Tag Archives: management

Internal communications may be the best investment you ever make

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I was incredibly lucky last week to listen to two compelling business consultants. I’m usually a hard critic to please and I don’t often take to consultants coming in to tell me what I should and should not be doing. But the two gentlemen who came into the company last week, Scott McKain and Jonar Nader, both emphasized the importance of listening and knowing your customer.

What impressed me most during the two days of business and management workshops was Nader’s insistence that companies fail because of a disconnect between their employees. By forgoing the people-management skills and internal communications companies fail to engage their staff. For more about Nader and his thoughts have a look at his blog which includes thoughts on his visit to Dubai.

To quote from one of Nader’s recent essays, “Most people are plagued by miscommuication, jealousy, and immaturity, resulting in poor performance. Individually, staff members might be great workers, but when lumped together with a range of personalities, egos clash.”

“As a technical genius, your success will depend on how well you marshall your team. Sadly, many technical gurus either isolate themselves and become eccentrics who lack influence, or they jump in the deep-end of management and drown in unfamiliar territory.”

I couldn’t agree with Nader more on people management being at the core of a company’s success and failure. Both Nader and McKain talked about information, about communication between employees. One of the best tools that I ever used and managed was was an internal website, an intranet. It may sound strange – after all an intranet is only designed for use by employees rather than the general public. Its audience is strictly defined and limited.

However, I’ve found that companies with intranets have a much better educated workforce. Employees generally understand their firm’s rules and regulations much better than companies who don’t have an intranet. An intranet also plays a major role in keeping the workforce up to date in terms of new products, successes, and company changes.

In short, the more a workforce is empowered with information, the more your employees will communicate. The less they’ll be in the dark about where the company is headed and how the company intends to grow. Your employees become your advocates rather than your naysayers. For the return on the investment is there anything better than an intranet and more internal communications in general?

And if you’re interested in knowing about Scott McKain have a look at this video!

Is your organization listening or talking to anyone?

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I attended a fascinating event this week in Riyadh (that’s not something I often say). The Saudi Brand and Communication Summit offered attendees a chance to discuss and share their own communications and marketing experiences. While there do seem to be companies out there who listen to their marcomms staff, the feeling I got was that companies need to do much more if they want to reach out both to their customers and employees.

A number of presentations were excellent. Possibly most impressive was Colin Hensley, Former General Manager of Corporate Affairs & Planning, Toyota Motor Europe, who talked about his experience of the recall crisis that affected Toyota last year. Equally impressive were Piers Schreiber, Vice President, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs of the Jumeirah Group who was discussing how to position a luxury brand across multiple markets, and Olaf Brinkmann, Group Communications Executive Manager at Saudi-based electrical manufacturer alfanar when talking on business to business comms. The irrepressible Saudi-based marketing consultant Said Aghil Baaghil shared his views of what Saudi companies think of marketing (this man certainly holds no punches when he describes the lack of understanding among Saudi business owners towards marketing as a discipline).

Each and every one of the speakers stressed on the basics, namely that a brand isn’t just a slogan or a logo. A brand is your company’s vision which has to be lived by every single employee in the firm. While the speakers were probably preaching to the converted what was striking was how all of them mentioned the same challenges: getting management on board; explaining to executives the benefits of effective communications; trying to find local talent.

Having worked in marcomms for a fair few years in the Kingdom I can relate to their frustrations. All too often companies, even multinationals, simply go out and sell. They’re rarely interested in educating customers, to create pull marketing that’ll result in the customer approaching them. Even on an individual basis, executives are unwilling to talk externally to the media. I was once told (only recently, I may add) that we don’t want to attract too much attention, it may get us noticed by the wrong people. It can be even more frustrating working with marcomms people outside of Saudi, who don’t understand the difficulties we go through in getting anything done over here.

Communications and marketing can and do do wonders for a company’s perception, positioning and profits. Some of the examples shared by the speakers were remarkable. Jason Ong, Area Director, Middle East & Africa at the Singapore Tourism Board explained that visitor numbers to Singapore increased by approximately fifty percent following the roll-out of their last marketing campaign. While it’s always a struggle to quantify return on investment for marcomms activities, a brand that sells products such as Apple, Nike, or Nokia is priceless.

As communicators the main problem we face is understanding. Why spend money on marketing or communications, I was often asked when I was on the agency. It’s simple. My job is to sell your firm, both internally and externally. As individuals we aim to make positive impressions on those we meet. We should do the same as companies. Communications and marketing are not wishy-washy undefined disciplines. They’re roles that are essential to the well-being and growth of any company.

I’m looking forward to next year’s Saudi Brand and Communications Summit in Riyadh. Why? Partly because of the insights of the speakers. Also because I enjoyed networking at the event. I’ll be most interested in hearing if we’re making any progress in getting our management to understand why marketing and communications are so important. Fingers crossed we’ll make headway here, but as cynical as I am I’m not holding my breath for any epiphanies between now and then.