How to Survive a Corporate Merger
3. Promote yourself.
Don't think of yourself as a victim, telling yourself that you have no control over what is going to happen to you, advises consultant Cook. Be assertive. Even before the merger takes place, you can encourage your current superior to find out how your division will communicate with the new company. Does the new company like meetings? Memos? E-mails? Try to get a sense of the new company's operating rhythm.
After the merger takes place, recognize that you are starting all over again. "People try to hold on to the existing social contract they have with the old company, what they have provided the company in the past, how the company has rewarded them," says Cook. Mentally tear up that old contract, and devise a new one. You can't assume that your new superior will go through your personnel file to discover what great work you've done. You have to step forward and bring your talents to his or her attention, says Cook. "Don't try to tell her about all 25 projects you've been working on for the past year," he advises. "Approach her instead by asking, 'Would it be useful to talk about some of the projects I've worked on that were important to the previous management?'"
Patrick Donohue, principal in the human capital practice at Deloitte Consulting, says that when the dominant company thinks about retention, it apportions people among three groups: Some are irreplaceable; others will be terminated as quickly as possible. The real challenge is in the middle group, where there is a lot of overlap between the two companies in functions such as marketing, legal, information technology, and human resources. "You have to ask yourself why you are needed in the new organization and come up with an honest answer," says Donohue. "You've got to stop thinking in terms of continued employment and start thinking about how you increase the organization's value."
4. Know when to quit.
Maybe you really can't fit in or don't want to. "Certain cultures run against an executive's grain--are just contrary to his or her nature or style," observes Kingdom of KornFerry. "Maybe it's the right time to say, 'I'm mismatched,' and move on to another company." The tough part--in addition to locating that great new company--is acknowledging that what you are feeling is not just the normal discomfort and anxiety of adjusting to a new culture but a deep alienation from it. "People who have moved multiple times are better equipped to make that distinction," says Kingdom. "They have adapted, or tried to adapt, before and have their antennae up."
Give the new culture a chance, but leave as soon as you realize you are a misfit and before you become demoralized. Monty Palmer probably stayed too long at IBM. Palmer had been a managing consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers with an unusual specialty; he and his colleagues ran projects in overseas economic development funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. When IBM bought PWC in 2002, Palmer found himself in what he considered a frustrating and restrictive culture. "Compared with what I was used to, IBM was very bureaucratic," Palmer says. "Before, you brought an idea to a PWC partner, and if he liked the idea, you went ahead. At IBM you had to go through a series of approvals. No single person had the final word."
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