M&A and the impact on staff: Part 2, DSV's culture

Former DSV CEO Jens Bjorn Andersen

This business is all about people.

It’s about relationships, the daily toil achieved together. The experiences you share, the problems overcome. It can be thrilling, exhausting, fun, dreary.

And who you work for is a major part of that. Not just your manager or CEO, but the company itself. Its culture, its benefits, its ethos. And companies – as a single entity – can often forget that how they behave, and what they do, affects the hive.

They say moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do. M&A is the corporate equivalent. The impact on staff is huge, and oft neglected in the noise over money, and shareholders, and integrated processes.

So we are running a short series of articles on takeovers and the impact on staff, with a historical look at DSV’s strategy, and what it has meant for all those caught up in the Danish company’s merger mania.

Some names have been withheld. Our ex-Panalpina manager is Mr Swiss, a former DB Schenker manager is Ms Essen, and ex-DSV account manager is Ms Copenhagen.

DSV CULTURE

Company culture may not be one of the facets DSV looks for as it bites off another company – but for those working there, DSV’s culture – and acquisition by – can be quite a shock.

Aside from the scurrilous claims about DSV CEO Jens Lund, made recently by Denmark’s Børsen, most people The Loadstar has spoken to about DSV tend to say it’s professional, and results-focused – but that doesn’t always translate into a comfortable work environment.

“It was a very tough experience, to be honest, to work for DSV,” said a former DSV account director, let’s call her Ms Copenhagen.

“When I applied and had the interview, they came back very quickly and very strong, and they offered a very nice package, including a car, and a big salary increase.

“My customer was a ‘Platinum’ account within the DSV world. When you’re working with these accounts, the structure is very clear. You have a global contact, and you have EMEA, Americas and Asia-Pacific contact.

“But you are thrown in there, you have to learn by yourself.

“It’s a culture that’s about doing it yourself, everything. You have very little support. They give you a list of people that you should talk to, and problems will come to you, and you have to solve them.

“I was receiving an average of over 100 emails a day.

“It’s very political and, especially in a position like mine, you have to deal with tons of people, and to find the right person is very difficult.

“I worked crazy hours, and you have to travel a lot. I was arriving at a hotel, at six, seven, eight o’clock, and I’d be working until midnight, because you have tons of emails, and nobody’s supporting you. And I had to understand quite a lot of things – you may come from air, but need to know sea, road. In the end, they treat you as a commodity.

“It was brutal, to be honest. I found it brutal because you work 12 hours a day, you travel a lot, but see nothing. People were doing crazy stuff. Seriously, it was very mean in my team because of the power, and a lot of testosterone,” added Ms Copenhagen.

“They pay you very well, but they save a lot of costs on some things that are very basic. So, yeah, my salary was good, but I’m sure I was making less than the guys.

“They squeezed me to the max. And I had terrible experiences with people who were extremely aggressive … there was this culture of shouting.”

Edna Ayme-Yahil, former SVP corporate marketing and communications for Panalpina, and then DSV, was more polite.

“DSV culture is extremely entrepreneurial. The company is run with a very, very ‘light’ HQ, and all the power is at the country level.

“Each MD runs his own country like a fiefdom. This can be empowering for people at the national level, but was more complicated for those who were in HQ, regional or industry vertical roles.

“At the time, Jens Bjørn Andersen was the CEO and Jens Lund the CFO. They are both smart, professional and pragmatic men who knew what they were doing. Following the UTi and other earlier acquisitions, DSV has developed an effective and efficient ‘takeover playbook’ and the process itself works quite well.

“As I was working on integration, I worked hand-in-hand with DSV staff from communications, marketing and investor relations. They were open and easy to work with.”

But that’s not to say Dr Ayme-Yahil enjoyed the process of being taken over by DSV.

Next: What is it like to be taken over by DSV? “Horrible.”

(The full series was published as a single story on Premium earlier last week, and is available to read here, for subscribers)