Marked by an infectious enthusiasm, Katherine LaVelle, is a managing director at Accenture Management Consulting who leads that practice for the firms’ North America capital markets clients. She is an expert in leading corporate workforces through mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the financial services arena. “I’m passionate about anything and everything that makes people more effective in their jobs,” she said.
Eighteen years ago, after obtaining her B.S. from Arizona State University and then an MBA from Georgetown, LaVelle learned about Accenture’s nascent change management practice – and knew she wanted to work there.
It’s been the right fit, said LaVelle, referring to both Accenture and particularly to her work in the financial services industry. She explained, “It’s an industry structured around two things: people and technology. To build the most effective workforces, companies have to invest in those two things – and that really appealed to me.”
Last year’s unprecedented surge of M&A activity is not expected to slow down, she said. And according to LaVelle, who has worked on some of the world’s largest (and longest) global mergers, M&A is as much a people-issue as it is a financial one. She explained, “Companies that have not produced a clear picture of what their culture will look like rarely meet their financial targets in the first year after a merger.”
She continued, “A deliberate and defined plan for how you will build effectiveness into your new team is really important, and cannot be bypassed.”
LaVelle shared her wisdom and tactics on maximizing effectiveness while blending cultures – for senior leaders, managers, and employees going through an M&A transition. Here’s her advice.