Last month, The Financial Times UK had a short article called: Can the new CEO end a culture clash after a merger?  To begin there was no analysis of any cultural / DNA due diligence which would lead to the proper culture strategy but that is a discussion for another time and to be fair beyond the scope of this piece. What was particularly interesting and enlightening was the take from four perspecitves:

  1. The Academic: Maintaining the illusion that there were no losers in the merger merely sustains conflict.
  2. The Executive: Embrace, not avoid, the strengths and differences of your global constituents, and turn them into a competitive advantage.
  3. The Consultant: The key is to describe a new culture that draws on the best of the past organisations but shows a more attractive way forward.
  4. The PR: His first task will be to ensure a collaborative leadership team. They must agree the corporate “story” for the company, what it is and where it is going, and articulate this vision to staff.
At 1-Focus, we do not share the views of the Academic or Consultant.  We are more in line with the Executive but it is the comments of the PR that was most interesting.  She talks about her approach as “help create a common culture”.  We do believe that the first step is a Shared Vision in order to work towards creating a New Identity.  It is this New Identity that begins a Culture of Engagement that is neither the best or worst of the old culture but something new and different which builds upon the stories and histories of the past.