NEWS AND PUBLICATIONS

News:
- Cambio International announces two new alliances with AcquisitionWorks, Inc. and GAID, the
Global Alliance for Inclusion and Diversity
- Cambio launches a study on the "Impact of Culture on Corporate Partnerships"

Publications:
- Corporate Partnerships: "Give Culture Diligence It's Due"
- "Rushing the Team Process Creates Cultural Clashes"
- "The Transcultural Organization"

News: Cambio International announces two new alliances with AcquisitionWorks, Inc. and GAID, the Global Alliance for Inclusion and Diversity

Cambio International has formed an alliance with AcquisitionWorks,Inc. a Boston-based company of merger and acquisition specialists dedicated to improving financial returns on the investments made in merged and acquired companies. (www.acquisitionworks.com)

To improve Cambio's worldwide reach, we joined the Global Alliance for Inclusion and Diversity (GAID) with consultants in England, the Netherlands, Germany and Malaysia. All alliance members share deep industry and consulting experience in change management, leadership development and workplace diversity. In addition, each member provides the global alliance network with world-wide support and local cultural and linguistic expertise.

News: Cambio Launches Study on Impact of Culture on Corporate Partnerships

Cambio launched a study in April '05 on the "Impact of Culture on Corporate Partnerships" (M&As, strategic alliances, and joint ventures) with a special focus on cross-border and global partnerships. Bronwyn Poole, an independent management and organization consultant from Chicago, is collaborating with Cambio on this project.

Interviews are being conducted with CEOs, CFOs, Legal Counsel, M&A and corporate development executives, integration team members, HR executives and consultants. The summarized results will be published and appear on the website in the fall of '05. If you have first hand experience with corporate partnerships and would like to contribute to this study, please contact Cynthia@cambiointernational.com.

Publication: "Mergers, Acquisitions, Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances ...
Give Culture Diligence It's Due"

Do corporate cross-cultural partnerships deliver what they promise? Typically not.

Reasons for success and failure are known in hindsight. Less than 30% fulfill strategy expectations. Partnerships are often based solely on product, technology, market and financial fit. Many fail due to human factors -- business culture, management style, work processes and behavioral differences not realized at the front end nor dealt with during the integration. Even partners from the same country experience culture clash and when partners span national and cultural borders, the clash can be deafening. The financial and human costs can drain the system for years.

What you don't know can hurt you. The chairman of a large global company recently said:

"The problem with cultural differences is that they don't lead to disagreements, they lead to misunderstanding. Disagreements are obvious immediately and can be dealt with. But you tend to discover misunderstandings when it is too late -- when each party has tackled an action plan in its own way."

A well-orchestrated culture due diligence process can identify and address the human factors before it is too late. Pre-partnership, it provides critical intelligence on partner choice and optimal levels of integration for success. Throughout the integration phases, culturally informed leaders are better prepared to bridge the cultural divides and accelerate implementation. Transition teams trained in culture due diligence techniques are able to identify risks, resolve misunderstandings, and eliminate related costs that can dilute the value of the match. Communications and leaders show understanding and have emotional legitimacy.

Through ongoing development, all employees become skilled at dealing with differences and change. They use their learning not just internally but also in their marketplace. They have the know-how and flexibility to create synergistic relationships across cultures and win-win partnerships. In turn, transition and relationship management skills become core competencies that add value for customers and shareholders.

Cambio International consultants can help you work with foresight instead of hindsight. We participate with "culture due diligence" at four key points:

1. Pre-partnership: by providing business culture audits, assessments and
comparative culture profiles;
2. Integration Strategy: by evaluating and planning how operational changes will
impact the organization and employees, and by providing facilitation for transitions;
3. Implementation: through developing culture, transition, relationship and leadership
skills with internal integration teams, and in
4. Ongoing Development: with "Performance and Transition Coaching/Training" so
that employees are prepared and effective in any environment and organization
learning is sustained.

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Publication: "Rushing the Team Process Creates Cultural Clashes"
by Donna Milmore (Interview with Cynthia Livingston)

The challanges of cross-cultural teamwork erupted two years ago in a clash among participants in a computer chip project which brought together IBM, Siemens AG of Germany, and Toshiba Corp. The three competing companies embarked on a revolutionary venture that ended as a case study for management consultants and team experts.

Despite incredible talent and experience, varying work habits impeded the joint research. While groups shared a common software culture, they differed dramatically in all the procedures and practices that surround a group project: conducting meetings, allocating work space, offering suggestions, making decisions, resolving conflict, and even socializing together.

>>Read complete article

Published in "The Aubin Review: Research and Reflections on Executive Leadership in a Global Marketplace"
April 2000

A Model For Diversity Led Change
Publication: "The Transcultural Organization"
by Cynthia Livingston and Joanne Zitek

Cross-border alliances. Mergers. Acquisitions. Employees that represent or are located in a variety of national cultures. These are typical business conditions in the profit and nonprofit world. Global businesses know that continious change, not stability, is the dominant influence in businesses today.

Working effectively with this change is another matter. How can corporations transform themselves into global organizations able to compete and collaborate in world markets and capitalize on their changing workforce? A transcultural organization model is imperative for culturally diverse and transnational organizations.

>>Read complete article

Published in Cultural Diversity at Work - Reprints July 1995 (Vol 7:3)

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