Life lessons come in many forms and this week has been no exception. All week we have been introducing the three horses in our herd to two new friends. They have been meeting daily over the fence like getting to know each other before we eventually put all five horses in the field together. Watching their behaviour over the past few days has been amazing. My older horse, Toby, who is currently the leader of his group, has been over-dominant with the new horses. Snorting and really establishing himself as the head honcho in charge of everything. He has actively been stopping his best friend, Charlie, engage in any way with the other horses. It has been so tiring watching him all day preventing Charlie from going near the other horses. He has to be aware all the time where Charlie is and then move him in the other direction. Charlie, I sense, is really bord of this but quietly acquiesces as he is not the type of horse to engage in confrontation.
There antics remind me strongly of the challenges that come about when two companies integrate. One group often wants to dominate and acts in an assertive fashion whilst the other group complies, not having the strength for the battle right now. Like Charlie they decide to go with the flow until things settle down. What to me is interesting is that Toby’s dominant behaviour is not his natural state and in fact I would go so far as to say that the only way he is behaving this way is because he is scared. Scared of losing his friends and his position in the herd. And I bet that is what happens when companies merge. Fear drives behaviour as we want to maintain security and keep things just the way they are. Yet we all know that without change no organisation or individual will develop and grow.
My own experiences of being part of a corporate merger comes from when Andersen UK (formerly Arthur Andersen) was acquired by Deloitte UK following the Enron fiasco. Whilst with hindsight the merger went relatively smoothly there were power plays occurring all over the organisation as each company vied to maintain their system and solution because it was better than what the other party had. What was interesting was the way that some people ran scared. Afraid of what might happen they sought to surround themselves with allies who could ensure that they would be protected – in much the same way that Toby is protecting himself by controlling Charlie’s loyalty to him. However, in the end was this strategy effective. Possibly in the short-term, but in the long-term I would suggest not as people (just like Charlie) do not want to be manipulated. I’ll be really interested to see what develops over the next few weeks and to see whether Toby’s strategy pays off or if it will come back to haunt him.
Have you ever been involved in a corporate merger/take over and if so how did it go. Love to read your comments below.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
