This article discusses and contrasts the cultural fit, cultural potential, communication, direction, and leadership in the success and failures of mergers and acquisitions. The focus of the article is to determine independent variables that influence the success or failure of a merger or acquisition using existing empirical literature, while comparing and contrasting the information found in ten selected case studies of successful and failed M&As. According to one study cited, eighty-three percent of mergers and acquisitions fail to create their intended value. The ten case studies reveal that communication is a necessity, drastically improving the success of a merger, and a cultural assessment of both fit and potential are important factors for providing direction and guidance for necessary decision making and planning initiatives required by management throughout all stages of a merger or acquisition. The challenge for today’s business schools is to struggle with preparing students to be effective contributors at their next position while simultaneously providing the grounding they need for a lifelong career. This is not a unidimensional problem. Only when businesses demand what they need from the B-schools will they most probably get what they have been wishing for. The lessons from the case studies of failed mergers tell much of the story of this disconnect
