They manage as you change

Unlike merchant bankers, change managers see beyond balance sheet integration at the time of mergers and acquisitions.

National flag carrier Air-India is finalising its change management consultant as part of its re-branding exercise and the proposed merger with Indian Airlines.

Andhra Pradesh business groups, GVK and GMR, too have appointed change management consultants to assist in the privatisation process of Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad airports.

When companies are merged or acquired or when privatisation takes place, change managers play a crucial role in smoothening the process.

For instance, when the deal of Jet Airways to acquire Air Sahara crash landed, a Jet employee remarked: "We feel relieved that the deal collapsed. It was tough to adapt with the Air Sahara culture. We were selling Air Sahara tickets through our counter, but were not confident enough to entrust Air Sahara employees with selling Jet tickets."

Mergers are not about just reconciling the balance sheets of the two entities. It also implies the integration of the employee culture to adapt to a common goal. It is more about changing mindsets, say HR consultants.

Sanjay Reddy of Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) says: "You can build the best of infrastructure in the world but the service standards come from people. We are targeting the creation of a different environment with right kind of initiatives and incentives. We want to make people happy and work as a real team."

MIAL, a GVK Group Joint Venture with a South African company, retains and pays all the 2,654 staff of the Airport Authority of India for the first three years, which is the operations support period. A minimum of 60 per cent of employees will be absorbed by MIAL at the end of the three-year period.

"We have introduced a number of initiatives and communication exercises with the staff and have appointed Mercer, a leading human resource consulting firm, to help in the change management and HR strategy," Reddy says.

Air-India CMD, Vasudevan Thulasidas, says change management will contribute to all aspects of human resources including training and changing the mindset for a refreshing Air-India brand.

"It will also facilitate smooth transition of human resources in the wake of the proposed merger with Indian Airlines," he adds.

"We facilitate training and retraining in any part of the world to attain international standards of competence. We train for customer orientation through teamwork," notes an international change management consultant.