It’s More Than Just Systems and Silos; Culture Will Be the Fulcrum Issue. Comcast’s executives have their hands full successfully integrating NBCU into the family. It’s a sophisticated and complicated leadership process. The post-deal integration by necessity includes hard decisions about effectiveness and efficiency:
- Bring in the consultants to bolster the Human Resource and IT departments.
- Make purchase price accounting adjustments.
- Rationalize benefits, review contract compliance, orchestrate common vendors and users, duplicate payments… and more.
The process will take years – literally. It is a living hell for those involved. These decisions affect people’s lives and their sense of self-worth. In addition, if not managed with the utmost intelligence, the process will result in a teetering, sloppy product.
Most importantly however, the foundation upon which the post deal integration needs to be built is the corporate culture. Comcast needs to articulate what it stands for and its method of operating. The character of Comcast is embodied by the vision of the company’s founder, Ralph Roberts. It sets forth the ethical standards of Comcast and, accordingly, its managerial behavior.
The statement of corporate culture is not a soft, feel-good document. (The “Dare to be Great” speech, or the “There’s no I in Teamwork” speech – though two of my personal favorites – need to be mothballed.) It is a mandate, an absolute, and it demands adherence. It defines the corporation and dictates how the company treats its employees, its customers and vendors, and the community at large. It guides the discussion about centralized or decentralized decision-making, autonomy and freedom to develop and bring forth new ideas. As a result, information content and flow are determined. Finally, it allows employees a sense of common purpose, place and belonging.
The December 7th issue of Variety reports Chase Carey’s view of integration. Carey, who is Deputy Chairman, President and COO of News Corp., agreed with Jeff Zucker’s premise that content and distribution assets should work well together in the digital era, but added a caveat:
They can work well together only if they’re managed together, “not on an autonomous basis. Sibling relationships can be the most difficult.” Someone needs to bang heads together “and make everyone understand what those opportunities represent.”
It will not take long for these principles to manifest themselves and become recognizable to senior management. This way of being will smooth the difficult transition process.
Brian Roberts and Jeff Zucker are the faces of their respective companies. Both are educated, experienced and highly intelligent. However, even though their businesses share content and distribution, they are grounded in completely different cultures. The integration starts and ends with their ability to operate from the same playbook – that is Comcast’s playbook. Their public and intra-company activities must be consistent, genuine and transparent.
These two should consider hosting an all hands meeting as soon as feasible in which they set forth expectations for the coming months in a comfortable, affable, self-effacing manner. They are best served to genuinely acknowledge differences and points of departure. Explain the resolutions and compromises. Seek employee input. Implement employee suggestions.
We have not mentioned the battlefield bloodied with failed mergers in the media business. They all share one thing. Management took too much time on the details of integration and then in communicating these successes to the media and financial community. They failed to communicate plans, operating philosophy and expectations to the executives and employees of their own company.
My guess is that share price will be more positively affected by a strong cultural foundation than by the necessary but over-rated integration of systems and silos.
Robert M. Kreek is President of Kappa Associates, International, where he leads new ventures, growth initiatives, and reinventions of companies poised for growth.
