The Practitioner: Mastering a merger

The Practitioner: Mastering a merger

The Practitioner calls for senior staff to step up to the plate: as clandestine merger meetings take place

ONE THING I do remember from a Masters degree course several years ago was this: ‘People do what’s inspected, not what is expected.’

And the more people are paid the more you expect from them, so the gap between ‘inspected and expected’ widens massively over a lower paid, less qualified member of staff – shall we say.

It’s probably nothing more than January blues, but already this year I have had held meetings with senior members of the team, outside of the office, to give them a chance to bridge the gap between how they are currently performing and how I expect them to perform.

But it is an exciting time in the firm, with talks currently taking place with another practice with a view to a merger. Those of you who have followed my blog closely over the years will know that my experience of practice mergers has been nothing short of disastrous.

One thing that it does make you do, however, is look at costs and productivity of both the existing practice and the target practice in more detail than one would otherwise do.

I have a few more ‘outside the office’ meetings to hold and then hopefully I will know who is committed to the firm – and who isn’t.

Team talk

It will probably require a tougher stance with some senior members of the team, who should by now be able to manage themselves and be aware of their own costs, billing, and ultimately, profit. If it needs someone to stand over their shoulder for a couple of months to give them one last chance then I am willing to do that.

The ducks are lined up, and waiting to come to the party, it’s just a question of whose seat at the table they will take!

Closer inspection of this blog will show I managed to avoid mentioning the dreaded January ‘you know what’.

I bet you weren’t expecting that!

The Practitioner’s uncensored thoughts come from within their own practice – having left a regional firm in the heart of England

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