I recently dealt with a company in the US which had recently been purchased. They used to be a part of a gigantic and well known corporation and they were acquired by another gigantic but unknown corporation.
I dealt with both sides during and after this take over. So I had a unique perspective of what was going on.
The senior management of the acquired company seemed to be in shock. They seemed to think that the music was still playing the same song - only they now had a different partner.
They spoke of the way "they" treated people, their strategies, their culture and their internal succession planning approaches. It was all a bit sad really.
Since then hey have been restructured, downsized, and their various divisions now report to centralized figures in the new company. I am sure they understand what has happened now.
Often we refuse to understand the changes that we are part of. We keep doing what we used to do, we continue to use the same sales techniques, marketing strategies and engagement techniques without realizing that they no longer work.
Offering to help companies increase revenues in markets defined by falling demand is a fools errand, behaving as if you were still an employee is dangerous, and marketing as if it were still 1950 is a quick way to exit the world of small business.
We are in a period of very dramatic change. In five years we will be cynical about Obama, looking at alternatives to Google, processing most business information online, and wondering how we ever thought email was a good idea.
Ready?
