{{B}}Management buy-outs{{/B}}
Involving staff in management buy-out (MBO) negotiations can help smooth the path for the future
Employees are becoming increasingly familiar with the fluctuations and instability that their working environments can present. It's not just mergers and acquisitions that can upset the situation. Internal MBOs can also be particularly unsettling for employees In some cases, the MBO takes place to save an ailing company. In others, it is the result of senior management and board disagreements, or is to prevent a hostile takeover bid.{{U}} (9) {{/U}}This insecurity can be very damaging.
One of the most important factors, often not considered during the process of an MBO, is the reaction of the workforce, yet it is those employees who more often than not can make or break the future success of any new management team.{{U}} (10) {{/U}}By maintaining channels of communication across the floor, new management teams could find the rank and file a useful ally in the bid to take over. Showing those employees that a buy-out could be to their advantage, creating new opportunities for promotion or career development, will in the long-term be advantageous to the entire company.
The challenge for new management teams should be to reinspire employees.{{U}} (11) {{/U}}If the new team doesn't engage old employees in future plans or consider the contribution they can make, the idea that the MBO was meant to save everyone is lost. In this situation, long-term employees begin to see the new management team and shareholders as the only beneficiaries in the buy-out and feel in the end that the only people saved are those at the top of the corporate ladder.{{U}} (12) {{/U}}This will mean that the rescue will fail before it has really started.
It is depressingly common for new MBO teams not to learn from the past.{{U}} (13) {{/U}}If the new team can find innovative ways to involve staff actively in various aspects of the buy-out process, the benefits are manifold,{{U}} (14) {{/U}}A package with such components can gain their support and be invaluable in building success for the venture, and is one that enlightened MBO teams tend to adopt.
A Including them in any buy-out discussions can improve the new company's future prospects.
B In such circumstances it is easy for the new board to make the same mistakes as the old.
C Possibilities for realising these include decision-making, setting goals, and offering the chance of a future stake in the new company.
D Whatever its origins, those lower down the corporate ranks can often be left out of the equation, wondering what is to become of them.
E Nobody benefits if the company fails to meet its objectives.
F Yet the new start represents a golden opportunity.
G This requirement is particularly relevant when a company has failed or when staff have lost faith in the previous management.
H Internal MBOs can also be particularly unsettling for employees.