Case Studies

JLG Industries
Schaffer Consulting worked with JLG Industries in 2003 to integrate their purchase of Omniquip, a competitor in the telehandler manufacturing business. In the course of planning the integration they significantly exceeded the pre-deal synergy expectations and then accelerated the timing of synergy capture. Equally important, the experience has helped the company to develop a much stronger integration and project management capability which has been applied to subsequent integrations and other key strategic projects.

MeadWestvaco
Starting in 1998, Schaffer Consulting worked with Westvaco on a number of acquisitions within their packaging and paper divisions. When the merger with Mead was announced, Schaffer Consulting was enlisted to help create an integration process and build internal "integration consulting" resources to support their aim of achieving $325 million in cost reduction synergies over two years. The new organization also implemented a cross-business development effort to generate new sales, enter new markets, and introduce new products. This effort has produced millions of dollars in incremental revenues.

The MENTOR Network
Mentor, one of the leading human services companies in the US, asked Schaffer Consulting to assist on its acquisition of a competitor (REM). This action doubled Mentor's revenue size and census count. Schaffer Consulting helped Mentor to successfully integrate the two businesses which had two very different cultures. The challenge was to quickly determine the new division and regional leadership structure and to help them run a combined book of business that was larger than their combined business prior to the deal.

Johnson & Johnson, Ethicon Division
After Schaffer Consulting conducted a best practice assessment of J&J's largest acquisitions, the company enlisted Schaffer Consulting to help apply the lessons to specific integrations at J&J ETHICON, INC. The world's leading provider of surgical sutures, hemostats, and anchors, J&J ETHICON strategically acquired four entrepreneurial companies and Schaffer Consulting helped to design the integrations to more formally organize their businesses, present a seamless transition for acquired company customers, and ensure acquisition pay off for J&J. Today, the company licenses the Schaffer Consulting Acquisition Integration ToolKit, allowing them to integrate acquisitions on their own.

General Electric
Over the course of nearly a decade, Schaffer Consulting worked with GE on acquisitions in a number of businesses. In GE Lighting, we collaborated on the acquisition of Tungsram, the first acquisition of a state-owned Eastern European company by a Western company. Following Tungsram, Schaffer Consulting supported Lighting on their purchase of Thorn, a UK Lighting company, to create a new European Lighting Division. Schaffer Consulting consulted to several of the GECapital businesses on improving their integration capability. Working closely with what is now Global Consumer Finance, we helped them create an integration process that was documented in the Harvard Business Review and was then widely adopted within the rest of GE.

MeadWestvaco

Starting in 1998, Schaffer Consulting worked with Westvaco on a number of acquisitions within their packaging and paper divisions. When the merger with Mead was announced, they asked Schaffer Consulting to help them create an integration process and build internal "integration consulting" resources designed to support their aim of achieving $325 million in cost reduction synergies over two years.

In addition to the cost reduction synergies, we helped them build a cross-business development effort to generate new sales, enter new markets, and introduce new products. This effort has produced millions of dollars in incremental revenues.

The MENTOR Network

Schaffer Consulting worked with Mentor, one of the leading human services companies in the US, on its acquisition of a competitor (REM), doubling their revenue size and census count.

Schaffer Consulting helped Mentor to successfully integrate the two businesses which had two very different cultures. The challenge was to quickly determine the new division and regional leadership structure and to help them run a combined book of business that was larger than their combined business prior to the deal.

Johnson & Johnson, Ethicon Division

Schaffer Consulting conducted a best practice assessment of J&J's largest acquisitions of the prior few years, and then helped the company apply the lessons to specific integrations at J&J ETHICON, INC. We helped Ethicon, the world's leading provider of surgical sutures, hemostats, and anchors, integrate four strategic acquisitions of entrepreneurial companies and transform them into productive contributors to a more formally organized business.

Each of these acquisitions required a disciplined integration approach to make the acquisitions pay off for J&J, and to present a seamless transition for the acquired company's customer base.

Schaffer Consulting also provided them with an Acquisition Integration Toolkit which allows them to now do deals on their own.

General Electric

Schaffer Consulting worked with GE Lighting on the acquisition of Tungsram, the first acquisition of a state-owned Eastern European company by a Western company.

Following Tungsram, we worked with Lighting on their acquisition of Thorn, a UK Lighting company, to create a new European Lighting Division.

Schaffer Consulting helped Global Consumer Finance, a GE Capital company, to create an integration process and function now adopted by many GE businesses.