McGill Dances for Cancer Research Lipdub

5 Quick Tips for Creating a Compelling Facebook Business Page

5 Quick Tips for Creating a Compelling Facebook Business Page

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART ~ Mike Rowland

FORGOTTEN TOO OFTEN - THE VALUE OF CULTURE IN MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

On September 11, 2001 America changed. From that day forward, who we are, how we live, what we value and how we see ourselves as global citizens changed forever.  In fact the entire culture of our country moved from one of openness, tolerance and safety to one of concern, fear and vulnerability. On the 10^th anniversary of that event, we all spent the day reflecting on what we have lost, but also on what we have gained. Because even with that horrific event that forced a major change in the American culture, we have come to realize that  not all that resulted was bad. 

As part of that reflection it is also a time to realize that other things change as well.  One of the most significant changes that occur in our lives is the culture of our working environment when the company that we work for is involved in a merger or is acquired by another company. While the changes resulting from this type of action are much less sudden and horrific, there is no doubt that the individuals who worked for either and/or both of the organizations that make up the new company are impacted; that the way they view themselves and their company will have to change. . As part of the series of articles that focus on the need for innovation and the resulting change this brings to any company, it is critical that we not forget that the culture of the organization will change as well.  This article brings awareness of the significance and importance of culture when two companies come together to make one. . More times than not, the people, that element that makes a company what it is just as DNA is the essence of individuals,  tend to be ignored.. If you say the word “Culture” around people familiar with mergers and acquisition deals you will likely get two schools of thought. One will acknowledge how important culture is to the success of the deal or two they will give you examples of misalignment that they witnessed or experienced.

Perfect Examples

Barbara P. worked for a mid-size company in the early 2000s that was sold to a large corporate conglomerate in the mortgage industry. She was in senior management and had helped the smaller company expand and prosper from earlier days. The CEO of the company was very gracious and kept her informed of what was going to happen and how they were going to be impacted, introducing her to key players of the new company. Of course, when the deal completed things changed. she got to keep her title and a compensation package was arranged so she didn’t lose anything and in fact got to sell more than the former core business. New boss, new processes, new training – all good but she was also told that there were many sales managers in this company (old and new) and territories were being restructured. She was now going to be focusing her business energy in a much smaller demographic and oh by the way, she could no longer service xxx or xxx companies who she had created strong, successful working relationships with over the years. The bottom line, she lasted four months and decided the new big company culture wasn’t for her. Since then, the big company acquired more companies and then started splitting business entities off and in the process lost a lot of really good people., Even today this company is feeling the impact of their failure in merging cultures.They continue to have a lot of challenges with customer service, customer retention, and morale of staff. Another mortgage professional shared that her experiences with numerous mergers and acquisitions in the past 13 years were both good and bad.. Poor communication became an issue when one party thought they knew everything and simply took over making decisions without considering the need to discuss them with others.. Her suggestion was that all parties involved in the decision process go into the project believing they can learn from one another and make a better, stronger, more efficient company. It’s here where cultural differences can be identified and addressed. Jeanne D., another mortgage professional we spoke to was involved in several mergers. One example was the acquisition of SourceOne Mortgage Services by CitiMortgage. As part of the Wholesale Management team, she was involved in the merger.  There were rumblings about the number of meetings on “best practices” and comments from leaders “that the bank was not going to change how we do our business. Staff who understood the merger and blended into the new culture stayed, others left.

One of the primary issues is that most organizations have not yet developed a structured process around integrating cultures. Why? Because culture involves the behavior of people, the business outcomes they produce and what influences the behavior - complex and difficult to measure..Too often only those who have been burned by not addressing culture, truly understand the value of investing time and money in cultural integration and change. Former CEO of IBM, Louis Gerstner wrote in his book Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance - “I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the game.”

What’s Common

 Most often, business leaders are focused on getting the deal closed. Integration teams tend to be more focused on getting structures, systems and processes integrated. They tend to forget that to actually make the deal work, the integration of the cultures also has to be a main focus. A company that typically does not place much value on communicating, and communicates infrequently or ineffectively, will be less likely to take the time to clearly articulate and share the real context of the deal beyond what goes to the market and press. Without a culture of open and regular communication, the company is less able to connect well with employees to gain their buy-in and support for what is required for success in the newly combined organization. Previous articles on multi-generation leadership have talked about companies with a strong hierarchical “command and control” style of leadership who are likely to find it difficult to accept or appreciate ideas from others.. If the other company has a collaborative style of leadership and culture, there will be a misalignment which will cause difficulties in completing the deal and could erode the value of the two merging together. And good people will probably leave from the company with collaborative leadership.

