Communication Director 01 2010

Russian Web 2.0PR: the early yearsSowing the seeds of a digital

communications revolution

How the early Twitter bird can catch the wormThe risks and opportunities of

pioneering new online tools

Confessions of aninternet junkieTen tips for networking success

from a social media addict

COMMUNICATION DIRECTORM a g a z i n e f o r C o r p o r a t e C o m m u n i c a t i o n s a n d P u b l i c R e l a t i o n s

www.communication-director.eu

01/2010

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01/2010 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR

EDITORIAL

Whenever the world of PR stumbles upon new tools of communicat ion, corporate professionals need to answer one fun-damental quest ion : should they seize the day and be early adopters , or bide their t ime in the wings, wait ing to see

how the new techniques evolve once the dust of hype has sett-led? For the past couple of years, this conundrum could be applied to a mult itude of social media novelt ies. Should your company run its own Twitter account? Should it take the plun-ge and engage with Facebook? Should it create its own inter-nal social network for employees to speak openly? There are sound reasons for corporat ions to exercise caution. Jumping on the bandwagon without prior ref lect ion is , without a doubt , a sl ippery slope to fai lure, for involvement with social media is not without its risks. Could employees misinterpret freedom of speech and abuse the internal forum? Could there be an increa-se in leaks to unscrupulous journalists? Communicat ions specia-l ists could also get it wrong, and swamping social networks with aimless self-promotion wil l hardly endear you to your stakehol -ders. On the plus side, social media of fers a unique opportunity to engage with stakeholders on a more spontaneous and int ima-te level than has ever been possible , bui lding an organisat ion’s image and discovering trends and potential sources of crisis long before they material ise in more tradit ional channels. In this issue’s Story Teller sect ion, a diverse range of experts from the academic and corporate worlds guide us through the dis -tract ing white noise of hyperbole and explore the ramif icat ions of social media on PR and corporate communicat ions. We hope you f ind some food for thought in this f irst issue of 2010.

Marc-Oliver Voigt

Editor -in-Chief [email protected]

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The dynamics of trust What do we mean when we speak of trust? What are its foundations and implications?Bart Noteboom

TEAM PLAYER How to improve personnel management and your career

A clean sweep for reformers The evolution of an organisation depends on leaders seizing the day and driving change Judith Bardwick

Systems, people and knowledge A mixture of three essential organisational components results in transformation Su Mi Dahlgaard-Park

BORDER CROSSER Experiencing the unknown

Experiencing the unknown – leading professionals working abroad Interview with Simon Sproule

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AGENDA SETTER Communication ideas in the eyes of experts

Heralding change

Our world. Your move

LEADERS CEOs in the eyes of the media

CEO Stockwatch by CARMA International

STRATEGIC THINKER The corporate and academic stand on communication

Scanning for information Daimler shows how soliciting the opinions of journalists can shed light on your own work Jörg Howe

Campaigning without candidates The recent European Council presidential elections were a unique communications case study Peter van Aelst

11“Prior to launching the campaign, we shared all the messaging and materials with our 186 Red Cross Red Crescent societies, allowing them to give feedback.”

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“Things can go wrong for a variety of reasons: a mishap or accident no one could have foreseen and prevented, lack of competence, lack of attention, lack of commitment, or opportunism.”

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Digital revolution takes hold in Russia The use of social media for Russian PR may be in its infancy, but opinion formers are leading the way Marat Rakaev

Time to collaborate Alstom’s Collaborative Way programme enables employees to learn from each other Michael S. Salone

BOOKSCommunications Reader

ASSOCIATION European Association of Communication Directors

European Association of Communication Directors

QUESTIONS TO... The personal side of Communication Directors

Claus Sonberg

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STORY TELLER Looking at the important questions of communication

Getting plugged in to social media An overview of the application of Web 2.0 in corporate communications and public relations Richard Morgan and Dafydd Phillips

The future’s bright How SAP harnessed social media as an internal communications tool with a global reach Jürgen Zimmermann

Ten PR commandments of Web 2.0 A social media addict shares her hard-earned knowledge of the dos and don’ts of networking Meg Pickard Best foot forward Being a social media innovator can have its risks and benefits, and needs constant monitoring Ian McNairn

Power to the people The internet has empowered stakeholders, enabling them to shape your company Elliot S. Schreiber

Extreme opinions: now in real-time The unimaginable expansion of the internet begs the question: is it in danger of getting out of control? Geert Lovink

“Hierarchy and consensus are important. Taking those elements alone you have a process that operates in many Japanese companies.”

46“The success of the social media-enabled exchange lies in the fact that it benefits everyone.”

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As of January this year, the euro has replaced the Slovakian koruna, a currency closely associated with the country’s independence. Such a break called for a large-scale campaign.

by Dafydd Phillips

HERALDING CHANGE

AGENDA SETTERCommunication ideas in the eyes of experts

overs, as well as similar communi-cation campaigns in some of the 12 original countries that adopted the Euro in 2002. A “twinning pro-gramme” was established with the Austrian Central Bank, as well as an exchange with Belgian National Bank. During 2007 and 2008, the coordination committee also visited Cyprus and Malta and talked with Slovenian colleagues who had only recently completed their own cam-paign in 2007.

The projected start date for the campaign was July 2008, but fol-lowing a public opinion poll in February that revealed general dis-satisfaction with the level of infor-mation on the changeover, the start date was brought forward to March. In less than a month, TV spots were produced in order to communicate basic milestones that would lead to the changeover, with more practical

A ll through last year, prices in Slovakia were displayed in both koruna and euro, a small but sig-nificant way of smoothing over the transition between the two currencies. Slovakia is the latest of

the new member states to adopt the euro, following Slov-enia, Malta and Cyprus, while Estonia looks set to be the next country to adopt the euro in 2011.

Common concerns when facing currency conversion in-clude fears of inflation growth, consumer protection, secu-rity and pricing. In this particular case, the Slovak koruna had a peculiarly symbolic significance, as it was the currency proudly adopted when Slovakia gained independence from the former Czechoslovakia in 1992. Such a monumental change clearly needed to be communicated sensitively yet on the broadest possible scale. To prepare Slovakia’s 5.5 mil-lion citizens, a long running and thorough communications campaign was coordinated by the National Bank of Slova-kia and the Ministry of Finance, with contributions from other ministries and institutions such as public television. The early planning stages occurred as far back as 2005, with the publication of a national changeover plan that included a section on communication, with more detailed planning following in 2007. According to Martin Suster, Director of the Research department at the National Bank of Slova-kia, the reason for this relatively long lead time was because “public procurement in Slovakia, especially for things such as a communication campaign where you don’t have exact technical details which you could have published in the ten-der, can be quite difficult and time-consuming.”

LOOKING OUTWARD In developing the campaign, the coordination team looked at the experiences of several other countries in the European community and the Euro-pean Central Bank that had undergone their own change-

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cies to have any influence in what the project would look like.” The chosen advertising agency – Bratsi-lava-based Creo/Young&Rubicam – helped to deliver the media aspect of the campaign, as well as proposals for individual fringe elements, such as the Euromobile truck that toured the country, visiting small towns and specifically targeting the elderly and the less well off. Several exhibitions on relevant topics such as the mak-ing of the euro and design of the Slo-vakian euro coins were also created by the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the Na-tional Bank.

Although the campaign was on a nationwide scale, simplicity was key. According to Suster, the cam-paign did not “have to be very fancy, it doesn’t have to be masterpiece of art since you are not competing with Ph

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a blanket term that covers many smaller sensitive target groups, including the Roma and the visually-impaired. This is one element that Suster points to as setting this campaign apart from normal advertising campaigns. “We stressed these disadvantaged groups which otherwise in a commercial campaign would not be targeted because they have little purchasing power,” he explains. “But from our point of view where we wanted to deliver the information to everybody, we had to concentrate on where the infor-mation needs are more difficult.”

Each group demanded a different approach, and some rather ingenious solutions. For example, a special greetings

card similar to a musical Christmas card was designed for the sight-impaired, but instead of the traditional Christ-mas carol, opening the card would trigger a recording that explained the euro. A video with information in sign lan-guage was delivered to the hearing-impaired. Above all, the

Although the campaign was on a large nationwide scale, simplicity was key.

Lively media messages helped pave the way for the euro

information left to the later stages.Originally, the idea was that the

first tender would see advertising agencies cooperating with each other in contributing to a national cam-paign; however, according to Suster, “agencies really took this as very fierce competition among themselves so we had to change the public procure-ment format to select just one agency and not allow any of the other agen-

anybody. But it has to be very simple and very straight-forward so that all the segments of the population, even the ones that have some difficulty in understanding things, will get it.” While the campaign also addressed the concerns of banks, enterprises and professionals, Sus-ter stresses that “the largest part of the campaign was directed towards the general population, and it was not really rocket science: even though it’s about finance, it’s about a couple of simple procedures – exchanging mon-ey, converting prices, making sure you understand what the new currency looks like.” The general population is

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Julius Horvath

Central European University, Budapest

Julius Horvath is chairman of the Depart-ment of Economics at the Central European University. His main interests are international economics, political economy of monetary relations, history of economic thought, and political economy. He is a member of the Slovak Accreditation Committee Board.

Taming expectations

Slovakia introduced the euro in 2009 and thus joined those countries which question the traditional myth of One Country One Money. After Slovenia, it is the second country from the former socialist world joining the euro club. The new currency promotes the sense of European collectivity. This voluntary commitment is very essential in form-ing Slovak national identity, as a young country and a young nation. Slovakia, as with other eurozone countries, keeps its political symbols such as the flag, postage stamps, national sports teams, etc., but introduces the euro as an im-portant political symbol of belonging to the European integration process. The widespread daily use of euro notes and coins will help to form a specific European identity also among Slovak nationals. Two important facts led to the introduction of euro in Slovakia. First, it was an unprecedented con-sensus among Slovak political par ties to follow policies which enabled euro introduction. Second, Slovak Central Bank created a very positive campaign which was to the point, made an image of professionalism, and in my personal opinion was very favorably evaluated by the general public as well as by the people dealing with money issues. I also need to mention that after the euro introduction the Slovak Central Bank was especially successful in tam-ing inflationary expectations. Inflation was kept stable and basically no sign of euro inflation was observed.

Toned-down creativity

The most intense information campaign for introducing the euro took place in the second half of 2008, which was after the period of the conversion and before the changeover from the old currency to new one. The campaign itself had five waves and had broad media coverage using traditional as well non-traditional communication tools. The most visible were the TV spots as their frequency was quite high during the whole information period. Other communication means were the billboards, radio spots, posters, non-traditional advertising spaces, euro calculators, leaflets and brochures. If the goal of the campaign was to address the majority of citizens, the goal was success-fully reached according to the surveys. Creativity was toned down; instead of us-ing non-traditional forms of informing the campaign operated mainly with simplicity. Shared euro knowledge had a strictly in-formative and educative tone. Apart from this campaign, euro facts were repeated and intensively communicated to citizens through private as well as through the national media. If it was well synchronised with the euro campaign even the higher information and synergy effect would be reached. Each campaign has its stages. The communication activities in such an important change in the life of inhabitants should not be stopped after the replace-ment of the old currency. After one year of using euro in Slovakia opened ques-tions and doubts still remain, yet these can be eliminated by a continuous flow of information.

EXPERT OPINIONcampaign turned to what were called multipliers – organisations that sup-ported disabled groups. These people were given training in how to handle the changeover and would in turn translate this information into mes-sages that would be understood by disadvantaged groups. The same ap-proach applied to communications with hard-to-reach minority groups, including Roma people.

Despite all the measures to make sure that it would be as inclusive as possible, from the get-go the cam-paign encountered resistance to the changeover. Suster explains: “We always encountered a minority of people who are against the adoption, and if we had discussions or seminars then we had to argue or explain the things in mass media, we always had to be aware that there might be some reaction to some of the claims, and so we took this into account when we created the messages.”

In the light of this resistance, monitoring public opinion and the effectiveness of the campaign was crucial. Twice a month, the Nation-al Bank’s statistical office conducted a survey that measured satisfaction with the level of information avail-able. For sensitive target groups, the trained multipliers gave feedback on their progress, and reports of the seminars and training sessions they organised gave qualitative evidence of the number of people reached, and also helped with requests to modify the strategy when needed.

Back in February 2008, just 18 per cent of the population replied that they were satisfied with the level of information about the euro changeover. In January 2009, when the final survey was conducted, 93 per cent of the population was satis-fied with the information that they had received.

Andrea Danihelova, Kosice

Head of

Communications, VSE

Andrea Danihelova is responsible for internal and external communication and CSR activities at Východoslovenská ener-getika. She began her career at the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a representative of EU projects in Slovakia in cooperation with Italian region Lazio. Ph

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AGENDA SETTER

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Can a global social media campaign really be enough to help us save the offline world?

by Richard Morgan

OUR WORLD. YOUR MOVE

A s he strode out across the bat-tlefield at Solf-erino in 1859, businessman Henri Dunant

was so horrified by the post-fight suf-fering he saw that he went on to create the International Committee of the Red Cross. His and the group’s work would go on to touch millions of lives and significantly influence the Ge-neva Convention. In 2009, 150 years on, the Red Cross (as most people

AGENDA SETTERCommunication ideas in the eyes of experts

incorrectly refer to it) is more important than ever, endeav-ouring to prevent worldwide suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitar-ian principles. And there is much to do, almost too much. There are bloody wars being fought in all corners of the globe, and poverty, hunger and disease are widespread. The Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) national societies, which represent the ICRC across the world, are being stretched as never before. So, in 2009, as part of the 150-year anniversa-ry commemorations of Solferino, the movement launched a call for global action: Our world. Your move.

CREATING WORLDWIDE CHANGE The cam-paign’s succinct slogan, “Our world is in a mess. It’s time

On June 24 2009, Geneva’s Jet d’Eau fountain was spectacularly illuminated in red to mark the 150th anniversary of the battle of Solferino.

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Director of Communica-tions, WWF Spain

Miguel A. Valladares is director of communica-tions and publications at WWF Spain. He is a biologist specialising in zoology and animal behaviour with 22 years of communications, environmental training and campaigning expe-rience at the NGO. He has also taught on envi-ronmental communications master’s courses.

Beyond the clicking solidarity

Just before writing these lines, I made the 102,229th move for the world. My first thought was that I could not see any human being refusing to participate in this global campaign. Based on the hottest topics affecting humans and the environment, the ICRC has built a highly effective call-to-action campaign using the most globally reaching tool, a website with a clear structure and easy navigation scheme. The campaign has a single, direct message, a massive potential audience and one relevant communications objec-tive: to reach millions of people to act for the world. Does this single action reflect the people’s will in the real world? This is probably the core issue to evaluate: whether the humanitarian and environ-mental goals have been achieved. Under the umbrella of one of the world’s most recognised organisations, the campaign is primarily a corporate communications and activist engagement exercise, and a good example of campaigning: clear ob-jectives, engaging message, emotional ar-guments, using celebrities as a hook and including social media for spreading the message. But the most outstanding fact is the online campaign is bolstered by on-the-ground action. Social media is chang-ing the way we communicate and com-municators should take advantage from the boost in online tools, but people must make the real difference by acting in the real world, beyond the clicking solidarity. And online activism should not be for as-suaging our conscience, but for achieving the changes the world really needs.

