterwards.
A buyer that arrives with a clear hundred-day plan, communicates early and changes only what needs changing usually keeps the value it paid for. One that improvises often finds it has bought less than it thought.