In this episode, I visit with Rod Grandon, Managing Director of Government Services, from Affiliated Monitors, Inc. we consider the types of things a monitor would review to determine if a company adequately considered ethics and compliance during the M&A process. Grandon sees two distinct phases in the M&A process; pre- and post-acquisition. In each phase an independent monitor would look at different aspects of it. The first is the planning, the negotiation and the due diligence. This review goes up to the point at which the transaction is completed. From there is the post-acquisition phase, the integration phase. Grandon sees a distinct role in both the pre and post-acquisition phases for an independent monitoring. During the pre-acquisition transaction phase an “independent monitor can come in without preconceived notions, without shackles, as to any corporate expectations and do that deep dive that is really necessary for the parties if that information is shared or at least one of the parties to gain an understanding of what is being purchased or what is missing.”
In the integration phase, he noted the type of culture which exists through working with the respective workforces to understand what are their cultures. Are these cultures compatible in terms of bringing together a program to promote ethics and compliance? This requires, in many cases, deep dives, particularly the use of focus groups to get down to the workforce to get a true understanding of what some of the cultural elements that are in play. And in many cases, this is just a critical and complicated piece. From there, Grandon advocates moving into the controls area to literally put an independent set of eyes on the internal compliance controls. This is to help the parties understand the risk environment they find themselves in and the culture that is in play for the post-acquisition phase.
Moving to the post-acquisition phase Grandon noted that the independent monitor can also provide a key piece to help the integration phase. It can be a critical asset in this process of coming in helping management understand what it has acquired. This is the point there are no limitations on getting in and doing that deep dive with the workforce which already knows it’s been merged or acquired. Also the public already knows so no excuses for not getting in and getting a very good understanding the culture and how the workforce sees the ethics and compliance structure of the company.