Need help developing your playbook or planning your integration?
Our advisors bring deep experience from 100+ M&A integrations.
By Joe Aberger
Day 1 has four objectives and they don't change regardless of deal size or complexity: close the deal, make a good first impression, communicate with key stakeholders, and begin to align the organization. Everything in the deliverables package exists to serve one of those four goals. Nothing gets produced because it seems like a good idea — every piece of collateral has a defined audience, a defined spokesperson, and a defined purpose.
The core Day 1 deliverables run across six guides and two scheduling tools. The Employee Guide goes to all managers and employees at both the acquirer and acquired company. The Facility Guide goes to all plant and facility managers for use with local audiences. The Customer Guide goes to Sales and Marketing for use in customer-facing conversations. The Supplier Guide goes to supplier-facing teams for use in vendor engagement. The Welcome Week Guide goes to welcome week teams for use during the first week of onboarding events. A Master Day 1 Timeline distributes to all functions. An executive Welcome Week schedule coordinates senior leader site visits.
The collateral package supplements the guides. A Day 1 video message from leadership delivers the welcome directly and personally. A Day 1 newsletter combines a leader letter, organizational news, FAQs, and other relevant content in a single readable format. A leader "stump speech" gives every senior leader and welcome week team member a consistent narrative for face-to-face engagement with acquired company employees. Signage templates, safety materials, and an intranet resource guide round out the package. Day 1 messaging is designed around three dimensions that employees need addressed simultaneously: functional information about what is happening and what it means for their role, transactional clarity about how to get things done on Day 1, and cultural context about who this company is and whether it's a place they want to build a career.