When two businesses combine, company cultures can clash.
But that wasn’t the case when Cosentry acquired Xiolink, says Chris Scaglione, Cosentry’s regional vice president.
“The two companies had compatible client-first cultures, and the transaction was more like a merger,” he says.
Compatibility a plus
Cosentry, a Midwest provider of data center services, strengthened its capabilities by fully integrating Xiolink’s managed services, managed hosting, co-location and private cloud computing solutions. Besides St. Louis, Cosentry also has facilities in Kansas City, Missouri, Omaha, Nebraska, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
When the companies looked at their best practices it was easy to combine them because they were so similar.
“There was no major overhaul required,” Scaglione says. “It was very much a give-and-take and a tweaking.”
To reduce employee anxiety in a merger, he says honest, open communication is a key, along with setting expectations so people know what is coming. Some anxiety usually occurs, but it is par for the course.
“Fear of the unknown is always worse than what actually happens,” Scaglione says.
That tension, he says, lessens when a merger plan is carried out as promised and workers are kept informed.
Lending an ear
Scaglione says one thing is vital on the management side: how to listen.
“The importance of listening is greater than the importance of talking,” he says.
Regular roundtables and personal one-on-ones are also important to help mergers go smoothly. It takes time to get employees to help promote a company’s culture, Scaglione says.
Consistency in messaging and actions will reap rewards.
“You have to be consistent, and not have knee-jerk reactions to everything you hear,” he says.
“The employee attitude changes from that uncertainty to excitement, to the possibilities of much more rapid growth than any of us could have done on our own.”
The CEO’s role is to inspire confidence among workers, remain consistent and move quickly while remaining consistent in actions. The culture is going to affect a company’s ability to make decisions effectively and quickly, Scaglione says. If there had not been an embracing culture at Cosentry, initiated by CEO Brad Hokamp, its ability to decide quickly and react and anticipate customer needs would have been diminished.
“We are up almost 15 net employees since the merger in the St. Louis market, so whenever our clients coming to us saying what’s going on, we say we’re serving clients better with more resources.”
Money is not always available to help boost a good work culture, but there is always one way to decide if you are on the right track.
“Looking at it from the lens of your client is always going to yield the right results,” Scaglione says.
Cosentry’s 2014 St. Louis revenue is expected to be 19 percent higher than in 2013.
