Friday, June 8, 2007

Insanity...

...ensues when uninformed, semi-intelligent persons project their ideas of what "should be" on the shoulders of a company who, for lack of a better way of putting it, has recently assimilated a new company. Ideologically, in these persons mind, the buyout should equal the immediate takeover, integration, and co-development of completely NEW products; forsaking the old, already-in-the-pipeline developments that have committed funding, etc.

What said persons don't understand is the assimilation process that has to be done when Company A takes over Company B. Fundementally, the following has to take place:
a.) Corporate Systems (HR, IS, IT, et al.) have to be aligned and integrated. Depending on the size of the companies, this can take several months to several years.
b.) R&D budgeting has to be cleared and re-established. Again, pipeline projects, unless they're deemed untenable are allowed to complete their cycles before funding is removed.
c.) Staffing Re-alignment. Cut-and-burn still happens but culling selectively amongst the ranks can take time to weed out less profitable members of the assimilated org. Oftentimes, financials will suffer for several quarters based on the overhead amongst staffing, acquired debt, etc.

It's a short list but honestly, tremendously impactful to a company trying to grow themselves.

-Dave out.

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