Why Tech Leaders Need to Care About Company Culture too

Description

In this week’s episode, Shahar and Romi talk with Segev Baron, Senior Director of Engineering and Head of Israel R&D Center at Sage.

Segev knows all about acquisitions from both sides – he’s worked at companies who have bought start-ups, and he’s been at start-ups that have been bought by bigger players.

Acquisitions can bring uncertainty and excitement in equal measure – and successful mergers don’t happen by accident. The company being bought might experience greater opportunities and be able to scale quicker, but will have to adapt to being part of a different culture and learn to let go of some of the individualistic traits that made them attractive to the buyer.

Meanwhile, buying companies want to harness the skills and new opportunities the start-up offers but will also want to assimilate them into the prevailing company culture. As Segev points out, few marketing departments want to handle two different brands two years into an acquisition.

So how do you know which people to bring with you on the new journey and when it’s time to let others go? What immediate rewards can the larger company offer to retain the start-up team? And how soon should the process of merging the two entities begin for the best business outcome?

Segev has thoughts on how to reap the benefits of the start-up ‘fighter jet’ mentality while existing within a new corporate ‘747’ reality.

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Bio

Segev Baron is Senior Director of Engineering at Sage and leads Sage’s Israeli R&D hub, which promotes financial analysis automation through machine learning.

Having started his career as a software engineer for a small startup, Segev has spent most of his career building, leading, and scaling engineering teams at large companies like IBM, MediaKind, and NetApp, where he could bring together his passion for technology, people, and great products.

Segev holds a B.Sc in Computer Science and Bioinformatics from the Technion and an MBA from the University of Haifa.