More serious moves needed

There it is: the first global social media campaign of the Red Cross Red Cres-cent movement. It is obvious that they have put a lot of effort into the cam-paign: beautiful design, a sexy slogan, catchy captions for the challenges. The campaign movie, Simple Gestures, is also well designed – moving music, clear message. And it is all translated into eight languages, and connected with all major social media tools – impressive. More than 100,000 moves seems like a lot, but the campaign has been online for several months and could have gained more attention – also on social network sites or Twitter. What is the problem? I have to admit that I somehow got lost when I had a first look at it. There is a discrepancy between all these big global challenges, and the question of what you and I can do about it. I had expected a large “donate now” button. There is a small “donate” button, next to “tell your network”, “tell your friends”, and “keep updated”. Is the primary goal to spread the word? Or to really make a change? It feels pathetic to help your neighbour while other people are starving. That is probably why the “tell the world in 150 characters the move you’ve made to make the world a better place” section does not contain simple gestures, but mainly general appeals for peace, love, and respect. There is nothing wrong with that, but concrete actions would be bet-ter. The campaign raises awareness of the global problems, but needs more serious moves.

EXPERT OPINION

Prof. Sonja Utz

Assistant Professor, VU University Amsterdam

Sonja Utz obtained her PhD in psychology at the Catholic University of Eichstätt with a thesis on the social identification with virtual communi-ties in 1999. She researches on social networks, trustworthiness in social networks campaigning in social network sites, electronic word-of-mouth and strategic information sharing.

to make your move.” is a call to ac-tion that has been rolled out across the RCRC’s 186 national societies. Perhaps surprisingly, Our world. Your move is the first worldwide RCRC campaign for ten years. It is also the movement’s first social media campaign, which, given the ubiquitous nature of the internet and personal computers, seems like a timely idea – because creating world-wide change with Web 2.0 requires local and personal interactions. The figurehead of the campaign is its multifaceted website, which presents viewers with a set of 14 varied chal-lenges for the world to tackle. Each is given a short but emotive title – Deprived of Freedom, Women and War, Deadly Legacy, Increased Disasters, for example – and comes with harrowing descriptions of the situations that need to be turned round. At the bottom of each screen is a button inviting readers to “make their move”. In the real world, vol-unteers in more than 100 countries have taken part in demonstrations, exhibitions and more to get the mes-sage out to the world’s population. For the target audience of such a campaign includes just about eve-rybody, as Zach Abraham, the Our world. Your move campaign man-ager, explains. “We wanted to reach all audiences – from villages to met-ropolitan cities,” he says. This was attempted by targeting a number of different groups: RCRC volunteers, supporters and donors, national gov-ernments and local authorities, the traditional media (i.e. the press) and the online community.

One of the biggest potential prob-lems of communicating with people all over the world is that of linguis-tic and cultural differences, which make presenting a unified, appeal-ing message an extremely demand-

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ing task. Providing information to the various national societies in advance has eased this situation, according to Abraham: “Surprisingly, we have not had any culture barriers to overcome through the campaign,” he says. “Prior to launching the campaign, we shared all the messaging and materials with our 186 RCRC societies, allowing them to give feedback. That definitely helped us protect against any cultural problems that could have arisen oth-erwise.” The Our world. Your move website is available in eight languages, and Abraham acknowledges that this is not always easy to manage. “With regards to language, the biggest chal-lenge is translation cost,” he says. “In the next few years, I believe that online

translation tools like Google translate will help reduce costs, but we will have a continued need to review translations to avoid possible misinterpretation or mistranslation of ideas.” The website’s blog section is a case in point here, with each entry being translated into the eight languages. Of course, peo-ple commenting on the blog posts are doing so in their respective languages, which may not help in getting a uni-fied message out.

MAKING A REAL MOVE As usual, the major difficulty with using a web-site as your main communications tool is in its online nature. It is easy to be an armchair activist, happily clicking away on links and making your moves virtually. But what effect does this have on the real world? On writing this, nearly 105,000 moves have been made on the Our world.

The days of a standard press release being the centre of

media attention are fading.

Your move website, but most of these amount to publi-cising or following the cause on other social networking sites. Unsurprisingly, however, Zach Abraham is rather impressed with the influence of social media as a commu-nications tool: “Social media has revolutionised the way we communicate to the general public,” he says. “We are no longer solely reliant on the press to promote our stories. Tools such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook and YouTube all allow us to communicate directly with our audience.” And Abraham believes that online communication is not too dissimilar from its more traditional counterparts. “We are already seeing that online action is the same thing as real-world action. The viral effect that videos and Twitter have has changed the way messages are spread. Individuals can now have a global voice without a global machinery of marketers and communicators. All it takes is one video, tweet or photo to go viral. The days of a standard press release being the centre of media attention are fading.”

Of course, a message or video going viral online results in a great number of people seeing a campaign’s message. Getting those people to then go outside and do some-thing, make a real-world change, is something completely different. Our world. Your move has bolstered its online presence with hundreds of events in countries around the world. A campaign bus in Lebanon made stops in more than 20 cities between May and August, providing a photo exhibition on the victims of war and first aid demonstra-tions from volunteers. In June, 13,000 young people gath-ered in Solferino to learn more about making a difference. And in South Africa, volunteers provided advice on HIV and AIDS. The campaign has also used celebrity power to reach out to more people, with stars like the footballer Lionel Messi pledging their public support.

Ultimately, the success of Our world. Your move will rest on the will of the public. “It is about engaging people in making a difference at the local level,” says Abraham. “We have been asking people to make a simple gesture and to tell the world about that gesture on one of the campaign platforms. Even people severely affected by the economic crisis could still engage in positive action by simply taking a moment to help a neighbour, assist an elderly person, open a door for someone whose hands were full – engaging in posi-tive actions.” Simple gestures are a start. But opening a door for someone is not going to put food on the plates of starv-ing African children. Perhaps this is one case where all the communications in the world can only make so much dif-ference. Because Our world. Your move can only tell people why they need to change the world. Now it is down to us to really make it happen.

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By the final quarter of 2009, most of the major econo-mies had started to grow again – including the US, Japan, Germany and France, but with the notable exception of the UK. However, hopes that the tender green shoots of recov-ery would rapidly blossom were tempered by worries about huge public debt burdens, high levels of unemployment and continuing concerns about the health of financial institu-tions. As a result, from October 1 to December 14 2009 (the period covered by Carma International’s latest survey of media coverage of the world’s leading CEOs), business leaders’ views of the economic outlook were mixed, with many expressing caution that economic recovery was likely to be sluggish and drawn-out.

AUTOMOTIVE AND BANKING INDUSTRY IN THE SPOTLIGHT On both sides of the Atlantic, politicians addressed financial sector regulation and the curbing of

CEO STOCKWATCHWatching the people who run the commercial world

provided by CARMA International

pay and bonuses at financial institutions propped up by taxpayers’ money. A chasm appeared to be widening be-tween public anger and frustration over financiers’ pay and bonuses and the protestations of bankers themselves, who seemed to inhabit a parallel universe far removed from the harsh economic realities facing the rest of society.

Unsurprisingly, in Carma’s latest survey of reporting on business leaders, CEOs of banks and financial institu-tions continued to feature heavily, accounting for eight of the top 20 positions, testifying once again to the media’s continued fascination with their activities in the after-math of the near-collapse of the global banking system in 2008. The listing included a number of the usual suspects, such as Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and Ken Lewis of Bank of America, who remained within the top four slots. Other names that also featured in the previous quarter’s top 20 listing were Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman

Top 20 CEOs worldwide | Top CEOs by volume in Q4

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Buffett / Berkshire Hathaway

Lewis / Bank Of America

Henderson / General Motors

Murdoch / News Corp

Ambani / Reliance Industries

Immelt / General Electric

Blankfein / Goldman Sachs

Schmidt / Google

Benmosche / AIG

Pandit / Citigroup

Ackermann / Deutsche Bank

Marchionne / Fiat

Dimon / Jp Morgan

Ballmer / Microsoft

Otellini / Intel

Rosenfeld / Kraft Foods

Ghosn / Nissan/Renault

Mittal / Arcelor

Smith / ANZ

Thodey / Telstra

Top 20 CEOs in Europe | Volume of coverage in Q4

0 30 60 90 120

Henderson / General Motors

Buffett / Berkshire Hathaway

Murdoch / News Corp

Lewis / Bank Of America

Ackermann / Deutsche Bank

Blankfein / Goldman Sachs

Winterkorn / Volkswagen

Immelt / General Electric

Marchionne / Fiat

Rose / Marks & Spencers

Ballmer / Microsoft

Rosenfeld / Kraft Foods

Schmidt / Google

Gref / Sberbank

Lombard / France Telekom

Walsh / British Airways

Daniles / Lloyds TSB

Ghosn / Nissan/Renault

Zetsche / Daimler

Stitzer / Cadbury

LEADERSCEOs in the eyes of the media

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LEADERS


Sachs in seventh position, Robert Benmosche, who last quarter replaced Eric Liddy in the firing line at the trou-bled US insurer AIG, in ninth position, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup in 10th, Josef Ackermann of Deutsche Bank in 11th position and Mike Smith of ANZ in 19th posi-tion. Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan at 13th position entered

from outside last quarter’s top 20. Car makers also contin-ued to attract media attention, with Fritz Henderson of General Motors still high up in the listing despite being forced out as CEO by the board by early December. Sergio Marchionne of Fiat (12th) and Carlos Ghosn of Nissan-Renault (17th) also generated interest as the leaders of the car industry continued to drive forward the sector’s global restructuring.

TRANSACTIONS RAISE AWARENESS Mergers and acquisitions activity thrust Mukesh Ambani of the Indian energy giant Reliance Industries into the media spotlight, while Kraft Foods’ hostile stalking of rival confectioner Cadbury kept CEO Irene Rosenfeld on reporters’ watch lists. Her counterpart at Cadbury, Todd Stitzer, featured in the listing of top European CEOs, but finished well out-side the top 20 CEOs in terms of global coverage. Those veterans of media attention – Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch – retained high positions in the global ranking. Buffett received coverage for striking the biggest deal of his life over the period: his 26.6 billion dollars takeover of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, one of the largest US railroad operators. CEOs of IT companies were also represented in the top 20, led by Eric Schmidt of Google

favourable neutral unfavourable

Quality of CEO coverage | Percentage of favourable, neutral and unfavourable coverage

Thodey

Smith

Mittal

Ghosn

Rosenfeld

Otellini

Ballmer

Dimon

Marchionne

Ackermann

Pandit

Benmosche

Schmidt

Blankfein

Immelt

Ambani

Lewis

Murdoch

Henderson

Buffett

0 % 1 0 % 2 0 % 3 0 % 4 0 % 5 0 % 6 0 % 7 0 % 8 0 % 9 0 % 1 0 0 %

Envi

ronm

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Labo

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Themes most beneficial for CEOs | Favourability of topics

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%

% favourable % neutral % unfavourable

Fina

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Man

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Prod

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Lega

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Com

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Soci

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LEADERS


(eighth) and followed by Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (14th) and Paul Otellini at Intel (15th).

The survey’s analysis of the focus of reporting showed that finance continued to be the dominant issue, account-ing for around 47 per cent of overall coverage of issues followed by management with 25 per cent and commer-cial with 11 per cent. Products/services still accounted for a small proportion, representing around five per cent of overall reporting, as did legal issues. Governance, la-

bour, environment and society remained marginal issues, accounting for the smallest shares of coverage. In terms of the themes that proved most beneficial for CEOs, ar-ticles that focused on governance emerged with a high percentage of favourable coverage, though the theme also represented a high proportion of negative reporting. The themes of management, commercial and products/serv-ices accounted for small, but significant, shares of favour-able reporting.

Worst performers on favourability

Best performers on favourability

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%

% o

f vo

lum

e

Ambani Marchionne Otellini

The best and worst presented CEOs | Top performers vs bottom performers: differences in topic

Products, services

Management

Legal

Labour

Society

Governance

Finance

Commercial

Henderson Lewis Blankfein

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%Ambani MarchionneOtellini

Top CEOs | Geographic spread of coverage

APAC

EMEA

LATAM

NAM

BlankfeinHenderson Lewis

Themes most associated with CEOs | Share of coverage of issues in media

Finance(47%)

Society (1%)

Commercial(11%)

Products/Service(5%)

Legal (5%)

Governance (2%)Environment (1%)

Management (25%)

Labour (1%)

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CASE STUDY OF A GLOBAL CEO: LLOYD BLANKFEIN OF GOLDMAN SACHS The spectacle of Goldman Sachs storming back to profitability in 2009, far from enhanc-ing its image, served to focus public outrage over pay and bonuses on the US investment bank. The Financial Times, in an article of December 5/6 entitled Risky Rewards, said

abyss by a 10 billion dollars lifeline thrown by the US gov-ernment. Earlier this year it repaid the US Treasury’s Trou-bled Asset Relief Program (TARP) loan and has also raised billions of dollars from investors, including Warren Buffett. Goldman’s rebound, however, far from appeasing public and political fury over pay and bonuses, seemed to heap hot coals on the fire: “Goldman reaps rich rewards from crisis” and “Goldman looks ready to match record bonus pool of 2007,” said Financial Times headlines of October 16.

The Wall Street Journal Europe commented that Gold-man was “hoping to defuse a politically combustible situa-tion” with a “softsell campaign that pushes the usually reti-cent bank into the spotlight.” It went on: “For months, the New York firm has been working to dispel what it sees as misperceptions about itself to make its profit and bonuses go down easier, from a lobbying push in Washington to me-dia interviews in which Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein reminisces about his humble roots.” (October 16, Goldman Shows its Soft Side). On October 12, the paper had carried an interview with Blankfein, which described the Goldman CEO as professing “to be more bemused than hurt by the slurs.” (Wall Street Journal Europe, The Bank Everyone Likes to Hate, October 12).

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Goldman Offers $500m Apology for Crisis (Finan-cial Times, November 18)

HARSH CRITICISM The press-schmoozing backfired spectacularly when Blankfein quipped that he was “doing God’s work” during the Sunday Times interview of No-vember 8 (I’m Doing ‘God’s work.’ Meet Mr Goldman Sachs). The remark brought ridicule and was even criticised by religious leaders: “The blogs are now abuzz with a spoof

Blankfein | Coverage by region

Goldman Sachs had “been cast in the role of financial vil-lain as its soaring profits herald the promise of a bumper pay day for its staff.” The Sunday Times, in an interview with Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein published on November 8, said: “The public, politicians and the press blame bankers’ reckless trading for the credit crunch and, as the most suc-cessful bank still standing, Goldman is their prime target.” The article continued: “Goldman’s reputation is suddenly as toxic as the credit default swaps and other inexplicably ex-otic financial instruments it used to buy with glee.”

Lloyd Blankfein had his work cut out in refuting the crit-icism. Instead of hiding from the world’s media, Blankfein engaged in a charm offensive to defend the bank’s pay poli-cies. Over the period covered by Carma’s survey, Blankfein scored the highest percentage of unfavourable reports of the top 20 CEOs. Nevertheless, these negative reports repre-sented just five per cent of Blankfein’s overall coverage, sug-gesting that the media generally did not hold the CEO per-sonally accountable for the perceived sins of his firm. That said, Blankfein’s efforts with the media failed to win much support for Goldman’s share price, which slid around nine per cent over the period covered by the Carma survey, while the S&P 500 index gained eight per cent.

