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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
Nuveen just closed its $13.1 billion acquisition of Schroders, the 222-year-old British asset manager. The deal<\/a> pushes Nuveen into the top 10 global asset managers, with $2.6 trillion under management.<\/p>\n The headline is the money. The more interesting part is what CEO Bill Huffman said about culture. After more than 10 acquisitions, he has a clear view of how most mergers go wrong<\/a>. The acquirer walks in, decides it knows better, and starts making everything its way. His alternative is simple. The first job after a deal is listening and learning, \u201cRight? Not telling.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s right. And it won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n Not because Huffman doesn\u2019t mean it. Because a cultural declaration, no matter how sincere, doesn\u2019t tell anyone what to do differently when they walk into the next meeting.<\/p>\n Leaders love to declare culture. \u201cWe\u2019re customer obsessed.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re one team.\u201d \u201cWe listen before we act.\u201d Each statement is true in the leader\u2019s head. In everyone else\u2019s head, it\u2019s an abstraction waiting for a definition.<\/p>\n And people will supply that definition themselves. A Nuveen operations lead hears \u201clisten and learn\u201d and thinks it means delaying system integration. A Schroders portfolio manager hears it and assumes nothing will change. A finance director hears it and decides it\u2019s a nice line from the CEO that doesn\u2019t apply to budget consolidation. Three people. Three cultures. One declaration.<\/p>\n This is the Translation Gap. Strategy is set at the top. Execution happens at the front line. The layer in between, where an idea gets converted into what people actually think and do, gets left to chance. Leaders assume the concept is self-explanatory. It never is.<\/p>\n When the gap goes unaddressed, people default to what they already know. And in an acquisition, what the acquiring company already knows is how to be the acquirer. That\u2019s exactly the behavior Huffman is trying to prevent.<\/p>\n Culture isn\u2019t what leaders say<\/a>. It\u2019s what people repeatedly do<\/a> when no one is telling them what to do. That means a culture concept has to be translated twice \u2014 first into mindsets people hold, then into behaviors people can see<\/a>.<\/p>\n Take \u201clisten and learn, not tell.\u201d Before anyone can live it, they need answers to the questions this phrase doesn\u2019t address:<\/p>\n Until those answers exist, the declaration is a sentiment. Sentiments don\u2019t survive a deadline, a cost overrun, or a frustrated manager who just wants the systems unified.<\/p>\n This is what my Steering Guide framework <\/a>is built to do. It starts with one Guiding Principle, the core trait that defines the organization. It translates that principle into Core Commitments, the universal mindsets everyone holds. Then it breaks down each commitment into Supporting Actions, written as \u201cby [specific action], to [benefit].\u201d The actions are the same for everyone. Each person applies them to their own role.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what that translation could look like for Huffman\u2019s idea:<\/p>\n Core Commitment: Assume the other side knows something we don\u2019t.<\/strong> The mindset shift is from evaluating the acquired company to studying it.<\/p>\n Core Commitment: Earn the right to change things.<\/strong> The mindset shift is from \u201cwe own it, so we decide\u201d to \u201cwe change what we understand.\u201d<\/p>\n Core Commitment: Protect what makes people effective.<\/strong> Huffman already practices this with portfolio managers. The mindset extends it to everyone.<\/p>\n None of these are slogans<\/a>. Every one of them can be observed, coached, and measured. A manager can watch a meeting and know whether it happened. That\u2019s the difference between a culture declaration and a culture.<\/p>\n Schroders will run as a separate company inside Nuveen for 12 to 18 months. After that, Huffman says, the two will figure out how they come together as something new.<\/p>\n That window is either the most valuable period of the integration or the most wasted. Separation protects people from disruption. It doesn\u2019t teach them how to work together. If the mindsets and behaviors aren\u2019t defined before the walls come down, they\u2019ll be defined in the moment, under pressure, by whoever has the most authority in the room. That\u2019s usually the acquirer.<\/p>\n The smart move is to use the separation period to translate the culture concept with people from both organizations, not for them. Bring leaders and front-line employees from each side together. Have them define what \u201clisten and learn\u201d looks like in their own work. Test the actions. Refine them. Then, when integration begins, everyone works from the same playbook rather than their own interpretation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Huffman has the instinct most acquiring CEOs lack. He knows arrogance kills deals, and he knows the acquired company brings value worth protecting<\/a>. That\u2019s a strong starting point.<\/p>\n But a starting point isn\u2019t a culture. Every leader who declares a culture is making a bet that people will interpret it the way they intended. That bet loses far more often than it wins.<\/p>\n If you want a culture, don\u2019t announce it. Translate it. Define the mindsets. Spell out the behaviors. Make it the same for everyone, and let each person apply it to their own work. Otherwise, you haven\u2019t built a culture. You\u2019ve written a declaration.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Nuveen just closed its $13.1 billion acquisition of Schroders, the 222-year-old British asset manager. The deal<\/a> pushes Nuveen into the top 10 global asset managers, with $2.6 trillion under management.<\/p>\n The headline is the money. The more interesting part is what CEO Bill Huffman said about culture. After more than 10 acquisitions, he has a clear view of how most mergers go wrong<\/a>. The acquirer walks in, decides it knows better, and starts making everything its way. His alternative is simple. The first job after a deal is listening and learning, \u201cRight? Not telling.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s right. And it won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nDeclaring is not leading<\/h2>\n
Culture lives in mindsets and behaviors<\/h2>\n
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Translating the declaration<\/h2>\n
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The window is the work<\/h2>\n
Say it, then spell it out<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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