And Here are Some Facts

KPMG conducted a study on corporate culture and found that 83% of all mergers and acquisitions failed to produce any benefit for the shareholders. Over half actually destroyed the value of the transaction.. This study included over 700 deals in a 2 ½ year period. The results of this study showed the cause of these failures involved the people and cultural differences. If the mergers/acquisition involved foreign companies with different cultures, this caused even more failures. Success of mergers and acquisitions is based on operational change where most people concentrate and spend their time and focus.  This includes financial focus through valuing the assets, determining the price and doing the due diligence. Most processes stop here and the deals get done. Leaders tend to ignore or discount how the upcoming changes will impact people. Fear sets in, emotions come in to play, survival becomes a focus and because all these are human traits, they tend to be discounted as irrelevant to the business transaction. These human challenges need to be recognized and focused on before, during and after the deal is started and completed. Productivity, economic value and sustained growth can be negatively impacted if it’s not. How can this be productive you may ask and not cause mass hysteria or panic? If the leaders from both companies sit down at the initial stage of discussion and talk about what needs to happen during the process and how they are going to prepare for the changes, the success gauge goes up. Investment banker, Berkery Noyes predicted that mergers and acquisitions in the mortgage industry started accelerating in 2009 and will continue to do so for a several more years. We see this weekly in the banking industry when the FDIC publishes their Friday reports of bank failures and acquisitions. Vendors are acquiring more and more companies so they can become the “soup to nuts” providers for the banks and mortgage companies. Fidelity and First American have been doing this for years., Equifax, Inc. acquired Rapid Reporting, ISGN Solutions, Inc. acquired a division of FISERV.  Mortgage technology companies are joining forces enabling the combined company to offer efficiencies and new product offerings to their clients.

Because of more stringent lending guidelines, heavy government involvement through legislation and regulations, a paradigm shift is occurring where more emphasis is being placed on fraud prevention, quality risk compliance and risk-mitigating technology solutions. Noyes says there is huge opportunity in the mortgage technology arena for companies to merge and consolidate. Compliance and auditing solutions used to be considered “like to have” and now are considered “need to have” which means even more opportunity to continue to merge and acquire. The bottom line is that these types of transactions are not going away anytime soon.

Human Capital Institute conducted a study in 2007 on leadership and culture and the success of M and A transactions found that to have the best chance of success some basic approaches need to be followed.  Among these are:

             Leaders have to instill in their employees a level of commitment, engagement, confidence and comfort to work through difficult transitions. They need to inspire a sense of purpose, coherence, community and trust that allows employees to remain focused and highly engaged on the job. A recognized respected leader assuming a prominent, visible role can be a comforting anchor during a turbulent sea of change. These leaders can be instrumental in creating a shared culture that embodies the business strategy of the new combined organization. Transformational change is inevitable and can be disruptive. The acquiring company creates disruptions around boundaries – changes in goals, strategies, ways of doing things and customs of the old culture.  A good question to ask is “how is this going to be dealt with, with the least amount of disruption?

·         80%-90% of employee behavior is determined by the way leaders attend to these challenges. Employees look first to leaders for guidance about how to react and behave, for motivation and for focus. Employees want to believe that leadership cares about them. When employees are convinced that leaders genuinely do care about them, they become more open and willing to make necessary changes. Companies that foster a high degree of leadership visibility and involvement during the transition instill a supportive organizational culture with a better than average chance of success. What leaders say and how they act can inspire a shared sense of purpose, coherence, community and trust, which enables the employees to focus and to remain highly engaged during the M&A and post-merger integration. Working on this alignment during the first 90 to 100 days is crucial.

Human Capital Institute also reported a case study on the acquisition of CIGNA Corp. by Prudential Financial, Inc. (retirement services) – combined total of 2600 employees. Leadership was highly involved in every aspect of the integration and was highly visible to employees of both organizations. The president of Prudential was part of the integration team and led a “command center” comprised of eight business leaders (equal number from each company) who met daily to set direction and track the progress. The leadership team was announced and in place three months before the deal was completed. This team immediately focused on building an aligned culture, including a strong internal and external brand. The new company’s stock outperformed the Morgan Stanley Capital International index by 50% eighteen months after the deal closed, demonstrating the key role of leadership in providing positive direction and focus for the new business entity’s identity and culture.

