The most important asset any business can acquire is the one most often overlooked and undervalued — the hearts and minds of its people.
Acquisitions can be complicated. Businesses cannot, however, lose sight of what should be the No. 1 opportunity any acquisition offers — a chance to impact the existing company culture.
By asking the right questions of the right employees, you can find out a lot about who and what you will be getting out of the deal. I like to separate these discovery questions into two buckets: strategic and values-based.
Bucket No. 1 — First, we ask what is the target business’s perception of Millcraft. I love this question as it always reveals so much. Will the employees be honest with us, given the uncomfortable position they are in?
Think job security. Or will they just say what they think we want to hear? Other questions are: How have they been competing with us if the company is a competitor? What do they see as their key strengths and weaknesses versus our key strengths and weaknesses? These conversations help guide our future efforts to correct any market misperceptions.
Next, we ask about the target company’s business strategy. What do they understand to be the direction they were headed and the key initiatives driving the plan? What is their opinion of their effectiveness? How do they see this acquisition fitting into the overall strategy? These questions help uncover whether these employees bought in to their current leadership team and if they would consider our retention of these managers a positive or a negative.
All these strategic questions help us to craft our overall communications and specific messaging during the acquisition to gain the employees’ confidence in our intentions.
Bucket No. 2 — Values-based dialogue helps us understand the values these individuals will bring to the Millcraft culture. How would they describe their current company culture? What are its positive and negative aspects? Is team success more important than individual accountability? These questions are always very telling, as they shed light on whether they will be a good fit or a disruption.
My grandfather once said to me, “Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that each day, you make sales calls on the people who work for you. If you don’t sell them on Millcraft, they will go someplace else.” I always keep his advice in mind at this stage of the values-based conversation to make sure they know we have their best interests at heart.
What are they most excited about in terms of the acquisition? What expectations do they hold? What are they most worried about, other than their jobs? Who are the most valuable employees to keep on board and why?
Asking the right combination of strategic and values-based questions provides a window into the hearts and minds of the most important asset you are gaining: your next employees. Listen carefully. What they have to say is invaluable to the overall success of any acquisition. ●
Travis Mlakar is president at Millcraft
