How to Score Culture Fit in M&A with Sharon Van Zeeland

Описание: 🔹 Sharon Van Zeeland, Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Rockwell Automation

Sharon brings a unique engineer's perspective to the softest parts of M&A. In this episode, Sharon reveals how Rockwell developed a systematic scoring system for evaluating culture fit during due diligence, complete with numerical rankings across key dimensions like decision-making authority, adaptability, and mission alignment.

💡 Things you will learn:
🔹 How to build a numerical scoring system for culture assessment
🔹 Marrying your diligence and integration leaders from day one
🔹 Creative negotiation tactics beyond price and terms
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💡 Episode Timestamps
[00:02:30] From Engineering to Corp Dev – How Sharon's electrical engineering background shaped her analytical approach to evaluating all deal variables.

[00:05:30] Owning the Full Lifecycle

[00:08:30] The Cultural Wake-Up Call

[00:12:00] How Rockwell uses a 50-item survey to create numerical rankings (0-5 scale) across cultural dimensions, then visualizes gaps and similarities in graphs that are "worth a thousand words."

[00:19:00] Why Rockwell developed separate playbooks for small, mid-size, and large acquisitions, and how they determine whether to leave companies alone, partially integrate, or fully absorb.

[00:27:00] Sharon's unconventional negotiation stories: securing hunting land rights for a Texas seller, letting an owner keep his beloved company truck, and guaranteeing 4th of July parade sponsorships.

[00:38:30] The shift from waiting until closing to starting integration planning before LOI, including how Rockwell pairs each integration leader with a corresponding person on the target side.

[00:46:00] Continuous Learning Through Retrospectives – How Rockwell conducts retrospectives after every deal phase—not immediately after closing, but six months to a year later when they can truly assess what worked.

[00:49:00] AI's Impact on M&A – Sharon's perspective on how AI is changing deal flow and diligence processes, plus a cautionary tale about AI hallucinations incorrectly identifying a public company as private.

[00:52:00] Data Beyond Financials – Why corp dev leaders should track employee retention rates, promotion rates, new product introduction velocity, and customer complaints as cultural success indicators.

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Kison's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kisonpatel
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M&A Science is the #1 podcast for M&A tips, techniques, and strategies for success. We bring you behind-the-scenes stories and proven techniques of real-life M&A deals.

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