Comments on: How to Effectively Merge Company Cultures

By: richgoidel

richgoidel — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 10:54:00 +0000

Excellent post, David (as always)!

I have a client who’s struggled with this issue for the past couple of years … thankfully coming to resolution now. 🙂

Your post inspired me to create a visual, along with my own post that posits the iceberg metaphor isn’t just about M&A—every company has to deal with it.

You’ll find it here: http://bit.ly/1HGJyfo

Enjoy!

By: Culture vs. Strategy

Culture vs. Strategy — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 16:13:18 +0000

[…] by the article How to Effectively Merge Company Cultures by David Maxfield of […]

By: Bruce Kawahara

Bruce Kawahara — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 16:12:46 +0000

David, I love the culture model you describe and the processes to meld the cultures through the six source strategies. And…I agree with Kit and Dan above that if you’re the acquired company, such strategies most often are at the whim of the acquirer. And, usually there’s no consideration of cultural integration.
The primary effort internally in the aftermath of M&A seems to be expense reduction by consolidating, centralizing, or outsourcing support services. Not making the effort to understand, honor, embrace different positive aspects of both (or all) cultures has long lasting negative consequences for all parties, the symptoms of which are usually conflicts between individuals, departments, and the defection of talent. I experienced being acquired and having acquired companies, even merging operations of five companies in a single day. Painful for all parties.
So I subscribe to your view, David, but would love to hear how the acquired can influence the acquirer in undertaking the six source strategies or even just being seen and valued for their contributions. Thanks!

By: Kit Sprague

Kit Sprague — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 15:00:19 +0000

David, everything you say makes sense for the acquirer. But if you are in the acquired company, the acquirer holds all the cards. I worked for a small (25 employees) manufacturing company in the healthcare field, and we had a culture that absolutely amazed our customers, our distributors, our vendors, and yes, even ourselves. It was the envy of our industry. We doubled our business in 5 years from $5MM to $10MM.
Within months of being acquired by a huge public held corporation, our culture was destroyed. Most employees were let go (“escorted out the door”, quite literally), distrust quickly spread among the distributors, and although the brand still exists under the corporate umbrella, that is now all it is. The culture we had is gone, and the volume of business has grown far more slowly than when we had it.
Had they bought us and left us and our culture alone, they’d have put more money in their stockholders’ pockets, which for a public corporation is the goal. But as you say, all they did was look at the iceberg above the water line. Too bad – they missed an opportunity, and hurt a lot of good people in the process.

By: Dan P

Dan P — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 14:27:59 +0000

My company seems to have a rarer strain of the problem. After several years of poor performance, we were bought by a multinational corporation. Many of us were anticipating large changes and new opportunities, but instead we’ve been pretty much to our own devices, with no dramatic management housecleaning or new directions. In three years, only a small handful of our employees have even interacted with anyone in other divisions. How can those of us at the ground level motivate upper leadership to accelerate integration?