You Have to Sweat the Small Stuff by Christina Cicchelli

“You Have to Sweat the Small Stuff”: Discussing Mergers & Acquisitions at The Leadership Development Panel
Mergers & Acquisitions can be a scary concept. When this daunting transition comes to mind, one can only fathom the amount of dramatic change that can happen in any business, both big and small. Redundancies, international mishaps and other “derailers” can make a merger a living heck! Luckily, today’s panel, Let’s Make a Deal: Shepherding the Human Asset Strategy Through the Merger Morass, tackled these issues head-on!

Moderated by EVP of Human Resources in Scripps Network, Chris Powell engaged in the common obstacles that he and his peers face during a merger. One major issue was the question of understanding and integrating two different cultures that possess two different business structures and philosophies. Eric Hawkins, SVP Human Resources of Discovery Communications, related the troubling task of translating Dutch employee contracts, a result of an international merger that was seemingly lost in translation. The issue of due diligence was a challenge for Senior VP of Human Resources at A&E, Rosalind Clay Carter, whom had to consider the various mergers that occurred within a single company: “Our investors decided it was a really good idea and the reality was there was no consideration involving the culture because it was consideration based on their prospective business needs.”

Such considerations obviously impact employees to a tremendous degree, as the changing of owners and philosophies directly affect an employee’s significance to that company. And, unsettling futures in an economically challenging landscape was definitely a hot topic. However, the panelists all proved that there are effective ways of making integrations run as smoothly as possible. In fact, the solutions were described in three words: Communication, compassion, and recruitment. All of these human resources representatives wanted to maintain a humane standpoint when handling the needs of their employees. For Raymond Gutierrez of CBS Television, he tries not to assume the needs of another company are the same as his networks based on cultural similarities: “We went in with a swagger that [sic] we were all from the same culture and that should do that. And it didn’t work out.” For Seepa Lee, VP of Employee Relations at Time Warner Cable instilled an integration period that would help her department “assess, identify, communicate, retain…” and move employees to appropriate locations that would suit their talents.

M&A is never an easy walk in the park. And the panelists did not sugarcoat this process. However, with each new trial and error scenario was an opportunity to learn from these experiences and make the next process as smooth as they can make it. And this Leadership Development session was an eye-opening look into how cable networks can effectively conduct integrations while ensuring that each daunting detail is scrutinized and hopefully smoothed out for a successful merger.