You are what you eat. Acquisition problems.

Timur Tatarshaov

There is such a thing as company culture, that exists in a big and small corporations. Big companies have to care about it more, because it makes a rhythm for all the employees. That’s why offices inside the companies create brand-books and guidelines for premises and way of settling the things in the workspace, including slogans on the walls, colors of the floors and content that should be created inside the offices like internal newspapers, magazines and subscriptions.

This thing is quite important and even though every employee is a unique person they as staff of the same company have something in common. Referencing some people for internal positions and imagining candidates in the offices and compare if they fit is a basic routine. There are even some guidelines for internal staff to check before they want to recommend someone. What happens if company acquires another, that existed already for couple of years? Internal cultures most likely won’t fit.

And it’s not certain what should be done with such a differences. On one hand there is possibility to teach new member culture of the purchaser, but on the other hand there is no clarity what it could do to it. It could break inner process completely or create dissonance in the values of the people who were driving the company before.

For instance, based on rumors, Facebook, having bought companies like WhatUp or Instagram, provided them with necessary contacts and resources, still having them in the separately and not to interfere with their way of making things.

But everything has more then one side. On the other hand, guidelines of big companies is something that limits their flexibility and pace of maneuvers. So acquisition is a fresh blood for those companies. Otherwise what’s the point, right?

Recent news: Microsoft acquires SwiftKey