Awesome Opportunity of Change

When a merger of two strong companies is imminent, employees, supervisors, and executives often share the same unwelcome vision of the organization’s future: anxiety surely is bound to climb, enthusiasm certainly will plummet, and the values and systems that these good people in both companies have carefully created most likely will be trashed. Following the merger, the impact on sales can be brutal as sales forces are forced to learn quickly about new products and new systems for selling them .

If the merger is well directed, however, the environment of change it introduces actuallywill serve as a suitable and timely framework for personnel training. It also willprovide rare opportunities for building new leadership and creating a healthy degree of motivation, engagement, and commitment for everyone it touches.

This story about two companies has been fictionalized, but it is based on an actualcorporate merger. The issues and opportunities we discuss here are derived from dozens of true situations we have watched in recent years.

We would like to introduce you to Szemsted Industries of New Jersey, a leading developer, manufacturer, and seller of prescription pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare products. Szemsted is a public company with worldwide annual sales of about $30 billion, a promising group of pharmaceuticals in the new-product pipeline, and a good record of success in obtaining quick FDA approvals for new medicines.

“We are dedicated to supporting mankind’s search for healthier lives through innovative pharmaceuticals,” the company said in last year’s annual report. The chairman’s letter said that this work, and the interests of the company’s shareholders, could best be achieved by strong organic growth and by continued acquisitions.

Last year, in an effort to provide a boost to the development of new pharmaceutical products, Szemsted acquired Watson-Baker, a smaller rival. Important to Szemsted, the deal also brought a balance to the company’s consumer healthcare portfolio by taking it into key niche areas such as weight loss aids. In addition, the deal strengthened Szemsted’s positioning within its broader market, both in the U.S. and abroad.