Culture, Not Capital, Kills Mergers

EQ BEAM predicts people-related risks in deals and provides solutions.

- Acquisitions destroy more value than any other single action taken by companies.*

In 2024, hundreds of mergers and acquisition transactions were conducted in Sweden to a value of over 150 billion SEK. It is well known that over 70% of investments fail to meet their objectives. At least 30% of these failed transactions are caused directly by cultural integration issues such as unsynchronised leadership and culture clashes. (McKinsey, Deloitte, KPMG). The due diligence process simply isn´t good enough at minimizing human risks. 

- EQ Europe has observed this for many years. We wanted to reduce this negative trend, and we are proud to introduce a new approach, one that redefines how companies handle both due diligence and post-integration,” says Jenny Westergård, former banker and now CEO of EQ Europe.

EQ BEAM (Behavioural Emotional Intelligence AI Model) shines a light on human capital - leadership and culture - turning soft factors into hard data. It measures and quantifies the alignment of teams, organisations, and boards to predict people-related deal risks and value creation potential.

Crucially, EQ BEAM doesn’t stop at prediction. It identifies practical, targeted interventions to improve integration outcomes, strengthen leadership alignment, and unlock business value - thereby creating better and more sustainable workplaces. 

For more information, contact us at info@eqeurope.com or reach out directly to Jenny Westergård, CEO of EQ Europe, jenny@eqeurope.com, +46 70 763 30 11.

* Aswath Damodaran, Professor of Finance at New York University

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