The foundation of cooperation is not really trust, but the durability of the relationship. It is readily evident that firms which have grown through mergers and lateral (senior-level) hires always have less internal cooperation than those that have grown from within. As obvious as this may seem, this observation casts significant doubt on those firms that have had a strategy of trying to justify the benefits of mergers through cross-selling and cross-referral of the newly acquired services.

Excerpted from ‘Managing the Professional Service Firm’ by David Maister, page 338