????為了確保收購的成功，你有必要“全身心投入”。大多數收購都以失敗告終。如果某一業務的規模還沒有能大到自食其力，或者說無法合理地并入目前的業務線，那么這項業務通常會凋零和死亡。如果被收購公司的領導者離開，或者不滿于現狀，那么這種情況尤其容易出現。員工會模仿領導者的行為，或者也被調到新的部門，而之前的領導還在，但是管不著他們，或者跟他們新的上司互相并不信任。如果領導者在收購公司擔任新的更高的職務，那么他們就成為了信任的橋頭堡和導航的燈塔。那么公司里的“我們”和“他們”這種觀念就會弱化，而更多的是“我們大家”。實際上，我并不是說非得有所取舍，只是如果有一個你能信任的人來向你解釋個中緣由，那么你在接受大型公司的那套繁文縟節時便能坦然很多。

隨著你向核心層邁進，你會遇到很多不錯的人。如果你的老上級不在公司，那么你就難以與公司最好的同事們分享任何有意義的時光。我獲得提升之后，有大量的時間與高層團隊相處，領教了公司的副總裁培訓項目，還處理了很多棘手的策略問題。我認為，只有在真正了解關鍵人物之后，才能做出知情決策，即是否留在公司發展。的確，我遇到過那些一心只想往上爬的人，那些暗地里發難的混球，還有混事的員工，但是就長遠來看，這沒有太大的關系。我遇到的這些敢于冒險的人已經成為了我一生的同事——有些人留了下來——但是很多人都已經選擇去一些熱門的硅谷公司擔任更高、更有意思的職務。請不要忽視這個機會的重要性。

????如果你決定采納我的意見，擔任更高的職務，以下是我的一些建議：

????不要偏袒你的舊團隊。如果你在創業方面獲得成功，你很有可能已經吸引到了一批一流的人才。因此，你們之間的緊密關系、工作期間所產生的信任以及你對他們才干的了解會讓你優先、迅速地提拔他們。然而，對于他們來說，首先在新組織獲得一定的認可是很重要的。回想當年，我操之過急，在非常短的時間內就把我的老團隊提拔了上來。隨后，人們對我們的看法就是“IronPort奪權“，而且很難改變。我本應花更多的時間來評估后來的思科團隊，讓整個團隊自然成長。

????團隊互相融合。我們宣布重組之后，我改變了整個管理層。IronPort工程部高級副總裁接手防火墻部門，思科負責防火墻的副總裁接手了IronPort。每個人都可以在新的境遇中大展拳腳，而且滿懷熱情地去了解項目的詳細情況。此外，我們召集了所有產品部門總監級別以上的同事來開展小組頭腦風暴，還為每個產品規劃了新的路線圖。由于大家都參與了這些計劃的公開討論和辯論，因此員工們的集思廣益也使產品的銷量有所提高。

????開誠布公。對于那些妨礙公司正常發展、前后矛盾的做法、愚蠢的方針、繁文縟節以及其他任何事情，我往往都是毫無保留地予以指出。事實上，我并不是在培養10年職業規劃，也沒有對留在這里長期工作感到猶豫不決，反而讓我在做事時完全放開了手腳。大型公司往往拘泥于過程，公司的領導甚至都忘了應該如何推進該做的事。除了讓工作體驗更加有意思之外，我還遇到了一些跟我想法相同的領導者，還在一些重要項目上取得了進展。

????爭取更多的酬勞。雖然這一點在Facebook和谷歌（Google）這樣的公司已經開始變化，但大多數大型公司還未能在高管方面與熱門創業公司形成競爭。作為領導人，你所打造的商業計劃中的高管酬勞可能會跟私有公司的首席執行官的酬勞計劃差不多。最主要的益處還是在于，你和團隊是一榮俱榮的關系。如果你能為你自己設立酬勞保護傘，那么它同樣直接適用于其余的高管團隊和頂尖的工程師們。

????準備好繼任計劃（尤其是你確信自己不會繼任的時候）。當今世界，在一個運行良好的大型公司當中，18個月是一個標準的期限，因此沒必要為在保護期結束之時離開而感到不快。如果你已經培養了一支隊伍，有些人可能表現很突出，那么這些人可能會成為你的接班人。如果你已經解決了酬勞問題，而且遇到了所有這些優秀的人，那么你便擁有所需的一切信息來做出是留是走的知情決策。

