If business is about people, it follows that the person who helps you out of a difficult situation may be someone else. One day, a former USSTATS colleague called and suggested I apply for a software-presales position. I did not hesitate.
The interview process was longer than any I had experienced before. At first, I thought it would lead nowhere. It did: three months after leaving USSTATS, I joined FRENCHBI on almost twice my previous salary. A setback had become an opportunity.
On my first day, something felt wrong in the office. I soon discovered why: GERMANSOFT had acquired the company. I did not yet understand the mechanics of an acquisition, but I could see that a newly arrived employee’s position might not be secure.
I got to work while training and trying to understand a rapidly changing situation. I contacted a former colleague who now worked at GERMANSOFT and, through her, reached the person managing the integration of the FRENCHBI team. We spoke. I became the first to move into GERMANSOFT’s offices, responsible for FRENCHBI’s corporate-performance-management solutions.
Once there, I felt I owed something to my colleagues. I helped them join GERMANSOFT’s commercial processes wherever I could. For months, I worked for one company while remaining on the other’s payroll. Around me, sales colleagues were leaving. Eventually, much of what remained of our old team was in presales and consulting. The tension was considerable.
We made it through the financial year and celebrated. At the beginning of the next, I hoped the training I needed would finally arrive. It did not. The commercial pace, uncertainty and accumulated pressure eventually overwhelmed me.
I was forced onto the sidelines. A few months later, I was told that my role needed to be filled. We signed the papers, and I left. In a listed company, time is money. I had learnt that lesson, but the personal cost was real.