Lianne Pot is a managing director and senior partner at BCG and the North America leader for transactions and post-merger integrations. Whether she’s at the piano, leading an integration, or building community through the arts, Lianne draws the same conclusion: precision and technique yield a plan; trust and emotion get people moving together to put that plan to work.
Growing up in the Netherlands, music was a huge part of my life. I started playing piano when I was seven and became serious enough to consider attending a conservatory. I ended up choosing business instead. But I still really love music.
Even now, when I sit down at the piano, I’m reminded that technical perfection isn’t enough. Disciplined hours of practice are essential, of course; there are no shortcuts to mastery. But music also needs interpretation, emotion, and presence. Technique builds the foundation. Interpretation brings it to life.
I’ve carried that lesson into every chapter of my career.
A Culture Built on Collaboration
When I joined BCG in Amsterdam in 2005, I wasn’t looking to work in mergers and acquisitions per se. I was looking for challenging problems and people I genuinely wanted to work with to solve them.
What stood out about BCG wasn’t that everyone was brilliant—although they certainly were—it was that the culture felt collaborative rather than competitive. People weren’t trying to outshine one another; they were genuinely trying to find the best answer together. That felt authentic to me. It still does.
Even before I accepted my offer, I had been up front that I hoped to live in Los Angeles one day. My husband is American, and growing up, I often visited some of my own family in California. Rather than making vague promises, BCG was remarkably transparent about what that path could look like, what would need to happen first, and how the firm could support it over time.
Looking back, that honesty mattered. It proved that this is a place where people can have open conversations about their ambitions and where trust grows because we follow through on the promises we make at the beginning.
A few years later, that conversation became reality. My husband and I moved to Los Angeles, where I joined an integration project for a major media company. I was a consultant at the time, and what began as a project became a defining experience. That company remains one of my clients today.
From Pianist to Conductor
That first project sparked what is now nearly two decades in integrations. As transactions became larger and more global, I discovered my passion for working hands-on with clients to make change happen. And I found myself increasingly drawn to the challenges—not just of executing deals, but of helping organizations create value long after a transaction has closed.
Over time, I had the opportunity to build BCG’s transactions and post-merger integration capabilities, helping CEOs and executive teams navigate some of the most consequential moments in a company’s life. Today, I lead our North America practice.
What continues to energize me about integrations? Helping people move confidently toward a shared future. I also love solving the big strategic questions that come with a merger. What do the combined companies want to get out of the integration? What’s the target operating model? How will they drive value?
The answers to those questions comprise the businesses’ North Star—their strategic vision. What makes any integration truly successful is a laser focus from day one on that North Star.
That’s where our integration management work comes in. We sit down with the executives of both companies to set their priorities, tackle the key decisions, and ensure those decisions are made on time. We manage the big cross-functional interdependencies, ensure there’s a clear plan, and track the milestones so that nothing gets delayed. And everything we do is anchored in value creation for the client.
Discovering the Art of Integration
Moving from Amsterdam to Los Angeles shaped my leadership style in surprising ways.
In the Netherlands, I was used to direct communication. It’s efficient (although it can feel harsh if you’re not used to it). In Los Angeles, I learned a new way to communicate. I noticed that people invested more time up front in getting to know each other personally, and it made sense. That groundwork builds the trust you need before you can tackle the hard stuff together.
Over time, I stopped seeing these as competing styles and learned to lean on both. Directness helps me cut to what’s real and keep execution moving. Relationship building establishes the trust that makes people willing to work with me when things get difficult or uncertain.
After all, an integration asks people to do something incredibly difficult: embrace the unknown. They won’t do that because of a project plan alone. They’ll do it when they trust the vision and the people leading it.
Building that trust starts with helping people understand where they fit and what the future holds. That means communicating with clarity and transparency. It also means understanding how the two cultures compare: how people communicate, what each organization values, and where those norms differ. When leaders understand those differences, they can begin to build bridges between the two and give people a shared sense of how the new organization will work.
That’s why the most successful integrations start with alignment around a few fundamental things, including what success will look like, how decisions will be made, what principles will guide the organization, and how every team will contribute to the future. When people understand these aspects and the role they will play, confidence begins to replace uncertainty.
It’s not unlike an orchestra. Every musician plays a different instrument and a different part, but everyone has to understand the score. Without that shared understanding of where they’re going, even talented individuals end up creating noise instead of harmony.
AI Saves Time. Leadership Creates Value.
AI is crucial to how we think about integration planning.
The complexity of integrations has changed dramatically. Transactions are larger. Organizations are more global. Regulatory scrutiny is greater. The pace of change continues to accelerate.
That’s exactly why I’m so excited about what AI can do for our work.
The planning required for a large integration involves thousands of interconnected milestones and decisions across every function of the business. Historically, enormous amounts of leadership attention have gone toward manually tracking dependencies, identifying risks, and coordinating activities.
Today, we’re building AI-powered capabilities, including PMI Ignite, to surface those issues almost immediately. Instead of spending weeks connecting information across functions, we can identify where execution is drifting, highlight risks in real time, and help leadership teams focus on the decisions that create value.
The same is true for synergy planning. AI allows us to analyze procurement opportunities, revenue synergies, and operational data much faster than before. On top of that, companies can also drive more value from an integration, not only by realizing the synergies but also by getting value from applying AI while redesigning the operating model, workflows, and processes as part of integration planning and execution.
But here’s what’s interesting. The more technology advances, the more important leadership becomes, because AI can’t create trust. It can’t explain why a merger matters. It can’t build confidence during uncertainty. Yet it can give us something incredibly valuable: time. And that allows leaders to spend more of their energy doing what only humans can do—communicating a vision, making thoughtful decisions, and bringing people together.
That’s where lasting value is created.
Creating Harmony Outside of Work
Looking back, I realize the theme of orchestration has shown up throughout my life.
As a university student, I helped launch a citywide music festival in the Netherlands. We started with little more than an idea and a belief that we could create something meaningful for our community. The first year, more than 50,000 people attended.
What I loved most wasn’t even the event itself. It was watching diverse groups come together around a shared experience. Sponsors, artists, city officials, volunteers, and attendees all played a role in creating something larger than any one individual could accomplish alone. All of these groups placed enormous trust in our leadership to create this new music festival.
Today, I see similar dynamics in my pro bono work with music and arts organizations in Los Angeles. These vibrant cultural institutions bring people together and strengthen communities in a way that few things can. I also continue to work in the music industry, where the pace of change and innovation has been rapid.
At home, I find joy in much simpler versions of the same idea. I still play the piano through which I’m able to express my emotions while working on technique . And my husband and I love hosting friends. We love introducing people from different chapters of our lives and watching new connections form. Our two sons are often right in the middle of it all.
Maybe that’s why I enjoy integration work so much. At its heart, it’s about helping people come together to make the best of something new.
