Hi, ^[redacted]‌ - I look forward to seeing comments from others on your questions. In the interim, you may wish to check out our interviews. You can find them by searching for "Searchfunder Interview" (in quotes). or clicking on the Interview tag under browse posts. A few interviews quickly come to mind for me in thinking on your questions:
* ^[redacted]‌, The Importance of the Right Incentives and the Right Talent, https://www.searchfunder.com/post/the-importance-of-the-right-incentives-and-the-right-talent
* ^[redacted]‌’s Betting on Your Success https://www.searchfunder.com/article/viewarticle/1956
* ^[redacted]‌'s Gaining Traction https://www.searchfunder.com/post/gaining-traction-as-a-self-funded-searcher
* ^[redacted]‌'s, A Marathon, Not A Sprint https://www.searchfunder.com/post/a-marathon-not-a-sprint

Thanks, Karen! That's helpful.

Hi Anne - I have some relevant experience both in managing people you didn't hire and post acquisition transition. Happy to chat offline any time. I could type up a book if I try to answer your questions here :)

Anne, it depends....from my experience if you are a traditional searcher, most SF investors don't want you rocking boat too much within the first year. Others have a strong 100 day plan of finding those people immediately and trimming down to bring in new talent and make all your big changes quick and fast. Hope this helps in some small way.

You will spend 80% of your time as a new CEO/Owner dealing with some form of people issue, regardless if you hired or inherited them. One could say that if changing the culture is high on you priority list, then starting fresh is an easier path, however be mindful that most of the time the people who work in the business are the ones who keep the business ticking along and probably were a main driver of getting the business to where it is. Best advice I was given, is to just SLOW DOWN, you are going to want to change things from day 1, but you probably shouldn't, It very hard to exhibit this control especially after you have done your DD and created strategy decks after strategy deck and want to move fast in an enthusiastic manner, but the aim is for slow and consistent growth at the start, learn the inner workings of the business that you have acquired, learn about the people that that will become your soldiers and when you figure our what soldiers you need then decide the best course of action

I feel like I can write a book about this from my recent acquisition. Ironically I wrote a template for myself for my next purchase. Again, this is my experience and what I have learned. Everyone's experience with this subject will vary. Sorry if this format is confusing. The points below are meant to be bullets. I hope this helps.


"What I learned"


· An existing Culture cannot be changed · The current staff will not trust us · People like to stay in their comfort zone · Having a proper employment contract is vital · You need to set the tone with employees early and create boundaries · There are many unknowns that I was unaware. · Luck will play a hand in success and failure · How essential to have capable leaders or players within the organization who is willing to change and buy into a vision


"The mistakes I made"


· I did not make clear boundaries with key staff in the beginning. · I didn’t drill down enough into the skillset and characters of the staff. If I had, I would have probably realized that some couldn’t be trusted, and they lacked the skill set needed for success. · I should have brought in more help or consultants in the beginning, once I realized there were problems in the operations. his was because I lacked an understanding of the business dynamics. · We didn’t take control over the IT, passwords, and admin duties such as billing in the beginning · I couldn’t figure out a way to build their trust and sell them on my vision · Didn’t get rid of the toxic employees sooner

"Things we did right"

· Put Key employees on Retainment contracts and hedged our downside by putting incentives for the owners of the key employees stay· Made key hire, in the beginning, to make up for current staff weakness and a hedge in case of termination. · Set up incentive bonus program right away


"What will I do next time"


•Put clear boundaries at the beginning of the takeover stating my intention of keeping this company for the next 100 years and how the success of this company past and present depends on them. Everyone will have a fair shot if you don’t fit the culture you won’t be here. Be honest and upfront. Define who will be in charge and who reports to who (This will be hard but rewarding in the long run) · Properly access key employees, preferably before or during the due diligence phase. Use skill and personality test. Bring my key staff to access. · In the first week of transition take control of all IT passwords, accounts, and controls that any current key staff · If I don’t have a clear understanding of the business and or industry hire a consultant · If there is a leadership problem or a bad apple, get rid of immediately. The employees who have all the power are the risky ones and immediate start cross-training and take away control from the bad apple. · Constantly reinforce the vision, goals, and culture (if they have any then use the existing, mainly if it works). Hang this up and make it clear. · Listen to all employees, empower them, ask them what would make this company great, and find out what motivates them, and incentives based on these.

I scared off a small business owner by going in with a long due diligence list. He didn't directly balk at the due diligence itself, but it was the beginning of the end for the deal.

I lead a 10 member team in a post-acquisition consolidation project in a previous role. The company was extremely blue-collar (welding industry) and the staff was mostly front line workers[redacted]years deep in the industry and/or company. I was brought in as a high-potential, leadership development candidate with zero welding industry experience. BUT, I didn't have the authority to fire anyone. Most of the team I lead didn't even report directly to me. So I had no option but to work with them and make the initiative work. It was a 2-year process but it ultimately worked out well and I was able to eventually gain the trust of that team after a very rocky start. But I feel like not having the option to remove/fire folks forced me to be more creative and effective as a leader. And now looking back, I can clearly see how some of my actions as a leader helped create some of the resistance I experienced early on.

I had to learn the hard way to slow down and that great ideas/solutions don't matter if trust isn't established first with most teams. I learned how to "seed" ideas in a team by facilitating conversations and collaborations that allowed the team to come up with ideas/solutions to a problem on their own vs. feeling like those ideas/solutions should always come from me as the leader. Turns out people get a lot more excited about their own ideas vs. others.or those mandated to them. Who knew lol.

I sometimes wonder if I would have handled the situation differently if I did have the authority to remove/fire some from the project. I'm not entirely sure. But that experience does make me conscious of the idea of making sure that whenever someone has to be fired, that it's a failure on their part to adapt vs. a failure on my part to lead effectively.