Cifa: Cross-Cultural Integration with a Chinese Company

In 2008, Zoomlion acquired the Italian company Cifa, a world-leading company in the concrete machinery market. The acquisition bolstered Zoomlion's leadership in this market in China through Cifa's advanced technology. The acquisition also provided Zoomlion fast access to foreign markets, so that it could extend its leadership in the concrete machinery market to Europe, and to emerging markets such as India and Russia. But while much emphasis was given to the noteworthy success of this operation, less has been said so far on the difficulties Cifa managers experienced in their cultural dealings with Zoomlion. Zoomlion's lack of prior international experience and their cultural differences with the Cifa managers led observers to doubt Zoomlion's ability to successfully manage Cifa's operations. What factors were behind the managerial integration? What were the biggest challenges in building a stable working relationship between the two management teams?