What is the most effective way for a company to communicate its strategy to its employees?BY BASTIAN SCHNEIDER* and PHILIPPE WICKI**In today's world, where constant transformation has become the norm, the orientation, inspiration and motivation of employees are becoming increasingly important. If you succeed in taking your employees with you on your journey into the future. If they pursue a clear goal together. When they become flag bearers of the company's ambitions.
Employees do not know the company's strategyHowever, practice shows that this is precisely where things fail. Only very few companies manage to successfully communicate their strategy to their employees. A study by Kaplan & Norton, published in the "Harvard Business Review" in 2005, has proven this: On average, 95% of employees do not know or even understand their company's strategy. But if your employees don't know or understand your strategy, how can they act in line with your corporate ambitions? There is a great risk that your company will not make an inch of progress and visionary strategies will remain toothless paper tigers. There are countless studies on the subject of "strategy implementation". And they all show that between 60 and 80% of corporate strategies fail in implementation. 60-80%! That is a frightening figure. And for many, failure is programmed from the outset. Because the communication of the strategy to the employees did not work. And because too little attention was paid to the culture of the company. "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" - Peter Drucker said this many years ago.
The example of DaimlerChryslerThere is, for example, the well-known case of DaimlerChrysler. The merger was sold to the outside world as a "merger of equals", whereas in reality the two companies could not have been more different. On the one hand, there was the German Daimler culture: strongly hierarchical, very conservative, efficient and focused on security. On the other hand, there was Chrysler, an egalitarian company with flat hierarchies, bold and daring, which encouraged creativity and was always trying out new things. In short: the serious Swabians met the American warhorses. And that simply didn't work at all. The two cultures simply did not engage sufficiently with each other and did not manage to form a common vision or develop a unified identity.
The example of VolkswagenAnd then there is the example of Volkswagen. It shows that you cannot force the implementation of a strategy by exerting pressure. Ex-Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn announced in 2012 that the CO
2-emissions of its fleet by 30% by the end of the year. This ambitious target was not technically feasible in such a short time. So VW engineers began to manipulate the required values with unauthorized measures. But how did it get to the point where engineers started to cheat? According to insiders, a culture of fear prevailed under Winterkorn. If it was not realistic to complete a project in the specified time, hardly anyone dared to ask for more time, as meeting the deadline was demanded with an iron fist. A culture of cheating has gradually emerged, which has spread like a virus throughout the entire organization: Successful shaping of the future often fails because of the way in which communication takes place. If too little account is taken of the corporate culture. If the gap between the company's strategy and the employees cannot be bridged. The strategy implementation problem is therefore to a large extent also a strategy communication problem! How should this be dealt with and how can it be solved in the best possible way?
The brand as an internal communication toolA company's most effective communication tool is its brand. A brand provides orientation and helps people to make decisions. Of course, this applies on the market side, in relation to customers. But it also applies with equal relevance internally, in relation to the company's own employees. If they know exactly what their company stands for, they can make much easier, clearer and better decisions in the right direction - for example, in terms of corporate strategy. As part of communicating strategy, the brand therefore effectively helps to express the image of the future and make it tangible for employees today. The brand shows where the journey should take us and makes it clear what is needed to get there. It also helps to address people holistically. Not just with rational facts, but above all with emotions. With the brand, you manage to trigger something in people. The young generation of employees in particular, the emotionally oriented Generation Y, which has been storming into companies for several years and would prefer to take their place in the executive chair yesterday, can be effectively inspired and emotionally picked up by means of a brand.As an instrument for communicating strategy, the brand works in three ways in particular:1) as a compass, by giving people a clear picture of the goal and showing them the direction in which things will go;2) as an accelerator, by inspiring and motivating employees to follow the path shown;3) as a steering wheel, by helping employees to make easier and clearer decisions in the right direction in their operational activities.Many companies use this power of the brand to successfully communicate their strategies to their employees. Here are two examples.
