| 1. | “Effective acquisition communication means close attention to messaging.” Depending on its size and scope, an acquisition can be a small change or an enormous one. The tendency is for leaders to make announcements and think they’re communicating, and to focus on what they say and not on what they hear.The most successful large-scale changes involve a two-way process, and it’s given the respect it deserves by being at least somewhat formalized and measured for its contribution to the success of the change. It’s certainly a lot more than saying to managers, “So, how are your people doing? Everyone’s o.k., right? Great! Be sure to announce the latest acquisition updates at your next staff meeting.” To get a better result and accelerate communication, set up a process for ensuring that concerns are raised through the hierarchy and addressed. Think there’s no hierarchy in the way? Think again. Trust me — I only hear that statement from people who are at the top of the heap, and virtually never from individual contributors. That’s not just a deadly assumption related to acquisitions – that one will kill you over time under any circumstance. No matter how approachable you are, a medium or large acquisition is simply too big of a change to trust to strictly informal channels. If you’re communicating effectively during an acquisition, you are listening exponentially more than you are messaging, and you are not formulating your next thought while the employee is talking – you’re truly hearing and absorbing what he or she is saying. | | | | 2. | “With a few months of long hours, we can integrate people, processes, and systems.” Most of your good and excellent people are already putting in long hours, and let’s be realistic — getting more hours from the weak performers isn’t going to help much, is it?Underestimating how much additional resource is needed for the integration is deadly because it creates drag on the organization as the integration misses deadlines and managers have to spend more and more time re-scoping the integration efforts in addition to doing their day jobs. This can also create drag in the emotional mindset of frustrated and confused customers, dispirited employees, and angry partners. It takes a lot of courage, persistence, and tenacity to create and sustain a strong integration plan. Because the habit of most organizations is the habit of day-to-day operations, it takes serious effort to infuse the very different practices involved in managing a big change like an acquisition. I’ve seen few successful acquisitions without a dedicated integration team, with the exception of very small ones with only a few employees. You’ll likely need dedicated resources in IT, a working group to integrate different business models and processes, and of course, the facilities and HR teams. You can begin moving in the right direction today by assessing the quality of the current plan and the resources in these areas. Hire an outside expert with amazing results in integrating processes and systems. I’ll help you get the people there, but you will need other experts to help you scope and execute processes and systems. | | | | 3. | “Better to reorganize slowly and in small pieces rather than upset the apple cart.” There may be good business reasons for it, but never do a post-acquisition reorganization in bits and pieces on the assumption that it will ease people into the change.It’s a difficult truth, but some people may lose their jobs and if you need to make these cuts, it’s better to get on with the job. When leaders prolong confusing, duplicate, and overlapping roles, or lay off employees in seemingly random one’s and two’s, they increase cynicism, frustration, and the fear that the acquiring organization’s leaders are an inept, indecisive group of bureaucrats who can’t make up their minds. The decision to let people go is so painful and exhausting for everyone involved (even me, and I’m just the outside consultant), but leaders must bite the bullet. If a reorganization is focused and takes weeks, not months, or as few months as is reasonable, the remaining employees at least will be able to focus on their work instead of wondering when the ax will fall. | | | | 4. | “Spin it up – we’ve got to keep people positive.” Sure, everyone wants to follow an optimistic leader, and you should share all good news with great joy — but that doesn’t mean putting a positive spin on negative developments. You will kill your credibility, particularly among the employees of the acquired organization, most of whom have no relationship with you, and therefore no particular reason to trust you in the first place.Be honest, and share your plan to address the issues, or at least your timeline for pulling a plan together. Your people are living day-to-day with the consequences of any negative developments. They’re probably the ones who brought the problems to someone’s attention in the first place, if you’ve implemented a solid two-way communication process. Show your respect for them by treating these challenges with honesty and compassion. | | | | 5. | And from deep in our unconscious selves… “the employees of the acquired company are so darn lucky to be part of our company, and they need to just get aligned with the way we do things around here.” These days few leaders are crass enough to say this out loud, but the fact that we don’t say it out loud in no way addresses the fact that we feel it, if that’s what we feel. Attitudes and emotions leak out all over the place.But reverse this attitude quickly if you see it in yourself or in someone else, because if the undertone set by the acquiring company’s leadership is in any way superior, the employees of the acquired company will pick it up and head toward to door to your competitor at the first opportunity. You’ll also lose out on all you could have learned from the employees who stay, because you’ve inadvertently demeaned their knowledge, skills, and expertise. I recall the time I found myself sitting in the regional sales office of an acquiring company. When the SVP of Sales announced the acquisition of their largest, closest competitor, the sales team cheered and yelled, “We win! We win!” The acquisition turned out to be a stunning success, in part because the SVP responded, “Hey, cut it out, you guys. Each of these people is part of our team now. We’re in it together and frankly, I’ve seen their numbers and they’re every bit as good as you are. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t have acquired the company.” |
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Is there such a thing as acquisition season? It seems that I have been in a lot of conversations about potential, pending, and actual acquisitions since the weather started to turn warmer. Even though acquisitions are more common than many people think, they are still notoriously tricky to pull off.