Often mergers fail due to cultural conflict. To fare better at deals, businesses can borrow a few lessons from the world of bees, suggests Michael O’Malley in ‘ The Wisdom of Bees ’ (www.penguin.com). “Bees are able to do what seems difficult for us: enlarge their circle of friends and incorporate outsiders into the in-group. This, however, requires the assistance of a neutral third party – the beekeeper,” he adds.
What does the beekeeper do? He places comb from one hive into the receiver hive prior to introducing the bees themselves, or uses other procedures in which the scents from the two hives are gradually spread before the bees from the respective hives make physical contact, explains the author. That way, the receiver colony acquires a new chemical signature that reflects the odour of both colonies, and the new template allows the colony to accept bees from the donor hive and the donor bees to accept the presence of bees from the receiver hive, one learns.
The insight O’Malley draws from bees is that mutual acceptance requires mutual offerings, or reciprocity. Not too differently, a smooth merger, as he notes, entails recognition by the acquiring company that it is partly dependent on the acquired company for the future success of the new, combined organisation. For, “without the presumption of mutual benefit and actual exchange of what each has to offer, even financially sound mergers will flounder.”
Instructive read.
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