Your Guide to Management.
Merger mania is not going to go away. Successful managers must learn how to
manage through the turmoil. A lot has been written about the financial aspects
of merging companies. Less attention has been focused on the human element.
Successful merger management absolutely requires successful management of the
people involved.
Key Element of Success
In the Ottawa Citizen Online article
"Managing post-merger consolidation", human resources guru Jeffrey
Sonnenfeld says "Take at least as much time as you spend with your financial
analysts and spend it with your employees. People care about where they work.
Make them a strategic partner."
Get people in both the merging company and the company being absorbed together
as early as possible. Discuss the issues that were the perceived potential benefits
behind the merger openly and frankly.
Merger Consultants
National Experience w/ Fortune 500
Optimal Merger Performance
If Company A's strength is sales and they are absorbing Company B in part because
of B's distribution capabilities, make sure A's distribution people know to
listen to B's distribution people and B's sales force understands the opportunity
to learn from A.
You probably need to reduce the number of people. Cost savings through combining
redundant tasks is a common goal for mergers. The trick is to release the individuals
least well equipped to contribute in the new organization and to hold on to
the best people. Make sure the evaluation of "best" looks at both
companies' people equally. After all, you don't want to lose a great person
from Company B so you can keep a mediocre person from Company A.
Be honest with people. We all appreciate
frankness. We may not like to find out that our job is going away, but we would
much rather hear it up front than to find out when we get our two weeks notice
from someone who has been telling us all along our job is "safe".
The article "Mergers and Acquisitions:
The Human Equation" from The Change Management Group concludes "Progressive
corporations have realized that a merger is in name only without the positive
support of the newly acquired human resources."
Merging two companies with their
different policies, procedures, and culture will create stress for all the people
involved. The 'survivors' from both companies will have to deal with new people,
new procedures, possibly more work, and the loss of previous co-workers and
friends.
Be realistic in your workflow planning.
Plan for people to be less productive than normal as they deal with the changes.
Expect to lose some good people who are not comfortable with the new organization.
Give yourself and your department time to work through the changes and get back
up to full speed.
Departmental Perspectives
A merger affects different functions
differently. Each function is important to the success of a merger. Consider
the way a merger affects these other departments and then use those lessons
to minimize the same effects in your department.
- IT/IS/MIS
Merger Mandates Challenge IT
"Merged companies may need to get their systems harmonized in record
time, and smooth integration of operations can be critical to the company's
new public image."
- Human Resources/HR/Personnel
"The first issue to resolve is whether to combine your company's plan
with the merging company's. Your answer in most cases will be yes."
- Product Management/Operations/Marketing
"It should be noted that after a major merger, the product management
function in the controlling bank is usually knocked off stride a bit."
- And a small business perspective:
"gettin' hitched involves more than just deciding whose name to use,
where to set up shop and who runs the show."
Walk the Talk
If we as managers truly believe
that people are our most important asset we need to treat them that way. A merger
or an acquisition gives us an opportunity to do well by our people by being
honest with them, keeping them in the loop, and giving them all the information
we can as early as we can. Do that and you will keep more of the good people
from the company you are acquiring, and from your own company.
From F. John Reh
Management Development Training - Become a Successful Manager
Management
Training Quote
"Tough times never last, but tough people do."
Robert Schuler
Suggested Reading:
Management
Development
(Training & Development)
by M. Syrett
Recruitment,
Training,
and Development (European Management Guides)
by Institute Of Personnel and Development
Management Development
and Training: A Tqm Approach (Dryden Press Series in Management)
by Harry Costin
Introductory Course
Teaching and Training Methods for Management Development
by Management Devleopment Manual
The Complete Ama Guide
to Management Development: Training Education Development
by William J. Rothwell, H.C. Kazanas
Evaluating Management
Development, Training and Education
by Mark Easterby-Smith
Management Development
and Training Handbook
by Bernard Taylor
Self-assessed management
development and training needs in technical, human, and conceptual skills areas:
An exploratory study
by Rose Jacobs Holstead
Management development
and training: A survey of current policy and practice, 1984
by Malcolm Peel
