Culture eats strategy for breakfast—and it devours integrations for lunch. The most carefully planned integration can fail if people issues are neglected. Top performers leave, acquired talent checks out, and cultural conflict paralyzes decision-making.

People integration starts before close with retention planning. Who are the critical employees you can't afford to lose? What retention mechanisms (bonuses, equity, roles) will keep them? Waiting until Day 1 to think about retention is too late—your best people are already talking to recruiters.

Organizational design is the other people challenge. Who reports to whom? How do you handle role redundancy? When do you announce? The answers depend on your situation, but the principle is constant: clarity beats ambiguity. Employees can handle hard news; they can't handle uncertainty.