Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Here are lessons from the personal experience of the team that led one of the most successful transnational corporate mergers of all time-the transformation of SmithKline Beckman and the Beecham Group into SmithKline Beecham, a leading international health care company. The authors recount their thinking and actions as well as the successes, failures, and lessons learned. Through the story of the merger, they present a framework of five requisites for creating a culture of change: instilling a winning attitude, making the organization the hero, striving for continuous learning, instituting strategic communication, and aligning behavior with strategy. For managers, this account offers a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into how a major company aligned its business actions and behavior to be competitive in a rapidly changing industry, and how others can create an environment in which the ability to change sustains success. An absorbing, fly-on-the-wall account of a major merger.... For business executives and managers who want to know the inner workings of a well-executed and ultimately effective corporate merger, From Promise to Performance is a must-read.--National Productivity Review This is a fascinating, inside account of an extraordinarily successful merger. Even more important, it is a book about institutionalizing change. The merger is seen not as an end, but as a beginning. Change and learning are viewed as ongoing processes and values that sustain improved performance. I recommend it highly. It's both informative and entertaining. --Paul A. Allaire, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Xerox Corporation

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

The merger of London-based Beecham Group and Philadelphia-based SmithKline in 1989 to create the world's second-largest pharmaceutical company continues to rank as one of the most successful mergers ever made. Its success was due to its being a union of equals; more often, mergers are takeovers. Despite differing corporate cultures, each had what the other needed. SmithKline was good at marketing and was strong in North America and Japan; Beecham was better at bringing new products to market and had a European foothold. Though they all have moved elsewhere, all three authors played primary roles in bringing success to SmithKline Beecham. Bauman was the chairman, and his coauthors were a human resources director and a communications and investor relations vice president. The three tell how they helped bring together the key elements (a winning attitude, focus on the organization as "hero," continuous learning, strategic communication, and alignment of behavior with strategy) that helped unify 52,000 employees from around the world. --David Rouse