A Parable of Two Power Structures

 

I worked for well over a decade as an actuary for a few different property and casualty insurance companies before earning a graduate degree in counseling and changing professions entirely. What follows is an essentially true story of a corporate merger I weathered near the end of my tenure in the profession. I’ve simplified it and had a little fun with it—turning it into a modern-day parable of sorts. Some will no doubt see in it aspects of our current political situation. As with any good parable, though, the ultimate truth of this one is much more elusive! Here goes:

A Parable of Two Power Structures

There once was a company that sold widget protection. As you know, widgets are expensive and potentially dangerous, so we need widget protection in case ours gets damaged or in case we hurt someone with our widget and have to pay them for it. Widget protection is serious business. Thus, like so many others, this widget protection company had a serious name, and its CEO, like so many others in the business, was a serious old guy with white hair and dark suits who’d been there for who knows how many years.

As is so often the case, this serious old guy with white hair had somewhat younger people reporting to him who specialized in various aspects of widget protection. They’d been there for years, too. In turn, these specialists had still younger people doing specialized work for them. They were young and confident and had spent much time and energy learning specialized knowledge and taking specialized tests and earning specialized credentials related to their specialized work. They were ready to be the people who worked for the old guy with white hair, but they knew it would be years before they’d get that opportunity. It was a little bit frustrating for them. They felt stuck and underutilized.

Now, in another part of the country was a different widget protection company. It had a kind of space age name, and it styled itself as a hip new company doing hip new things. It was run by a younger and more approachable man who had ideas that were big and bold and new. Unlike the serious old guy at the other company, this younger CEO didn’t have many people with specialized knowledge reporting to him who had specialized people reporting to them. He had an abundance of younger people with more general business acumen reporting directly to him. And they loved it.

It came to pass one day that yet another company in yet another part of the country decided to buy both companies and combine them into one. Furthermore, they wanted the younger and more approachable man to be CEO of the combined company. And so it was.

The first few months were difficult ones at the company that once had the serious name. The older white-haired CEO in a dark suit was gone, and those who remained wondered whether many of the specialists who’d reported to him might soon be gone, too. The still-younger specialists who reported to those specialists were, of course, worried about their own fate as well.

It didn’t help matters that people regularly visited the “serious” company from the “space age” one in order to ensure that they were changing in the ways that the approachable CEO wanted them to. It felt more like a takeover than a merger to many of the “serious” people. To the “space age” people, though, it was a field day. They had the power of their CEO behind them, and they knew his plan well. For them it was full speed ahead to something they all knew quite well.

What ensued was a clash of cultures. The “serious” people were used to doing things in their specialized way. Things were checked and rechecked, discussed and approved, then taken to committees to be discussed and approved further. Widget protection regulations were considered serious constraints and the relationship with the customer was something to be protected at all costs.

The “space age” people, on the other hand, valued a speed to market approach. The young generalists were empowered to “get things done” and were forgiven mistakes made because of their youthful exuberance or lack of specialized knowledge. It was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. It was up to the regulators to catch shady dealings. And customers on the fringes were jerked around out of thoughtlessness, ignorance, and haste.

“There’s opportunity in chaos” one of the “serious” people once said. And how very true that is. It’s true for those who can surf the waves of change, anyway. For those who can’t, there is disruption. For those who can’t, there is suffering.

So, whatever happened to the “serious” and “space age” companies that got merged? Well, for a time they did business under the brand name of the company that bought them. After a while, though, that company decided to divest of their widget protection portfolio. They sold off what they had for a nice little profit to a company that surely everyone knows well. Oh, and what name are they doing business under these days. They’re using the “serious” name once again. But who knows what workers remain from before. They were all expendable anyway.

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 Courtesy of the author.

  

Copyright 2025 by Mark Robert Frank