Mergers

Mergers are dangerous beasts. Corporations that once thought they owned the space they operate in, decide that they have to merge with a past competitor in order to survive globally.

But it’s a reality in today’s world and we likely will see this increase as the greatest corporations in the world decide they must not have any competitors in their sector.

So when a friend of mine, let’s call him John, told me about a meeting that was about to take place between some senior executives and the subject is mergers, I was astounded when he mentioned that the order from the top was that they were happy to discuss anything in connection with mergers with the exception of employee wellbeing.

“Black and white photo of the downtown New York City skyline from Top of the Rock” by Anders Jildén on Unsplash

I have been involved in companies merging and I can confirm that the only things management focus on are, financial capital (includes lay-offs), machine capital and renumeration capital.

They never ever focus on the human capital. Well I have news for them, without human capital the organisation doesn’t exist.

I’ve seen plenty of losses during mergers, which occurred because the two production directors, the two financial directors and even the two HR directors could not agree on the best solutions.

Mergers are about the people, always.

Unless you have a plan in place for merging the people, properly, compassionately and sensibly, your business will take 5 years to recover from not having a plan.

Happy merging!

Michael de Groot

Bully

We’ve all been exposed to’ The Bully’, and they show up in many places around us. Maybe they were our parents, siblings, teachers, classmates, schoolmates, partners, banks, creditors, bosses, colleagues, governments, local communities, business interest groups, social groups, friends, social media, the internet and maybe you can think of others?

The fact is bullies exist everywhere in society.

Recently a friend of mine told me a story about his boss publicly challenging him, in front of his colleagues, in connection with what he was up to. It doesn’t matter what it was, the issue was he was doing it publicly in full view and earshot of his colleagues and likely on purpose.

“A black-and-white shot of a crying man in a suit and tie” by Tom Pumford on Unsplash

I’ve heard similar stories from my stepson from managers in hospitality and in a famous high street brand who sells electrical and computer goods.

The incidents don’t matter and in all the stories I’ve heard I know that workplace bullying is far from over. It may start in the playground and it definitely moves into the workplace.

Managers in the UK are seriously under-skilled in people-management. I remember when I used to be in management, there was a prediction that in 10-years time the biggest issue with skills would be management skills. Well we passed that d-day nearly 20 years ago and still we have not improved.

The trouble in all this is, my stepson never complained about it to his manager’s manager. Neither has my friend complained to HR or higher up. If we do not complain about the bullies, they will continue their bad bad behaviour. We all need to step up and stop the offenders. There never is an excuse or good reason for the behaviour that the bully believes is okay.

Happy reporting!

Michael de Groot