The Day We Sold: a tale of broken promises

Let me set the stage. The executive team and I were sitting around eating lunch one day talking about the future of our business. In the 8 years since launching Safe Site Inc., we had been through the wringer. We had fought competitors, some that were bigger than us, and won. We had dealt with the growing pains of a brand new, growing company. And, to top it all off, my aunt was sick and close to death, a reality that shook our family-run business to its core.

As we were eating lunch, we got a text message from an employee telling us that there was a gas explosion in Denver.

Good times, huh?

The explosion wasn’t our fault, but it was enough to move our executive team toward a conversation about raising funds to compete with bigger competitors.

As fate would have it, we got a phone call the next day from a large competitor, a company that had recently been consolidating the industry. We took them up on the offer for a conversation.

The Conversation

After a few talks and negotiations, they made us an offer. It was a pretty strong multiple and, because we didn’t think we would have the opportunity again, we accepted the offer.

Honestly, even though we knew it was a good opportunity, we were worried about what would happen to our company and its employees. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, you’ll know what I mean. The company assured us that they would keep everything pretty much the same. They told us that they valued the culture, systems, and processes we had established and that they wanted Safe Site Inc. to continue operating with excellence. The only difference, they said, would be the name on the trucks.

We took them at their word and decided, as an executive team, that it was the best for the company and its employees to take the deal.

“As a result, 40% of my old workforce walked out the door to new companies. I couldn’t blame them.”

The Reality

I quickly realized that my world was about to change drastically. The company’s leadership asked me to help out in a new division called Special Projects. I was to head the expansion of utility services like SUE and pole audits to the rest of the footprint. I had lots of experience in that area, but the transition removed the leadership and managerial influence I always had at Safe Site.

I should have known something was wacky when they lowballed me on my salary. I negotiated as best I could, but I took a pretty hefty pay cut with the expectation that my incentives would take care of the rest. After all, I am a competitor and take pride in making my goals.

The transition was rather awkward. I reluctantly handed over all of the operations of utility locating, a job that I loved, to a person completely underqualified and inept. He didn’t care about the employees as I did. He had no soft skills and didn’t really have much respect for our history.

I told him that I would help in any way he wanted, but he never came to me with any questions. The situation got worse. The culture was changing quickly, and everything we had worked hard to build was being dismantled. As a result, 40% of my old workforce walked out the door to new companies. I couldn’t blame them.

My heart

I felt awful. I felt like I had betrayed my family and the employees who had been so loyal to our company, by selling. Not only did I feel ashamed, but I felt stupid for believing the new company would keep their promises. To be honest, I’m still not sure if I would have made a different decision, but my heart still feels heavy.

I’m currently paying a professional counselor a lot of money to help me figure it out.

What do I want you to hear from my story? First, if you have an expectation of something, always get in writing. Make sure everything that is negotiated is included in the contract. Second, if you end up on the other side, taking over a company with a strong culture, you can save yourself a lot of trouble if you spend time learning and showing respect to current employees. Last, and this is the most important, business is tough. You will make decisions that people don’t like and what you might not like. At the end of the day, leadership is allocating resources to further the mission of your organization.

When you find yourself in a mess, remember that it’s normal and that you always grow the most in the middle of the hardest situations.