The Burdens That Standards Bring--Roger Dickeson

Mergers and acquisitions frequently fail because the standards of two companies just cannot mesh. The tyranny of the legacy can be fatal. For this reason some printing companies have found greater success in building new plants than in attempting to unite cultures. The word frequently used to justify printing mergers is "synergy," meaning that the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts. Planned synergy in mergers more often than not results in one plus one equals 1.5. The standards of the two companies won't harmonize.