The Year of Disruption
It’s only the beginning of March and yet it feels more like September with the amount of news that has occurred so far. To be clear, I’m talking about the Learning & Talent industry news. We’ve already seen considerable M & A activity by companies looking to augment or enhance product offerings. Even in some cases remove a competitor with a land grab for customers. Now there’s breaking news that another acquisition has occurred; Learning Technologies Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Blackboard’s Open LMS platform. It would appear we’re only getting started on what could be a very different marketplace by the end of 2020, but something bigger is happening.
In my blogs on “Business Always Finds A Way” I focus on how the established pipelines for talent are rusting and need repair and/or replacement. Well, if you look at the news from both announcements by Cornerstone and Learning Technologies Group you might be surprised to see a common thread. A growing consensus from analysts in both instances are that these were not huge strategic wins for the conquerors, but rather head scratchers as to why they occurred. However, I have noticed one common theme buried in both announcements; “talent.”
Reading the announcement from Learning Technologies Group the move hit me. In one statement it became clear; “We are excited, not only by the introduction of the Open LMS product into our portfolio, but by the addition of the talented workforce transferring into the Group under Phill’s leadership.” Now, where have I heard this before? In the press release from the Cornerstone acquisition of Saba, Adam Miller says the following: “With the combination, our product development team is expected to significantly expand, giving us the ability to develop faster, further increase competitive differentiation, and help millions of people around the world to overcome the skills divide.”
By no means is this a new concept in acquiring talent. However, it would seem that in our particular industry, there is a finite group of talent and an urgency to grow and enhance development platforms. With all the talk of Upskilling and Reskilling by these very companies, I do question the technique of acquiring talent this way as it goes completely against many of today’s trends to retain talent. Consider “Culture”, “Purpose” and “Advancement” as key criteria that many (the talent being mentioned above) look for in today’s employers.
The prospect of merging two companies is almost always primarily focused on the business/profit benefit. Given the strife that occurs with mergers; redundancies in headcount, layoffs and confusion for customers and employees – is this a sound strategy for sourcing talent? While this might yield top talent in a short time, what is the long term impact on employee engagement and retention? Keep in mind we are in a day and age of “Employee Experience” with voluntary attrition rates increasing. Why not just entice the talent and integrate?
The irony in all of this is that the conquering companies continue to promote their culture along with ping-pong tables, employee appreciation days and free-food and/or beverages. While many of these mergers and acquisitions are touting the benefits of “synergy” and “innovation;” a more direct result might be customer and employee dissatisfaction from platform and service interruptions. With this being only March, are we just beginning to see the M & A activity in the Learning & Talent vendor space? If so, what should industry employees and customers expect as a result? One thing is certain, “disruption” is an appropriate descriptor of the Learning & Talent space in 2020.