7 Moves to Protect Yourself During a Merger Or Takeover

7 Moves to Protect Yourself During a Merger Or Takeover


It’s not about just your job

As the two companies become integrated, your career is in play. That’s what you have to pay attention to. The impacts of any M&A are bigger than simply your job.

So many scenarios are possible.

• There could be redundancies in manpower in functions ranging from law to marketing. That means your job could be eliminated. That could happen whether your company has been acquired or it’s the one initiating the takeover.
• You could remain employed. However, your job is changed significantly. You have to make the decision to adjust or begin a search for a position outside the company.
• Maybe the emerging organizational culture is no longer a good fit for you. Staying there could damage your personal branding. You must leave.

Here are 7 moves on how to protect your overall career:

1) Assume you’re fired today. That mindset forces you to be proactive. You will make a to-do list of everything that’s necessary to begin a search for a position outside that company. That ranges from updating a resume to networking. What’s most important is learning how much the search process might have changed since you last looked? You may not have to “pull the trigger” on a hunt. But, being prepared puts you in a position of strength, no matter what goes down. You are calm, can make better decisions and will be able to negotiate.

2) Do your homework while the M&A is still on the drawing board. Completing the deal takes time. It’s obvious which company’s values, strategies, methodologies and terminology will dominate. If that’s not your company then you have to understand how it gets things done. You can access that information and insight from media coverage, reading security analysts’ reports if the company is public and asking your contacts. If it’s the company you’re with then you have to identify what will be adopted from the partner. For example, the latter is valued for its cloud technology. Then you have to do a deep dive on that. Having this knowledge base equips you to present yourself effectively in the shifting environment.

3) Accept that the past is over. The reality is this: The goodwill you established with superiors, the reputation you built and the promise of future rewards no longer exist. Don’t even mention those. Don’t complain. Doing that creates the perception that you are part of the “old order.” The easiest way to mirror the new order is to use its style of communications, including its buzzwords.





No Settling In

You might like to look forward to the day when the dust settles and your work life returns to normal. Post-M&A, that’s not bound to happen. That’s because the tough nut to crack is integration of the cultures, systems and people. That could take years. During that process, every aspect of your job could continue to change. No, don’t anticipate settling in.

Be Well!





