I just finished watching season three of AppleTV’s “The Morning Show”. It’s about the behind-the-scenes trials and tribulations of a fictional commercial broadcast television network and media company called UBA. In season three, a billionaire tech entrepreneur conspires to takeover UBA and sell it off for parts by liquidating all its assets including its content library and licenses. The company and its employees would cease to exist.
It reminded me of another hostile takeover bid from the movie “Wall Street”. A financier and ruthless corporate raider tries to takeover Bluestar Airlines with the intention of dissolving the company and selling off its assets in order to access cash in the company’s pension plan. This would’ve left the entire Bluestar staff unemployed and penniless.
In both cases, the takeover culprits were only in it for the money. They couldn’t care less about the people or the legacy of the companies they were about to dismantle.
If you were to ask the employees, all they could think about was what the company meant to them personally. The collective relationships, experiences and accomplishments they built over the years. Their very existence was tied to the company’s existence. And that is why there was such a visceral reaction from the employees in both companies. In the words of former UBA executive producer Chip Black, “You’re killing an 80 year old company… and you do not f***ing care!”
Behind every company is its culture, what it values and the way things get done. An organization’s culture is often established by its leaders. Because of that, it doesn’t need a hostile takeover to change the existing culture. All it needs is a changing of the guard – its leadership.
A culture that took many years to develop may only take a moment to evaporate.
A real-world example of this is the energy sector company AES. Under the leadership of co-founder and CEO Dennis Bakke, AES grew its revenue to $8+ billion with 40,000 world-wide employees running power plants in over 30 countries.
He ran the company guided by a non-negotiable set of shared values across the company that set the tone for its culture.
- Act with Integrity
- Be Fair
- Have Fun
- Be Socially Responsible
He pioneered a number of innovative albeit controversial self-management practices and ways of working that included the “Advice Process” which empowered decision-making to an extreme.
In 2002, amidst slumping company performance, the investors’ and board’s actions forced Bakke to resign. After 20 years of self-management led by Bakke and its employees, AES reverted to traditional centralized command and control practices, much to the chagrin of its employees.
In my career as an agile coach, I’m still trying to come to terms with the ephemeral nature of my contributions to the organizations I serve.
The fragile nature of agile ways of thinking and working.
Taking much time and effort to build trust and relationships. To build the willingness and courage to resist the comfort of the past and try something different and hard.
And then, when there’s a changing of the guard or when I leave, wondering how long it will take before the organization reverts back to old habits and traditional ways of working.
Nothing lasts forever, and only remnants and fragments may remain.
And yet, remnants and fragments may just be good enough.
And good enough today trumps everlasting perfection tomorrow.
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