Get The Crowd Behind You

Mergers, acquisitions and especially hostile take-over bids require careful change management strategies to make the changes as painless as possible or to defend against unwanted attention. Disturbances require careful management and control. They can occur for any number of reasons and causal studies should be carried out to determine the nature of the problem. A variety of interventions are also possible depending on the desired end results. Motivating staff is of course extremely important and retaining key personnel paramount. Where a hostile take-over is concerned and giants go head to head for control corporate or individual interests may seriously undermine democracy and the rights of workers. It may also be a sign of deeper strategic differences and shifts.

Co-operation and partnership are two options open to directors and managers. The companies involved can combine resources and gain synergies, move down the experience curve, add critical capacity and competence and combine management experience and expertise. If not the social and human skills of public relations will still be required to keep people informed of the situation, add sign value and build social capital. The importance of cultural and moral norms cannot be underestimated. It is always better if you can get the crowd behind you.