Managing the aftermath:: Lessons from The Royal Bank of Scotland’s acquisition of NatWest

This paper examines the acquisition by The Royal Bank of Scotland of NatWest Bank, to draw some lessons about managing the integration of previously separate businesses. Having acquired NatWest in 2000, RBS launched a major integration programme to yield the savings and revenue gains which they had promised to the capital markets during the takeover bid. The idea of “semi-structures” as an approach to managing major change provides a theoretical perspective from which to analyse subsequent events. The resulting narrative has potentially useful implications for those managing major acquisitions.