Happy Valentines Day! Sometimes there are similar issues in people mergers as well as business mergers.

Sometimes in relationships the real work begins after the merger happens. As we celebrate Valentines day in the United States today we celebrate individual mergers as well as business mergers.

In the United States, about 190 million Valentine's Day cards are sent each year, not including the hundreds of millions of cards school children exchange. Valentine's Day is a major source of economic activity, with total expenditures in 2017 topping $18.2 billion in 2017, or over $136 per person.

A Record $2.5 Trillion in Mergers Were Announced in the First Half of 2018

By Stephen Grocer

More than $2.5 trillion in mergers were announced during the first half of the year, as fears of Silicon Valley’s growing ambitions helped drive a record run of deal-making.

Four of the 10 biggest deals were struck in part to fend off competition from the largest technology companies as the value of acquisitions announced during the first six months of the year increased 61 percent from the same period in 2017, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. That has put mergers in 2018 on pace to surpass $5 trillion, which would top 2015 as the largest yearly total on record.

Professional services firm mergers just like relationship mergers seem like good ideas at the time. Visions of synergies and the possibilities of being together as "one" seem unlimited at the time of the merger. However, reality hits and the challenges seem bigger afterward than they did during due diligence and the honeymoon. Maybe the reasons are not because of incompatibilities of the two people or the two business entities. Maybe they revolve around individual ambition and basic alignment of interest.

It seems as people mergers occur a new "common persona" is created in two individuals just as it does in business when two similar organizations merge. It appears to not matter how independent each party happens to be before the union, plans must be agreed to sometimes adapted and acted on to carry forward the relationship as an ongoing successful endeavor. Even if the post union plan is to maintain their individual identity provisions have to made for the similarities and the differences in every union. Couples have to manage expectations after the merger because the dynamics change due to the emergence of this "new common persona." In business, do we need to align our people and honor the "new common persona" and allow this new identity to arise and be featured out of the merger? It is fun to talk business and the importance of relationships on the most popular relationship holiday of the year. What do you think about mergers are they worth the challenges that come along with them? Have a great Valentines Day and I wish you luck on all your current and future mergers!