Securing Current and Future Business

The most important task here is to insure that the new company becomes functional as quickly and as smoothly as possible. It is, therefore, essential to decide as soon as possible what has to be done, how it has to be done, and who is responsible. Thus, the new organizational form must be selected at a very early stage, management personnel has to be selected fairly and quickly, and responsibilities must be allocated to the relevant managers selected. 

Choosing a new organizational form is not a problem when the companies involved already have a similar structure. But where they differ, a single structure has to be chosen for the new business, and that is not always easy. 

When it comes to staffing, the entire executive/management board and the CEO - in other words, the top management level - are almost always named at the very beginning of the merger. The second and subsequent levels, however, are often more difficult to fill because the members of the executive/management board are usually only familiar with the employees from their own organizations. 

Personnel selection can take place in one of two ways, depending on the management culture. One way is for the executive/management board to make top-down decisions. However, a structured selection process can also be used in which each company nominates two or three candidates for each position, and these candidates are then interviewed by their respective supervisors and by the human resources director. Very often, some human resource consultants are involved in the process as well. The evaluation is ideally performed along defined criteria and should be as objective as possible. 

There is no one right answer either to the organizational structure or to the executive selection process of management. These elements depend very much on the cultures the two companies are accustomed to. Furthermore, the best organizational structure will vary depending on the future objectives of the business (see Chapter 10). Whatever decisions are taken, however, they have to be taken fast. 

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