Mergers and acquisitions can be a problematic process when you’re trying to build a strong culture. Attempting to combine companies with different ideas of organizational cultures, ideas, and values is a daunting task to undertake.
In this interview, Brian Bentz, CEO of PowerStream Inc., discusses the company’s mergers and acquisition strategy and some of the struggles they’ve gone through.
Having won the 50 Most Engaged Workplaces, PowerStream has achieved success in building a strong company culture, even amid multiple mergers.
Brian talks about how to approach creating a cohesive culture post-merger:
“One of the things that is very important to establish upfront is the benefit that all of the stakeholders are going to see. If you have people who are concerned, whether it’s an owner or a customer or an employee who’s concerned about the repercussions of this transaction on them specifically, then that can potentially undermine the process. It doesn’t take many to potentially undermine the process.”
Therefore, you need to have a strong case for the direction you want to go in and have a clear vision for the culture you are attempting to establish.
Brian adds:
“It really is about having a very solid business case and making sure that everyone understands that business case and engaging especially the employees and letting them know, being honest with them, in terms of what the plans are going forward and how everyone will be treated. I think as long as you treat them fairly and you disclose that upfront, in advance, and give them advance notice of how you’ll do it, and then it diffuses the angst.
Tweet ThisCommunication and transparency are two really, really critical issues. If you’re truthful with people, and even if you have to deliver bad news, but if you’re totally truthful with them and you talk about how you’re going to manage it, how you’re going to try to address some of the barriers, people are much more accepting.
Communication is supposed to be a dialogue. It’s supposed to be two-way, and when you have that honest conversation with people and then give them the opportunity to provide feedback, it’s amazing what kind of great ideas they come up with.
When bringing two potentially different cultures together, PowerStream embraces the legacy of ‘you’re starting new, but you can’t forget the past,’ paying tribute to the past.
“Every organization is different, has its own culture, has its own strengths and weaknesses, but acknowledging that [is important]. Acknowledging the people who came before us who built those organizations to what they are today. Then thanking them for that. Then starting to look forward and being very positive about the future. Building that energy up to say that this organization will be better. Once you start rolling it out, you have to get to the granular level of work practices, and you have to be selective about it,” says Brian.
Culture is something that is very tangible, and you can see it, you can feel it when you walk into an organization.
When you start to listen to people, that communication dialogue we talked about earlier, how do you go about trying to internalize that? You’ve seen something works, now how do you make sure that it works across the organization?
“I think that we start with our compensation system—performance incentive system—to make sure that when we establish our corporate goals for the year that they filter down to the individual level. Right through the organization. We establish broad strategic corporate goals. They filter down into departmental goals, managerial, supervisor, staff. It’s all linked.
“Then once we do that, we have linkages, we have a planning session to make sure that the alignment and the resource allocation is appropriate because if you have every division doing their own resource planning, sometimes the requirement is greater than what you have available,” says Brian.
Part 3 of our interview will continue our conversation with Brian Bentz. We are going to talk about aligning goals and strategy post-merger.
Watch the interview video on YouTube
About Brian Bentz
Brian Bentz is President and Chief Executive Officer of PowerStream Inc. Originally from Thunder Bay, he has an MBA from McMaster and an honorary Bachelor of Applied Arts Degree from Georgian College. He’s also a chartered accountant as well as a certified engineering technologist. Brian played a pivotal role in the growth of PowerStream from its creation following the merger of three local electricity distribution companies in 2004, to the acquisition of Aurora Hydro in 2005 and the 2009 merger with Barrie Hydro.
About PowerStream Inc.
PowerStream was formed in 2004 when the hydro companies from Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham combined under the single umbrella of PowerStream Inc. Headquartered in Vaughan, and with an operation center in Markham, PowerStream has grown through mergers and organic growth to become the second largest municipally owned electricity distribution company in Ontario.
PowerStream is committed to providing its customers with safe, reliable and efficient service. In 2012, PowerStream was recognized as one of Greater Toronto’s top employers as well as 50 most engaged workplaces. You can find out more about PowerStream at www.powerstream.ca.
