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Mergers and Acquisitions! Corporations consolidating left and right! First it's Citigroup, then Banc One, and now SBC! And many analysts agree that we're not even close to finished! So if M&A; is a bear that could be heading to your corporate neck of the woods, it might not be a bad idea to be prepared.
For starters, accept the inevitable. Before you retire, YOU WILL be a part of at least one M&A;, maybe ten or twenty. It's just the way it is. Companies are assembling and disassembling like Lego blocks, and yours will too.
Of course, understand that many mergers & acquisitions never impact you directly. They're only on paper. Fodder for the stock ticker. A bunch of suits playing Monopoly somewhere on Wall Street. Unless you're the office manager in charge of ordering letterhead, these M&A;'s are the most painless.
Of course, many mergers are not so kind. They usually come along with lots of pink slips. Your first line of defense is to diversify your skill set. If you're a utility player, your survival rate will be much higher than if you're a specialist. So what if they decide to eliminate the basket-weaving quality assurance department? You're also a skilled basket marketer! Swim on over to the marketing lifeboat!
Another thing to keep in mind is that many enlightened HR departments will work hard to find you another job or pay for your education. So sit back and enjoy your FREE underwater basket weaving classes while collecting unemployment. In no time, you'll be more competitive in the marketplace than you were in the first place!
But let's say your job has been eliminated with no HR hand-holding. Fine. Go work for the competition! Of course, you should realize that the competition will either own or be owned by your soon-to-be-former company anyway.
Let's say you stick around for the M&A.; Beware of the inevitable and notorious "Corporate Culture Clash!" You wear jeans to work. They wear slacks. Your president likes post-modern sculpture. Theirs likes Norman Rockwell. Your company has burrito day in the cafeteria on Friday. Theirs has Chinese. Can't we all just get along?
And if you can't take all the M&A; BS, there's always self-employment. Not only is it rewarding, it allows you to speculate and plan for merging with or acquiring other companies like your own.
Charles Marrelli is a writer working out of his company's (recently acquired) Chicago office.
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