Goldman’s share price fell despite its rebound in profit-ability for the first nine months of 2009, a notable achieve-ment after the bank was pulled back from the edge of the

EMEA (39%)

NAM (31%)

APAC (28%)

LATAM (2%)

Goldman Bonuses to be in Shares Amid Effort to Quell Public Anger

(Financial Times, Decem-ber 4)

Goldman Reaps Rich Rewards From Crisis

(Financial Times, October 16)

18

LEADERS


‘Lloyd’s prayer’,” remarked the Financial Times (November 19, A Lost Glister). The article also noted that the bank had been branded a “vampire squid” by Rolling Stone magazine, as it “made the most of government money and stormed back to the top of Wall Street.” Whether provoked by this slip-up or not, Goldman’s public relations policy appeared to switch into a readiness to eat humble pie. Blankfein apol-ogised for the role the vilified investment bank played in the financial crisis and announced it was pledging 500 mil-lion dollars over five years to help 10,000 small businesses across the US recover from recession. Blankfein told a cor-porate conference in New York that Goldman regretted its part in the cheap credit boom that had fuelled the pre-crisis bubble: “We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret. We apologise.” (Financial Times, Goldman Offers 500 Million Dollars Apology for Crisis, November 18).

PERSON OF THE YEAR In December, Blankfein re-sponded to fury over pay by changing the bonus policy for Goldman’s 30 top executives so they are rewarded in shares that cannot be sold for five years, instead of cash. “We be-lieve our compensation policies are the strongest in our in-dustry and ensure that compensation accurately reflects the firm’s performance and incentivises behaviour that is in the public’s and our shareholders’ best interests,” Blankfein was quoted as saying (Wall Street Journal Europe, Goldman Bows to Pay Pressure, December 11).

In late December, the Financial Times paid Blankfein the compliment of naming him its “Person of the Year”: “His job and personality have made him the public face of Wall Street during its most testing period since the 1930s,” it said. However, the paper pointed out that the award was “not an unalloyed endorsement of either Mr Blankfein or Goldman, which the FT has sometimes criticised in the past year. Instead, it is a recognition that Mr Blankfein and his bank have taken the leading place in the world of fi-nance, while others have fallen by the wayside” (Master of Risk Who Did God’s Work for Goldman Sachs but Won it Little Love, Financial Times, December 23).

Blankfein’s efforts to rebut criticism of Goldman had mixed results. His apology on behalf of Goldman for its part in fuelling the crisis might have been more effective in quelling public anger if it had come earlier. Similarly, the bank’s announcement on changes to its bonus policies for top executives did not occur until December. This meant the bank appeared to be bowing to public pressure instead of taking action for internally motivated reasons of corporate conscience. His jokey comment that he was “doing God’s

work” was much bandied around the media and shows the need for CEOs to choose their words carefully. Neverthe-less, as the FT recognised, Blankfein also “steered Goldman adeptly through the crisis.” A CEO’s ability to drive execu-tion will always be the paramount concern.

SPOTLIGHT ON A STRONG NATIONAL CEO: MU-KESH AMBANI OF RELIANCE INDUSTRIES Mukesh Ambani of Indian energy giant Reliance Industries leapt into the top 20 CEOs by volume of reporting over the lat-est period covered by the CEO survey. Intense coverage in Asian media thrust Ambani, who is India’s richest man, into the limelight. He was one of only three CEOs of Asian com-panies that found their way to the top of the ranking (Mike Smith of Australian bank ANZ and David Thodey of Telstra were the other two). Ambani also achieved the distinction of scoring the highest proportion of favourable reporting among the top 20 CEOs over the period.

The Economic Times of India accounted for the bulk of coverage of Ambani, with much of its reporting fol-lowing the latest twists and turns of a long-running legal battle over the supply of gas by Reliance Industries, led by Mukesh Ambani, to Reliance Natural Resources (RNR), the company controlled by Mukesh’s younger brother Anil. Anil was seeking to enforce a family pact requiring Reliance Industries to sell gas to RNR at a price below the govern-ment-approved price. The dispute between the two brothers started to be heard by the Supreme Court on October 20.

That the tone of reporting of the feuding between Mukesh Ambani and his younger brother was not unfavourable is per-haps evidence of the regard in which Ambani is held by Indi-an society. Indeed, he took two decisions over the period that show that he knows the importance of pleasing his investors and the public. First, in October, he announced that Reliance Industries would give one bonus share for every share owned

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Reliance Industries | A show of confidence

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Reliance Close to Seal-ing Big-Bang Overseas

Buy (Economic Times of India, November 9)

Mukesh Ambani Takes 66% Pay Cut (Eco-

nomic Times of India, October 16)

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LEADERS


in the company, in a “move intended to signal confidence to investors about the company’s growth prospects.” (Economic Times of India, RIL Kicks Off Festivities, October 8). A day later, the Economic Times reported Ambani’s assertion that Reliance Industries had “a long tradition of leaving some-thing on the table for its shareholders.”

Second, Mukesh Ambani announced he would take a 66 per cent pay cut for 2008-2009 by capping his salary at 150 million rupees. This followed younger brother Anil’s deci-sion in March not to take salary and commissions from the companies he manages. The Economic Times of India ap-plauded Mukesh’s decision: “One can crib that Rs15 crore (150 million rupees) is not particularly austere. But the elder Ambani sends out the right signal that, at a time of wide-spread misery following slowdown, drought epidemic and now floods, the richest of the land will, if not quite share the sorrow, shed a part of their pleasure.” (Economic Times,

through bankruptcy laws (It’s Advantage RIL in Lyondell-Basell Bid, November 10). The deal, if completed, would make Reliance one of the world’s largest petrochemicals companies. Initially, shares in Reliance rose on the news. On November 23, the Financial Times reported that Reli-ance had made a preliminary non-binding cash offer of 10 billion dollars for LyondellBasell (Reliance Plans 10 Billion Dollars Cash Offer for Control of LyondellBasell, Novem-ber 23). Reliance Industries shares, which have the larg-est weight in the Mumbai stock market index, plunged on November 25 and ended 51 per cent lower on December 14 than at the start of the period, on October 1. In contrast, the Mumbai stock market index finished the period flat.

TOP CEOS IN EUROPE Analysis of the CEO names that attracted the most coverage in European and US media once again showed marked differences. In European media, Fritz Henderson of General Motors took first place, but fin-ished third in US media. Ken Lewis was the most covered CEO in the US, but came only fifth in Europe. Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway was the second most cov-ered name in both the US and Europe. Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation took third place in Europe and fourth in the US. Besides these four, only Jeff Immelt of General Electric and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs featured in the top 10 names in both continents. The list of top 10 CEOs in US media included four names that were outsid-ers in European titles: Robert Benmosche of AIG, Eric Schmidt of Google, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan and Brian Roberts of Comcast. In European media, four of the top ten most reported names were CEOs of European compa-nies, with Josef Ackermann of Deutsche Bank in fifth place, Martin Winterkorn of Volkswagen in seventh place, Sergio Marchionne of Fiat in ninth and Stuart Rose of Marks & Spencer finishing 10th. None of the four appeared in the top ten in US media: Sergio Marchionne finished just out-side at twelfth, but Ackermann, Winterkorn and Rose were way down the US list in terms of volume of reporting.

SPOTLIGHT ON EUROPEAN CEOS: MICHAEL GE-OGHEGAN OF HSBC Michael Geoghegan of HSBC featured within the top 20 European CEOs and presided over a significantly stronger share performance than the bank’s UK competitors. Coverage of the HSBC helmsman included reporting of his downbeat views on the economic outlook and his disappointment at the likelihood that the bank was likely to be frozen out of bidding for assets being sold by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group. In contrast to the more optimistic tone adopted by

Mukesh Ambani Gets it Right, October 17). Mukesh Am-bani also won praise from the government for his decision, with an official quoted as saying that he had shown a “re-markable sensibility to the prevailing scenario” (Economic Times, Khushid Lauds Mukesh’s Voluntary Pay Cut Move, October 17).

In another surprise move, news broke in early Novem-ber that Reliance Industries had bid to buy a controlling stake in LyondellBasell, a Rotterdam-based bankrupt pet-rochemicals company. The Economic Times observed that the deal might take a while to close as it would have to go

Ambani | Coverage by region

APAC (91%)EMEA (6%)

NAM (3%)

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LEADERS


EMEA (50%)

gion,” said the Financial Times (HSBC Eyes ING and RBS Assets, October 8). In September, HSBC had announced its decision to relocate Michael Geoghegan to Hong Kong. In mid October, it made further changes at the senior manage-ment level to further strengthen its position in Asia.

In November, Geoghegan expressed regret that HSBC was likely to be excluded from the bidding process for as-sets being sold by RBS and Lloyds in the UK. He told the Financial Times that though HSBC had not been explic-itly banned from the sales, it was unlikely to be allowed to bid as the government was determined to see them sold to new competitors. “We are somewhat frustrated that there may not be a level playing field… HSBC is not as large in the UK and we feel we should be able to participate.” (Fi-nancial Times, HSBC Fears Lloyds and RBS Sales Exclu-sion November 11). On a more positive note, Geoghegan remarked on the media perception of a growing gulf be-tween UK banks following the crisis. He said: “Two very different types of banks [are emerging] from this crisis – the winners and the losers.” (The Financial Times, HSBC and Barclays Lead 2-tier UK banks, November 11). His comment is in line with a media perception that HSBC and Barclays are the winners, with both expected to report decent profits for 2009.

SERGIO MARCHIONNE OF FIAT/CHRYSLER Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat, was appointed by president Obama’s administration to take over the steering wheel at Chrysler in June, after the US car maker filed for bank-ruptcy on April 30. In a strategic alliance, Fiat would take 20 per cent of the new firm comprising Chrysler’s good as-sets, while Fiat would contribute technology to make small-er Chryslers. Following the deal announcement, Chrysler under Marchionne had shied away from media engage-ment. This reluctance to communicate with the media was in marked contrast with the proactive public relations ap-proach of Fritz Henderson of General Motors (who was booted out by GM’s board by early December).

This survey, Sergio Marchionne became the subject of more reporting, finishing within the top 20 CEOs in terms of global volume (he was just outside in the previous survey). However, at 12th in the global ranking, Marchionne was still way below Fritz Henderson, who finished third. Mar-chionne became Fiat CEO in June 2004, and brought the Italian car maker back from the brink of ruin to profitability in 2005. In a report of October 15, The Financial Times commented: “Mr Marchionne has yet to unveil his five-year recovery plan for Chrysler, but investors are already getting carried away by betting he will manage to pull off anoth-

some CEOs, Geoghegan told the Financial Times that he was so convinced there would be a second downturn in the coming months that he planned to delay any rush to expand the bank. “Is this a V recovery or a W? [I think] it’s the lat-ter. [If I’m right], we have to be very careful we don’t grow the balance sheet so far before the recovery has come only to write it back into the impairment line later on. I’m cautious

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HSBC| Bullish claims

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HSBC Makes Further Changes to Strengthen Asian Business (Financial Times, October 14)

Geoghegan | Coverage by region

about growing too fast,’” (Financial Times, HSBC Chief Delays Growth Plans Over Fears of a Second Downturn, October 5).

Despite this apparent caution about expansion, HSBC was reported to be in advanced talks to buy separate Asian assets being sold by ING, the Dutch lender, and RBS. This was a “further sign of its rising commitment to expand in the re-

APAC (41%)

NAM (9%)

HSBC Fears Lloyds and RBS Sales Exclusion (Financial

Times, November11).

21

LEADERS


er spectacular industrial turnaround.” It pointed out that since he took over at Chrysler, Fiat shares had dramatically outperformed those of the Italian group’s European peers. Investors were “banking on Mr Marchionne working the same magic at Chrysler” as he had at Fiat (The Financial Times, The Burden of Expectation of Italy’s Car Superhero, October 15). Over the period covered by the survey, Fiat shares rose 7.8 per cent. Media reporting over the period included Marchionne’s decision to allow Chrysler’s produc-

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Fiat | A case of hope

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Top Executives at Chrysler Leave in

Revamp (Wall Street Journal Europe, Octo-

ber 6)

the reshuffle of top executives at the Chrysler and Dodge brands on October 6. On November 4, Marchionne finally unveiled Chrysler’s five-year plan: “Today is the first day of a new Chrysler. We have laid out our plans and we have be-come publicly accountable for the delivery,” he was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal US (Chrysler’s Chief Says Recovery Under Way, November 5). He rebutted sug-gestions that the firm was losing money, saying it had bro-ken even in September. The plan included revamping the Dodge and Chrysler brands, a newly created Ram brand for its truck line, and new technology and cost savings.

Sergio Marchionne’s reserve with the media did not ap-pear to have hurt either his own standing or Fiat’s share per-formance. However, remaining silent for a number of weeks, or even months, is usually a risky and controversial strategy for a CEO. Its success depends on the existing strength of the CEO’s reputation and a good sense of timing for the moment of reopening communication with the media. A comment in the Wall Street Journal Europe suggested that Marchionne was aware there was a right time to talk: he “acknowledged the long silent period would hurt the com-pany,” (November US Car Sales Rose, December 2).

WHAT WE LEARN For communications specialists, there are a number of conclusions that can be drawn from the CEOs highlighted in Carma’s latest survey. Lloyd Blankfein was more successful at steering Goldman Sachs through the financial crisis and bringing it back to profit-ability than he was at rebutting criticism over its pay and bonuses. That his charm offensive with the world’s media yielded mixed results was perhaps because the bank ap-peared unrepentant for perceived wrongdoings for too long. The apology, and changes to the bank’s bonuses policies, if they had come earlier, may have done more to assuage public anger, and brought more appreciation for Blankfein’s success in turning around the bank’s fortunes.

Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries showed skill in communicating with shareholders and the public, and the importance of empathy with the opinion at large.

Michael Geoghegan’s reference to the perception of a growing gulf between winners and losers among UK banks positioned him as a cautious and wise banker. His down-beat views on the economic outlook made for interesting reading, as did his disappointment at being shut out from bidding for rivals’ assets.

Sergio Marchionne showed that a period of silence can, paradoxically, be an effective communications strategy for a CEO, though the jury is still out on how positive it may prove to be for Fiat and Chrysler.

Marchionne | Coverage by region

tion agreement with Magna, the automotive supplier, to lapse: this would be “one of the biggest steps taken so far by Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne to take control of Chrysler’s product development,” said the Wall Street Journal Europe on October 1. The paper also reported on

EMEA (46%)

NAM (33%)

APAC (21%)

Chrysler’s Chief Says Recovery Under Way (Wall Street Journal

US, November 5)

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24


SCANNING FOR INFORMATIONA study of journalists by Daimler revealed how the minds of this important group of stakeholders work.

by Jörg Howe

STRATEGIC THINKERThe corporate and academic stand on communication

the most part. It can function as a valuable instrument for finding out about the communication depart-ment’s strengths and weaknesses and arriving at a reliable assess-ment of the department’s perform-ance. For all these reasons, Daim-ler’s communication department conducted a comprehensive survey among journalists who generally report on us and our products. The survey was carried out in April and May 2009 with support from the department of communication management and public relations at Leipzig University. Together, it was our aim to create a valid and sustainable instrument that would go beyond the customary surveys

being offered by external service providers. In our opinion, most of these surveys often lack the nec-essary depth and precision, which makes it hard to draw any con-clusions on how to optimise com-munication activities. Since this is exactly the yardstick for the value added of empirical research in an organisational context, we decided to invest additional resources in or-der to guarantee that the research design would be in line with our specific needs and to make sure that the survey generates relevant information for our operations.

