Catherine Maxey, business public affairs director at The Dow Chemical Co. , began by analyzing the highly publicized merger of Dow and Union Carbide. The video highlighted live action of the first shares of stock being traded on the New York Stock Exchange, complete with a company-wide celebration at the merger's completion. Maril Gagen MacDonald chats with IMC Adjunct Mary Moster. Maxey said the merger succeeded due to a well-planned, strategic process that began by hiring two consultancies to manage the change. She recalled how the first consulting session began with an estimate that 50 percent to 75 percent of proposed mergers fail, in part because they lack a comprehensive communications plan.
Companies take their eye off the ball.
Dow didn't do that, the newly merged company beefed up its public affairs division to more than 30 staffers, she said. Other lessons Maxey cited included the need for ongoing two-way communication in live forums and the need to understand how various regulatory agencies factor into mergers, in order to be more strategic in countering governmental objections. Lastly, she emphasized the importance of setting a realistic time-line, recalling an instance at Dow when a detail originally estimated to take a month required 18 months to complete. The Chicago marketing communications consultancy's clients include Coors, Ajinomoto, Baxter International, McDonald's and United Airlines. MacDonald and Greenspan used the pending merger of United Airlines with U.S Airways as a case study to prompt dialogue with students.