Brian Senior’s view on integration

From my point of view, there are several levels of integration. The first is to get the mechanisms and infrastructure working – financial and legal consolidation, trading in
a single name to get credit benefits, for example. This is what Jeff Whittingham is leading on and it is being managed very successfully, with support across the business.

The second level is to think and feel like a single team operation, albeit with different locations and activities. This is much more difficult because it’s about winning ‘hearts and
minds’ – sharing a common vision, and common values. This aspect of integration has barely begun but this will undoubtedly take off as communication between locations increases.

The third level is to have the confidence to go out and do business. There is no doubt about confidence being lower; people are less clear about what the organisation stands for any more,
coming from the synthesis of two organisations which had a high level of clarity about their mandates. People need confidence in the leadership of the company, the vision and values, and that they don’t need to look back to their professional past. Then we can really establish this business confidently in the external market place.