Paul Teta is an American businessman in London. About three years ago, he was working in Chicago as a manager of marketing and sales for Amoco Corp. in the chemical division. In January 1999, London-based British Petroleum Co. (BP) and Amoco merged. This meant one of two things for Teta: Either his job was in trouble or the merger had created a window of opportunity.
Teta chose to view it as the latter.
“I’ve always volunteered. . . . letting them know what I wanted to do. I asked for a staff job in a think-tank capacity because I’d never experienced that kind of job before,” said Teta, 45. “When they were trying to build an e-business team in London, it was decided they needed an American, an Amoco person with a commercial background.”
Teta was their man. He went from a commercial line manager’s job at Amoco to a leadership role with the Digital Business Development Team for BP Amoco, exploring how to create new value from BP’s intellectual capital. All of this happened in the midst of a major organizational change that included massive layoffs at Amoco.
“It took me a little while to get used to working in the British environment. You learn to be flexible and work more in ambiguity. On the business side, ambiguity is part of the game.”
Because he understood that and played the game well, Teta not only “survived” the merger, he “thrived” by adapting to BP’s corporate culture and aligning his goals with those of the new parent company.
In almost every merger or major acquisition, one company emerges as the winner. That would make the other company, in a sense, the loser. Susan Annunzio, a partner at Nextera, a Chicago consulting firm, cautions workers to avoid being in denial if they land in the “L” column.
“Ninety-nine percent of mergers are takeovers. They announce it as a merger of equals. That’s a mistake. They want to make people not be afraid, but it always backfires,” said Annunzio, author of “e-Leadership: Proven Techniques for Creating an Environment of Speed and Flexibility in the Digital Economy” (The Free Press, 2001, $25). “In a takeover, the winning company’s communication style wins.”
Recognizing which side you’re on early can help you make some important decisions, such as whether you’ll be a good fit in the new corporate culture; and, if the answer is yes, how to become an MVP in the eyes of the new management.
“The people who thrive are the people who’ve kept listening very closely for what’s wanted, needed, or missing. Then they are able to make suggestions or offer themselves as solutions,” said Robin Sheerer, a professional coach, president of Career Enterprises Inc. in Oak Park and author of “No More Blue Mondays: 4 Keys to Finding Fulfillment at Work” (Davies-Black, 1999, $16.95).
If you’re on the losing side and you want to excel within the new structure, you’re going to have to adapt to the winning company’s corporate culture. If you don’t, you could be shown the door.
“I’ve seen people involved in mergers hang on to their own jargon. That doesn’t help them get into the new culture and learn new ways,” said Jeneane Blom, an organizational consultant for Right/Career Directions, a Right Management consulting company.
A recent study by Right Management shows that “ignoring the culture fit” is one of the common reasons mergers and acquisitions fail.
Fitting in also requires knowing the new “boss.” When Dow Chemical Co. acquired Union Carbide Corp. earlier this year, Nancy Tootle, a human-resources worker at Union Carbide, said she learned as much as she could about Dow Chemical. “I did my own exploration, developed my career path and communicated that to my boss at Union Carbide and his counterpart at Dow,” she said.
Tootle, 41, was part of the change-management team established after the merger, focusing on employment issues. Less than two months into the merger, Tootle is preparing to move from West Virginia to Texas to work as a product manager in Dow Chemical’s strategic center.
“It was one of my goals, one of the things I’d been looking at for years,” she said.
Both Teta and Tootle viewed their respective mergers as an opportunity to boost their careers. But initially, even in the friendliest mergers, employees may feel a range of emotions, from grief to anger to anxiety to fear.
Annunzio said workers should acknowledge their sense of loss, but should not jump to emotional conclusions or wallow in their grief.
“Don’t try to make sense of it. Grieve over the real loss, not the conclusions you’re drawing,” she said. “You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it.”
“Then, the grieving has to end. Then you have to figure out what to do.”
Employees also should embrace the similarities between the two merging entities rather than focusing only on the differences. Usually, there is a blending of corporate cultures in a merger, where the best practices of each company find a happy medium.
Steve Elrod was an attorney for Burke, Weaver and Prell, a Chicago firm of about 40 lawyers. The firm was acquired a year ago by Holland and Knight, which has 1,150 lawyers in 28 offices nationwide.
Elrod said there was some concern that Holland and Knight would not embrace the smaller firm’s local government law practice in the suburbs. For one thing, public-sector clients are difficult to take on in a large law firm, he said, because billing rates for the public sector are nowhere near as high as the private sector.
“When we demonstrated the breadth of our experience and the quality of our local government representation and, ultimately, the revenue generated from this practice, the firm was quick to recognize it as an important area of the practice,” Elrod said.
Elrod, who had been with Burke since its inception, is now the practice area leader for the real estate and local government group in Chicago. “I personally have more management responsibilities at Holland and Knight,” he said.
Laura Bernhardt’s job description stretched like a rubber band after EBS Public Relations in Northbrook was acquired by the San Francisco-based Porter Novelli Group to create the Porter Novelli Convergence Group, the branded technology practice of Porter Novelli.
Before the merger, Bernhardt was a senior account supervisor who managed national business-to-business and consumer campaigns, selling business to high-tech clients. Now she is vice president of recruitment and business development. After the merger, management talked about the availability of “white space,” or areas to create new opportunity.
Bernhardt listened. “I said we’ve got a lot of new business. Recruitment and retention is a top need. So I became a dedicated recruiter. I went from closing business deals to trying to close candidates to our business,” she said.
Bernhardt, 43, of Northbrook, also plans special events.
“I knew there would be some changes. It was, `Do I sit back and wait for those to happen?’ or `Do I drive those?’ The only way to drive those is if what you want to see happen will meet the needs of the business,” she said.
Jim Heininger, general manager of the Chicago office of Porter Novelli, said the people who “got it” recognized the business strategy behind the acquisition.
“This is the direction it’s going. How do I support that?” he said. “The people who don’t embrace that struggle.”
If you want to be one of the people who “get it,” then you must:
– Find out everything you can about the new parent company. This includes learning the corporate culture and the language. Don’t rely on gossip.
– Align your goals with the goals of the company and assess the skills need. “The real meaning there is demonstrating your value to the organization,” Blom said.
– Grieve if you need to. Pick a grieving buddy, someone you can talk to at work. Then, let it go.
– Learn how to survive in ambiguity. There will be some unanswered questions in the beginning. Accept that as part of the transition and continue to do your best work.
– If you find that you don’t have the skills, be honest. “Ostrich behavior is riskier,” Annunzio said.
After assessing the new corporate culture and the career opportunities, if you decide the new corporate structure doesn’t fit your needs or your skills are lacking, you should think seriously about leaving. “You’re better off getting (severance) and getting the skills you need then to get fired later,” Annunzio said. “You shouldn’t work anyplace where you’re miserable.”