JOURNALISTS INVOLVED WITH THE COMPANY In order to achieve this goal, the survey had

A dynamic exchange between corpo-rate spokespersons and journalists about their cooperation is crucial for professional corporate communica-tions. However, in a fast-paced busi-ness environment it is often difficult

to find the time and proper occasion for discussing issues that go beyond operational routines; and even if an ex-change takes place, the information gained must be viewed as anecdotal since it is almost always based on the percep-tions of only one or a few journalists. This is especially true of big organisations with relationships to journalists from diverse backgrounds with different professional attitudes and interests. Furthermore, spokespersons and journal-ists can not always speak frankly and say what they really think about the relationship to the professional counter-parts in face-to-face conversations.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES An anonymous quantitative survey among journalists who regularly re-port on one’s own organisation avoids these problems for

Design of the survey Measuring media relations performance and corporate reputation

Media relations performance Reputation

Content Service CEO Organisation

Specialisation Position Involvement Journalists

An anonymous quantitative survey among journalists who regularly report on one’s own organisation can function as a valuable instrument for finding out about the communication department’s strengths and weaknesses.

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STRATEGIC THINKER


to focus primarily on journalists who are actually involved with the company and as such are crucial for image and reputation build-ing among different stakeholder groups. In our case, we were able to utilise our department’s distri-bution lists, thus guaranteeing the relevance of the participants for us: 90 per cent of the 652 journal-ists who took part in the survey confirmed that they either report

directly on the company or edit media content dealing with the company or its products.

HIGH ACCEPTANCE OF THE STUDY A research firm conducted the actual telephone survey. The inter-views lasted 17 minutes on average. Although that might already be too much time to cut out of a journalist’s busy work schedule, the interviews in our survey were inter-rupted in only six occasions. Roughly 30 per cent of those being called refused to take part in the survey, which is an acceptable quota. The high acceptance of the study among the journalists can be partly ascribed to the timely

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announcement of the study by email approximately two weeks before the start of the survey, stating the date, length and objectives of the study. Additionally, we ena-bled journalists to refuse to participate by simply answer-ing the email. This is only fair, and reduces the possibility of annoying important stakeholders with an unexpected telephone survey during their stressful daily business.

It is crucial to elevate the journalists’ professional situ-ation and possible specialisation. For a car manufacturer, this involves distinguishing between business journalists and motor journalists but, of course, also between TV, print and online journalists concerning the evaluations of test drives and press conferences, for example. Collecting this data is a prerequisite for the subsequent in-depth analysis of different journalist groups. In addition, the survey results can be connected to specific units in the communication department. Thus, we were able to separately evaluate the performance of the units in our communication department concluding from the answers of respective journalist groups included in the overall sample.

EVALUATING MEDIA RELATIONS We asked the jour-nalists to evaluate different aspects of our media relations. Within the scope of 25 sets of questions, the study covered evaluations of PR material, different communication chan-nels and press conferences. It also addressed more complex

issues, like the relationship between the journalists and our spokespersons and, of course, the overall assessment of our work and the work of our main competitors.

Within this framework, the design of the study enables us to merge the approximately 100 items into greater categories like Content and Services. It is also possible to abstract specific indices reflecting the performance of different units and communication initiatives. Hence, the survey did not only allow for immediate improve-ments of our work, but it also creates valid and reliable performance fig-ures for a long-term communication controlling approach.

SOME JOURNALISTS WERE MORE CRITICAL One concrete finding of the survey showed that the majority of the polled journalists are satisfied with our work and at-tribute a high degree of professional-ism to us. We were of course pleased by these results, especially because they were being confirmed by an-other independent study by the poll-ing firm com.X-Institut. However, a more focused analysis showed that important journalist groups within the overall sample assessed our work

Surefire survey success

Preview the survey via email.

Clear responsibilites for the project should be set within the department.

Sampling must reflect the opinions of relevant journalists.

A survey requires both external and internal support.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Media types

Basis: All journalists. N:652

Online 6%

Print 59%

Print and Online18%

TV 10%

Other 2%News Agencies 3%

Radio 2%

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more critically. Business journalists, for example, demanded more back-ground information with regards to specific issues and a more open dia-logue. Qualitative elements of the study pointed in the same direction. We have therefore started an initia-tive to better meet the demands of this important stakeholder group.

NEW COMMUNICATION CHANNELS Besides asking the journalists to directly assess our work, we also elevated the journalists’ preferences for new and established communication channels. Within this context, the study showed that on the one hand traditional channels like fax and mail have significantly lost acceptance among journalists: 69 per cent of all polled journalists said that they do not wish to receive any

information from Daimler by fax in the future. On the other hand, the study also supported our assump-tion that Web 2.0 channels are not yet adequate for communicating with journalists: only seven per cent could imagine using official Daimler tweets to inform themselves about the com-pany.

ANALYSING CORPORATE REP-UTATION We also asked questions addressing the overall reputation and more specific reputation crite-ria of our company. We inquired, for example, about Daimler’s in-novation image in relation to the development of alternative driv-etrains. In this context, the jour-nalists believe that Daimler will

advance to a leading position in the years ahead. Thus the study informed us of the high expectations among journalists in respect of our R&D capabilities, and we can now deliberate about the best response to this situa-tion. Conducting a survey with a relatively large sample and a reasonable level of detail requires both time and resources. The exact costs of the study depend on the company’s existent inhouse expertise in empirical social research and the resulting need for external expertise. In most cases, the actual polling can not be carried out by employees, so the service has to be purchased from a service provider. On the other hand, employees must fol-low the development of the questionnaire and the inter-pretation of results very closely, since they have greater understanding of internal demands and know-how for integrating the results in the communication man-agement processes. There-fore, it is important to de-fine clear responsibilities for the project within the department and set specific objectives for the unit from the start. Nonetheless, a reliable external partner is definitely helpful when it comes to bringing in an additional perspective on the project. Therefore, we opted for a mixed approach, which involved assigning internal resources to the project as well as utilising external expertise.

Jörg Howe

Head of Global Communications, Daimler

Jörg Howe has been Daimler‘s head of global communicati-ons since 2008. Prior to joining the German automotive firm, he was head of corporate communications at holding company Arcandor. Earlier in his career, Howe was editor-in- chief of German commercial television channel Sat. 1.

8%Twitter

RSS-Feed

Relatively low acceptance of Twitter and RSS feeds

79%

92%

21%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Yes, I would use it No, I would not use it

Basis: All journalists reporting on Daimler. N: 490 to 535

Only seven per cent could imagine using official Daimler tweets to inform

themselves about the company.

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CAMPAIGNING WITHOUT CANDIDATESThe recent election of the first president of the European Council upturned received wisdom about communications around an election campaign.

by Peter Van Aelst

I n recent years, election campaigns have re-ceived growing attention from scholars in the fields of political communication and po-litical marketing around the world. Debate performances, media coverage, the role of political advisors, opinion polling – in many

western countries all these aspects are studied empirically. As a consequence, our knowledge of political campaigning has grown accordingly. However, this knowledge seems rather useless in explaining the process that preceded the recent election of the first president of the European council. Not only because it was not a classical election by the people (but rather an appointment by colleagues), but also because the basic rules of political campaigning did not apply. On the contrary we witnessed a reversed

campaign logic that I will briefly explain with four basic lessons. Special attention will be given to Herman Van Rompuy, the former Belgian prime minister and the new ‘Mr Europe’, who proved better in this form of reversed campaigning than his competitors and his Belgian col-leagues who failed to win major EU positions in the past.

CAMPAIGN LESSON 1: LOW VISIBILITY Probably the primary reason why politicians campaign is to get public attention, mostly via the mass media. It is not a sufficient reason to get elected, but with low public visibility a po-litical candidate does not stand any chance of succeeding. It

explains why, for instance, US presi-dential candidates spend millions on advertisements and European parties try to create pseudo-events that can foster free media attention. In the case of the EU presidental election, the opposite is true: the less atten-tion the better. Actually, visibility is seen as problematic because one is not supposed to openly campaign for the job. None of the people who were frequently named in the media as possible candidates confirmed they were. Even former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who was long considered the main candidate, never officially applied for the job (although the La-bour government had stated months before that they were supporting Blair’s candidature for president of the council). The Dutch prime min-ister, Jan Peter Balkenende, called the strong rumours of his candidacy “nonsense”. This did not hinder the Dutch press from devoting massive attention to the possible promotion of their prime minister and the con-sequences for the Dutch government. The main problem of such high vis-ibility is that opposing countries also start focussing on the candidate and may start a negative campaign against him or her. Herman Van Rompuy

None of the people who were frequently named in the media as possible candidates confirmed they were.

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managed to keep his name low on the bookmakers’ lists until two weeks before the election, although he was already contacted in the summer about his availability for the job. In the last week before the election, the British tabloids in particular started to criticise and mock him in different ways, but it was too late to organise real opposition.

CAMPAIGN LESSON 2: NO OPEN SUPPORT In order to suc-ceed, a political candidate normally needs support, not only from within his or her own party, but also from outsiders such as interest groups or public figures, as their open approval can convince others to follow their example. Nowadays, the public en-dorsements of celebrities are seen as especially beneficial to a successful campaign. Again, for the election of the EU presidency, the opposite is true: the less public support, the better. The problem with public sup-port is not only that it leads to more visibility, but moreover that other countries might feel the decision is already taken without them. This is what happened in 1994, when Ger-man chancellor Helmut Kohl and French president Françoise Mit-terrand did not include the British prime minister, John Major, in their decision to back the Belgian prime minister, Jean-Luc Dehaene, as head of the EU Commission. Even-tually, Major blocked Dehaene. A similar situation occurred ten years later, when German chancellor Ger-hard Schröder and French president Jacques Chirac somewhat too eagerly supported the Belgian prime minis-ter, Guy Verhofstadt, which led oth-er countries supporting the British prime minister, Tony Blair, in his opposition against the Belgian. It seems that people have learned from Ph

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the past this time, as President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel were both extremely careful in expressing their sympathies for their favourite candidate – Van Rompuy. Also, Van Rompuy learned from his Belgian colleagues who failed in the past, and was more modest in seeking support. He made some strategic visits to other European leaders but avoided a real promotional campaign in the EU capitals.

CAMPAIGN LESSON 3: NO PROGRAMME In tradi-tional campaigns, candidates need a programme. Perhaps the time of big ideological stories is over, but, more than ever, specific issues play a central role in an election con-test. One could even argue that campaigns are a battle of candidates who try to focus the debate on ‘their’ issues. However, this basic rule did not apply to the campaign for the EU presidency, where substantive statements were avoided as much as possible. Somewhat cynically, one could see this as the main strength of Van Rompuy: be-cause of his short time in office as a prime minister, he

Herman Van Rompuy

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hardly made any statements concerning EU policy that could upset anyone. This was not the case for his main competitors, prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende and prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxemburg, who both made enemies – or at least lost friends from differ-ent countries – during their many years in office. Further-more, in his long past as a national politician, Van Rompuy never devoted much attention to European policy. This is in sharp contrast with Guy Verhofstadt, who was known for his outspoken pro-European stance and expressed these views publicly in the run up to the election. In the weeks before the election, Van Rompuy never spoke about his ideas on the future of Europe. He made one excep-tion in addressing the Bilderberg Group in Brussels. The Bilderberg Group is an international circle of political and corporate elite figures that hold invitation-only meetings. Van Rompuy had accepted the invitation long before and did not cancel the meeting because of the group’s solid reputation for discretion. However, parts of his speech on the possibility of a green tax to support the working of the EU leaked to the press. Van Rompuy was able to limit the damage by not personally reacting to the news while his spokesperson nuanced the tax statements.

CAMPAIGN LESSON 4: DIPLOMATS INSTEAD OF SPIN DOCTORS One of the most documented parts of modern political campaigning is the growing role of ex-ternal professionals who advise politicians and candidates on their strategies, particlarly people specialised in mar-ket research, media management, and strategic communi-cation. In the US, these people operate mostly as external consultants, whereas in Europe these experts function of-ten within the party organisation itself. In the case of the EU presidential election, no such campaign teams were established. However, a different type of professional was

(very) active in the behind the scenes campaign, namely higher ranked civil servants and former diplomats. Be-cause the candidates for the job are not supposed to be campaigning, the diplomats have to do it for them. I must admit that we have little hard evidence on who did exactly what. Several sources confirmed, for instance, that Dutch diplomats approached colleagues and politicians advocat-ing for their candidate. In the case of Van Rompuy, it has

been said that Belgian diplomats provided information about their prime minister to countries who knew hardly anything about him and were still in doubt. The diplo-mats also learned from the failures of their colleagues who had lobbied for Verhofstadt in 2004 and avoided an overactive approach. Again, this is in line with the idea that Van Rompuy was not a candidate for the job, but only a candidate to be asked about it.

We can conclude that the election (or appointment) campaign of the first EU president turned much of the classical campaign wisdom upside down. This is less the case for the de-bate on the quality of the campaigns that usually starts shortly after the election. Roughly summarised, po-litical campaigns are considered too negative and too insubstantial, turn-ing voters into cynical spectators. In the case of the EU presidential elec-tion, the main complaint was related to the lack of transparency. Several commentators noted rightfully that the election of a new Pope or com-munist leader is guided by more clear rules than in this case. As a conse-quence, very few European citizens were thrilled by the elections and the

In his long past as a national politician, Van Rompuy never devoted much attention to European policy.

Tony Blair

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our conference, his political career made an unexpected second start. Following the 2007 national elections that were won by his party (under the leadership of Yves Le-terme) Van Rompuy became chair of the lower house of parliament. But in 2008 he moved on to become the prime minister of Belgium after a complicated struggle with the judiciary over the selling of the Belgian bank Fortis brought his predecessor, Leterme, into disrepute. Van Rompuy was able to bring some stability and calm in the linguistically divided country, which had been in a state of confusion and conflict since the 2007 election. After being in charge of the country for hardly a year, he was elected to be the first president of the EU coun-cil. Returning to that conference in 2007: Van Rompuy was outstanding in his analysis of how the relationship between media and politics has evolved over the years. He impressed the audience with his intelligence and dry sense of humour, two qualities that will probably come in handy as the first Mr Europe. (For a more detailed profile of Van Rompuy see the work of Van Assche: http://webh01.ua.ac.be/m2p/publications/1257767957.pdf)

Why a European president? The idea of a European president was introduced years ago by former French pres-ident Giscard d’Estaing who was leading a commission to develop the first European constitution. The constitution was later replaced by the less ambitious Lisbon Treaty, but the introduction of an EU president remained. The main function of the presi-dent, officially called the permanent chairman of the European Council, is con-tinuity. The president will chair the European Council for two-and-a-half years, re-placing (but not completely abolishing) the current sys-tem where countries take turns at being president for six months. The president will have much less official powers, as in the original conception of d’Estaing, and will function as a guid-ing secretary, rather than as a leading president. The choice for the low key leader Van Rompuy can be seen in line with this.

mass media in most countries only paid attention to the election if one of their own was involved in the race. From a democratic perspective, this election can be seen as a missed op-portunity to bring the EU somewhat closer to its people. However, from a perspective of efficiency things look quit different. Van Rompuy is a con-sensus candidate with little personal ambition. If he manages to improve the functioning of one of the main European institutions the European citizen might not be the loser after all. Time will tell.

