Mergers, acquisitions, and the inevitable "integration".

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

If you are in the private sector, particularly in a public company, I can say with great certainty you will go through a merger or acquisition sometime in your professional career... and probably more than once. I've gone through no less than seven, and that is not including the various acquisitions "just for the technology".

I will defer to the Directors, Investment Bankers and Lawyers to offer up the subtle differences between "a Merger" and "an Acquisition" as it seems there is always someone in the equation who was doing the "acquiring". Semantics aside, there is always an integration of one organization into another... what used to be two, is now one.  

Unless you are part of the aforementioned group, more often than not you will find out about the "merger and/or acquisition" through a press release, a company wide email or if you are really lucky, get called into someone's office and given a heads up 30 minutes before "something is about to go down". No one integration is ever the same in my experience; all having different rules of engagement and scenarios with no standardized check list to help get you through it. 

At the very most, I was able to come up with three guiding principles over the years that have served me well.

There will be CHANGE, and there will be OPPORTUNITY.

This is a truism (and quite possibly a universal law) that may or may not be to your benefit, advantage or convenience when it comes your way; you may be able to influence it or even champion it, but in the end, you will have to manage it no matter where it takes you. I was introduced to the book "Who moved my Cheese by Spencer Johnson" many years ago during my first integration; I encourage everyone to read it at least once. It is an excellent book on managing change.

You will hear the phrase, "Business as usual" to be sure and this is a very true statement; it does carry the presumption that everyone internally understands that there is an accelerated need to manage through transition and that any subsequent changes don't negatively impact the customer experience. From an external perspective it needs to be business as usual, but do not assume that applies internally.

It's wasted energy trying to rationalize that change will not touch you, and more important to focus your energy on how to effectively manage through any change and opportunity that will present itself. If you are thinking, "My function is too important to be impacted", or "We bought them so they will have to do what we do", or "We are doing really well so there this no way they will change how we do things", or the countless other ways we rationalize that things will not change... you need to stop and refocus your thinking.

CHANGE and OPPORTUNITY are coming.

Synergy, restructuring and unfortunately good people will leave.

A Merger and/or Acquisition poses the question, "How can the new organization be run more efficiently to reduce costs and increase revenue?".*

• Revenue synergy (more revenue as a result of the merger and/or acquisition)
• Cost synergy (cost savings as a result of the merger and/or acquisition)

This is the reality of business... reduce duplication and inefficiency to increase profits. This is the birthplace of all that change, the resulting restructuring, rationalization of two departments into one, and the reduction in duplication of resources.

More often than not, restructuring and the search for synergies is not an overnight event. You will be part of the process as you manage "business as usual" and directly or indirectly restructure for the future. Like it or not, inevitably good people will leave... either out of the organization or to a new opportunity within the new organization.

No matter how much change there is, an organization doesn't want to lose good people because there is just so much work to do... be open to where restructuring and opportunity may ask you to go.

In the end, all you have is your Leadership and your Character.

The question you have to ask yourself is what does "Leadership and Character" mean to you and what will it look like as you work through the dynamic and difficult times that are often part of any Merger and/or Acquisition. You represent yourself during these times... no one else.

And remember people are watching, that they are also managing through the same change, and they have most likely been asked to make difficult decisions.   

My recent merger and/or acquisition experience ended up having me saying goodbye to a company after twenty-two years... on good terms, with a smile, a tear, and a handshake. What an amazing ride to be sure. I made a point of passing on these guiding principles before I left to anyone who would listen. Alas, that wasn't as many as I had hoped.

iamgpe

* I would suggest a business interested in staying modern and viable always needs to be asking "How can the new organization be run more efficiently to reduce costs and increase revenue?"

I thought I would learn to code... what was I thinking?

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

In magazines, definitely in social media streams, and even in a best selling tome... in one form or another, we have all seen this:

                                    "The 10 things you need to know to be successful!"

Sometimes it's eight and sometimes it's fifteen, but nevertheless it is a list of "proficiencies" that you need to know to be successful; I have noticed a tendency to emphasize the list and not so much the definition of success, but that is neither here nor there.

I was reviewing a list a while back, because hey, "we all want to be successful" and one of the suggested "success points" in this particular list was to learn computer coding*. The reasoning was that with the continued personalization of computer programs to manage our daily activities, having a basic understanding of how to code will be crucial.

                                                        This actually made great sense to me.

I should mention that before three weeks ago I had never taken a computer course, a logic course and had always avoided making "macros" in Excel because it was something so foreign to me... a little reminiscent of when I decided to learn to ride a motorcycle. Coincidentally, it seemed a good friend of mine had also read the same "Top 10" and was already into his online lessons. He is in finance and his motivations were slightly different than mine... he wanted better insight into the basics of computer programming so he would know if his IT people were bullshitting him about costs, deadlines and the such. My reasons, besides being more successful, were slightly different.