The example of GoogleThe co-founder of Google, Larry Page, encourages his employees to believe in crazy ideas and is open to "everything that could really change the world". This inspiring idea stands above the incredibly ambitious growth strategy, guides the employees and enables Google to continuously penetrate new industries. Starting with a search engine, the company developed other internet-based services such as Chrome, Google Maps and Picasa, brought hardware such as smartphones and Chromebooks onto the market and is working on self-driving cars and digital glasses such as Google Glass. These are all things that have fundamentally changed the world or have the potential to do so. This mission statement also takes into account that mistakes can be made and projects can be scrapped, such as Google Glass. Today, Google is working on a lens that can be worn directly on the eye instead of glasses. As you can see: Google is in a constant state of transformation. The only constant is the brand, which gives this change a clear direction and guides the employees.
The example of SwisscomBut it is not only companies in the "new economy" that use their brand to communicate their strategy to employees. A good example from the "old economy" is Swisscom. As a company with almost 100 years of tradition and a past as a state-owned enterprise, Swisscom has managed to develop from a rather sluggish monopolist into an agile, dynamic and future-oriented company over the last 10 years. The re-branding in 2008 played an incredibly important role in this. Internally, it helped to show employees the direction in which we want to develop and externally, it has led to Swisscom being perceived as a modern, innovative company. We know from our own experience how brand-oriented people approach the whole thing and how important storytelling about the brand is internally.
Success factors of brand-oriented strategy mediationIf you want to mobilize your brand as a strategy mediation tool, it has proven itself in practice to consider the following points:
Success factor 1: Communicating the meaning behind the strategy
It all starts with the why! Communicate the purpose behind all the changes and measures. Present a clear vision of what your company wants to achieve in the world. Get to the heart of this vision in the form of an inspiring idea, preferably in such a way that it is easy to remember and pass on. A good example of this is Roche. With "doing now what patients need next", Roche has managed to impressively express the meaning behind the company's strategic direction.
Success factor 2: Use emotional storytelling
Create this target image in an emotional way. Make use of all communication options, from attractive target image branding and memorable key visuals for the core content of your strategy to professional and target group-oriented storytelling.
Success factor 3: Proceed intelligently and in stages
Take a step-by-step, top-down approach to placement. First win over top management as the highest sales force for the strategic development of the company. It should stand united behind the new direction and act accordingly internally. Next, involve the informal opinion leaders. These exist at all levels and in all departments. If you gain their understanding of the new strategy, they are an important driver for communicating it to all employees. Only then, in a third step, should you go to the internal public on a large scale and address all employees.
Success factor 4: Strengthen middle management in a targeted manner
Strengthen middle management. It is the most important link between top management and employees. Its representatives have direct access to both sides, feel what is happening on the front line and know what the strategy is currently demanding. However, in order to be able to perform their hinge function effectively, they need concrete support, for example in the form of communication and behavioral training, multimedia communication tools instead of boring PPT presentations and convincing examples of success from individual departments in the company.
Success factor 5: Staging an impressive kick-off
Stage the beginning in the form of an impressive event. Every strategy communication needs an initial spark. A strong kick-off that makes it clear that a new era in the company's development is about to begin. An event that creates a spirit of optimism within the company and will remain with employees for years to come in the form of vivid memories. An event like this can be loud and should take place in a very different way than usual.
Success factor 6: Involve employees personally
Ensure intensive, personal involvement and active engagement of employees with the content and consequences of the new strategy. Avoid purely frontal presentations and use interactive communication techniques that are fun and encourage exchange between employees. There is an inexhaustible arsenal of possibilities here, from games to discussion and workshop formats through to electronically supported live voting.
Success factor 7: Persevere
Take the topic of strategy transfer seriously in the long term and persevere. Communicating a substantially new direction does not happen overnight and is not accomplished with a one-off measure. The energy generated will quickly fizzle out and be overshadowed by everyday issues and problems. Understand strategy transfer as a continuous process. People are creatures of habit and only internalize new perspectives over time. Once the spirit of optimism has been created, it should therefore be consistently passed on via internal communication channels. The new strategy must become tangible for employees time and again. This requires a long-term internal communication concept. In most cases, new instruments need to be created for this purpose. Digital media in particular offer enormous potential in this respect, which most companies have not yet fully exploited.ConclusionIf you take these 7 points into account, you will significantly increase the likelihood of successful strategy communication. You will then reach your employees effectively and pave the way for a dynamic future in your company. With your employees on board, what can be possible? We are firmly convinced that your company's potential is limitless!