WHO IS HERMAN VAN ROMPUY? In February 2007, we organised a small conference on the relationship between media and politics at the University of Ant-werp. As some leading politicians were unable to attend we asked Herman Van Rompuy. At that mo-ment, the 60 year old Van Rompuy could be considered as a parliamen-tary backbencher, who had played a more prominent role as a party president and high ranking cabinet member in Belgian politics until his Christian Democratic party lost the elections in 1999. Shortly after

Prof. Peter Van Aelst

Leiden University

Peter Van Aelst is assistant professor of political psycholo-gy and political communication at the Institute of Political Sci-ence at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He wrote a PhD on the role of media in election campaigns and has published in several international jour-nals. His current research focu-ses on the relations between politicians and journalists in comparative perspective.Ph

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THE DYNAMICS OF TRUSTAfter a clarification of the notion of trust, this article gives an analysis of its founda-tions and the role of openness and communication in the building, breakdown and repair of trust.

by Bart Nooteboom

T he notion of trust is rich and slippery, and evokes much mis-understanding that needs to be set right. What is trust, who may be trusted, in what aspect of behaviour, and on what basis?

A first definition of trust might be: “I am vulnerable to the actions of another but I believe that no significant harm will be done.”

Who is the trustee, the one trusted? One can trust in-dividuals, organisations, institutions and systems. For ex-ample, in the financial crisis distrust concerning banking may concern individual bankers, banks and their policies, supervisory institutions (such as central banks), or finan-cial and labour markets. One may trust people one is deal-ing with, but this is not enough, because whether they can honour commitments depends on their position and role

in the organisation. One can trust an organisation, e.g. on the basis of its reputation, but this does not by itself ensure that one can trust the people one is dealing with. That depends on the procedures of supervision, control, report-ing and culture of the firm. Whether an organisation can honour its commitments depends on external pressures of competition and the state of the economy.

What is it in people that one can trust? One can trust the competence of the trustee, in other words its techni-cal ability to honour commitments, and/or its intentions:in other words, its will and commitment to act according

to the best of its competence. Inten-tional trust may be further separated into trust in commitment/attention and trust in fairness: in other words, absence of cheating. When there is lack of competence, one will act dif-ferently from when there is lack of commitment or opportunism and cheating. Things can go wrong for a variety of reasons: a mishap or acci-dent no one could have foreseen and prevented, lack of competence, lack of attention, lack of commitment, or opportunism. Often, one does not know which is the case. In other words, there is ‘causal ambiguity’. In particular, it is the opportunist who will claim a mishap as the cause. This causal ambiguity has important implications for communication, as I will discuss later.

FOUNDATIONS OF TRUST What is the basis of trust? Trust may be based on feelings and emo-tions of fear, self-confidence, friend-ship, loyalty, justice, morality, view of society, view of man, etc., related to character, experience and culture. Trust can also be rational, based on information (for example on repu-tation) and evaluation of the likely level of trustworthiness. Mostly it is based on some combination of feel-ing and reflection.

One may trust people one is dealing with, but this is not enough, because whether they can honour commitments depends on their position and role in the organisation.

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First, let us look at reasons people may have to be reliable. These are summarised in Table 1. This con-cerns only the intentional (not the competence) side of trust.

I make a distinction between reli-ability and trust. Reliability includes both control and trust that goes be-yond control. Here is another source of confusion about trust. By trust, some people may mean that they trust someone because he is contrac-tually bound, or because one is his boss, or because he is dependent or because he has other material incen-tives. Other people will object that trust goes beyond that. They would define trust as having the belief that “no harm will be done, even if the other has both the opportunity and the incentive to cheat.” I make the distinction between reliability and trust to eliminate this ambiguity.

In the two columns, the table distinguishes reasons for reliability on two levels: within a relationship

Table 1 Sources of (intentional) reliability

Macro; institutional

- contracts, legal enforcement

- reputation

- values, social norms of proper

conduct, moral obligation,

sense of duty, bonds of kinship

Micro; relational

- hierarchy, managerial ‘fiat’

- dependence, hostages, bonus schemes

- empathy, identification, routinisa-

tion, affection, friendship

Control

opportunity control

incentive control

Trust

(micro) and in its institutional environment (macro). In the rows the table employs the distinction between control and trust.

One type of control is opportunity control. In this case, the action space is limited, either by contracts using the law (outside a relationship), or by hierarchy (within a relationship). A second type of control is incentive con-trol, where actions are shaped by rewards. Within the re-lationship this may be a result of dependence: when the partner is dependent on me, he is more inclined to take my interests into account. This dependence may be due to the unique value that I offer to him or to his specific investments in the relationship. A specific investment is

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an investment that has value only in this specific relation-ship, so that it has to be made anew when the relation-ship breaks. That yields dependence; the other side may threaten to break the relationship, causing a loss to you. The partner may also be dependent on me because I hold a hostage, in other words I have control over something that is of value to him, but not to me. I will not hesitate to de-stroy this hostage if the partner behaves badly. Mostly, the hostage takes the form of commercially sensitive informa-tion that may be leaked to a competitor of the partner. Another form of incentive control is reputation. That is a matter of self-interest: the partner behaves well because bad behaviour would destroy the perspectives for fruitful relations with others in the future.

Beyond control, in the lower part of the table there may be a basis for trustworthiness. Trust and trustworthiness are needed where control ends, and may help to reduce control. Trustworthiness may be a result of an established ethic, with shared social norms and values. Values and norms may be based on an ethic that is shared prior to the relationship, but may also develop as the relationship proceeds.

MENTAL FRAMING Should one start with distrust, until people have proven to be trustworthy, or with trust until people show limited trustworthiness? I recommend the second. Distrust keeps one from engaging in relation-ships that may prove distrust wrong, in showing that in fact people are trustworthy, to a greater or lesser extent. Trust, on the other hand, is subject to correction: when in fact people are less trustworthy than assumed, one can adjust one’s expectations.

People operate on the basis of mental frames, or states of mind, that shape their perceptions and guide their acts. Relevant to trust, there are two basic frames of

mind: one is oriented towards ‘guarding your resources’, and the other towards ‘solidarity’. In the first, the basic attitude is one of distrust, of being afraid of loss, and actions of the other are scrutinised as possible evidence of lack of trustworthiness, and one is ready to retaliate or take preventive action. In the second, the basic at-titude is one of trust, and one tends to see the actions of

the other as cooperative. The claim that we have these two frames of mind is supported by arguments that both are in our genes as a re-sult of evolution. We have a deep inclination towards survival and to guard the resources necessary for it, but we also have an inclination to be a loyal member of a community, and to make sacrifices for it, within limitations of survival.

Which frame one is in depends on character, experience and cir-cumstances. If one has lack of self-confidence or feels threatened, one is inclined towards the frame of suspicion. One feels more threat-ened under pressures of competi-tion or adverse economic condi-tions. In the current economic crisis, one can expect that there is less trust. In a trust frame one can accept more criticism than in a frame of distrust. Therefore, trust is not being ‘nice’ to each other. It is precisely because people trust each other that they can afford to be more critical. Thus, an advantage of trust is that it offers more learning from criticism.

Should one start with distrust, until people have proven to be trustworthy, or with trust, until people show limited

trustworthiness? I recommend the second.

The trials and tribulations of trust

Trust is necessary when control has reached its limits.

Two basic frames of mind, guarding re-sources and solidarity, determine our levels of trust. These depend on char-acter, experience and circumstances.

When both negotiators find out what the fears/problems of the other are, and look for solutions, an optimal re-lationship is achieved.

Disappointed expectations are the greatest threat to trust.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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negotiation is not a matter of saying or giving in as little as possible, even though that is what instinct prods us to do. Good negotiation is finding out what the fears and problems of the other are, to see if one can solve or prevent them at a cost that is low compared to the value for the partner. If the partner acts according to the same maxim, the relation is optimal.

Next to verbal communication one should also be aware of the signals that actions send. At any moment, one is in one of the two mental frames, but events can

cause a switch to the other frame. The stability of a frame and frame switching depend on how actions are inter-preted as ‘relational signals’. For a stable trust relation-ship, one’s actions should signal that one is enacting the frame of solidarity. One’s actions should stimulate the other to maintain or adopt the solidarity frame.

For example, one should show care and concern for the other, and accept his interests as legitimate. One should accept responsibility and not pass the blame, give timely and accurate informa-tion, be honest about moti-vations. One should be open to suggestions, complaints and criticism from the oth-er, accept his influence and voice, and show that one values them. One should also manage expectations. The greatest threat to trust arises when expectations are disappointed. Expecta-tions should be realistic, and performance and expecta-tions should be monitored in time and adjusted. And if the partner lacks self-confi-dence, bolster it.

TRUST AND COMMUNICA-TION The causal ambiguity of trust yields a plea for openness in com-munication. If one makes a mistake the instinctive response is to hide it, but that is a bad response. Sooner or later the problem will emerge and one is then asked why one did not report the problem when there was still time to do something about it. A suspicion will arise that it was a matter not of a mishap or mistake but of cheating. That is the worst outcome. A mistake is seen as some-thing that can be corrected, while a perception of opportunism will likely cause a switch to a frame of distrust, and once that happens it is difficult to switch back to a trust frame. Thus, when something goes wrong one should report it imme-diately, explain what went wrong, make proposals of how to mend the damage and how to prevent similar problems in the future. That is a re-sponse that inspires trust.

OPENNESS AND VOICE There is a well-known distinction between ‘exit’ and ‘voice’. In exit, if one is dis-satisfied one walks away, breaks the relationship, fires the worker, or sells the division of a firm. In voice, one reports a problem and gives the other an opportunity to explain and mend. One does not jump to the conclusion that there is opportunism at play as soon as something goes wrong. One gives the other the benefit of the doubt. Openness and voice require that the other appreciates them and reacts constructively. One should not immediately revert to blame and punishment when the other reports a mistake, but react appreciatively and constructively in jointly mend-ing problems and taking measures to prevent them in future. Openness is required for a second reason. Good

Good negotiation is not a matter of saying or giving in as little as possible, even though that is what instinct prods us to do.

Prof. Bart Nooteboom

Tilburg University

Bart Nooteboom is professor of innovation policy at Tilburg University. His research inclu-des innovation, entrepreneur-ship, organisational learning, inter-firm collaboration, and trust. He has published ten books and 300 papers. He is a member of the Royal Ne-therlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded the Kapp prize for his work on organisational learning and the Gunnar Myrdal prize for his work on trust. He is ran-ked among the top 30 Dutch economists and listed in Who‘s Who in Economics and Who‘s Who in Management Science.Ph

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TEAM PLAYERHow to improve personnel management and your career

I t is very strange, but in the roughly five years that I have been speaking to and consult-ing with management about the hundreds of studies in many nations that clearly dem-onstrate that high levels of employee com-mitment and engagement predict financial

success, I have consistently found that virtually no one in management has ever heard of these facts.

Here is a tiny sample of the data that overwhelmingly demonstrates that when employees feel positively about their organisation and their work, financial results are high:

• Companies consistently rated as the “best to work for” are run by people who (1) achieve their business targets and (2) sustain the wellbeing of their employees. These organisa-tions have higher market value, growth, return on assets, and return to shareholders than peer organisations that do not value and involve employees.• The consulting firm Watson Wyatt administered surveys of the Human Capital Index (HCI) to 51 organisations in the United States and Europe. When the HCI scores were compared with each corporation’s five-year total return to shareholders, companies with a low HCI score averaged a 21 per cent total return, companies with medium HCI scores achieved a 39 per cent total return, and those with high scores had a 64 per cent return.• When customers gave a company high marks, that or-ganisation earned a 160 per cent five-year return to share-holders when compared with the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Index. When both customers and employees give a com-

A CLEAN SWEEP FOR REFORMERSIf organisations are to evolve and thrive, change leaders must be found. These figures must gain power, find al-lies and master the facts to find success for their peers.

by Judith Bardwick

pany a high rating, that company’s five-year returns to shareholders is 320 per cent of the S&P.

Over the last twenty years, nu-merous studies found that when people are very positive about their job and their organisation, feelings of commitment and engagement predict positive financial results. The average is a gain of 30 per cent higher profits and a share price two to three times higher than a peer company with low scores. That hap-pens simply because companies in which employees are really involved retain their employees and their customers. The reverse is also true. When companies see employees only as costs and not as key assets, employees reciprocate with power-ful negative feelings. Then, people come to work but they withhold discretionary effort, fear prevails, innovation disappears, and team-work is only a slogan.

THE MESSAGE A critical lead-

ership task is to create widespread awareness of this information throughout an organisation as a first step in reinstating employees as stakeholders and as assets. The key message is simple: when employees are viewed and treated as critical re-sources and commitments are made to them, the probability of financial success increases dramatically.

The reverse is also true: when employees are treated as costs and not as assets, they feel abused and frightened (for good reason). When people are neither trusted nor re-spected and their work is not re-garded as significant, employees quit even if they come to work. The real cost of a nonengaged or an ac-tively disengaged employee is enor-mous because they alienate custom-

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ers and customers leave. So do sales and profits. In fact, too many people are misers with praise and rewards. And they are proud of it, more the pity. As a result, the most prominent current practices regarding employ-ees essentially guarantee high levels of negative feelings and low levels

of commitment and engagement – a sure route to failure. Many executives are unwittingly treating even valued employees in ways that will almost certainly assure em-ployee alienation. Even when the economy was good, in many countries about half of all employees felt vulnerable economically and psychologically. I call these feelings a psychological recession, the feeling that while the present is awful, the future will be worse. Prolonged fear and de-pression invite failure because scared and alienated people can neither concentrate, nor focus, nor innovate. Chronic anxiety depletes people of their mental energy.

The first task is to create real awareness at every level of an organisation that (1) treating employees only as costs creates serious problems with powerful negative effects that impede success, and (2) there are policies and prac-tices that make success much more likely. In order to have an impact, the message must be in line with how people are actually feeling and be simple, brief, and focused. It must begin with a sense of alarm that is based on the or-ganisation’s reality and then move to the idea that when the core issues are faced, the right changes can be made and success and a better future become very likely.

CREATE CHANGE When I speak to employees who are not executives, they always relate to these facts and ideas. I am, after all, describing what they have experienced and

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how most of them feel. So it is not surprising that they al-ways ask: “Have you talked with our executives and upper level managers? If you have, what was their reaction? Are they even aware of what is going on? Are they concerned enough to do anything different now that they know how people feel? What can I do to make change happen?’’ The most visible leader in an organisational change effort is usually a top executive. But core change does not happen until and unless an aligned leadership develops through-out the organisation at all levels. Succeeding in creating major change has to ultimately involve the majority of people.

The answer to the essential question, “What can I do?” is, first, get the facts and master them. Every person in-volved in creating change has to be able to describe the facts easily and, more importantly, clearly and simply.

The next task is to be able to describe the problem and the solution in the “elevator speech”. That means you have less than a minute to get your views across. To achieve this, you need a great answer to the question: “What re-ally matters?” In some ways, crafting the elevator speech is the hardest task of the entire change effort. It is difficult to be very brief, right on point, and be convincing.

Feelings are always much more important than facts in getting a buy-in to change, and basic change is always un-settling. That is why the majority of people in the organi-sation have to believe that you are telling the truth, you are guided by a deep sense of unease by current practices, and you are convinced real change will achieve success.

Change leaders must create the fear that not changing is much more dangerous than changing. Then, it is time to create hope: “If we pull together and we all get on the train, while it won’t be easy, we can do it! Count me in!”

MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN Generating the motivation for change and specific ideas about how to succeed is only the starting point. Operationalising anything, actually making things happen, is at least equally difficult. The task for the organisation is to regain the perspective that people are a major asset and management must behave in ways that tell employees they are valuable and impor-tant. Ideas, attitudes, and behaviours must be aligned and converge on the single theme that making commitments to our people and gaining commitment from them is the only way we can succeed. When most people share that value and agree on that goal, lots of specific ways to re-inforce commitment and engagement will be generated. No one, not even the CEO, can make things happen alone. To make things happen, change leaders must gain

power. There are two relevant kinds of power: one involves role power, people at the highest levels in the organisation who are responsible for making decisions in the business of the business. In corporations, those are the people who have the ma-jor profit and loss responsibilities. These positions have the greatest amount of authority and, frequently, the highest levels of influence and political power. Anyone who has access to these people is also seen as powerful simply because these peo-ple are accessible to him or her. It is the responsibility of change lead-ers to learn which of these decision makers is already in basic agreement with the view that people are a criti-cal asset. The goal is to identify these

people in order to gain powerful al-lies as quickly as possible.

The second kind of power lies in the power of numbers. When many people in an organisation clearly be-lieve the same thing and are calling for change, the importance of their message is greater than that of even a few top decision makers. The large number of supervisors and middle managers are a ripe source of allies as they are in a position to really know how their subordinates are feeling and behaving and how wide are the gaps that cause people to be alienated.

In terms of numbers, the middle and lower rungs of the organisation are a potential source of the largest numbers. There are leaders every-where; they are simply people who others trust, respect, and want to

No one, not even the CEO, can make things happen alone. To make things hap-pen, change leaders must gain power.

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tive advantage. If there is no clear competitive advantage revisit the question: what is the business of this business?3. Identify the most important goals and those that are easiest to accomplish. Balance the goals of importance and ease. Limit the number of goals at one time to three and determine due dates.4. Designate the organisation’s few core values: e.g. for the US Marines, they are honour, courage and commitment. This is critical, because values and not rules are the true guides of behaviour.5. Create simple, honest, and direct communications in or-der to gain understanding and buy-in. Never assume your message is heard. Go into the field and find out what people think is being said.6. Organisational units and individuals create line-of-sight goals from the organisation’s targets to their own with due dates.7. Reward the angels and fire the snakes. Distinguish thriv-ers – people who are eager to make and lead the changes – from survivors – fence sitters and cynics – and strugglers or failures who oppose change. Move thrivers into leader-ship roles.8. Fire trouble-making strugglers.9. Fire chronic nonperform-ers.10. Start again: Murphy’s law – if anything can go wrong, it will – is the bed-rock truth.

Anxiety and fear can be reduced by opening the books and telling people the truth about what is known and what might happen, by being clear and specific about what people are expected to do, and by making as many people as possible part of the change process. And everyone must be working toward goals that are achievable because nothing motivates people more than being successful. It is in the or-ganisation’s best interest to act in ways that increase their numbers.

listen to and follow. Having less ed-ucation is not a barrier to becoming a leader. Change leaders must find these potential allies wherever they are: at entry level, in blue and pink collar positions, in the collarless jobs of professionals, and in the different generations.

When change leaders have a firm understanding of the issues and a clear message of alarm and hope, and when they have identified allies, they need to create an initial basic plan that is so direct and focused that it fits on a single page. Inevi-tably, the reality of implementation will make the simplest plan very complex and complexity diffuses focus. The more complex the initial plan is, the less effective it will be-come.

THE CHANGE PROCESS:

1. Identify the real major problems. Open the books. Speak the unspeak-able. 2. Identify the core business and whether it is a cash cow or a high-risk, high-growth business. Create the essential strategy based on competi-Ph

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Judith BardwickManagement Thought Leader

Judith M. Bardwick is a writer, speaker, and management consultant specialising in the psychology of the corporate environment. During her ca-reer, she has combined psy-chological research with prac-tical business applications to optimise organisational per-formance, change organisa-tional views and values, and help managers achieve fi-nancial and personal success. Bardwick has held several professorial positions in her career.

How to treat your snakes and angels

Change leaders must gain power and find allies from all levels of the organisation if they are to succeed.

Mastering the facts and presenting them clearly is the first step for change.

Disencouraged employees can lose motivation; rewards and achievable ob-jectives will energise them and help dis-tinguish between the cynical snakes and the eager angels.

Telling the truth reduces anxiety.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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SYSTEMS, PEOPLE AND KNOWLEDGEQuality management, organisational learning and personal management are the ingredients of three disciplines repre-sented here in a synthesis of three different authors.

by Su Mi Dahlgaard-Park

T his article will analyse and com-pare three notable works of advice on how to make successful trans-formations and sustainable change. The three authors have been cho-sen because they all contributed to

popularising the three methodologies worldwide and their ideas complement each other in a supplementary way, which is is useful for organisations that want to design their own recipe for change and for gradually achieving excellence.

INGREDIENTS FOR CHANGE In his book The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education for Quality Management (1993), W. E. Deming proclaimed that the aim of the “system of profound knowledge” is to help effect a transformation of individuals, organisations, and countries. As the name indicates, the system of pro-found knowledge is above all a set of insights by which people can see and understand the essential conditions and structures of reality more accurately. The system of profound knowledge consists of the following four parts:

1: APPRECIATION FOR A SYSTEM A system must have an aim, a value judgment, which should be clear to everyone in the system. The importance of aim and pur-pose is formulated clearly in the first of Deming’s famous 14 points: “Create and publish to all employees a state-ment of the aims and purposes of the company or other or-ganisation. The management must demonstrate constantly their commitment to this statement.” In an ideal system, each component participates in an optimisation proc-ess toward achievement of the aim. Through this proc-

ess, all involved win. Optimising a system (make win-win solutions) is a basis for any kind of negotiation between different components. In a system, the role of each component is essential and inevitable, and at the same time each component is interdependent and interrelated to each other. “The greater the inter-dependence between components, the greater the need is for commu-nication and cooperation between them.”

2. KNOWLEDGE OF VARIA-TION Variations between people can give us knowledge about a proc-ess and about the people who work in a given system. Knowledge of variations in various situations is critical for management. Manage-ment requires knowledge of interac-tion of different forces, knowledge of the effect of the system on the performance of people, knowledge of dependence and interdependence between people, groups, divisions, companies, industires and coun-tries. 3. THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE There is no true value in informa-tion that can be attained by meas-

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urement and observation of states, characteristics conditions and phe-nomena. Knowledge comes from theory, and without theory, there is no way to use the information that comes to us constantly. “Experience alone, without theory, teaches man-agement nothing about what to do to improve quality and competitive position, nor how to do it ... Expe-rience will answer a question, and a question comes from theory.” With-out theory, there is nothing to revise, nothing to evaluate, and experience has no meaning. Without theory one has no question to ask, nothing to renew, hence without theory there is no learning. Theory is a window into the world. Theory provides predic-tion, and without prediction, experi-ences teach nothing.

4. PSYCHOLOGY: W.E. Deming writes: “Psychol-ogy helps us to under-stand people, interac-tion between people and circumstances, interac-tion between customer and supplier, interaction between teacher and pu-pil, interaction between a manager and his people and any system of man-agement.” Knowledge of psychology is especially important for leaders, who must understand how they can lead people and provide a system that can promote joy in work and strengthen peo-ple’s intrinsic motivation. They should also know that some aspects of extrinsic motivators, which include a monetary reward system, take away employees’ dig-nity, intrinsic desire to learn and in-ner desire to expand their capabili-ties. Good management helps us to Ph

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nurture and preserve intrinsic sources of motivation, to learn, to work, to love, to make innovation, and to build self-esteem. The leader must understand those mecha-nisms of people in order to achieve the optimisation (win-win) of the system.

SENGE’S LEARNING OR-GANISATION Even though the main issues of Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline (1990) are about systems thinking, the book is known as a theory of the learn-ing organisation. Senge writes: “The tools and ideas presented in

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this book are for destroying the illusion that the world is created of separate, unrelated forces. When we give up this illusion, we can then build ‘learning organisations’, organisations where new and expansive patterns of think-ing are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.” Senge distinguishes between two processes: 1. A process of destroying human illusions, and 2. A process of building learning organisation. The five disciplines (fig-ure 1), which are introduced as components of the learn-ing organisation, must at the same time be regarded as components of the destruction process of human illusions, which is at the same time a learning process.

SYSTEMS THINKING The essence of systems thinking is to see the whole rather than a single part; underlying structures rather than surfaces. It is a framework for see-ing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing pat-terns of change rather than static snapshots. In systems thinking, it is an axiom that every influence is both cause and effect. Nothing is ever influenced in just one direc-tion. In these circles of causality, the human actor is also a part of the cause and effect chains, and cannot stand apart from them. Thus business and other human endeavours can be understood under the frame of systems thinking, which allows us to see how we are continually both influ-enced by and are influencing our reality.

THREE BUILDING BLOCKS There are three building blocks when we see and analyse the underlying structure

of a system. These are reinforcing, balancing feedback and delay. Re-inforcing processes are the engines of growth. Whenever we are in a situation where things are growing in a positive or negative direction, a reinforcing process is operating. The reinforcing process can thus acceler-

ate decline in a negative direction and accelerate progress in a positive direction. These reinforcing process-es have their limits, however. When a reinforcing process is working in a certain direction, either in growth or in decline, the system meets its limit in the form of balancing feedback that can slow, stop, divert and even reverse the existing direction of the process. The third building block is delay. Delays between actions and consequences are everywhere in hu-man systems. All feedback processes have some form of delay, and if these delays are not recognised, they can lead to instability and breakdown.

PERSONAL MASTERY Personal mastery is the discipline of continual learning throughout an entire life-time. It is the spiritual foundation of the learning organisation. The discipline of personal mastery starts with clarifying the things that re-ally matter to us, of living our lives in the service of our highest aspi-rations. People with personal mas-tery take more initiative and have a broader and deeper understanding of responsibilities in whatever they are doing. The characteristics of people with high personal mastery are that

Mental models influence how we per-ceive and understand the world and how we behave, and how we make our deci-sions and judgments.

Table 1: Deming’s profound knowledge, modelled by Su Mi Dahlgaard-Park

Knowledge of variation

Knowledge ofpsychology

LeadershipKnowledge ofsystems

Knowledge ofknowledge

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personal visions. Essentially people are not egoists: in most of cases, they care for other people – family, colleagues, or-ganisations, society, and even the world. Thus the very basic element of a shared vision can be founded in people’s indi-vidual personal visions, and because of this commonality of individuals, it is possible to build a shared vision based on an individual’s personal visions.

TEAM LEARNING Team learning is the process of de-veloping the capacity of a team to create the results its members truly desire. When people master team learning one of the positive results is the synergy effect. The dis-ciplines of team learning involve mastering the practices of several interpersonal skills and techniques, such as dia-logue, discussion, inquiry and advocacy, and the handling of “defensive routines”. Furthermore, team learning re-quires that people understand their own assumptions, the skill of balancing dialogue and discussion, and the skill of balancing inquiry and advocacy.

COVEY’S PERSONAL MANAGEMENT AND PRIN-CIPLES: CENTRED SELF-DEVELOPMENT Stephen R. Covey, who wrote the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), argues for the importance of principle-centred action. According to Covey, principles are composed of permanent values which are self-evident and factual, just like natural laws. Covey gives some ex-amples of these principles, which lead people to individ-ual success and, consequently, to organisational success. These principles are expressed and identified by Covey as

they are good at integrating reason and intuition, continually see the connectedness to the world through their daily activities, show compas-sion and empathy to other people and commitment to the whole.

MENTAL MODELS Mental mod-els are our way of seeing and inter-preting the world and phenomena around us. Mental models influence how we perceive and understand the world and how we behave, and how we make our decisions and judgments. They are not only a fil-ter through which we understand the world, but they are also active, because they actually shape how we behave. However, in most cases, people are not aware of their own mental models, nor of the fact that mental models affect their behav-iour. The vicious cycle is that when people are not aware of their mental models, the models remain untested, and because they are untested, the models continue to be unchanged.

SHARED VISION According to Senge, a shared vision is a force in people’s hearts – a force of impres-sive power. At its most simple level, a shared vision is the answer to the question: “What do we want to cre-ate?” Just as personal visions are im-ages people carry in their heads and hearts, the same goes for shared vi-sion. A shared vision is images or dreams that people throughout an organisation carry. When people throughout an organisation truly share a vision, they are bonded and connected and there is a spirit of corps. When there exists a truly shared vision, which reflects people’s individual personal visions, there is also commitment. The most impor-tant fact in shaping shared vision is that it should be rooted in people’s

Table II: Peter Senge’s five disciplines of the learning organisation, modelled by Su Mi Dahlgaard-Park

Personal mastery

Systemsthinking

Team learning

Building shared vision

Mentalmodels

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character ethic, competence ethic, production/production capability balance, the law of effectiveness, awareness of mental paradigms, and the maturity of continuum.

CHARACTER ETHIC AND COMPETENCE ETHIC Some of the sub-elements of the character ethic are fair-ness, integrity, honesty, goodness, patience and industry, and these are basic principles of effective living through which people can experience true success and enduring happiness. Some of the sub-elements of the competence ethic are communication techniques, strategy, positive attitude and interpersonal techniques. The competence ethic can be called a personality ethic and it has essentially two paths. One path concerns human and PR techniques, which can be strengthened by training in communication skills and influencing strategies. The other concerns the power of positive thinking, where people can be trained to focus on the positive side in any situation. According to Covey, both character ethic and competence ethic are necessary for personal success, together with the other above-mentioned principles such as the right mental para-digms and the maturity of continuum. However, it is ar-gued by Covey that the most important success factor is the character ethic, which traditionally has been treated as the moral and value system and which has been ne-glected during the past 50 years. In other words, we need a paradigm shift.

PARADIGM SHIFT A paradigm is the way an individ-ual perceives, understands and interprets the surround-ing world. People see the world not as it actually is, but as their mental paradigms are designed. A paradigm is just like a map, and if a person has a wrong or inaccu-rate map, the route he/she follows will also be wrong. However, on many occasions people are unaware of the existence of paradigms. The more people are aware of their basic paradigms and the extent to which they have been influenced by experiences, the more people can then examine them, test them against reality, change them if necessary, and listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a wider and more ob-jective view.

THE MATURITY CONTINUUM The maturity contin-uum is a progressive movement from dependence to inde-pendence to interdependence, just like the natural process of an infant to a child and then to an adult state. In the state of interdependence, the basic paradigm is “we” – we can make things better together when we cooperate, we

can make synergy, we can combine our talents and abilities and create something greater together. Inter-

dependent people know the power of cooperation and the mechanism of creating synergy, thereby achiev-ing the greatest level of success, be-cause they are aware that life is, by nature, highly interdependent.

PRODUCTION/PRODUCTION CAPABILITY BALANCE Effective-ness is a function of two things – what is produced, and the capac-ity to produce – and effectiveness lies in the balance of those two functions. Too much focus on pro-duction without consideration of necessary investments on capabil-ity and capacity to produce will, in the long run, be destructive in the form of destroyed health, wornout machines, and broken relationships. On the other hand, too much focus

The main ingredients

The transformation process starts with the individual.

Individual paradigm shift (spiritual con-version, repentance, reorientation of one’s way of life) is the first step.

Strive to attain a profound knowledge of systems, of people and of know-ledge itself.

Practice the right actions based on the profound knowledge and wisdom.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A paradigm is just like a map, and if a person has an inaccurate map, the route he/she follows will be wrong.

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egorised in the following three categories: systems, peo-ple, and knowledge. These are not clearly separable from each other, because people are also a part of systems, and knowledge of knowlege includes also knowledge of people and knowledge of systems. From this point of view, Senge

suggested that system thinking should be the discipline that integrates other parts, and “fusing them into a coher-ent body of theory and practice”. In other words, they are interrelated to each other.

