Erin McAuley
Chief People Officer
Springline Advisory
Episode 65
Scale with Soul: Why Culture Is Your Ultimate M&A Differentiator
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleAugust 29, 2025 · 15:17
Thesis
“Organizational success, especially during hypergrowth and M&A, hinges on intentional culture co-creation and a 'scale with soul' approach, treating culture as a core business strategy rather than a secondary project.”
Show notes
Episode Summary
What does it take to build a thriving, people-first culture in a high-growth, private equity-backed firm? In this episode of Built by People, host Dave D’Angelo sits down with Erin McAuley, Chief People Officer at Springline, to explore the power of co-creating culture in the midst of transformation. With 30+ years of experience leading organizational change at companies like Cisco, eBay, and Countrywide, Erin shares how Springline’s “Scale with Soul” philosophy is turning traditional PE models on their head.
From building a blueprint for cultural fit to leveraging data in M&A due diligence, Erin walks us through the intentional, values-driven process that Springline uses to evaluate and integrate new firms. She explains how their GROW values (Grounded, Reimagine, Ownership, Wholehearted) were developed collaboratively—and why staying human is key to sustainable scale. Whether you're a founder, people leader, or change agent, this episode offers a masterclass in embedding culture into your business strategy.
Key Timestamps
[00:52] – Erin’s 30-year journey in transformation and leadership
[03:45] – From Cisco to eBay: Defining culture in fast-paced environments
[04:30] – The challenge of private equity perceptions during acquisitions
[06:45] – How Springline co-created its GROW values with founding firms
[10:04] – Using data and culture surveys in due diligence
[12:55] – Lessons learned from implementing the cultural blueprint
[14:04] – Erin’s parting advice: Culture is business strategy
Actionable Takeaways
Treat culture as a strategic lever—not a side initiative
Use data to guide cultural alignment during M&A and integration
Co-create values with your people to ensure authenticity and adoption
Build scalable frameworks (like GROW) to drive consistency across teams
Humanize growth by balancing “big firm” opportunities with “small firm” relationships
Start storytelling early to bring abstract values to life
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What you'll take away
- 1Culture is a strategic differentiator, especially in people-centric businesses and M&A, and should be treated as a core business strategy.
- 2Successful M&A integration requires proactive cultural due diligence, including quantitative assessments and qualitative insights, to identify alignment and potential friction points.
- 3Co-creating values and culture with acquired entities fosters ownership and commitment, moving beyond a 'welcome to the Borg' approach.
- 4To build trust and overcome fear in M&A, demonstrate cultural promises through tangible actions like equity programs, transparent communication, and authentic leadership.
- 5Continuously embed cultural values into daily practices and leverage storytelling to make abstract values concrete and understandable for all employees.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Not all PE is created equal, I can tell you that. Right. But I think when it comes from vision and values that are really aligned, it can be a force for good.
In Erin's words
“My career journey could really be summed up in one word. And that's transformation.”
This concisely captures the overarching theme of her professional life and approach to HR.
“We're not selling coffee cups, we're not selling real estate, we're not selling property of any kind. We're selling business advisors that understand your business, see it to us. And so when we are doing, when we're looking for firms to partner with, to come on and join us as founding firms, we're looking for folks that are really solid culture match that want to scale with us.”
This highlights why culture is paramount for Springline, framing it as a strategic imperative for their service-based business model and M&A strategy.
“So we've actually crystallized around the term a big small firm because we want the big in terms of what we can offer for learning and development and capabilities, but we want small in terms of if somebody knows that they need to go pick their son up from a soccer match, or somebody knows you have a wedding coming up, right? Or somebody knows that you maybe have a challenging personal issue, or you want to develop in this way, that there's still a very, very human element. To how we run our firms.”
This illustrates how Springline balances growth and human-centered values, a key challenge in scaling.
“I would have asked for maybe even more examples so that we can start to articulate when we say, wholehearted. Here's a few stories of what that looks like, quite literally.”
This offers a practical lesson on making abstract cultural values tangible through storytelling and real-world examples.
“Culture is business strategy. It's not a side project.”
This is a direct statement of her core thesis, emphasizing the critical importance of culture to organizational success.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Fear and uncertainty among employees regarding private equity acquisitions, often driven by 'turn and burn' horror stories and concerns about job security or cultural dilution.
- •Integrating diverse firm cultures during hypergrowth and M&A while trying to maintain a 'small firm feel' and human-centric values.
- •Ensuring cultural alignment and addressing discrepancies in total rewards/benefits packages *before* an acquisition closes to prevent post-merger dissatisfaction.
- •Translating abstract cultural values (like 'wholehearted') into concrete daily practices and behaviors for employees.
- •Identifying and partnering with culturally aligned leaders who genuinely value employee input versus those who are 'guarded' about employee feedback.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Your career journey could really be summed up in one word: transformation
Exploring the Career Journey
Springline encountered a cultural challenge during a recent acquisition
The Culture Challenge of Private Equity
Eric Miller: We started with a culture assessment of each of our founding firms
The Process of Co-Creating Firm Culture
Springline uses data and analytics to assess cultural fit during due diligence
Springline Exploring Cultural Fit During Due Dilution
Looking back, what were the most important lessons learned from implementing your Culture Blueprint
What Went Right With The Culture Blueprint
Erin: Leaning in to understand the business and letting culture emerge
A Taste of ThG's culture
Erin, thank you so much for joining us on the Built by People podcast
Erin Flanagan on Built by People
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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