One of my mentors, Christian Simpson has a saying, “Your business is not your business – your business is the thinking you bring to your business!” Talking about thinking, I’ve been thinking about the company I used to work at for many years and specifically the amazing growth and success it has achieved. For more than 20 years I watched as numerous acquisitions we made and integrated into what has become one of the largest technology companies in the world
As the company grew so the industry changed. Technology companies have had to navigate major shifts over the last 20 years. Tech companies have had to adapt from products to services to managed services, the Internet to Cloud to digital and now new technologies like automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and analytics means everything will continue to change. These are discussions for another day. What I want to mention today is the interesting fact that as the company I worked for was making all these acquisitions, some worked extremely well and others failed spectacularly. While there can be many reasons for this, I noted that one type of acquisition always failed and the best way for me to describe this is as follows.
Some acquisitions grow the company and some are for the company to become. When a company is growing it requires a business-as-usual approach to integrate the acquisition. Everyone is on the same page and integration means consolidating resources, solutions, clients etc. Challenges are easily addressed by integrating and moving data from one system to another. It’s not easy but because the focus is on growth everyone can quickly refocus.
When an acquisition is made, to become, a completely different challenge faces the company. This is like adding new attributes to the company, attributes that need to be preserved as-is and any attempts at integration will result in a loss of the very essence of the acquisition. I watched as great companies, leaders in their field, with amazing offerings were slowly dismantled and the company’s sales team became stronger, engineering was enhanced, leadership was enriched but the very essence of what was acquired slowly disappeared and the entire “new” offering ceased to exist.
How does one then acquire to become? I thought of Christians quote that “….your business is the thinking you bring to your business”. Could this mean that what needs to be retained is the thinking that exists within the acquisition? I recall those good acquisitions were due to the rapid integration of those companies into the new company. Branding was removed, product and service offerings were replaced and systems and processes were moved over to the main company’s. What was being done was to get the acquired company to now be like the new company and that would include thinking like the new company.
Put simply, acquiring, to become, is not easy and will need to involve preserving the thinking and the culture and adding it to the main company. This way the company has the opportunity to become something bigger but also broader with more to offer.