SUMMARY OF THE CONCEPTS It seems that the overall theme of the three ideas concerns transformation or change. Deming proclaimed: “Management must undergo transformation. The transformation requires profound knowledge… The first step is transformation of the indi-vidual. The transformed individual will perceive new mean-ing to his life, to events, to numbers, to interactions be-tween people.” Covey states that, in order to change a situation, “we need to change ourselves” through “work-ing on our basic paradigms”. The prerequisite for attaining personal and interpersonal effectiveness and success is a paradigm shift and thereby understanding some funda-mental principles. “The seven habits are not a set of separate or piecemeal psych-up formu-las. In harmony with natural laws of growth, they provide a sequential approach to move progressively on a maturity continuum.” It seems that all three agree that the transfor-mation is necessary, and the transformation process starts with a paradigm shift of the individual. Attaining knowl-edge will help the process of transformation. Ph

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Prof. Su Mi Dahlgaard-Park

Lunds University

Su Mi Dahlgaard-Park is cur-rently a professor at the Insti-tute of service management, Lunds University, Sweden. Her research areas have been HRM, quality management, or-ganisation theory, learning and knowledge management, and organisational change. Within these areas she has published more than 100 research pa-pers and books, of which several have been translated into a number of languages.

on production capability alone will not lead to effectiveness.

STEPS 1–3 The first three habits help people move from a dependent to an independent state. Those first three habits are primarily concerned with self-control, self-discipline and self-mastery. People who are in the state of independence recognise their responsibilities, their active roles in different situations, and they carry them out by themselves with commitment and a sense of mission.

STEPS 4–7 However, to attain an independent state is not enough, because most daily situations have a social aspect. Thus it is impor-tant to understand and practice the right interpersonal skills, such as emphatic listening and other value based behaviours, essential to build-ing a cooperative atmosphere. Based on character ethics such as loyalty, integrity, respect for others’ individ-uality etc., people can go further to work with principles required for at-taining public victory. Some neces-sary principles required for attaining public victory are the we paradigm rather than the I paradigm and the win-win paradigm rather than the win-lose paradigm. Furthermore, it is necessary to master effective skills for building teamwork, cooperation and communication. The last habit is the habit of renewal of all four di-mensions of life – physical, mental, social and spiritual – and all other habits are at the same time embod-ied into this renewal process, and so the process of growth continues.

MIXING THE INGREDIENTS Even though the three authors show differences in many aspects, it is also possible to find some common con-cepts. Those key concepts can be cat-

Interdependent people know the power of cooperation and synergy, thereby achieving great success, because they are aware that life is, by nature, highly inderdependent.

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SIMON SPROULE Director, Communications Renault Nissan alliance

Interview: Marc-Oliver Voigt

BORDER CROSSERExperiencing the unknown – PR professionals working abroad

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What would be your definition of a cosmopolitan?I think it probably is a mindset more than just having experiences. Experiences help to build that, but I have met people in my career who lived throughout the world and are still very close-minded, some-

thing I would call a compound mentality. People who go to different countries and cultures and work there but they then sort of recreate their own country and cul-ture around them. I think it is therefore not necessar-ily driven by how much people travel, but it is rather a mindset.

Would you say that you comply with that definition?I would certainly aspire to that. For me, the values of a cosmopolitan are an open-mindedness, ease and will-ingness to learn about new cultures, enjoying working with them and learning from them.

You hold a bachelor’s degree in geography from the Uni-versity of London’s renowned King’s College. Did you study geography to explore the world and therefore for what I would call cosmopolitan reasons?From a young age I was interested in travel and seeing the world. I chose a degree course that was more in my per-sonal interest than in any kind of professional aspiration at the end of it. At that time, I also had an abiding love for cars and the automotive industry. When I was about ten or eleven years old we created one of those time capsules at school where, for example, you put in a letter describing what you want to do when you have finished school. This time capsule was buried for fifteen years. I happened to get a copy of the letter back when I went to a school reun-ion. The bizarre thing was that in this letter I had said that I wanted to become a foreign correspondent. I wanted to travel and I wanted to be in the media, so where my career ended up is quite close to what I originally wanted to do.

You started your career in communications as a researcher in the internal communications unit at Ford of Europe. Mov-ing from geography to the automotive industry appears to me to be quite a large jump. How did that happen?My first break in the communications business was join-ing a television production company in London that worked for Ford of Europe. I was very young, and had no television or communications experience at all, but I had

When I was about ten or eleven years old, we created one of those time capsules at school where you put in a letter describing what you want to do when you have fin-ished school. I wanted to become a foreign correspondent, travel and be in the media, so where my career ended up is quite close to what I originally wanted to do.

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a really deep love for cars and the automotive industry. I believe that everyone in their career gets some breaks where you are at the right place at the right time and con-nect with somebody who opens a door for you. There was no scientific or academic reason why I got the job. It was just about luck.

After you joined Ford, you stayed with the company and its brands such as Aston Martin for a total of eleven years. This is an unusually long period for a communications pro-fessional today. What made Ford so attractive to you for such a long time?I was lucky enough to have a series of positions where each job was different and stretched me enough that it almost felt like a new company.

Is communicating an Aston Martin so different to commu-nicating a cheap Ford Fiesta? Yes and no. It is the same principle. You have got a prod-uct, you have got a series of attributes and you have an audience where you have to figure out how to make them understand your message. From that point of view, there is not a lot difference. But throughout the eleven years of my career at Ford, each job change was also a differ-ent management challenge. I was lucky to pick up dif-ferent sets of experiences and also different management

responsibilities along the way, managing a small team, then a region, and so on. The jobs were all different and kept me very engaged. Those eleven years just absolutely sped by. Ford was a terrific training ground.

And in 2003 you’d had enough of training; was that your reason for joining Nissan? The Nissan jump was interesting. It was in part driven by the fact that I had reached a point where the next job at Ford was unclear. It was not that I stopped learning at Ford, but I had reached the point where you naturally look for the next challenge. I then completely unexpect-edly got approached by Nissan.

How much influence do the diverse roots of companies have on their communications styles in general?They have a lot of influence. It al-ways depends on how the head of-fice manages, whether it has a top down centralised approach or has a decentralised approach. If it is very decentralised, the local market will often be in the driving seat and the local communications will be more attuned to the local market needs. If it has a very centralised approach, the local communica-tions will often be a little less lo-cally attuned but will, on the other hand, have much greater consist-ency globally. I tend to think that this model is now more relevant because of the way in which the world is connected.

How would you describe Nissan’s way of communicating when you joined the company seven years ago? Has it changed since then?I would hope so. I think in the early days of the alliance Nissan’s communication was more typically Japanese in that it tended to be very defensive and reactive, not proac-tive. It also tended to focus first on the needs of the Japanese media and only secondly on the foreign media. That is still typical for a lot of Japanese companies today. For Nissan, I would say that today it is far more open and proactive.

In 2004, you became Nissan’s cor-porate vice president global com-munications and started to work for the company in Tokyo. How quickly did you adapt to the new environ-ment?It was the single most challenging appointment in my career up un-til today. That was due to several factors. One is that I was head of

It was the single most challenging appointment in my ca-reer up until today. It was certainly in my mind that I would like to run the communications for an entire company, but I didn’t expect it to happen at that time and to be in Japan.

The second challenge was moving to Japan and adjusting to the life there. I was definitely apprehensive about it all.

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communications for a global com-pany. It was certainly in my mind that I would like to run the com-munications for an entire company but I didn’t expect it to happen at that time and to be in Japan. The second challenge was moving to Japan and adjusting to life there. I was definitely apprehensive and aware of the spotlight I was under and the expectations the company had of me.

Did you only work with Japanese staff or did you lead an international team?Globally, Nissan employed some-thing in the order of 250 communi-cations experts, which is relatively small given the size of the com-pany and its revenue. In the head office, there were about 70 people, of which 90 per cent were Japanese. The global team was of course in-ternational.

Is there something like a unique Jap-anese management style?I would say so. Hierarchy and con-sensus are important. Taking those elements alone you have a proc-ess that operates in many Japanese companies.

Can a company be successfully run in a consensus style?Some companies can do it, some can’t. In the end there certainly has to be leadership. That obvi-ously was something that Carlos Ghosn brought to Nissan. He has a very clear sense of leadership and direction. But day to day there is definitely a bias towards consen-sus building. That could be a little frustrating at times, because I came from the US where I was used to a more American style which was much faster in terms of decision

making. I was used to a little more of the 80/20 rule: “We have 80 per cent of the facts, let’s go for it.” On the flipside though, I have never seen execution so good as I have seen it in Japan. Once the plan was agreed and the strategy was decided upon, the execution was almost always excellent.

For those who are not familiar with the Japanese culture, can you tell us some important rules to follow?Firstly, don’t necessarily trust the people who speak good English. This is one of the lessons many foreigners learn in Japan. When they arrive they tend to gravitate towards the locals who speak good English but very often you get sent down completely the wrong track. You really need – even through an interpreter – to hear all voices. The sec-ond rule is that one has to be aware of the cultural dynam-ics of the country one is going to. Japan is not Asia, it is

Japan. I have been lucky to have travelled across almost all Asian countries, and it is like with Europe. If you are a Brit you will fiercely say that you are nothing like the French or the Germans. The Germans will say that they are nothing like the Austrians; the Italians will say they are nothing like the Spanish. People tend to say Asia and put all those countries together but for the Japanese, Japan is Japan. So when you go there and you are doing business there, you need to understand the culture of the country to set the context for doing business.

Until 2009, your career seemed to follow a steady path upwards. Last year, for the very first time, you changed industries and became software giant Microsoft’s head of communications. What made you change?It was at the same point I had reached in my career at Ford. I was unsure of what would come next. In this mo-ment it happened that I was approached by Microsoft. It was a long process of discussion before I decided to make the move. Microsoft is a hugely attractive com-pany and has an enormously deep understanding for communications.

If you are a Brit, you will fiercely say that you are noth-ing like the French or the Germans. The Germans will say that they are nothing like the Austrians, the Italians will say they are nothing like the Spanish. People tend to say ‘Asia’ and put all those countries together, but for the Japanese, Japan is Japan.

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But you left Microsoft after some months. What were your reasons for taking this unexpected step?It certainly came as a surprise to Microsoft! I have basi-cally worked for two companies in my life and so to leave after six months was obviously unusual. However, I got to a point working for Microsoft where I realised that in fact, I was really still looking for another challenge in the automotive industry and was fortunate that new op-portunity came with the Renault Nissan alliance.

You were then appointed director and head of communi-cations for Renault Nissan alliance based in Paris. Please explain to me what responsibilities this position includes. Are you in charge of the communications activities for both Renault and Nissan at the same time? The alliance was formed ten years ago when Renault took a stake in Nissan, and Nissan took a stake in Re-nault. The alliance exists as a small team of individuals

who are focused on enabling the two companies two work together. Primarily, that is in the operational areas such as manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain. Carlos Ghosn is the chairman and CEO of the alli-ance as well as being the head of Renault and Nissan. My role covers topics such as merger and acquisition activities, major new projects, and getting involved in synergies between the two companies. So my role is less operational than it was in my previous positions and more strategic. A lot of my responsibilities also have to do with the communications for Carlos Ghosn as the head of the alliance.

The alliance between the French car manufacturer Renault and the Japanese automotive company Nissan was formed in 1999. Can you very briefly explain why this construct was created?Nissan as a company had been struggling for a number of years. By 1999, it was on the path to bankruptcy, having a product line and business model which were, frankly speaking, not sustainable. At that time, the Nissan management very pragmatically said that they

needed a partner and would not be able to survive on their own. They were talking to Daimler, to Ford and a number of companies. The company that made it work for them was Renault. Renault ap-proached them with the proposal that they would take a stake in Nissan’s business and give Nissan a stake in theirs, which was an offer different to the traditional merger or takeover which had always been the model in the automotive indus-try. This was quite extraordinary, as each company retained its own board of directors, its own listing on respective stock exchanges, its own strong brand identities. That was why it worked and still works after ten years. If you look at all the other car industry’s mergers and partnerships, you’ll see that they all failed.

Has forming the alliance been com-pletely finished or is this kind of a constant process?It is very much an ongoing process. The industry is constantly chang-ing. There are always new chal-lenges for the alliance. We are now doing things in Russia and India which would probably have been impossible to do for each company on its own. As an alliance, we are able to pursue those projects. The other major example for the al-liance is taking on a new role in electric vehicles. The Renault Nis-san alliance has set out to become the leader in the mass marketing of electric cars. Across the alliance we now have seven electric vehicles coming into the market in the next three or four years.

At first glance, cooperation between a French and a Japanese company seemed to be a very risky step. But

Nissan as a company had been struggling for a number of years. By 1999, Nissan was on the path to bankruptcy,

having a product line and business model which were, frank-ly speaking, not sustainable. At that time, the management

very pragmatically said that Nissan needed a partner.

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munications has its own style and the same applies to Nissan. Fusion sometimes is a word that could imply a bland mix that doesn’t really amount to anything. So part of my job is to add a unique third flavour, which is not Renault and not Nissan, but the alliance.

During the past 18 months the automotive industry has been particularly struck by the continuing global economic and financial crisis. Did the fact that two large car makers act as allies prove to be an advantage during the turmoil?Absolutely, and I think that it is still an advantage. The al-liance was a real strength. Take the field of product devel-opment as an example. Even in a crisis you need to pour a lot of money into new prod-ucts. Without the alliance to share those costs, to cre-ate synergies and avoid un-necessary costs, both com-panies would have struggled even further.

Please take on the role of a soothsayer for us: will 2010 be a better year for your in-dustry?That depends on the mar-kets. In Europe it won’t be better, it will be worse. In America it will be slightly better. For Japan, we hope for a slowing of the decline. In the rest of the world it will be a mixed picture: in some countries it will get slightly better, in others it will not change at all or get worse.

One last prediction, please: will we still see you commu-nicating cars of any kind in twenty years from now?In some form, yes, I hope so. I certainly don’t know what I will be doing, but one thing 2009 proved was that I do have gasoline in my veins.

Simon Sproule

Director, Communications Renault Nissan Alliance

Simon Sproule has been Re-nault Nissan alliance’s direc-tor, communications since September 2009. He joined the alliance after a brief stint as corporate vice president corporate communications for Microsoft. Previously, from 2004 to 2009, Sproule was corporate vice president global communications for Japanese car manufacturer Nissan. Prior to joining Nissan, he held a variety of positions with Ford, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover in both North America and Europe. In 2004, he was recognised by the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit as one of their four Young Lead-ers of the Year. Sproule holds a bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of London’s King’s College. From August 2001, Sproule served as the vice president, communica-tions and corporate affairs for Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover North America.

French corporate culture is suppos-edly very hierarchical, and so is, as you described earlier, the Japanese. Did these kinds of similarities per-haps facilitate the creation of the alliance?There were a couple of factors. One was that Nissan was really getting to the end of its survival on its own.

So there was a certain need for Nis-san to do something. When you are really hungry, you act in a differ-ent way. So there was some kind of survival mentality which was very strong inside the company. Second-ly, I think that Renault very cleverly managed the partnership. Renault did not come in with thousands of people and try to make Nissan another version of Renault. It put people in who were smart enough to understand what made Nissan special. But they were also smart enough to be able to offer good things that Renault had in terms of processes and management tools that Nissan could use to make itself more successful.

