By Nathaniel Luce
As part of his rotation as a Leader-in-Residence, Mike Dallas (MBA’96), the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Hewlett Packard Enterprises, sat down with Dean Eric Johnson for This is Vanderbilt Business.
The conversation touched on several relevant areas for MBA candidates, prospective students, and seasoned professionals:
On his residency: Through case work and discussion, Dallas talked with students about Mergers & Acquisitions and how they apply to technology. The key to successfully evaluating the potential of a merger or divestiture doesn’t just lie in the valuation; a review of the company’s core business strategy and the ways the M&A event will augment that strategy also help inform an investment thesis.
On the role of Human Resources in acquisitions and divestitures: Dallas called on his deep experience with mergers and acquisitions to define HR’s responsibilities in different situations. For companies being acquired, HR helps identify talent, roles and responsibilities, and critical components of the business to maintain during integration. It also teaches employees about the culture of the acquirer. On the other side of the deal, HR needs determine how to keep core business running well while diverting a lot of attention to target being acquired. For Dallas, one of the most important questions to ask is “How do you make jobs doable?”
On M&A success: From Dallas’ perspective, successful mergers occur when organizations “don’t lose track of how (their) business works, don’t ignore (their) customers, don’t ignore (their) partners, and don’t assume that (their) existing way of operating can handle the new change. Having things work from Day 1 is hard…having people get paid, having system access work. Get the right things done early.”
On what he looks for in MBA students: Dallas stresses the importance of sensitivity to people and team dynamics. “You have to have the ability to make the complex simple, to convey and argue for your point, but you can’t come at it with bravado,” he says. As work requirements change, the ability to apply big data to complex problems is gaining importance.
He also stresses that students should be able to articulate 3, 5, and 7 year plans. “We do want people who are more well rounded and have a good sense of where they’re going,” he says.
Dallas goes on to discuss the changing nature of work, what it will mean for employees and managers, and how people can best prepare for the workforce of 2025. Listen to the entire podcast here:
