“Don’t worry, nothing is going to change!” said the company owner. “We are merging with another company who has the resources we need to do the things we’ve wanted to do but lacked the resources to do on our own.”
How Do You Screw Up A Perfectly Good Company? Merge with another company, forfeit your decision-making power and watch helplessly as the dominant company scales too fast with false expectations.
We are seeing this unfold in real time today, all in a span of less than one year………..
By ChatGPT
After a merger, if scaling happens too fast, you can expect:
| Problem | Why It Happens | Impact |
| Cultural clash | Two different company cultures collide — scaling fast doesn’t give time to unify values, behaviors, and priorities. | Employee disengagement, turnover, toxic work environments. |
| Operational overload | Systems (finance, HR, IT, logistics) often aren’t integrated yet — but the business volume multiplies. | Process breakdowns, billing errors, service disruptions. |
| Customer confusion and churn | Customers may not recognize or trust the “new” merged brand, especially if service consistency wobbles. | Loss of loyalty, market share erosion. |
| Leadership gridlock | Merged leadership teams often fight silently (or openly) about priorities, roles, and decision rights. | Slow decision-making, political infighting, executive turnover. |
| Overpromising to investors | To justify the merger and rapid scaling, leadership often makes aggressive revenue and synergy promises. | Missed targets, financial restatements, stock crashes if public. |
| Cash flow problems | Scaling faster means more capex, more working capital needs — and merger-related integration costs are still draining cash. | Liquidity crises, debt covenant breaches, forced restructuring. |
| Brand dilution | Rushing into new markets or segments before brand identity is settled confuses customers and partners. | Weak brand loyalty, easier competition attacks. |
