Communications as Ikor

Change Management (Transformation Communications)3  < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

며칠의 휴식을 지내고 다시 이렇게 Change Management의 세번째 글을 올립니다.

오늘은 연휴중 하루이기 때문에 간단히 하나의 글만 소개 할까 합니다. 미국의 커뮤니케이션 컨설턴트 중에 Gary Grates라는 분이 계십니다. 그는 전략적 커뮤니케이션의 다양한 방면에 대한 전문성으로 “권위”를 인정받고 있습니다. 현재 미국전역에 커다란 컨설팅 펌을 경영중이며, 거대한 기업군들에게 강력한 영향력을 행사하는 저희 같은 조무라기 PR인들에게는 큰 선생님이자 선배님입니다.

 

저도 학교에 있을때 그분에게 몇번 어렵사리 연락을 취해 겨우겨우 그의 비서로부터 자료제공을 받아 본적이 있습니다.  저의 Strategic Communications컨셉은 많은 부분이 Mr. Grates로 부터 왔다고 해도 과언이 아닙니다. 저의 글을 읽어 오셨던 분들은 오늘 그분의 글이 제가 주장해 왔던 것들과 얼마나 흡사한것 인지를 아실수 있으실겁니다.

 

약간 길지만, Change Management에 관심을 가지신 분은 잘 읽어 보십시오.

Change Management는 확실히 떠오르는 PR분야의 신천지입니다. 수요도 많고, 그 영향력도 엄청납니다. 관심을 가져보시죠.

 

오늘 Grates선생의 글은 Momentum에 관한 글입니다. Change에 있어서 Momentum은 Change의 존재 유무와도 관계가 있습니다. 과연 Momentum은 무었일까요..

어떻게 우리 PR인들이 조직내에서 변화를 위한 Momentum을 창조할수 있을까요.

Take a look…

 

그럼 “홍보!” in 추석

*******************************************************************BUILDING MOMENTUM: A PRECURSOR TO BUSINESS GROWTH  

by Gary Grates

 

For today’s leading corporations ; and for every would-be leader ; constant growth is imperative. Yet growth can’t be sustained without a deliberate corporate-wide strategy to build momentum. For communications professionals the opportunity has never been greater to link strategic communications to a company’s growth plan.

 

It’s the force behind nearly every business decision, from mega mergers like Disney & Capital Cities/ABC to dramatic downsizing initiatives like Sunbeam and headline-making executive appointments, like AT&T’s John Walter. It’s the mantra being chanted in boardrooms, on factory floors and during annual meetings of companies worldwide. “It” is the relentless quest for growth. But while growth may be every company’s number one priority, many chief executives and management teams are still uncertain about how to achieve and sustain the growth needed for leadership ; or even survival ; into the 21st century.

 

Consider two specific problems that hamper the corporate pursuit of growth and the leadership position. First, many businesses are still suffering from the effects of the “downsizing decade,” including lost expertise, sagging company morale, and in some cases, customer concerns about the company’s reliability. Second, the increasingly competitive global economy means that growth in itself will not be enough to secure or defend a leadership position. Any company developing a strategy geared to maintaining its current pace will be left behind because the pace is constantly accelerating.

 

What many of today’s CEOs are discovering is that growth is merely a measure of where their company is at a specific time in relation to its past performance and the current competition. A more relevant measurement ; what Boxenbaum Grates refers to as “The Momentum Factor” ; helps to determine whether the company aiming to capture or keep the lead position is not only growing, but has the built-in momentum to carry itself to the head of the pack as the pace speeds up. Building and sustaining this momentum is where strategic communications has the greatest opportunity to play a significant role.

