We find out why there is a strong case in merger activity for involving the company's 'people people' - and taking them seriously - from the start.

"The outcome of our merger? (long pause) It was eventually brought to a result of sorts. It's performing today. But it cost a hell of a lot of resources, financial, human...and image, too."

— Swiss CEO in 'The CEO in post-merger situations'

The European Professional Women's Network Amsterdam (WIN) recently hosted Dr Jacqueline Fendt, Swiss former CEO, lecturer, author and business guru who spoke on her recently published book The CEO in post-merger situations.

Her presentation, given under the intriguing title of 'Why CEOs Choose to Be Stupid and How Some Don't', summarised her detailed research tracking the learning experiences of top corporate European CEOs over a seven-year period.

Fendt's startling conclusion was that CEOs are just as likely to fail in a second or subsequent merger experience as they are in the first. In essence, the majority of CEOs studied just kept making the same mistakes over and over.

In her analysis she made the clear case for greater HR involvement in the identification, due diligence, and integration processes of mergers and acquisitions – for critical HR understanding, empathy and support to the CEO.

Why don't we learn?

In the course of her research – including forty in-depth interviews with European top CEOs, who granted her unprecedented access to the inner workings of the 'merger machine' and spoke with uncharacteristic frankness about the pain, gain and strain of the merger process –Fendt identified no fewer than 13 Key Learning Inhibitors that prevented these CEOs from taking on board crucial knowledge to facilitate the success of the present, or subsequent, mergers.

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