The Melcrum Blog

Bold execs need IC experts to help companies recover

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

Company executives who seize the initiative over the next two years as Britain emerges from recession can dominate the business landscape for a decade, according to research by accounting firm Deloitte.

The firm says those who keep their heads down and wait for a recovery will lose out, while those who are prepared to take bold decisions can put themselves in a winning position.

It cites Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, and Sir Martin Sorrell, head of advertising, marketing and PR giant WPP, whose “strength of conviction” in the 1990s recession put their businesses in positions of great strength.

Deloitte suggest that to be successful companies should instill a process that begins with strengthening the balance sheet in order to have the capacity to take opportunities, rather than a reckless sprint to get to the finish line. According to the firm this involves optimising performance, not just on costs, but also on having the right size and shape of business to survive. It also means building confidence among shareholders so the support is there once the time comes to build new markets and make acquisitions.

I hate to say it but there’s one thing missing here - who is going to do drive and engage the employees in order to optimise performance? Who is going to enable the CEO and his executive team to have the right internal structure and shape for the business to survive and push on? And who is going to build confidence among shareholders and stakeholders by heading up, pushing through and achieving internal business goals?

If all this is to be achieved then Deloitte has missed a key human element to corporate recovery. Sadly I can only offer two words of advice, but luckily they are the right combination to enable bold leaders to seize the initiative and take UK plc out of the gloom and back into the boom. The first word begins with ‘i’, the second with ‘c’. Guessed it yet?

Internal communications.

I’ll leave the rest to the thousands of expert practitioners and consultants out there working hard with their leaders and companies everyday to take the necessary bold and brave decisions that will eventually lead us out of the red and back into the black. You may have been forgotten by some but not by us.

Top video interview tips from Melcrum's Social Media workshop

By Sona Hathi, Assistant Editor, Melcrum

Earlier, I managed to sneak into Melcrum's Social Media workshop, taking place as I blog, in our London office. I timed my entrance well as the group of about 25 communication professionals were just about to hear expert advice on creating video for use inside companies.

Former TV producer and private investigator Debbie Davies shared the following top tips for producing top quality video:

1. Take your time.
2. Give the interviewee an overview of what you're going to ask.
3. Be encouraging.
4. Know your equipment.
5. Tell them where the video will be published.
6. Think about the different ways to do an interview. Will the subject look straight into the camera or at an angle? Do you want questions to be heard or do you want the interviewee to build the question in their answer?
7. Remember to leave gaps in between questions and answers - you'll need them when editing later.
8. Think about lighting, background scenery and noise - even things like air conditioning can be disturbing. Put up a do not disturb sign if necessary.
9. Avoid fancy shots - zooming in and out can be distracting and also waste battery power.
10. Remember to get permission! Look on the internet for downloadable contracts of agreement. As a last minute option, get the interviewee to say on camera "My name is xxx and I am being interviewed by xxx about xxx and am aware that this will be broadcast on xxx," and then keep this as a record.

We're experimenting with video ourselves here at Melcrum and have become big fans of the Flip camera. It's very easy to use, great quality and it fits in your pocket. It's perfect for getting employees to do video diaries like Pfizer did, or informal interviews that are easy to publish on You Tube, like we did in this quick interview below, with Abi Signorelli, Director of Internal Communication at Virgin Media - who was also one of the trainers at the social media workshop today.

Best viral campaign in the world?

With a viral campaign that spawned around 200,000 blogs, more than 40,000 news stories and more than $200 million worth of global publicity, Tourism Queensland was responsible for one of the most successful and talked-about media/viral campaigns in recent history - The Best Job In The World. And they’ve got the awards to prove it – they scored two Grand Prixs at this weeks Cannes Lions Festival – the ad world’s equivalent of the Oscars.

Last week, whilst chairing the Strategic Communication Research Forum groups quarterly meeting (Shangri-La, Sydney) I got a behind-the-scenes look into the campaign’s highs and lows.

Danielle Koopman, General Manager Corporate and Government Relations shared some key findings from this campaign including:
* Expect controversy. As you’re always one step removed – it’s really out of your hands and with social media (especially blogs), the campaign will always have a mind of it’s own
* Always be prepared to be honest and admit your mistakes. Faced with some unusual applications (spoof Osama bin Laden entrant) and a web/communication malfunction which saw the winner’s name uploaded onto the web before the official announcement – Tourism QLD didn’t try to make excuses but honestly fessed up to their blunders
* Double-check your resources. Due to overwhelming applications their website shut down and wouldn’t accept any more (it had reached the unknown cut-off quota of 30,000) causing a mild panic for the team.

Another example of a great recent viral campaign was the Deloitte Film Festival, check it out if you’re yet to view.

Thanks again to all our members for your input into this meeting, there were some really great benchmarking discussions and case studies around viral comms. See you all in September when we tackle senior leadership with our special guest expert – Bill Quirke!

Katrina

P.S. Don’t forget Danielle Koopman is keynoting day two of our upcoming Strategic Communication Management Summit, Sydney. A great opportunity to hear this story, plus 14 others! See you all there.

