In our recent article on why transformations so often fail, we noted that one of the top five causes is when transformation communications are treated like a project.
This article is the second of a series in which we put forth an alternative – brand-integrated narrative as a lever of value creation, value protection, and time to value.
Brand-integrated narrative as a lever of value protection: A case study
One of our clients, a boutique private equity firm specializing in corporate carve-outs, recognized the need for a brand-integrated narrative late in the deal process. Just a week before Day One, when the acquisition would be announced publicly to all audiences, we were brought in to craft a brand-integrated narrative that would protect value. Retaining talent, trust, and customers was critical.
For this client, associate retention across the three work sites mattered most – because it would be difficult to backfill any experienced manufacturing technicians lost to voluntary turnover amid a particularly tight labor market. Additionally, associates at each work site needed reassurance that their site – and thus, their jobs – would continue.
The PE operations leader and the portfolio company’s President asked us to develop talking points for the Town Hall and to review the benefits update memo to associates prepared by the HR consultants. We know from experience in transactions that the people driving critical work streams, such as constructing equal-or-better benefits packages point by point, have limited time and bandwidth to focus on their functional communications. We were not surprised when we spotted a minor oversight in the draft HR benefits update which risked alienating talent at one site in particular – Canadians have RRSPs, not 401ks – we simply restructured the memo from one document to two country-specific versions. This is an example of lateral leadership strategically supporting linchpin roles. Refer to our article why transformations so often fail to learn more.
Leveraging our related prior experience on enterprise-scale separations, we advised leadership that it was not during the Town Hall, but around the dinner table, where we would win or lose associate support for the transition. Their spouses and families would have opinions – likely strong ones – about what the transition means for job security and household stability. For this reason, we needed to ensure the narrative from the Town Hall would be conveyed as intended to and resonate with spouses and families.
Compelling brand-integrated narratives leverage an organization’s purpose and values. As a newly formed entity, however, our client had not yet defined those essentials.
How did we take this client from non-existent to compelling vision and values – within the week? We listened, built trust, and earned the right to refine leadership’s raw contributions into clean, compelling messaging. We facilitated the executive stakeholder review to finalize the vision and core values statements. The vision and values were not only embedded in all communications to associates, but also in a Letter from the President which articulated key messages from the Town Hall to their families.
As we mentioned in Part 1 of this series, humans tend to go off-script when one is not provided. We provided two versions of FAQs to all associates, with user-friendly navigation to find answers addressed to them and answers which could be emailed to their customers and channel partners.
Interestingly, though our client was small in absolute terms, it was a large employer relative to the size of its local area. We lightly modified the brand-integrated narrative for a Community Town Hall and a press release to the local news outlets, taking care to reinforce strong partnerships with local government, trade schools, and other community partners and incorporate employer of choice messaging to attract new talent to enable the company’s growth plans.
Our work enabled our client to quickly announce the transaction with a consistent brand-integrated narrative to all stakeholders, retaining trust, talent, and customers – that’s value protection.
In our next article, part three of this series, we will explore brand-integrated narrative as a lever of value creation.