Ducks In A Row: Cultural Fit
by Miki Saxon
There is much talk about the need for “cultural fit” when hiring and rightly so, since being in the wrong culture is equivalent to a fish out of water.
But does fitting require total acceptance? Does it mean agreeing 100% with every value and the way each is implemented?
It’s not nitpicking; bad hires are only one outcome of a bad fit between candidates and corporate culture; bad cultural fits are also the culprit in most screwed up M&A.
Actually, there are many similarities between hiring one person and acquiring/merging two companies—no matter how complementary the skills, technology and experience, cultural incompatibility typically leads to disaster.
While culture may not seem obvious when acquiring or hiring, due diligence and good interviewing is eminently capable of identifying and exploring it.
The problem is that managers often ignore cultural differences, because they believe they that their culture is ‘right’ and those joining will change—much like the people who marry “in spite of [x],” believing that s/he will change because s/he loves me.
Consider Amazon and Zappos vs. Microsoft and Skype and then think about the candidates you “hired anyway.”
The problem is often not a matter of right or wrong, but of different—the things that float your boat don’t float mine or, worse, sink it.
And 98% of the time you should have seen it coming.
Fickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/
