Sachin Gulati is an M&A integration leader at HP with almost 14 years of deal experience across HP, Google, and management consulting. In this episode of Herding Squirrels, Sachin explains why M&A gets sold as a financial transaction but wins or loses as a human transition, and why even a good playbook only gets you 50 to 60 percent of the way there. He shares the three things he listens for on day one (fear, pride, and uncertainty) and the three habits that build employee trust during a merger. If you’re leading a team through an acquisition, a divestiture, or any big organizational change, you’ll leave with the conversations to stop avoiding and a way to make change painful but predictable. Guest Bio Sachin Gulati is currently an M&A Integration Leader at HP, with close to 14 years of experience in M&A spanning HP, Google, and management consulting. Throughout his career, he has led and advised on a broad range of acquisitions and divestitures, partnering with organizations and clients to navigate complex transactions, drive successful integration and separation, maximize value realization, and build scalable, repeatable processes and playbooks where needed. Find Sachin online: https://linkedin.com/in/sachin-gulati Episode Highlights [00:00:42] Why every deal is a new problem to solve, and why that keeps Sachin in M&A [00:01:31] Why a playbook covers only 50 to 60 percent of an integration, and when it covers 90 [00:05:13] Integration is a human transition, and what to listen for first: fear, pride, and uncertainty [00:09:04] How trust gets built during a merger through clarity, consistency, and follow through [00:12:20] The three conversations leaders avoid: people, power, and priorities [00:14:49] What first-time leaders miss about how different M&A is from any other program [00:17:29] The two roles AI plays in integration, productivity and decision making [00:19:59] One piece of advice for leaders: make the change painful but predictable Key Insights * Playbooks Get You Halfway: Buy a company like the last one and a playbook can cover 80 to 90 percent of the work. Change the deal type, the size, or the geography and it drops to 50 or 60. Use the playbook as a head start, then plan for the part it can’t cover. (00:01:31) * Integration Is Human: The deal is a financial transaction. The integration is a human transition, and that is what decides whether you get the value you paid for. (00:05:13) * Fear, Pride, Uncertainty: On day one, Sachin listens for three things. Where is the fear about roles, bosses, and jobs? Where is the pride, meaning what this team is good at and what you should protect? And where is the uncertainty, and how will you reduce it? Start there before you write a single announcement. (00:05:48) * Clarity, Consistency, Follow Through: Trust comes from telling people why the deal happened and what role they play, showing up again and again, and doing what you said you would do. A leadership session on day one followed by 180 days of silence doesn’t work. (00:09:04) * Say What You Don’t Know: You don’t need every answer. Tell people you haven’t thought about it, name the day you’ll come back to them, and then come back that day, even if all you have is what you’ve found so far. Let people ask the tough questions instead of talking them down. (00:10:24) * People, Power, Priorities: These are the three conversations leaders put off. Whose role might go? Who makes the final call when two leaders come together? What matters most? Sachin’s view is that priorities are priorities. Name the North Star early, phase the harder news, and accept that not everyone will get on board. (00:12:20) * Find Your Change Agents: Look for the well-respected people in the organization who believe in the change. They help guide others, and they double as your ears, telling you what uncertainty people are actually talking about. (00:20:54) * AI Tests Assumptions: AI already saves time on document review and diligence questions, so a target isn’t asked the same thing 100 times. Sachin thinks the bigger payoff is decision making, like giving it your strategy and business case and asking which assumptions have data behind them and which are guesses. (00:18:35) Key Quotes “M&A is often presented as a financial transaction, but integration is a human transition. And that’s what makes it win or lose.” Sachin “Integration is not a linear line. You have to adapt.” Sachin “You cannot have a leadership session at the start of the deal and then just don’t talk to them for 180 days. That doesn’t work.” Sachin Sachin’s advice for any leader putting people through major change: “Make sure it’s not painless, but predictable.” Sachin Where to Find Sachin * LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sachin-gulati About Herding Squirrels Herding Squirrels is a podcast about modern teams and change, where we uncover the nuts and bolts of what makes teams actually work. New episodes drop every two weeks. Subscribe wherever you listen, and leave a review if this conversation was useful. 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