Post Siperian Informatica Acquisition Opportunity – Great People Available

With the dust settling on yesterdays announcement of the Informatica-Siperian (disclosure, my former company) acquisition I would be remiss in not pointing out the human side of the equation of such mergers. That is the people who through no fault of their own are now looking for new jobs.

Of course the process generally follows a tried and tested formula by which senior executives are compensated handsomely, a few select employees are flagged as “key” and given generous retention bonuses, while others are offered employment contracts. However, since the acquisition is primarily for the technology and/or customer base, many functions and departments are considered duplicate with what the acquiring company already has. Additionally when an acquisition occurs, there is a lot of political maneuvering in order to curry favor and obtain prime positions in the combined entity. No surprise that many who end up surviving are politically well connected within the organization as the acquiring company rely on the feedback and judgement of senior staff and forced ranking charts as to who and who not to keep.

Having been through a few acquisitions myself (with Siperian, my last 5 companies have been acquired, either while I was there or shortly after) I can say that many of those let go ARE great people. In fact, many of them are the hardest, most unsung of the lot. Because they do their job well and don’t ask for the limelight, do not play politics, they don’t often get their due when the axe falls.

For those of you reading this post and my other posts, firstly thank you for reading, I appreciate it very much.
But also please do take a look at LinkedIn for some great Siperian employees who are now available. You could really benefit indirectly from this acquisition. I personally know some great marketing talent now available that I’d be happy to connect you with. Great corporate marketing and demand generation specialists are available!

To my friends and former colleagues at Siperian, please reach out to me if I can help in any way. I realize that it is a difficult time for you and all I can offer is some simple advice. You’ll go through the stages of shock, sadness, anger and disbelief. But once that passes you’ll find that there is a lot of interesting stuff happening out there right now. The new world of cloud computing is exploding. Take the opportunity to get engaged in social media with Twitter, LinkedIn and even Facebook. They are great ways to network and get to understand the world beyond Siperian. If you are so inclined, write a blog! It’s cathartic and you’ll also showcase your knowledge while giving information and experience back to the community.

Remember that the “business decision” of letting you go does not define who you are, nor does it say anything about your character and work ethic. You WILL find a good home and some lucky company will benefit from your talents.

UPDATE:

• RainStor (my current company) is hiring, although the positions available today are very specific. Either 1) Inside sales/demand generation or 2) Business Development quota carrying with strong OEM sales background
• Chris Blotto of Knowledgent informs me they are hiring – “Knowledgent is growing! Seeking Big 5 and Strategic FS and LS Industry Consultants. Interested? Email recruiting@knowledgent.com”. If you don’t know Knowledgent is an SI/Consulting group started by the former BusinessEdge/EMC Consulting folks. With Chris part of the team there’s bound to be MDM or related projects that they’ll be part of.