So, what needs to change?

By taking time to dig in a little and talk, getting various perspectives from the leadership team and getting some clarity on what people’s roles and expectations are will bring a higher level of success to the deal. So, the question is how to get the leaders to embrace this concept of culture. Sometimes it will include putting ego aside  and reflecting on where they will define success in the merger/acquisition. Asking oneself, how important are the people in all of this and what is the legacy I want to leave or create?

Here are some examples of questions regarding culture that should be asked in discussions with the leaders:

·         What is the impact of the merged cultures?

·         How effective are the leaders in implementing the transition?

·         Because the landscape is changing rapidly, how is the company handling conveying the message to the staff?

·         What are the biggest challenges around the upcoming mergers/acquisition?

·         What will be different with the blending of the cultures?

·         With the combination old and new leaders joining forces, what needs to happen to blend the culture, acquiring respect and trust amongst each other?

Bottom line

Some leaders will take time to reflect and embrace the value of including culture in the process when they are considering a merger/acquisition. They will see that they can’t ignore culture if they want to create long-term success of the new merged company and will communicate to the people a clear message that they care and offer support and encouragement.

About the Authors

Barbara Perino, CPCC, ACC is a trained and certified professional executive and leadership coach. Barbara spent 16 years in the residential mortgage industry in regional and national sales management capacities for property valuation and residential mortgage service providers. One of her strengths and success is working with company cultures.

RJBWalzak Consulting, Inc. was founded and is led by Rebecca Walzak, a leader in operational risk management programs in all areas of the consumer lending industry. In addition to consulting experience in mortgage banking, student lending and other types of consumer lending, she has hands on practical experience in these organizations as well having held numerous positions from top to bottom of the consumer lending industry over the past 25 years.

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 [RW1]This says two schools of thought, but there is only one identified.  Is there another that you wanted to include?

 [RW2]You need a reference here

 [RW3]A study on what?

Over and Above

I want to talk about a couple of local restaurants who I feel go over and above regular customer service which can be somewhat lacking here in South Florida.

Casa Maya - I am a big, big fan of good Mexican food and Casa Maya produces fresh food made to order. It's a small little restaurant located in Deerfield Beach, FL in The Cove shopping center. Emilio is the proprietor and he makes sure that everyone who comes in to eat is greeted at the door and is taken care of. If you know him, you get a hug. He stops by the tables or his manager stops the tables and makes sure everyone is experiencing good food and their needs are met.There are no long waits for tables or food and prompt, friendly service.

Oceans 234 also in Deerfield Beach.  #1 - being able to sit right by the ocean and eat a meal and have a drink....you can't beat that. #2 great service, great food, great cocktails, friendly staff, prompt service, they keep the menu fresh and the environment fun. Always some theme or activity going on with live music, fresh decor, dancing, people watching, seasoned wait staff. I always recommend this place to out of town guests.

Trattoria Romano in Boca Raton. Newly redecorated restaurant located on East Palmetto Park Rd right before you go across the Intercoastal bridge. Owned by a chef who also owns Cannoli Kitchen, a fast food, fresh pizza delivery place also in Boca Raton. Trattoria Romano is romantic, has a new bar and the look and ambiance of being in Italy. The food is wonderful, so many dishes to mention. Professional wait staff who make sure your needs are taken care of, very attentive, want the diners to have a wonderful experience. Have to eat there before season otherwise you will have a wait and a reservation is a must.

Over and Above

Today I am going to talk about three companies who go over and above on their customer service, how they value their employees and who are run by inspiring leaders. The three companies are Zappos, Southwest Airlines and Tom's Shoes (FYI - Tom stands for tomorrow abbreviated).

I have forwarded videos and articles on Tony Hsieh who leads Zappos and the culture he has created so I don't think I need to say much more although I encourage people to go to their web site and simply peruse the site, especially the area of "who they are". Great company, young compassionate leader.

