Greg,
I definitely share your fears of turf battles. Anytime when you have a merger, certain projects have to be cancelled, certain directions have to be changed, and certain culture will be modified. For example, it is very tough on a team if its 6-months project has to be cancelled. If not well taken care of, this merger can be very disruptive. But I think this scenario is unlikely.
From an emotional stand point, both ISI and WRS have been beat down. The merger creates a rising star, one that people will have hope for, and one that people will want to stick around at. What is important is that the WRS top management will be in control, meaning Fidler and St. Dennis. It is important for them to define top management talents in ISI and do everything they can to make them happy at what they will be doing. And of course, give them sizable incentives for performance. Already, with the merger, INTS options are looking much better. And don't forget that we are growing too fast to not to be able to contain even some very LARGE egos. The likelihood of top talents and crucial people leaving is small.
If we can keep the talents, then we need to make sure that they will be doing something productive. Looking at WRS' execution in the last 10 months, which has been a tough 10 months, Filder had done a great job in restructuring the company and focusing on different sectors of the embedded world. If he and the management could do what they have done in the last 10 months, the merger should go smoothly.
(The following are my guesses.)
Fidler already has very specific plan for what to do with each piece of ISI. This merger is the second step of the restructure started in 1999. This plan started many months ago. Remember St. Charles quitting ISI, I believe the talk had started before that. So if my guesses are correct, the big road map for the merged company is already approved by top people on both sides.
Khan |