????最后，由于一系列原因，我兩年前在保護期結束之時離開了思科。IronPort前任市場營銷部高級副總裁接替了我的職務，成為了思科所有安全產品的負責人。很多優秀的IronPort員工在保護期過后繼續留在思科工作了很多年。我認為并購成功的主要原因在于得到了之前的團隊的參與，而且這個團隊有機地融入了思科。

????斯科特?維斯是安德森霍洛維茨的合伙人，也是IronPort前任創始人和首席執行官，IronPort于2007年被思科收購。

????You need to "sew in the organ" to make the acquisition successful. Most acquisitions fail. If something isn't big enough to stand on its own or doesn't logically snap into an existing business line, it will usually wither and die. This is especially true if the acquired leaders leave or become disaffected. Employees mimic leaders' behavior or get shifted to new leaders when the previous ones exit and have no connection or trust with their new reporting chain. If the leaders take larger and different roles within the acquiring company they form beachheads of trust and points of navigation. It becomes less "them" vs. "us" and a more collective "we". Look, I'm not saying it's ever going to be Kumbaya over s'mores, but it's a helluva lot easier to accept the bullshit you get at a large company if you have someone you trust explaining the rationale to you.

????You will meet amazing great people as you get closer to the inner circle. If your head isn't in the game, you'll never spend any meaningful time with the best people. After my promotion, I got to spend a ton of time with the senior team, went through their version of VP leadership training, and tackled many tough strategic issues. I believe it's only by really getting to know the key people that you can make an informed decision about making a career at the new company. Yes, I met my share of climbers, passive-aggressive assholes, and C-players but that didn't really matter long-term. The rockstars I came across have become lifelong colleagues - some of whom have stayed - but many have moved on to bigger, more interesting jobs in hot Silicon Valley companies. Don't overlook the importance of this opportunity.

????If you decided to take my advice and push for a larger role, I have a few more suggestions once you're there:

????Don't play favorites with your old team. If you've run a successful startup, you've likely attracted first-rate talent to join you. Invariably, the close relationships, trust from working together, and familiarity with their great work will lead you to promote them first and fast. However, it's important for them to earn some credibility with the new organization first. In retrospect, I moved too quickly and put my old team in charge too fast. We suffered from a perception of an "IronPort takeover" that was hard to reverse. I should have taken more time to evaluate my inherited Cisco team and let the cream of the crop rise naturally.

????Mix up the talent. When we announced the reorg, I shuffled the leadership decks completely. The IronPort SVP of Engineering took over the firewall group and the Cisco VP running firewalls took over IronPort. Each had a fresh set of eyes and legs to apply to their new areas and attacked getting up to speed with vigor. In addition, we flew in all the director-level leaders and above from all the product groups to do group brainstorming and come up with new roadmaps for every product. Because the plans were argued and debated out in the open with everyone involved, there was much more buy-in with the employees working on the products.

????Speak your mind. I was constantly pointing out inconsistencies, stupid directives, red tape, and anything that got in the way of doing the right thing. The fact that I wasn't nursing a 10-year career trajectory and was on the fence about staying long-term was incredibly freeing in terms of getting things done. In general, large companies get caught up in their processes so much that the leaders forget how to push to do the right thing. In addition to making the experience more entertaining, I met a bunch of other, like-minded leaders and made progress on important projects.

????Negotiate for more compensation. Although this is starting to change at companies like Facebook and Google, most large companies are not prepared to be competitive with hot startups for compensating executives. As the leader, you can create a business case of what a comparable compensation plan would look like for a CEO of a private company. The main benefit here, again, is for your team versus you. If you can set up a compensation umbrella for you, it will apply directly to the rest of your executive team and top engineers.

????Put together a succession plan (Especially, if you've definitively decided it's not for you). In today's world, 18-month stints are the norm at well-run large companies so there's no need to feel bad leaving at the end of your vesting period. If you've integrated the team, someone would have likely distinguished his or herself and can be promoted into your role. If you've addressed your compensation and met all the best people, you'll have all the data in place to make an informed decision to stay or move on.

????In the end, for a variety of reasons, I left Cisco two years to the day when my vesting period was over. My former SVP of marketing at IronPort took over my role as head of all security products at Cisco. Many of the best people at IronPort stayed as Cisco for many years after their IronPort vesting was over. I believe the main reason the acquisition was a success was because the team engaged and meaningfully integrated into Cisco.

????Scott Weiss is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz and the former co-founder and CEO of IronPort Systems, which was acquired by Cisco in 2007.