Southwest Airlines just appreciates their people and they hire people who fit into the culture they have created which is to take care of their customers and have fun in the process. Yes they have to get serious at times and deal with issues but they do it diplomatically and if there is a problem, you can go higher up to get resolution which doesn't happen very often. They are efficient, turn the planes quickly because the flight attendants clean up the cabins, your luggage gets there when it should and if not, they handle it. Bottom line, you know what to expect when you fly Southwest. They don't charge for the first bag and they don't charge if you have to change your flight (go to the website for more clarity on this). They have kept their business plan simple in the type of plane they fly (737s), the friendly staff, the snacks they give out, the boarding process, how you book - which is directly with them, no seat assignments, etc. My favorite airline although going cross country, probably not going to fly them as I know their limitations.

Tom's Shoes - a for-profit company whose policy it is to give a pair of shoes to the less fortunate for every pair they sell.  Innovative leader in Blake Mycoskie. Now is doing the same with eye wear and sun glasses. Hugely successful, well run, knows the value of helping others.

Over and Above

I am currently reading Howard Schultz's book "Onward" which is the story behind why he had to come back into the role of CEO of Starbucks overseeing day to day operations and the importance of culture, customers, society, sustainability, etc. So while I was walking on the beach this early a.m., a thought came to me to post comments on those companies and people who go over and above in customer service and caring. I decided to blog on who I feel fits into this category or who shows up in my life that I see makes a difference for others.

Starbucks has to be among the first I want to comment on as I have always been a fan of their coffee and the experience they create for customers. Not only do they instill passion into the partners who work there to serve the customers the best coffee experience but also they have created a wonderful space for gathering of all sorts of people from business people, students, housewives with babies, etc. People are on their lap tops, IPads, smart phones, doing homework, conducting business meetings, reading, etc. The company offers health insurance to all employees - full time and part time and stock options to the same mix of people. This is unheard of in most companies. They stay current on what the current trends are in their environment and what people want in drinks and food in their stores and make the necessary changes when needed.

Howard Schultz is an example of a great leader who cares about his staff, customers, he generously gives back to society and cares about our economy, community and the world.

What Are Some of The Thoughts of Leaders of Companies Identified as "Best Company to Work For in Florida?"

Here are some thoughts of executives who lead companies voted the best place to work:

- Creating an environment where people can be successful and motivated and not assuming leadership knows. This CEO conducts monthly breakfasts for staff (small groups) where questions are asked and thoughts are shared.

- Important that employees feel safe and secure about their future which in turns creates achievement and contribution. It's important that the company exceeds their expectations when it comes to employees.

-Creating a career plan for each employee which causes inspiration. Team environment is very important for problem solving and including families in gatherings is as well. Encouraging and rewarding skills development and implementing employee's ideas.  Encourage risk taking, inclusion in growth programs in the community; providing timely and accurate feedback; cross-training and job shadowing; building unity through employee-led community service initiatives is stressed.

- Creating an work environment where there is trust all around and people enjoy being there is important.

- Got to have good communication throughout the company. Have to have wellness programs and team building projects throughout the year.

- Training, training, training - we spend 20% of our time training both personal skills and project, tangible skills.

- Got to have fun in what you do; have to listen to your employees and make changes accordingly. Engage employee in task forces to help with change. All this creates more collaboration.

So, you can see that traits like open communication, trust, team work, having fun, respect for everyone and other values are showing up in companies described as great places to work. If you lead a company, step back and ask yourself if there is something here we can talk about and implement.

I have a lot of passion around being hired by a company that is growing and needs to set a plan in place from the beginning that is going to be a place where people thrive, contribute, talk, collaborate and respect each other and in the process build success.  If you know of a company that wants to Be like this, have them contact me.

Zappos' CEO, Tony Hsieh's Top 10 Ways to Instill Customer Service

Hsieh's Top 10 Ways to Instill Customer Service in Your Company

1. Make customer service a priority for the whole company, not just a department. A customer service attitude needs to come from the top.

2. Make WOW a verb that is part of your company's everyday vocabulary.

3. Empower and trust your customer service reps. Trust that they want to provide great service . because they actually do. Escalations to a supervisor should be rare.

4. Realize that it's okay to "fire" customers who are insatiable or abuse your employees.

5. Don't measure call times, don't force employees to upsell, and don't use scripts.

6. Don't hide your 800 number. It's a message not just to your customers, but to your employees as well.

7. View each call as an investment in building customer service brand, not as an expense you're seeking to minimize.

8. Have the entire company celebrate great service. Tell stories of WOW experiences to everyone in the company.

9. Find and hire people who are already passionate about customer service.

10. Give great service to everyone: customers, employees, and vendors