HBR Case Study: The Gentleman’s “Three”

Between the inner and outer doors of Circale Corporation’s headquarters building, human resources VP Nils Ekdahl crossed paths with CFO Anita Fierst as he was leaving for lunch. “We need to make those cuts we talked about,” Fierst said briskly. She clearly wasn’t up for chitchat about her recent trip to Asia. “I was looking at our org chart on the plane last night,” she continued. “After those two new acquisitions, the duplication across departments is untenable. We need to start achieving synergies right away.”