Mutual benefit

John Wrighthouse loves a good takeover. When the call comes from the chief executive, the HR director of Nationwide swings into action, adrenalin pumping, to head up an elite team that will map the target organisation, crunch the people numbers and pronounce on the viability of the deal. It has happened four times in the past three years alone. Since 2007, Nationwide, the UK’s largest building society by miles (it is six times the size of Britannia, number two), has swallowed up the Portman, Derbyshire, Cheshire and Dunfermline building societies.