STUDY OF THE HUMAN

RESOURCE PERSPECTIVE OF
THE ACQUISITION OF
AMEC FOSTER WHEELER BY
WOOD GROUP
GROUP 4:
170103056 Bikash Panigrahi 170103068 Drishti Mittal

170101032 Himani Gupta 170101049 Nachiketa Singh

170103172 Rahul P N 170102080 Krishnesh Lunghani
 WOOD Group

Provide performance-driven solutions throughout the asset life cycle, from concept to decommissioning across a broad range of industrial
markets including upstream, midstream and downstream oil & gas, chemicals, environment and infrastructure, power & process, clean
energy, mining, nuclear and general industrial sectors

60 countries
55000 people
$11 billion

Shared Values:- Safety & assurance • Strong slavery and human trafficking statement
relationship • Commitment to long term relationships and business
People Living Our Values Awards ethics
Innovation
Financial responsibility
Integrity
Amec Foster Wheeler
• Multinational consultancy, focused on the Oil, Gas & Chemicals, Mining, Power & Process and Environment &
Infrastructure markets
• 55 countries
• 40000 people
• $7.2 billion
• Head quartered in London

Project details
• 83% of acquisitions and mergers fail to create the intended value
• Mergers and acquisitions are designed and executed to create growth, competitive advantages, technological
acquisition, eliminate competition and more in order to crate value

Objectives:-
• cultural fit
• cultural potential
• Communication
• The leadership

Problem Statement
• Acquisition created global leader
• 2% attrition
• analyses the factors considered and the steps taken in regard to those factors in order to successfully complete the
acquisition process, along with citing the reason of the attrition caused therefore
 FACTORS FOR SUCCESSFUL M&A

The Culture of a Company

• “The specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in
an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with
stakeholders outside the organization”
• Not the assets, technology, or infrastructure that is difficult to assess and integrate
before, during, and after the takeover, but it is more the people

Cultural Fit

• Seeking similarities in style, leadership, direction, communication, and organization

policies which in turn ensured smooth integration of management stylistics
• synergetic improvements or too far apart to integrate without drastically negatively
impacting the integrated firms’ performance and the level of employee
performance/satisfaction overall
Cultural Potential

The framework in which companies operate, including cultural traits that guide the way in
which relations with other organizations and cultures are handled

Innovative Potential:-

• Looked at the innovative potential between redundant departments

• Evaluated departments excelling between the two companies, whether it was within
Wood group or Amec Foster Wheeler
• In areas where Amec Foster Wheeler had better employees than Wood group, it was
Wood employees who were made redundant

Trust Potential:-

• Designed through supporting Amec Foster Wheeler’s company history, past

accomplishments, and encouraging employees to take pride in being part of the new
company
Mutual Dependence Potential

• High mutual dependence potential

• Wood group spent much time understanding Amec Foster Wheeler and where the
company had come from
• AFW was very much dedicated to working with Wood group
• the two companies truly worked hand-in-hand
• Wood Group developed many reward programs that reflected team integration where
the best ideas where kept, irrelevant of which company they derived from
Communication, Direction, and Leadership

Establish leadership quickly:-

• Leaders appeared to be approachable to new staff and involved themselves actively in the
whole process smoother post-merger integration process

Direction and Communication:-

• Employees exhibit strong negative emotions upon the announcement of an acquisition in

terms synonymous with the death of a family member or loved one
• Followed the “buddy system”, someone to go to during the early days after acquisition, to
help the employees in the acquired company feel at ease and an integral part of Wood
group
• Institutionalized the motto “communicate early, often and honestly”
• Early communication and employee involvement drastically reduced the stress and anxiety
created by the acquisition
Reason of attrition during the acquisition

• 2% lay off=1280 workers

• “current integration planning”
• “natural attrition”:- people who leave of their own accord are not replaced
• The job cuts delivered about 60% of their new cost savings target of at least £165million
annually by the end of the third year after their planned £2.2billion mega-merger

Summary and Recommendations

• Culture fit, along with Cultural potential, were necessary for the firms in order to be
deemed successful
• Innovation, trust, dependence, and an integrative potential were all key factors of
success
• A clear direction and lucidly articulated goals helped the companies to focus and
alleviated any anxiousness or concerns regarding the integration and post-merger
syndromes
THANK YOU