MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Resource distribution systems
It was vital because of the concept of the merger of equals. I
mean, the whole merger would never have got off the board at
all if that had not been the main push. (Interviewee H)
Our perspective was that on paper this is a merger of equals, we
had to be able to punch above our weight to be able to achieve
equality. It was a bottom line really at the end of the day.
(Interviewee D)
If BIFU had said that as soon as we merge we are going to close
down two of the three, unless we were closing down this place,
the merger would not have gone ahead. (Interviewee K)
I think the big problem that they had was that I couldn't have put
up an argument for the head office to have been in one of the
existing three buildings. That, to me, would have been
completely wrong. Because if it had have been in Raynes Park,
because it was the only building big enough, and there was a big
enough problem with its appearing to be a BIFU takeover
anyway, then all that would have done would have been to have
done that. Even now, two years on, people still referred to
Raynes Park as HQ. And I make a point of saying "I'm sorry,
which HQ is that? My understanding is that there are three."
Oh yes, and they don't like it. They don't like it. And that would
have made that just a much, much worse situation. (Interviewee
B)
Although there may have been slightly more practical considerations as
well:-
Keeping the three head offices was about stability- it was about
staff essentially. That's an important factor. To have effected an
office move of any description is the quickest destabiliser of staff
of any description. The political decision and the management
decision is on the basis of saying 'we can't do anything about the
head offices because it will screw the merger up because it will
completely destabilise the staff.’ That's essentially why it was.
(Interviewee A)
One interesting aspect of the allocation of physical space in UNiFI has
been that, with the exception of two functional departments, open plan
space is not generally seen as appropriate. Functional managers speak
first:-
I'm about to knock out half a dozen walls at Raynes Park and
make one big open plan department. Our people just don't talk
with one another. They just don't talk, simple as that. They
could be doing something hugely important and nobody else
knows what's going on. And then find that another person has
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