Importance of Culture for Facebook and WhatsApp

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Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg posted, “WhatsApp will continue to operate independently within Facebook. The product roadmap will remain unchanged and the team is going to stay in Mountain View. Over the next few years, we're going to work hard to help WhatsApp grow and connect the whole world.”

And in a post to its users, WhatsApp wrote: “Here’s what will change for you, our users: nothing.”

Reference: With $19 Billion, Does WhatsApp Really Care About Culture?

I offered a lengthy comment:

This Facebook-WhatsApp deal may be an M&A, without the M. If in fact we can go by Mark Zuckerberg's public reassurances, then that culture clash - and that high M&A failure rate, in particular - may not be much of an issue. At least for the time being. As some comments here point out, Facebook is mainly interested in growing the user base for WhatsApp. Zuckerberg sees this platform as having one of the best potential for reaching the one-billion user mark. With loads of cash on hand, plus Facebook's India-like population size, WhatsApp should have every confidence about reaching that target.

That said, I'd argue that culture will be an issue in one form or other. (a) As much as Zuckerberg says that WhatsApp will continue to operate independently, there is also talk about including voice in the messaging system. (b) As much as he says that monetizing the platform is not a major concern over the next five years, we can all imagine that the senior leadership teams on both sides will be heavily engaged on this issue. It took Google a few years to figure out how to monetize YouTube, and they're well on their way on this effort, as we all know. So how well will leadership and staff on either side work with one another, in view of such change and collaboration? The answer is inviolably cultural in nature. (c) What's more, we cannot ignore the broader culture of WhatsApp users. There are all sorts of sentiments regarding Facebook, to begin with, that we can expect this deal to have some impact on that culture. How exactly, that remains to be seen.

So I'd very much agree with you, Gary, Zuckerberg & Co. must've cared immensely about the WhatsApp culture. So did the leadership team of the latter, I'm sure.

Finally, my takeaway from these Korn/Ferry findings is this: I consulted for PDI years ago, and have found, and still find, these four leadership areas to be the most enduring and applicable across companies, industries and regions. But there may be too much variability in successful leadership profiles to pin down specific competencies as predictors of post-M&A success. At the same time, I'd be curious if you did a regression analysis of the data and which competencies accounted for the most variance in post-M&A success. I'm also curious about why Personal Leadership doesn't seem to be a significant predictor.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD