Mark Rayfield, CEO of Saint-Gobain North America (EPA: SGO) and CertainTeed This episode is sponsored by the M&A Science Academy, DealRoom, and FirmRoom.  To join our growing online community of M&A practitioners, visit www.mascience.com/academy. Don’t forget to use code “podcast” at checkout.  Ready to take your M&A to the next level with software made to manage each stage of the deal process? See how DealRoom can facilitate your next deal at www.dealroom.net FirmRoom provides 80% cost savings over VDRs that bill by page and delivers a far better user experience to boot. Sign up in under 2 minutes by going to www.firmroom.com Episode Timestamps 00:00 Intro 05:50 Culture in M&A 09:59 Acquiring a competitor 11:18 Team Alignment 13:24 Understanding culture 15:45 Difficulties of Culture 16:52 Improving decision-making 18:55 Challenges for smaller companies 20:37 Lessons learned from acquisitions 24:58 Establishing strong communication 27:14 Advice on Integration 31:08 Retaining lessons learned 32:49 Ensuring deal value 34:40 Governance and M&A activities 37:20 Success metrics 38:59 Messaging with key investors 40:20 Non-core acquisitions 41:19 Cultural aspect of non-core acquisition 43:02 Craziest thing in M&A