Does this sort of communication need to come from the top? Can someone else, such as the head of HR, provide the information with equal success? Lance Richards, former international director of HR at Teleglobe, has been through a number of major cross-border acquisitions and alliances. These included British Telecom with MCI and GTE with Bell Atlantic and then with Teleglobe and BCE. These experi¬ ences have taught Lance that in any cross-border acquisition or alliance making sure that employees know what is going on, who is in charge, and where the combined organization is heading needs to be in the very front of any HR initiatives. Some of the specific lessons for guaranteeing success in an acquisition that Lance has learned include:

■ The CEOs (of both the acquiring and the acquired firms) must be visible to the employees and must continuously interact with them.

■ Both companies must communicate—clearly, constantly, and quickly.

■ The dialogue with employees must be two-way. Employees must have a way to feed questions and concerns back to the business and people in charge, and then to get answers.

As Lance puts it, in many acquisitions and alliances the corporate heads roll out a well-crafted vision of the new entity, how it will lead the market, and how it will now be able to leap ahead of its competitors. But for the average employee, all they want to hear is what is going to happen to their particular jobs.