How to Take Over a Rotten Apple Company Without Poisoning Your Own Business
Sometimes a company acquires a rotten apple -- an outfit that may have amazing assets, but that's developed a habit of making all the wrong moves. Take Alpha Natural Resources. The coal company just completed its acquisition of troubled Massey Energy, owner of the mine that exploded and killed 29 workers last year.
Not only do managers have to cut away extra staffing fat, integrate the remaining employees into a new work culture and keep the wheels of the two operations moving, they also have the added challenge of dealing with damaged goods. Here's what should be on their to do list.
Remove the bad actors immediately
Thankfully, Massey Energy's pugnacious CEO Don Blankenship retired late last year. Unfortunately, his stink remains. Now Alpha must remove it or risk perpetuating a culture in which safety takes a backseat and profits trump all.
Alpha had reportedly planned to retain some top execs from Massey, a move that elicited concern from U.S. lawmakers. But now it appears the company has changed its tune -- a little bit. Alpha isn't retaining Massey's chief operating officer as originally planned. The company is holding onto Massey General Counsel Shane Harvey. Considering the impending legal battle over last year's fatal mine explosion, Alpha may need to keep Harvey for awhile.
Managers who were directly connected to failures at the acquired company should be the first to go. Then move on to other managers who are resistant to change. Beware the fakers, the managers who swoon and kiss ass. Chuck them immediately.
Group orientation!
Managers would be wise to put everyone -- even veteran employees -- through a general workplace orientation. It doesn't have to be fancy or take a lot of time. But it should involve everyone.
Even longtime employees forget the pieces of company policy. Sometimes they get tweaked over time, each employee putting their own mark on it until the policy is unrecognizable. Now here comes a new worker. Who does he turn to for advice? Not a manager, but his co-worker. After all, it's just a simple question. No need to bug the boss about it.
In short, low and mid-level employees must be on the same page as their managers if a company wants its operations to remain efficient, consistent, safe and profitable.
Find and keep the good apples
If there are good managers or employees at that bad apple company, it's worth keeping them. The trick, of course, is to pick the right people.
Integrating employees into a new work culture is one of the more difficult aspects of a merger. But a few well-placed managers from the acquired company can smooth out the transition. That doesn't necessarily mean laterally moving a manager into a similar position at newly merged company.
Sometimes it means finding great employees from the acquired company and putting them on track to become managers. The upshot? Top execs have greater control to mold them into the kind of managers they need and who will genuinely reflect its culture.
Photo from Flickr user Alison e Dunn, CC 2.0
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