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 creation: A case study
A global enterprise client of ours announced its intention to separate a key segment of its business to create an independent, publicly traded company. For a multi-billion dollar transaction, the timeline from announcement to spin-off and IPO of the new company is typically around 12 months, as there is an extraordinary amount of work involved. Once the executive team is named, they must plan, design, and build everything to establish the new entity – leveraging a constellation of strategic partners, agencies, and consultants during the transition until they have recruited and onboarded their permanent hires.
The investment bank advising our client on the transaction told the executive team that because NewCo had a strong track record on sustainability, how well the company told its sustainability story in its inaugural ESG report would attract more investors and increase enterprise value at IPO – by mid-single digits or more.
Here is what that mid-single digit upside translates to in real terms for companies of different sizes –
With so much incremental enterprise value at stake, the SVP of Strategy sought outside expertise months before spin-off to develop NewCo’s ESG positioning and key messages and lead the work to ready the inaugural report ahead of the investor roadshow.
Architecting a brand-defining ESG narrative, which simultaneously:
- Reflects a change in the material issues and priorities associated with a new enterprise NAICS code
- Speaks to each of these material issues in a way which resonates with what key stakeholders expect to hear
- Withstands scrutiny from customers, talent, partners, boards, individual and institutional investors, governmental institutions and regulatory bodies
- Evidences the company’s commitment to “walk the talk” through specific actions with measurable impact and progress
- Condenses multi-page technical case studies written for experts into 120-word vignettes that resonate with a broader audience and are tightly woven into the flow of the overall narrative
- Inspires and motivates global talent across countries, cultures, and operating units
- Aligns to important parts of the corporate parent’s narrative, because they are still one company during the investor roadshow, when the report would be published
- Defines their new voice while speaking with one voice
- Serves as NewCo’s first major marketing piece as a standalone company
…is rigorous, integrative brand work which requires strategy, precision, stakeholder empathy, and the agility to rapidly shift altitudes and perspectives.
This work demands exceptional emotional intelligence, expertise, and leadership finesse because we’re not only shaping the enterprise narrative, but we are also touching the very core, the heartbeat of the organization that underpins the governance layer – and that influences every executive in the room and the way they lead the organization forward.
How do we do it?
We start by listening and building trust, recognizing that often we’re tasked with thoughtfully coaching and influencing talented executives, often 10-20 years more experienced than ourselves.
We create a space of psychological safety for executive teams to contribute their partially-formed ideas, thoughts, and objectives – listening attentively, then iteratively unpacking and untangling these inputs into themes. We invite our client leaders to trust us and step into our frame as we present their business, brand, and narrative back to them. Essentially, we articulate and test our hypotheses in real-time, to discover which ideas naturally light up the room as they find resonance.
Then, we get to work refining the most resonant hypotheses and shaping the strongest potential brand-integrated narratives.
We do so by volunteering to take on the professional vulnerability of being the first to commit individual and collective verbal thoughts to pen or pixels, subjecting ourselves and our work in process ideas to executive stakeholder review and legal team scrutiny.
During or following spins, divestitures, and carve outs, we are often invited deeper into the new entity’s organization, into the strategy, governance, and transformation layer. We are tasked with integrating the new corporate brand, values and narrative into the code of conduct, employee handbook, onboarding mechanisms, strategy frameworks, health and safety tools, and numerous corporate policies, in close partnership with senior owners of Legal, Compliance, HR, environment, health and safety (EHS) and other functions.
It’s time we reframe brand, corporate narrative, and strategic communication as a hard skill. Because the work involved in creating a brand-integrated narrative is decidedly not soft.
Our work enabled our client to deliver a brand-defining ESG report that won over investors and increased enterprise value by a mid-single digit percentage and strengthened trust, talent and customers – that’s significant value creation.
Brand-integrated narrative drives even greater value creation when paired with the commercial excellence, operational excellence, and transformation capabilities of our trusted partners. If you would like to speak about the value we can create for your business, get in touch.