“Adapt or die” is a popular maxim in the business world – but, to paraphrase the famous words of Mandy Rice-Davies: they would say that, wouldn’t they? Change is inherently self-justifying, especially when one business is buying another and swaggering egos are in play.
Many are those in management, particularly the c-suite, who like to cite wisdoms from Sun Tzu’s Art of War (largely without having read it, of course). Big acquisitions therefore play out according to the psychology of warfare, with a winner (the acquirer) and a loser (the acquired); the ‘victor’ brings a mindset that everything the defeated was doing is wrong – of course, because they lost, right? – and needs to change.