 

Defining Momentum

 

Momentum begins with an attitude. It starts at the top and then spreads throughout the organization to impact everything from product development and employee compensation to customer service and supplier relationships. In physics, momentum is defined as the force of motion. In business, momentum becomes a key measure of whether a company is growing. This key to corporate survival is hard to grasp because it’s a soft concept made up of feelings, beliefs and even perceptions. That’s why momentum is often considered fragile ; it can be created or destroyed by the fleeting thoughts and actions of dozens of different constituencies, from shop floor employees to top management, from suppliers and customers, from the media and the general public to competitors and government regulators. On a more positive note, momentum can also be harnessed and directed by a carefully orchestrated strategic communications program.

 

It’s easy to spot companies with momentum ; and those without it. Take for example the case of Coca-Cola and IBM and their sponsorships of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Twenty corporate giants, including Coke and IBM, each spent $40 million as official sponsors. Yet, IBM, in particular, very likely lost ground because its widely touted expertise and equipment couldn’t track results and other data as promised, triggering internationally publicized complaints from Olympics officials.

 

Many experts believe that this highly visible ; and very expensive ; incident represented a loss of momentum for a company who was on the upswing. Coke, on the other hand, used the Olympics effectively to continue to fuel its momentum. The company’s all-out “fans-oriented” publicity campaign not only sold lots of Coke, it also created the sort of positive experience that helps to build momentum for Coke Chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta’s commitment to “adding strength to the world’s strongest brand” and “making Coca-Cola the preferred beverage everywhere.” The momentum built by Coke was a result of a fully- integrated, coherent communications strategy that worked together to support Coke’s standing as the world’s strongest brand.

 

Creating Momentum

 

If momentum is the precursor to business growth, how can a company create momentum? By its very nature, it’s possible to manipulate momentum to achieve the desired effect ; in this case, growth. As many successful organizations have shown, the most effective way for a company to create momentum is to use strategic communications to define and disseminate the core message and then, foster an ongoing dialogue with key constituencies to make sure the message is working and enabling the company to move forward.

 

As a company in dire need of a dramatic turnaround in the 1980s, Goodyear provides an excellent example of a company that used communications to build momentum and fuel growth. While Goodyear’s Aquatred tire was a breakthrough product with the potential to revolutionize the marketplace, a closer look reveals that it was the way in which the company chose to market the tire that helped to change the tide for Goodyear. In lieu of a multi-million dollar advertising launch campaign, Goodyear opted to use a strategic communications campaign to create word-of-mouth excitement for the “wet traction” tire among its employees, dealers, automotive manufacturers, the automotive press, the financial community, and ultimately, consumer demand for the tire.

 

This powerful strategy enabled Goodyear to increase its brand equity, enhance its reputation with multiple audiences, and best of all, increase sales. As Goodyear CEO Stanley Gault noted during a post-launch debrief, the Aquatred launch helped to prove to everyone from the investment community to the automotive media to the financial press to dealers and competitors that Goodyear was “on the go.”

 

For any company poised to move into a “growth phase,” there are several considerations to keep in mind. First, there must be an understanding that a well-designed and carefully managed strategic communications program will be vitally important at all times, particularly for companies pursuing rapid growth and market dominance. Second, even during periods of calm, an effective communications program will earn dividends in the form of knowledgeable, more productive employees and more loyal customers. And finally, communications is essential to creating momentum, which in turn is essential to building and sustaining growth. For companies looking to create a pro-growth environment, top management’s pro-communications stance must be replicated throughout the ranks. This includes taking to steps to re-educate management teams whose mindset and compensation are linked to downsizing and cost-cutting, and instilling the new wave skills of growth management. These leadership-focused skills include a better way of dealing with customers, employees, suppliers, communities, media, and products themselves, and focusing on the positive values of communications, momentum and growth.

 

Top-down corporate strategy should include activities that will grab attention, build excitement and commitment, and generate measurable results within the organization and externally in dealing with customers, suppliers, and other groups such as government regulators and the general public. Successful implementation requires a growth plan with measurable goals; a company-wide communications program that aligns internal and external messages with company goals, and a continuous monitoring and evaluation system that incorporates weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual planning, goal setting and results measurement.

