Books & publications
Book: Bleiben oder Gehen? – Survival strategies in mergers, takeovers and restructurings
Most employees are hit by it (at least) once in their working life: the company they work for is restructured or sold to an investor or a competitor. Mergers, acquisitions and major restructuring are an existential threat for the managers and employees of the companies concerned. For the "synergy effects" that are sought almost always mean job cuts, and the managers of acquired companies have a particularly poor hand. Careers can end within hours – but new opportunities also arise.
Takeovers and restructurings as a career risk
A survival strategy instead of panic
So what are the best strategies for coming through this turbulence unscathed? Winfried Berner offers answers and advice that help those affected to prepare: how to improve their chances of staying with the company, for instance. How to prepare properly for the internal appointment process. Or how to assess their own market value and work with headhunters. And so, in the end, protect their own interests and not merely survive the situation intact, but come out of it stronger.
Keep a clear head and develop a strategy of your own
Understanding what is happening
In this situation, the task is to keep a clear head and analyse the facts. What is the strategy behind the merger or acquisition? What does it mean for your own job? What are the rules of the game when posts are filled? How can you make a well-founded choice between the "internal" and the "external" option? And how do you make sure, in good time, that you have workable alternatives if the worst comes to the worst?
Preparation and encouragement
Experience is invaluable throughout all of this - but it does not necessarily have to be your own. The aim of this book is to pass on my many years of merger experience to you, clearly structured and in language that is easy to read. Just as important as experience, though, is being prepared and not being caught off guard. That is where this book sets out to help. You should know what is coming and have a plan for shaping how you deal with it. Above all, though, the book is meant to give you courage: mergers and restructuring may be complex, and things may not always be entirely fair, but your own professional "survival" is a task you can very well master, when a clear head, good preparation and the determination to act come together.
Setting rigorous priorities
The new edition of "Bleiben oder Gehen?" answers the questions that those affected face in this situation. You can read, for example, how to improve your chances of staying with the company, but also how to assess and manage your own market value realistically. You will find solid tips on matters that become important "if the worst comes to the worst", such as how to prepare thoroughly for the internal appointment procedure, how working with headhunters actually goes and what matters when negotiating a termination agreement.
An updated new edition
For the new edition the book has been thoroughly revised and brought up to date with the latest developments. Among the new material are two sections explaining how to make active use of social networks to position yourself as "approachable" towards recruitment consultants, and how to prepare for a management audit or management appraisal, that is, for an assessment of your performance and your potential by external recruitment consultants. For whatever one may think of it, this method is being used more and more often in mergers and takeovers.
Extracts from reviews
A highly practical guide to mergers
Wirtschaftswoche
"In his book, Winfried Berner gives instructions on how to prepare for the turbulence ahead. Checklists and a bibliography support the individual steps."
"… shows how to recognise the strategies behind the merger or restructuring and analyse your own situation correctly."
"How to assess your position correctly and what you can do if your company merges or is restructured is set out in 'Bleiben oder Gehen'."
"The author introduces the rules of the game in filling positions and gives numerous tips on actively managing your own market value."
"… offers ideas on how employees can improve their chances of staying with the company. It also helps them to assess their own market value realistically, so that they can look for a new position if need be. Tips on working with headhunters or on negotiating a termination agreement are also part of this book."
"… gives a comprehensive introduction to the rules of the game in filling positions … helps you pursue internal and external options to best effect and offers valuable guidance for making decisions."
"… shows systematically and in practical terms how to assess your 'chances of survival' in fundamental organisational change and how to decide whether it is time to go – and if so, how to go about it."
"… deals clearly and critically with the rules of the game in personnel reshuffles … gives numerous useful pointers and states home truths such as 'Resist the pull of the general mood', 'Recognise the merger strategy' and 'This is how you manage your market value':"
"While top management usually has a soft landing, the lower levels are hit far harder. This is where the selection process begins without mercy … a guide on how the employees affected can face the new situation as skilfully as possible."
"… many useful pointers on working with recruitment consultants …"
"As a solution-oriented consultant specialising in change management, the author's central concern is to take away the sense of being at the mercy of a merger and to turn the person affected into an active shaper of their own career."
Table of contents
Chapter 1: Your own and other people's emotional turbulence – and how to cope with it
1. The pull of the "general mood" – and why you should resist it
2. A short mass psychology of the merger, or: what is coming your way?
3. Dealing with your own emotional turbulence
Chapter 2: Do you actually have a problem?
1. How strongly is your area affected?
2. Why you have to understand the business logic of the merger
3. Recognise the merger strategy
4. The rules of the game when posts are filled
5. How professional is the merger management?
Chapter 3: Examine and protect your chances
1. Mergers as a chance to jump ship successfully
2. Mergers as a chance for promotion
3. Deciding presupposes alternatives to choose between
4. You are in no hurry
Chapter 4: What matters to you in (working) life?
1. Why you should know your goals
2. How to learn more about your goals and life priorities
3. Analyse your career so far
4. The "negative list": define what you do not want
5. Analyse job advertisements
6. Find your career anchor(s)
7. Develop a vision for yourself
Chapter 5: How to manage your market value
1. A marketing strategy for yourself
2. Why you have to know your market value
3. What use are you to the company?
4. Develop a marketing strategy for the one-person business
5. How to deal with further need for clarification
Chapter 6: The internal option: how do you influence your chances of
staying?
1. Your second chance
2. Understand the rules of the game when posts are filled
3. How to prepare for a selection process
4. Tips for the selection process itself
5. new: management audit / management appraisal
Chapter 7: How to pursue the external option to best effect
1. How to develop a search strategy
2. Working with recruitment consultants ("headhunters")
3. new: making active use of social networks
4. Applications on your own initiative
5. No hasty decision to go self-employed!
Chapter 8: The decision
1. When you have several options
2. When you have only one choice
3. A few aids to decision-making
Chapter 9: The terms of your departure
1. Legal provisions you should know
2. How to negotiate a good termination agreement
3. Outplacement – an interesting option?
4. If you want to leave of your own accord
5. Making a good exit
Further reading
Index
Sample extract
Where can you get the book?
The quickest way is to order it here from Amazon. But of course you can get it just as easily from a bookshop or another mail-order retailer.