I've been at it for about three weeks now** and below you find the code I put together for a simple "Pig Latin Translator"... when you enter a word it moves the first letter to the end of the remaining word, and adds "ay". It really works !

print 'Welcome to Pig Latin Translator"
pyg = 'ay'
original = raw_input('Enter a word:')
if len(original) > 0 and original.isalpha():
    print original
word = original.lower()
first = word[0] 
new_word = word[1:len(new_word)] + first + pyg
else
print 'empty'

What am I really getting out of this?

Do I have a goal to ultimately be competent with basic "Python" code and able to program at a basic level? Yes! 

Is that my only reason? No way... in fact there are many reasons:

• Trying something new offers me the opportunity to connect and network with new people... I find myself constantly looking for people in "the know" and am introduced to people I would not normally connect with. And based on my humble experience, they are very interesting people.
• I am forced out of my comfort zones, my habits, my routines and into something unknown. I have to switch off my "autopilot" and think differently. This is the simple formula for discovering wonderful new things.
• New things compliment old things. In the case of coding, proof reading the code itself, the indentations and the colon placement is making me a better proof reader when I write with "good ol' letters"
• What I am doing contributes to that Top 10 List for Success because as you know, "constant learning" is always close to the top of that list.

                                                                                  And one last thing,

As my finance friend mentioned, it's a sign we haven't given up... not by a long shot. He is very smart by the way.

iamgpe

PS: Let me know if you see something wrong with my code.

* I understand that in some circles there is a debate as to whether the appropriate word is "coding" or "programming. In my world, I am using the word "coding" because it has less letters to type.

** I am using CodeAcademy (on-line) and I really enjoy their approach; as modest as it is, I am leaning something. I am constantly forgetting to indent and add a colon, but am told this is all quite normal and "to keep at it". 

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

I suspect with some certainty any Marketing Manager reading this will not think much of what I am about to say... with great certainty I know their inherent creativity will make for some wonderful refutation*. 

With that said, I was reminded the other day of something I experienced twenty years ago that reinforced the old adage:

"The more things change, the more they stay the same" 

And for that matter, this one as well,

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

And ultimately I was reminded of the diet soda TaB. 

Let me take you back a couple of decades in an attempt to weave this all together:

I found myself at the head office for a series of meetings that must have had something to do with marketing because that is what I was doing at the time. Although I can't tell you anything about those meetings, a meeting I was casually invited to as an after thought, is crystal clear.

I had been invited to a kick-off product development meeting that brought about ten people together (not including "onlookers between meetings") whose mandate was to develop products for a new market segment the company wanted to enter. The team lead had just finished introductions and strategic objectives when someone raised their hand and proposed the team should have a name. 

As if a flashpoint, I watched the room explode into debate, ideas regarding the name, and what the name should represent... most of the debate invoved how the name needed to represent the mandate of the team; the poor team lead struggled to control the room a couple of times as debate and opinion became intense. Forty-five minutes later, with the excuse of my next meeting, I bolted for the door. As the door shut behind me, the discussions raged with no team name in the foreseeable future.

I recall explaining my experience to a colleague and remember saying, "Who cares what the team name is... call it BOB for all it matters; just get on with things!" After that, we went into our own meeting ... I couldn't tell you if it was productive or not.

Fast forward, twenty years... 

I recently found myself talking to someone who was starting a new service company in a niche segment of an established market. The conversation quickly turned to naming the new company and the desire to have the company name "speak to what the company does".  All the obvious names or domain names had been taken, so an odd mashable exercise started to take hold as the "founder" was trying to put words together that were unique and represented what the company does (as well as make it sound viable) - The discussion went on, and on, and on.

                                 "The more things change, the more they stay the same" 

Ultimately I was asked what I thought and this is how I answered... 

• I didn't think it was that important to have a company name that reflected what the company did. It is much more important to have a company name that is easy to say and easy to remember.
• I mentioned not to overthink the name but overthink how you are going to make the name mean something.
• I went on to suggest the work spent on developing the company's unique value proposition and communication to the market was really important... this would give meaning to the company name and what it did. 

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Ultimately I offered up the example of TaB**... probably the most "un-diet soda" name ever. Coca Cola took this simple, easy to say name and developed it to mean a "refreshing diet soda" to such a degree that TaB is still selling 50 years after it was first launched. 

In the end, the founder chose a three-word name for the company, registered it and is happy... not any closer to getting the name to mean anything but happy none the less. I don't even want to get into the discussion we had regarding the logo... let me just say we took the position "to agreed to disagree".

Let the refutations begin.

iamgpe

* Refutation is a new word for me so I just had to use it. It is defined as the action of proving a statement or theory to be wrong or false. 

** TaB's name it turns out was in part developed, by the IBM 1401 computer and  stylized from the "winning" name Taab.