Opening Fireside Chat: The Human Mechanics of a Mega-Merger: Leading Your Team Through Massive Change

In corporate restructuring, the strategy is drawn up in the boardroom, but it succeeds or fails on the factory floor. When Henkel made the historic decision to merge its legacy Beauty Care and Laundry & Home Care divisions into a single "Consumer Brands" powerhouse, Dirk Holbach was tasked with integrating the massive supply chain networks behind them. The mandate was clear: consolidate overlapping footprints, standardise KPIs, and merge operations across 30+ factories globally. However, Holbach's true mandate was cultural. He had to unite two fiercely loyal, historically separated teams under a single operational roof without cratering morale or losing critical talent. In this exclusive fireside chat, Holbach will detail the human realities of leading an organisation through a monumental transition. Moving beyond the spreadsheet, he will unpack how he secured buy-in from middle management, communicated difficult realities with transparency, and managed the inevitable change fatigue that comes with large-scale M&A and network restructuring.