Archive for November, 2009
Posted on 24 November 2009. Filed under: Tips & Suggestions |
It just came to my attention that a blog on BNet UK has discussed how to survive a mega merger — the kind that everyone’s talking about after Kraft made its offer for Cadbury and now Hershey and Nestle are possibly in the fray as well. Titled ‘How to Survive a Mega Merger‘, it focusses principally on advice for the senior management and advisors, but has some tips for all employees as well.
These mega deals certainly do get a lot more press, but actually your chances of being made redundant in a very large deal may just be less (percentage-wise, at least) in the short term than with smaller deals. Most of the smaller deals will see immediate activity when the deal’s closed. People will very quickly know whether they will be fired or retained (and some are retained for a while but will be told that they will have to leave, usually after the integration is complete).
In the larger deals, these redundancy decisions usually take longer to make and then also to implement. At least this gives you some time to prepare — along the lines of what is discussed in the Surviving M&A book.
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Posted on 6 November 2009. Filed under: Stories about surviving M&A deals, Tips & Suggestions |
Much of this website and blog is about how to reduce the chances of being made redundant if your company is acquired or merges. But as I’ve also noted both here in earlier blogs and in my book on surviving M&A, most mergers result in 10-15% of the employees and managers being fired, so there will be some people who ARE going to leave the firm. Some will see the handwriting on the wall and leave voluntarily, but most will wait to collect their redundancy and termination packages.
So, what to do if you are one of the unlucky few to leave? (Although note the advice in the book that you might just be one of the LUCKY ones if you leave, as most mergers and acquisitions ultimately fail and the deal may be the impetus you needed anyway to move on to something better.)
There actually IS life after redundancy or being fired. There’s a useful, short article written by an executive coach in Yorkshire saying exactly this (‘Life after redundancy‘) in which she says: ”The good news is that people can move on after redundancy. Even better news is that only one out of all the people interviewed said that he’d have his old job back, given the chance.’ Read the article, but note that she does have several excellent suggestions, including
- Don’t rush into another job too soon. Use your time to think about what you really want and don’t want.
- If you want to do something different, go for it. Don’t be put off by re-training. It’s an experience in itself.
All very sound advice!
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Surviving M&A 