Pervasive project managers say some Fort Wayne companies don't get it

By Sherry Slater, The Journal Gazette

Some predictable things happen when two rivals merge.

Consider Lincoln National Corp.’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Greensboro, N.C.-based Jefferson-Pilot. The deal, expected to close in the next few weeks, was approved separately by the companies’ shareholders March 20.

In the beginning, before the first tentative talks, visionaries saw the potential benefits of joining Philadelphia-based Lincoln, a financial services company, with Jefferson-Pilot, a similar company that had little overlap with Lincoln’s sales network. Next, the lawyers hammered out the details and drafted the contract.

But after the deal closes, the real work begins. Project managers will step in and oversee a process that fully integrates the competing companies.