Merging Minds: A Look At The Whittman-Hart, USWeb/CKS Merger

As a pioneer in the technology industry once told me, you have three choices in business: You can create change, you can adapt to change or you can close your eyes while the market passes you by. Those who create change lead; those who adapt survive; and we all know what happens to those who stop to get their beauty sleep.

Last December, Whittman-Hart Inc. and USWeb/CKS joined forces to create change because we saw an enormous opportunity that no one else did. There's no disputing that the Internet services market is exploding. However, the competitors differ on their approach to meeting the market need.

Both Whittman-Hart and USWeb/CKS believed that the best way to help companies create change in their own markets was to give them two things: a single source of help for every one of the elements critical to success in the Internet economy and a partner with the global scale and depth of expertise needed to tackle any size and class of project. Separately, each company could have achieved that goal eventually, but the merger made it reality now. It's what we do.

The announcement of our merger caused almost as much of an uproar as the announcement of our new name: MarchFirst. It's a unique name, I admit. We chose it not only because it's different and memorable, but also because today it's a business imperative: March first. We are the first to offer integrated strategy, brand-building and technology expertise on a global scale. We work with clients who are, or who are striving to be, first in their market. The name is our declaration that we're in this market to win, period.

But MarchFirst means more than business firsts. It also means personal victories. I work with people inside and outside the company who, every day, strive for their personal best. Remember that electric feeling when you ran your first marathon or bought your first house or finally reached some other goal you'd set for yourself? That's the feeling I want our name to convey--the incredible feeling of giving it your all to reach an objective and come out on top.

Quite simply, we're out to build a great company. By great, I mean two things. First, we are building a company founded on a sound, innovative business model that fills a huge market need and will make our name synonymous with excellence and scale. Second, we are building a company that's home to the most talented people in the industry by giving them the most challenging and rewarding work experience they can find.

Let's start with the business. Fundamentally, we are focused on delivering superior service to our clients. And the way we bring the greatest value to our clients is through our professional services portfolio.

Delivering this value begins with our three overarching disciplines: strategy, brand building and technology. Each of these disciplines is subdivided into practices--focused on critical industry verticals such as financial services and strategic functions such as supply chain management--and each of these practices is populated by professionals with superior competencies and skills. These practices manage our core service offerings to clients. Each of these offerings--built around key business operations such as advertising, pricing and procurement,has a unique value proposition. We deliver total, distinctive solutions that are composed of hundreds of competencies and skills. All of our disciplines and practices are interdependent, and they come together at our core service offerings.

This is the power of what only MarchFirst can offer. One benefit of bringing together two proven companies is the breadth and depth of expertise that is already in place. Apart, our legacy companies were enormously successful in specific areas; together, we have assembled what we believe is an unrivaled arsenal of professionals who are proven from the customer to the supplier. Our ability to "hunt in packs"--combine the forces of multiple disciplines to embark on new client relationships and create world-class solutions--is fueling our rapid growth.

In addition, we're driving growth through several engines that complement our core business. We're particularly excited about HostOne, our managed services offering, which quickly is becoming a tremendous growth catalyst for MarchFirst. By hosting and managing clients' applications and networks, HostOne gives them the freedom and peace of mind to concentrate on rapidly growing their business and driving innovation--a must in the Internet economy. Having already developed iFrame, a next-generation standardized-hosting architecture, the HostOne team currently is preparing to release new solutions for e-Commerce, supply chain management and customer relationship management. Building on this momentum, we recently opened our second state-of-the-art facility for HostOne, in the Washington D.C. area.

Of course, all of our offerings wouldn't amount to much without the people to make them work. As a services firm, our people are our lifeblood. They are the company. Our legacy organizations each established cultures that attracted incredibly talented professionals. We're drawing from the best of both cultures to create a team of people who are passionate innovators and relentless executors, and who are better for the MarchFirst experience. We have established a learning environment that empowers employees to find new ways to excel in their jobs and put new ideas into practice.

At the core of our employee development process is the MarchFirst campus, our industry-leading institute for strategic education. It offers more than 1,400 self-guided courses, available to all employees free of charge via the Internet, as well as a classroom curriculum and one-on-one coaching. The emphasis is on learning as a core business activity. We understand that as our people grow, individually and collectively, so does MarchFirst.

When we announced our merger, we shocked the world. No one had ever proposed an Internet-services merger of this magnitude and, frankly, it scared some people. Bringing together companies in a merger of this scale is a challenge. Fortunately, MarchFirst is a company filled with people who love a good challenge. Our integration has been a great success so far, and we continue meshing more tightly every day. We attribute this success to our commitment to flawless execution and the bedrock idea that we are in this business for the long term. We are building a company that is solid--a company that offers a true value proposition to its clients. We plan to be one of the greats, and we plan to continue helping our clients create change and win wherever they go.

Robert Bernard is the chairman and CEO of MarchFirst, an Internet professional services company in Chicago.