 

Setting Momentum in Motion

 

It may seem spontaneous to some, but momentum is the result of a well-planned and well-focused communications effort. Typically, momentum starts at the top, and if it’s communicated successfully, it permeates every aspect of an organization. The case of the turnaround of Continental Airlines offers a powerful example of how President and CEO Gordon Bethune used communications to fuel momentum and ultimately, growth, when he took over the ailing airline.

 

By proclaiming a simple, yet meaningful, message for all target constituencies ; “Continental flies on time,” Bethune was able to reenergize employees and customers and initiate an ongoing dialogue that helped to propel Continental back to the black. As part of his communications campaign, Bethune walked the picket lines to talk to pilots, set up an 800 number for employee complaints, instituted a profit-sharing plan, started paying bonuses based on the airline’s on-time record, replaced the “customer-complaint” department with the “revenue-protection” department, and visited 15 cities to hand-deliver the message. Committed communicator Bethune quickly made it clear that he knows where the buck stops;and where the dollars start. He initiated the process of reviving a moribund Continental by making a personal and corporate commitment to putting the customer first in every way from flying on time and handing out aspirin to delivering bags to the right airport;every time. Just as importantly, Bethune recognized that to generate the ideas and focused energy needed to make this happen, “We have to rely on the judgment of the people who really run this airline;the gate agents, the baggage handlers, the flight crews, the reservationists.” There’s ample proof of the rewards for Continental and its stockholders. An Air

 

Travel Consumer Report from the Department of Transportation on the seven largest U.S. carriers ranked Continental #1 for on-time arrivals, #1 for baggage handling and #1 for fewest complaints for both the fourth quarter of 1995 and the first quarter of 1996. A J. D. Power/Frequent Flyer magazine independent survey in June ranked Continental tops among the nine major U.S. airlines in customer satisfaction on flights over 500 miles ;making Continental the first airline to jump from the bottom of the list to the top in a single year. Now earning record profits, Continental has moved from near bankruptcy to posting five straight record quarters and a tidy $750 million in cash.

 

Regaining Momentum

 

As noted earlier, another characteristic of momentum is its fragility ; for many of the world’s most admired companies, momentum is easy to build and even easier to lose. Take for example the case of the Walt Disney Company. By the early 1980s, the tremendous momentum created by Walt Disney had almost come to a halt. The Disney brand had been allowed to languish until Michael Eisner and Frank Wells teamed up in 1984 and decided to leverage the brand through an aggressive and highly effective communications program ; internally and externally. The effort served to refuel the company’s momentum and ultimately, helped to transform Disney into one of the world’s fastest growing and most exciting business empires.

 

When it comes to rebuilding momentum, Coca-Cola’s Chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta is another dedicated disciple of using orchestrated communications ; and an unorthodox approach ; to fuel growth. Challenged by competition externally and by the risk of complacency internally, Goizueta took the unusual step of bypassing Madison Avenue in 1991 and turning to Creative Artists Agency, Inc. (CAA), the Hollywood talent agency in 1991, in an effort to reenergize the Coke brand and infuse the Coke “experience” with the excitement that had been lacking. Throughout his tenure, Goizueta has been very successful in developing a simple, energizing message and delivering it using a focused, non-stop strategy. According to Goizueta, it’s a three-step approach: State expectations. Meet or exceed those expectations. Repeat.

