Monthly Archives: December 2020

A letter from Tel Aviv-the end of the plague is in site

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Shutdown number three starts on Sunday. Luckily nothing in Israel is as it seems, so little enforcement is expected. The 1000 meter parameter in which one is allowed to wander is not enforced; the police  blockades leave one lane open yet the cops are busy texting in their patrol cars.

Stores are closed, except those that are open. True, it is hard to procure service of any kind, but that has always been the case. Just last week, a technician showed up two weeks after I bought a new washing machine to install it, since I cannot even unscrew a light bulb.

On December 29th, I will get my first corona shot at the Shuali Infirmary, which is situated on land which used to belong to my family, procured from the Turks in early 1917. Right near that clinic, there is a street named after our family. Uncle Jack (my grandfather’s brother) and Auntie Ida (my grandfather’s sister) are heroes of mine. Uncle Jack once went to the province of Syria to buy tobacco seeds in the 1920’s. Auntie Ida spent a lot of time caring for Jewish and Arab orphans in Jerusalem before she married and became a farmer’s wife and mother. Oh yes, and she wrote for the Palestine Post.

Rarely have I been as excited as I am to get vaccinated. All my life, but especially since my wife died, I have suffered from hypochondria, so I always take all my shots right on day one. Nevertheless, it is with great trepidation that I roll up my sleeve and I  always look away. This time, I plan to look at the needle to watch the process, and perhaps yell out, hallelujah bother.

Three weeks after my first vaccination comes the second, and then I am out of the woods. But I’m not going back to the status quo ante. For one, I have stopped watching the news. I stopped cold turkey one month ago; I had no withdrawal symptoms, just relief. I stopped not because of the news, but because of the quality of journalism. I have also decided not to vote again in any election and since I have never voted for a candidate who has been it elected, it’ll be no big loss.

Have I  retired from life and am I slip-sliding away? Hardly. I have a very active professional practice, my two blogs have huge readership, I read all the time, and I hereby declare that I addicted to several Netflix series, including Better Call Saul, Casa de Papel and historical documentaries.

The various shut downs have taught me to enjoy “emptiness” and quiet, to revel in doing nothing from time to time, to rejoice at the lack of pressure in my life, and to cultivate friendships with people all over the world based on preference and not necessarily  geographical propinquity. This is a huge gift.

I miss my grandchildren something awful, but soon this longing  will be over;  when I get my 2nd shot and restrictions are eased , I will wing it to Palo Alto as well as drive over to my daughter (who lives close by)  to sit in her living room, not on the porch as if in in a leper colony.

For me, this plague has brought pain and perspective, in equal measure. The end is near.

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After an acquisition, the organization caste system changes (updated)

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An acquisition is not a tea party — especially if you happen to be on the acquired side. Beyond the few individuals who pocket a substantial payout from the sale, most of the acquired team’s former leaders find themselves stripped of their status: gradually or suddenly, formally and informally, visibly and invisibly, physically and emotionally.

The acquired company’s leaders now have new masters — and those masters aren’t just the people in equivalent positions at the acquiring firm. Every employee of the acquiring company becomes part of a new “colonial power.” A few examples make this concrete.

An acquired CFO — likely demoted to Business Unit Financial Officer — must contend not only with a new boss, but with the attitude of every finance employee who operates from the assumption that “we bought you, so do it our way.”

An acquired HR manager will find access to key stakeholders quietly blocked. Programs from the old company get labelled “legacy” and eventually killed off. Language, job titles, and perks are all realigned to match the norms of the new ruling class.

Engineering management will impose new tools and procedures, hampering the very innovation that may have justified the acquisition in the first place.

IT system changes will make daily work a nightmare for months — sometimes longer — turning even the simplest tasks into ordeals.

In short, the leadership caste of the acquired company is decimated, while somewhere in the background an organizational development consultant plays a soft tune about “merging two cultures into one.” That narrative is one of the great myths perpetuated by HR and the consulting industry.

That said, some people in the acquired company do gain status — sometimes more than they ever held before:

  • If the acquiring company is Chinese or Israeli, Mandarin or Hebrew speakers in the acquired firm suddenly carry more weight than they previously did.
  • Those who were especially cooperative during due diligence — including anyone who disclosed weaknesses of the acquired company — may be rewarded with elevated standing, whatever their colleagues might privately call them.
  • Key account managers get a natural pass into the new ruling class, by virtue of the client relationships they own.

At the societal level, caste structures take centuries to shift, if they shift at all. Inside organizations, the same dynamics play out at a vastly accelerated pace — which is precisely what makes acquisitions such a revealing lens through which to study caste reassignment.

Is any of this inevitable? The process is fundamentally Darwinian. But thoughtful post-merger integration planning — which realistically spans up to six years — can meaningfully reduce the damage.

 

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