The Job Search Juice - communicators in Washington DC ask the hard questions

"In today’s job market, is it OK to accept a role with a lower salary and less prestigious title? Are you hurting your career by doing so?"

That was the question posed to a panel of recruiters and employers at a recent Washington DC gathering of corporate communicators, organized by the Capital Communicators Group. Here’s a summary of what the experts had to say:

It’s fine as long as there are compensatory benefits – you’re learning a new skill, traveling less/more, greater opportunities for advancement.

That said, if there is a significant discrepancy between your previous pay and the new job, you should make a point to explain to the employer why you are willing to accept it. Otherwise, the hiring manager may be suspicious that you’re considering the role as a brief stepping stone on the path to something else.

Finally, be realistic about what it takes to maintain your financial well-being and your dignity. If you stray too far, you will likely regret it.

Resumes were another hot topic. Remember that writing class you took ages ago – the one that said good writing is about showing, not telling. Well, the same principle applies to your resume. Just because employers are looking for creativity, flexibility and strategic thinking doesn’t mean you can say “creative, flexible, strategic communicator” and call it a day.  Instead, articulate the outcomes of your work so that those qualities are reflected. Likewise, quantify wherever possible. Give hard numbers to back up statements like “improved” or “transformed.”

And just to make things more complicated, a word about the word strategy. One of the panelists made a great point about the competing and slightly contradictory attitude held by employers regarding strategic planning. On one hand, organizations are hungry for a candidate who “gets” strategy. On the other hand, employers can mistakenly think that if you’ve been heavily involved in strategic planning then you must have been removed from the day-to-day reality. Your head has been in the clouds.

There was a lot of nodding agreement in the room. But I would caution us as communicators to not lose ourselves in “doing.” Yes, organizations are leaner than ever. Yes, the demand for immediate results is high. But we must continue to show our leaders, colleagues and teams that communication effort without rigorous thought is a road that leads nowhere.

Melcrum is continuing its commitment to help you navigate both the tactical and strategic terrain as smoothly possible. So we're thrilled to announce we have new Black Belt dates for North America. In October 20-22, we'll be in Toronto and on November 2-4, we're in Washington DC. Find out more by visiting http://www.melcrum.com/products/training_courses/bb-international/index.html

Leaders ignore internal comms advice during recession

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

We all know we’re in the middle of allegedly the worst global recession for 60 years (despite hundreds of bankers still driving around in Ferrari Diablos) and that times are tough at the majority of businesses across the world, but what are we as communicators doing about it?

I know for one that the internal communications industry is doing its utmost to engage disenchanted employees and re-engage those that have only just managed to cling on to their jobs following another round of layoffs. If you haven't already, make sure you read Aniko Czinege's three-step strategy to improving employee morale on the Internal Comms Hub.

And I know full well how tough it is for thousands of communicators across the globe who are working on some of the largest change and restructuring programs the function has ever witnessed due to the massive amount of enforced consolidation we’ve seen in the past 18 months. But close to the top of the priority list, and in many cases number one for internal communicators during the fallout from the recession is the need to train their leaders to become better communicators. At a time of increasing executive distrust, and severely dented corporate reputations it is key that we as communicators re-inject faith in the leaders that drive our businesses or public sector organizations. It seems, however that in Britain all is not well and that many directors and managers have simply not learned from their mistakes.

A survey of more than 1,600 workers out today by the Keep Britain Working campaign, whose mission it is to promote innovative ways to preserve and create jobs, found that more than half (52%) of all UK bosses have become worse at motivating their employees since the recession began.

Some of the results were startling with one in three bosses found to have increased their criticism and blame of others, nearly a third have hidden themselves away, more than one in four have simply become indifferent, a quarter have pretended that nothing's happening, while 17% have started shouting and raging. Only one in six bosses have done more to motivate staff since the recession began, the survey said.

It also cited some astonishing examples of a number of clearly unstable bosses who had blatantly ignored every single piece of communications advice ever given to them. These included:

• A charity boss who brought in his hunting rifle and pretended to fire it at staff to make them work harder.
• A boss who made staff clean toilets because she had sacked the cleaners to save money.
• A boss who cut staff hours and pay while boasting about using his bonus to re-decorate his house.
• A public sector boss who advised a worker that people were queuing up for her job.
• A telecoms boss who chanted, “hit this target, keep your job...hit this target, keep your job”.

Internal communicators know more than most that if a team leader is indifferent, snaps and shouts at staff or blames other team members rather than taking responsibility for his division or organisation’s performance, the higher the probability of a company failure. The 1,600 respondents agreed, with more than half of all workers saying that executives failing to motivate staff lowers productivity, while more than a third said it makes company failure more likely.

If you have any examples of bad leadership or would like to share with us a case study or story of best practice leadership communication, please get in touch either by email: james.bennett@melcrum.com, by phone on 020 8600 4670 or on Twitter via direct message @Geskey.