cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

The applications8. Institutionalize new approaches. It is vital to ensure that people seethe links between the merger or acquisition and success. If they havehad to work hard to make this initiative happen, they need to see thatit has all been worthwhile.THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUST WHENGOING THROUGH A MERGERWhen we were acquired by ITSS we were full of trepidation. Our previousowners had stripped us of costs and then looked around for a buyer. We felt abit used. So we were in no mood to start building trust.ITSS kept calling this deal a merger, but we were hugely cynical about that.They had bought us after all. This was a case of vertical integration where asupplier buys its customer to gain access to primary clients and grow the business.We thought they would start to take our jobs and move the company totheir own headquarters, around four hours down the motorway!The whole thing came to a head one morning when some consultants wererunning an integration workshop for the new management team. ITSS weregetting frustrated with our hostility. We were getting angry about their constantquestioning about finances and account management and project costs.Someone from our company was brave enough to share his emotions.The MD of ITSS, who is actually a pretty decent guy, sat down amidst us alland spoke quite calmly for about 10 minutes. He said, ‘Look guys, I will doanything to make this company a success. Anything. But I need to know whatI’m running here. I can’t take that responsibility without knowing all the facts.I really want us to make this thing a success. But I need your help.’After that we trusted him a bit more. Then things got better and better. Thatwas four years ago. Things have improved every year since then. He kept hisword, and that was really important to everyone.Project Leader, acquired company252