 

Goizueta isn’t alone. Several top executives are using strategic communications to manage change and capture growth. In today’s competitive environment, the formula for a successful growth plan includes:

 

Crafting the original vision statement ; such as on-time flights in the case of Continental Airlines ; based on working closely with core constituencies such as employees and customers

Using a simple message as the foundation for action

Maintaining open communications by listening and responding to employees and the marketplace

Creating excitement and energy surrounding new products, new initiatives, new ways of doing business to build the commitment ; and momentum that will fuel and sustain growth

In terms of regaining momentum, there is perhaps no better example of a company that effectively communicates a simple message than Chrysler. Whatever Chrysler does is designed to be consistent with the company’s desire and strategy to “focus on its core automotive business.” Chrysler’s sharp focus explains the more than $1 billion the then cash-strapped company paid to create the Chrysler Technology Center that was a key to Lee Iacocca’s plan to reinvent Chrysler. The “cars-are-core” focus explains why Chrysler sold off Thrifty Rent-A-Car, Electrospace Systems and Chrysler Technologies Airborne Systems. It’s also the driving force behind Chrysler opening up its previously off-limits Design Studio to show off the cars of the future and position Chrysler as the manufacturer with the foresight and vision to build them.

 

But the most important change at Chrysler was attitudinal. Overall direction, in the form of a clearly and repeatedly stated focus, came from the top. And in a move considered radical for the automotive industry, Chrysler instituted a company-wide two-way communications program to ensure that ideas could flow freely and quickly in all directions. The result of this momentum? Chrysler ended the second quarter of FY’96 with $8.8 billion in cash and 16.2 percent of the car and truck markets (up from 14.8 percent the previous year). Industry analysts and car buyers agree that Chrysler simply builds better cars today. Yet at the same time, Chrysler’s success drives home three obvious, but often overlooked, lessons: First, building better products begins with linking communications to a management mindset; secondly, integrating communications to a company’s growth strategy; and third, best products in the world will fail to achieve their full potential in volume and value without a communications program to deliver regular and credible information about them and the organization to the world at large.

 

Sustaining Momentum

 

Today’s leading companies win because they have successfully integrated strategic communications into their corporate culture. Their leaders realize that there are no longer two separate worlds ; the internal company world and the external customer, investor and supplier worlds. All must be handled as parts of a whole where partnering has become not only a reality, but a necessity for competitiveness and growth. Unless there is an established pattern of excellent communications within the company, there will not be adequate communications with customers, suppliers and investors. The competitive world of tomorrow necessitates an ongoing dialogue involving many people and many interests. This is how great companies create momentum and maintain growth.

 

So, how’s your business building momentum?

 

((부록))

 

Chrysler’s CEO on Momentum:

 

Robert J. Eaton, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer

 

“In 1991, Chrysler Corporation did something no other company has done before. We took the entire company apart from top to bottom and restructured it to focus on one thing;the customer.

 

We understand customers will leave for the competition for any number of reasons, big or small. That’s why we started our Customer One Program… Customer One involves training every member of the Chrysler organization about customer focus. The results have been tremendous and continue to form the backbone of our success.

 

Another way to hold on to our customers is to offer a superior product. So we got rid of old traditional production methods and developed integrated platform teams. Designers, marketers and engineers work together from the conceptual stage of a new vehicle all the way through actual production. This saves time and money and most important, eliminates mistakes before production. We’re also empowering our teams so they can feel true ownership in their work and be proud of their accomplishments.

 

“Customer feedback is also vital. We ask customers what they like best about particular competitors’ models, like trunk space or seat comfort. We then benchmark our cars with the best of the best and then go one step further. In addition, our Customer Advocate Program allows dealers to get in instant contact with engineers here at the Tech Center if any problems should arise. This way problems are addressed quickly and correctly the first time.

 

“Don’t get the idea Chrysler is content to be where it is, because it isn’t. In fact, we’re giving employees “stretch goals:” an improvement in some aspect of production by at least 50 percent. This is a huge commitment and, when achieved, adds incredible value by reducing the number of steps it takes to get things done. We’re also working more closely with our suppliers, sharing new ideas, and improving production methods.

 

“So, where is all this change taking Chrysler Corporation? Well, if you ask any Chrysler employee, you’ll get the same answer;to the top. That’s right, our goal is to be the number one car maker in the world by the year 2000! We’re on the right track. It’s just a matter of maintaining the momentum.”