And Online Magic, Europe's premier creative interactive agency, broadened the scope of the company because it's based in London. The mergers have required a bit of rearranging among the top managers. Just because I'm not the top guy doesn't mean I don't have decision-making responsibility. In a fast-changing industry, the merger mania has left little time for egos to clash. The craft of fitting several former CEOs under one roof is a tricky one.
Egos are at stake.
So is talent. The urge to keep the head honcho happy during the merge often has a trickle-down effect. Some acquisitions are done for a company's technology and some are for a company's customers. But sometimes they're done for the scientists, the visionaries, the engineers and the potential patents. And now it's up to us to run like hell to make it happen.