Pre-Deal: Decision Memo in 5 working days

Understanding beyond numbers – earlier, clearer, closer to decision-making.

What is it about?

Before you make a purchase decision, we identify cultural patterns, tipping points, synergies, and complementary areas – as an early indicator of a good fit. Within 5 business days, you'll receive a concise decision memo that makes costs, risks, and integration efforts easier to assess.

Decisiveness within. Clarity without.


  • Early indicator of connectivity

    Cultural patterns reveal whether the deal logic holds up – and where it can tip over.

  • Identify risks early, avoid surprises

    Sharpen your risk awareness: identify critical points before they become costly in the PMI.

  • Making use of opportunities

    Identify synergy areas and "amplifiers" – where collaboration reduces friction and results become visible more quickly.

  • Decision ready in 5 working days

    A viable picture – more well-founded than gut feeling, more compact than slide sets.

What is their result?



Within five working days you will receive a screening report and a concise decision memo summarizing the fit, risk/opportunity, and initial indications of the integration mode for the deal.

  • Culture-Thesis:

    The core of connectivity and cultural complementarity or tension.

  • Deal implications:

    First indication of integration effort, time paths and course for the PMI

  • Cultural axes and characteristics

    Crucial for communication and its integration model

  • Risk and opportunity profile:

    3-5 red/yellow flags plus synergies/tipping points – each with an indication of their impact.

  • Amplifiers & Synergy Fields

    Where culture sets the pace and fosters collaboration.

How? Without all the tool nonsense!

Quality principles – how you measure us: We work in such a way that a viable picture emerges within days – clear, concise, and ready for decision-making.

  • Condensing instead of scattering: We bundle signals, contradictions and patterns into a compact, decision-ready initial situational overview.
  • Resonance before scorecards: Inner images and clear guidelines instead of key performance indicator graveyards – so that substantial decision-making is possible.

For whom?


For owners and owner families who are selling and who care about their culture, we make visible what creates identity and value – so that this substance continues to have an effect in good hands.


For buyers, such as CEOs, CFOs, heads of corporate development/M&A, PE and operating partners, and (acquiring) owners, we make cultural patterns visible and translate them into a strategic situational picture that meaningfully complements figures and due diligence facts. Risks, synergies, and potential tipping points become recognizable as "missing puzzle pieces"—within days.


We treat both sides, buyers and sellers and their partners, impartially, discreetly and respectfully – with the aim of enabling viable decisions, ensuring connectivity and maintaining trust.


When is it particularly worthwhile?


Here are the typical “situations” in the pre-deal phase where our culture screening provides maximum value – with clear definitions and the key opportunities and risks (especially on the employee side):

  • Buy-and-Build:

    A company/platform acquires several smaller companies (add-ons) to grow rapidly. Risks: too many integrations at once, diluted identity, performance drops, loss of key personnel (retention risk). Our screening prioritizes the order of acquisitions and mitigates these risks.

  • Strategic acquisition:

    Acquisition due to technology, product, or market access. Opportunity: genuine complementarity. Risk: work and leadership styles don't align; trust within teams/customers erodes; delayed effectiveness (time-to-productivity). We identify points of connection and friction early on.

  • Comparison under time pressure:

    Multiple objectives, tight deadlines. Need: rapid comparability. We deliver red/yellow flags, potential synergy areas, and a clear first impression for decision-making, all on one page.

  • Inconsistent management signals:

    Beautiful story, different everyday life (story-reality gap)... We make visible where aspiration and reality diverge, especially with regard to key people.

  • High integration ambition:

    The goal is for the company to "grow together" quickly within the framework of PMI (Post-Merger Integration). Opportunity: To leverage synergies more quickly. Risk: Overburdening, friction, and the loss of key personnel (retention risk). We identify tipping points, prioritize steps, and define what should be integrated and what should initially be consciously preserved.

No, we don't do that!



Cultural due diligence (CDD) is the complementary cultural perspective to legal/financial/commercial due diligence – clearly geared towards decision-making. Therefore…

  • Not a substitute for other DD strands:

    We do not examine contracts, figures or commercials, but rather complement the perspective – with cultural facts and implications for strategic goals, priorities and PMI.

  • No change programs, no endless workshops:

    We advise on the course and priorities; the implementation is up to your teams or other professionals.

  • No fetish for key performance indicators:

    Impact before metrics, genuine resonance instead of scorecards.

Optional connection modules:

Post-Signing Assessment:

Strategic situational awareness and navigation map (~20 working days).

Echo sounder:

Early warning and feedback mechanism (setup ~5 working days).