Two cultures under one brand: what to measure after a merger to stop losing people and sales

Supermarket and cash-and-carry chain with about 1,850 employees across 42 stores, formed by merging two regional chains with very different histories and management styles. The systems had been integrated; the people had not.

Managers from the acquired chain reported centralized decisions with no explanation, and turnover in those stores reached 48% per year. The executive team needed to separate real cultural differences from communication noise.

Organizational Culture (ICO)

Why this instrument. ICO allows groups within the same organization to be compared on dimensions such as consistency, involvement and leadership coherence, which is exactly where mergers tend to fail.

Format: Complete · Respondents: 1,140 of 1,850 (62%)

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What changed in operations

• Overall index moved from 46 (Emerging) to 58 (Emerging, close to Structured).
• Turnover in chain B stores fell from 48% to 36% per year.
• The gap between the chains on Consistency narrowed from 15 to 6 points.
• Out-of-stocks in chain B stores fell by about 2 percentage points.

What this case teaches

• In mergers, the company average hides divergence. The breakdown by origin was decisive.
• Clear rules applied equally moved perception faster than integration events.
• One year is not enough to merge cultures; it was enough to stop losing people.