Mergers and acquisitions can be convoluted endeavors, and the bigger they are, the messier they can get and the harder it is to keep everyone in the know. Booz & Co. principal Christopher Hannegan and Sean McDade, founder and CEO of PeopleMetrics Inc.,
highlighted this particular issue on our Deal magazine site.
They say employee matters are usually considered a soft element, with no real analysis undertaken to concretely measure employees' concerns, aspirations and dedication to seeing the merger through. Hannegan and McDade analyze what to do throughout the whole deal process, suggesting that surveys and other feedback instruments like focus groups, hotlines and blogs, for example, established before any merger announcement or rumor, provide the best baseline from which to begin.
One company Hannegan and McDade may admire is the world's biggest steelmaking company, ArcelorMittal. Back in boom time last year, the steel giant was
doing deals left and right. With more than 320,000 employees in more than 60 countries, communicating strategy at the firm was a difficult task, and Arcelor had a unique way of doing it: creating a Web TV series that was launched after Mittal's $33.5 billion takeover of Arcelor in 2006. -
Baz Hiralal
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