It is apt that you use the word “hun-gry”. In professional cooking, peo-ple call the combination of western and Asian ingredients fusion cuisine. Could Renault Nissan alliance’s com-munications style therefore be called a style of fusion communications?As far as the communication is concerned I would say yes. In my role, I definitely take from the best of both. Renault for its own com-Ph

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Fusion sometimes is a word that could imply a bland mix that doesn’t really take to anything. So part of my job is to add a unique third flavour, which is not Renault

and not Nissan, but the alliance.

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STORY TELLERLooking at the important questions of communication

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“Getting plugged in to social media” by Richard Morgan and Dafydd Phillipspage 54 - 57

“The future’s bright” by Jürgen Zimmermannpage 60 - 63

“Ten PR commandments of Web 2.0 networking” by Meg Pickard page 64 - 67

“Best foot forward” by Ian McNairnpage 70 - 73

“Power to the people” by Elliot S. Schreiber page 74 - 77

“Extreme opinions: now in real-time” by Geert Lovinkpage 78 - 81

“Digital revolution takes hold in Russia” by Marat Rakaevpage 82 - 85

“Time to collaborate” by Michael S. Salonepage 86 - 89

THE SOCIAL MEDIA BALL

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Make 2010 the year your communications take advantage of the growing range of Web 2.0 tools. But remember that a clear strategy will help you avoid the perils and pitfalls of this brave new world.

by Richard Morgan and Dafydd Phillips

GETTING PLUGGED IN TO SOCIAL MEDIA

S ocial media seems to have become as ubiq-uitous as the air we breathe. Wherever we are in the world, whatever time it is, we are connected to the ever-expanding online highway of information – and it seems that there are no exit routes. Web 2.0 is here to

stay (that is, at least until Web 3.0 comes along). But in addition to intruding upon our personal lives, the rise of digital media has far reaching implications not only for the application of public relations but for its very defini-tion. The discipline is rapidly changing, and it will never be the same again. This raises a series of new challenges for today’s communicators, many of whom have been forced to jump straight in and deal with new technologies with which they are unfamiliar, or have had no professional

training. Fortunately, though, despite this strange new world of tweeting, blogs and 24 hours a day, seven days a week real-time stakeholder interaction, there are still a number of tried and trusted techniques that communica-tions teams can apply to aid their chances of success in the digital domain.

NEW AND IMPROVED? Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of social media is not the new direction it promises to take professional communicators, but rather that it seems to have reaffirmed the necessity to persevere with certain pre-

viously established communications techniques. Because it seems that the classic models of communica-tions theory still apply, albeit slightly reconfigured to fit a set of newer, flashier tools.

Thomas Pleil, professor of public relations at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and author of the Das Textdepot blog, believes that “a lot of aspects that have shown up in earlier theoretical discussions now get practical relevance.” Pleil cites PR as relationship management as an example of an established paradigm having new life breathed into it by social media. Jody Koehler, founder of Dutch social media consultancy Coopr, agrees that social media has in effect put PR back in touch with “the real definition of our discipline. PR has always been about practicing the management of relationships be-tween an organisation and its stake-holders. Somehow, along the way, we became just spokespersons to journalists. The new media has given us new tools and new audiences, and I’m very thankful for that.”

IT’S ALL ABOUT CONTROL With the increased stakeholder power social media offers, though,

Social media seems to have reaff irmed the neces-sity to persevere with certain previously established communications techniques.

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comes a new challenge for communicators – that of hav-ing to cope with a lesser degree of control over the online flow of information about them and their products. Cli-ents, customers and commentators have always been able to express their opinions on corporations, but sites like Twitter and Facebook have now provided a way for these thoughts to be broadcast across the globe in seconds. The potential audience for these comments is huge, and, most worryingly for communicators, there is nothing that can be done about it. As a result, reactive communications are becoming more commonplace, with firms seeking to limit the damage caused by irate posters. This lack of control has forced communicators to turn a problem on its head and look at it from a different angle. As Thomas Pleil points out, “most organisations listen to conversations like these and have strengthened their issues monitoring. This helps to find trends, new ideas, and expectations of the stakeholders but also critical statements.” Engaging stake-holders who are already talking about your company and disseminating information may help to strengthen your reputation, a situation that only occurs with the openness necessary to allow stakeholders to communicate.

REACTING TO COMMENTS The thorny issue of neg-ative commentary is one of the most difficult challenges for communicators. The anonymity of Web 2.0 has cre-ated an age of constant criticism, much of it libellous were it to appear in print. However, the nature of the internet means that these kinds of comments cannot be policed, and companies must choose how to deal with them, if at all. When it comes to measuring the importance of a crit-icism, a measuring scale must be applied: not all blogs are created equal, and not every critical comment is an imme-diate threat to the organisation’s reputation and therefore deserving of a response. In some cases, no reaction may be the wisest choice to avoid further bad publicity.

On the other hand, some cases demand a speedy re-sponse, not only in order to prove that you are truly listen-ing but also to prevent the dissemination of misinforma-tion via the spider’s web of social media. Internet rumour mongers are not normally concerned with whether or not they are posting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and many people simply forward on unveri-fied news. A response from the company can help stem the deluge. As Jody Koehler puts it: “Don’t wait until it’s too late! Companies must learn to make the shift from reactive to active engagement online.” The next challenge is to get the tone of your dialogue right – no one wants to appear defensive or desperate. To facilitate this, Tho-

mas Pleil believes that organisations need to “have enough managers with social media training knowing how to react to be accepted within the community.”

OUT WITH THE OLD? The general perception of social media as a young person’s plaything raises the question of whether it is harder for senior communications profes-sionals to engage with and adapt to the new medium: wouldn’t it simply

Some tips on using Twitter for business

Use Twitter Search to find out who’s talking about you and your competi-tors, and relevant issues.

Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted, is a great way to build a community.

But you don’t have to read every tweet directed at you, or respond to each one.

Used correctly, Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you actively search for it, and/or if you follow the right people).

Point out interesting and relevent news/articles/polls, etc., that you come across in your daily work, and not just about you.

Rather than answer the question of “what’s happening?”, answer “what has your attention right now?”

Ask questions, not only on your work but on the issues of the day. Twitter is an instantaneous and unfiltered opin-ion poll.

Twitter is a great place to look out for breaking news, often better than other sources (particularly when users are directly affected).

TWITTER & YOU

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be easier for companies to hire peo-ple who are more comfortable in this new world, thus forcing out not only older professionals but also older methods of communication? Pleil disagrees. “In my opinion,” he says, “they should team up and bring to-gether their knowledge and experi-ence.” Jean-Paul Chapon, who is re-sponsible for coordinating telecoms firm Alcatel-Lucent’s internet and intranet, credits the arrival of new CEO Ben Verwaayan with helping

to open up the company’s intranet and communications to the possibilities of Web 2.0. However, he stresses that “age is not the critical factor. It is more a question of state of mind than a question of being familiar with new tech-nologies.” As always, external realities determine the pace of technological adaptation: Mario Sundar, who is respon-sible for social media programmes at LinkedIn, suggests that although the average age of LinkedIn users is 43, “professionals across different age groups increasingly find LinkedIn a resource in these tough economic times.” Jody Koehler agrees that the rise of social media does not neces-sarily entail an overturning of the old guard, and installing young blood at the top of an organisation, whether a new CEO or younger managers, is not a prerequisite for im-plementing social media programmes. “Social media has nothing to do with age,” he says. “People who can adjust and have the capability of listening, sharing and learning will succeed.” On an internal level, what is important is an openness to redefine the rules of employee engagement, or, as Chapon puts it, “it requires a complete change in the way employees are allowed to participate and express themselves openly.” Web 2.0, then, is as much a cultural change as a question of adapting to a new strategy, a new way to consider hierarchies and the role and responsibility of each employee, necessitating a fundamental change in how a company interacts and communicates.

By enabling users to actively research companies and potential employers (and effectively turning the tables, allowing employers to check for references of potential employees), LinkedIn is a fine example of how social media can reconfigure established corporate hierarchical norms. As Mario Sundar explains: “LinkedIn has ena-bled transparency in employee-employer relationships by surfacing (company) information in the right context to their networks.” This in turn helps companies build their employer brand; accrding to Sundar, “Nearly 80 per cent of HR executives surveyed on LinkedIn recently were of the opinion that the primary way to build employer brand was through employees who update their status on social media forums and networking sites like LinkedIn, Face-book and Twitter. I believe this is a trend that will gain mainstream acceptance as social technologies like Linke-

Smart social media strategies

Given the difficult financial circumstances that we all find ourselves in these days, social media is a boon, especially for small-er companies who can find innovative ways to compensate for slashed budgets. For example, Kogi BBQ, a mobile Korean food company based in Los Angeles, has built up an impressive 50,000 follower base on Twitter by tweeting the location of its trucks as they carry out their de-liveries throughout the working day. This is a great example of taking something mundane about your business, and trans-forming it into an asset that starts conver-sations. A mobile food truck does not on the surface appear to be a riveting phe-nomenom, but a mobile food truck that tweets its way through the streets of LA gets people talking, and, as a pleasant plus, it boosts sales. Another nice example is The Best of Us Challenge, set up by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It’s proving to be a very successful way for the IOC to engage young people in the digital space, using the wildly popu-lar online video platform YouTube. It is a fun and colourful initiative that offers the opportunity to compete against world famous athletes by responding to their short videos displaying a particular sport-ing skill with ones of your own. A sense of engagement, accessibility and owner-ship of the experience is engendered, all key words for the Web 2.0 experience. We would like to thank Jody Koehler for pointing out these examples to us.

INNOVATORS

The challenge for organisations is to have enough man-agers with social media training knowing how to react to be accepted within the community.

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dIn and Twitter get adopted at a far more rapid pace over the next few years.”

CUTTING THROUGH THE CACOPHONY The sheer amount of content produced with social media is huge. The hive of activity can at times sound like an overwhelming din, especially to the novice. This tsunami of tweets, com-ments and blog posts must somehow be surfed, and your message needs to keep its head above water to be heard. Taking the initiative is the key to sinking or swimming. “Get involved,” recommends Jody Koehler, “and start building your relationships by being an influencer your-self.” Interacting with online conversations is your best bet for adding valuable substance rather than misinformed hot air, and the value you bring should ensure that you do not come across as defensive. This is particularly important when dealing with criticism: responding to angry stake-holders takes a great deal of skill, care, time and resources. Giving an answer to everyone is nigh on impossible, so some choices of who to respond to – and how – have to be made. What is vital is that your message is heard loud and clear, because once someone’s thoughts are online, they are not going to go away. Some see this as a positive step in giving consumers power; communicators must see it as another challenge.

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT Being fully engaged and ac-tive in social media does not just mean opening a Twitter account and telling your stakeholders that you have a new product out on the market. It requires a company to build lasting relationships with stakeholders, which can only re-ally happen if something of value is brought to the table. As an example of a viable active strategy, Thomas Pleil suggests taking “the role of a curator to help stakeholders to navigate through a specific field having also strategic relevance for the organisation. A strategy like this could also be useful in earning online reputation and is a compo-nent of crisis prevention.”

Recently, we have seen a number of crises that have been broken by the public rather than the es-tablished news media or the companies involved, thus placing companies in a reactive position. A memorable example of this occurred in January 2009, when a US Airways passenger jet was forced to land on the Hudson river. Eyewitnesses were the first to break the news with video and photos uploaded to Twitter, and the story went viral within minutes. It was then down to US Airways, and the news media, to react and take over the progression of the story. The headline in the UK’s Daily

Telegraph summed it up: New York Plane Crash: Twitter Breaks the News, Again. Social media, work-

ing almost in real time, has meant that crisis communicators no longer have a few hours to formulate a press

Getting it wrong is easier than you think

It can be very easy to get started with so-cial media. But opening a Twitter account does not immediately make you a Web 2.0 innovator, and using that account ex-clusively to market your products is even worse. There are definite ways of mis-handling social media tools, some more apparent than others, and even in these early days of experimentation, numerous companies have been criticised for their Web 2.0 tactics. Some have sneakily pro-moted their products on Twitter by using popular, although unrelated, hashtags to expose their tweets to more users, and in the process coming across like a de-mented spammer. Others reward blog-gers to promote their products, a con-troverisal though not illegal new develop-ment. Some companies have even taken to producing flogs (fake blogs) whereby an employee pretends to be a member of the public who just happens to love the company in question. Savvy Web 2.0 users tend to sniff out these underhand practices rather quickly, resulting in an instant public shaming of the companies concerned (whether this directly affects sales, though, is another matter). Finally, there are companies who don’t endeav-our to deceive the public with their digital communications – they are only guilty of being clueless. Not replying to online criti-cisms, replying too much, wasting time on pointless campaigns, spamming custom-ers... the list is almost endless. Adapting to Web 2.0 can be a tough learning curve.

HOW NOT TO DO IT

The reality of the situation means that, for the moment, the bulk of a firm’s social media work will be purely reactive.

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release, or to consider what they are going to do in reaction to a devastat-ing event. Thinking on your feet is the new name of the game.

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC ARENAS It is undeniable that the lack of

defined borders in social media can cause concern: how can issues of trust and discretion be reconciled with the freedom and anonymity of the web? Social media seems to threaten the closely guarded border between in-ternal messages and information meant for the public arena.

The best solution is to start with an internal dialogue to raise aware-ness of these issues. Ask questions. How does the company propose that the social media tools be used? What will they share with others? Will there be boundaries, and if so, where are they? Social media poli-cies can, according to Jody Koehler, “vary from 25 pages full of lawyer stuff to yellow post-its saying ‘use your common sense.’ ” The first Web 2.0 application to be put in place at Alcatel-Lucent was the opening of employee comments on the firm’s intranet system. According to Jean-Paul Chapon, this was the result of soul searching over the extent of moderation and anonymity. “We chose not to moderate comments before publication and we also chose not to publish them anonymously,” he says. “For us, evolving towards Web 2.0 means empowering employees by giving them responsibility, which requires reciprocal trust and respect between all employees, regardless of their hierarchical relationship.” Mario Sundar agrees that “every company should incorporate a social media policy to help educate their employees on best practices since it concerns the professional brand of the folks who work for them.”

STATE OF ACCEPTANCE – EUROPE VS THE US The social media situation seems to differ slightly across the world. American companies are said to have naturally adopted Web 2.0 far quicker than their colleagues across the Atlantic, who are struggling to come to terms with it.

For his part, Jody Koehler considers that, in comparison with the US, “the European corporate world is still one or two years behind,” when it comes to the state of accept-ance and integration of social media within the corporate world. “European companies have to get more involved in the online space,” he says. “Most of them have a presence within social media, but not actively. Having a Twitter account isn’t a strategy. It’s still a bit of window-dressing in that regard.” A recent study of MEPs (members of the European Parliament) found that many were apprehen-sive of social media. A significant proportion were wor-ried that once they started an online debate, there would be no way to stop it, should things get out of hand. This is in sharp contrast to the pioneering use of social me-dia throughout the Barack Obama US presidential cam-paign. It is clear that fully integrating social media can be advantageous, then, but it remains to be seen when the majority of European companies will get on board – or if they ever will, even though it seems like they may get left behind if they do not.

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME It is important to remember that although the medium may be constantly changing, the message stays the same. Communicators still have the same job as when all they had was a press re-lease, an address book and a telephone. A healthy amount of cynicism towards the wilder claims made on behalf of social media tools remains (social media releases, any-one?) although this should not be a deterrent to experi-mentation and innovation. Creating a sense of commu-nity, generating buy-in for the work your company strives to achieve, has a very real value in the offline world, and the benefits of enabling your messages to interact with a diverse and active audience far outweigh the occasional misfire. Aligned with a coherent strategy and a clear mes-sage, there should be no limits to the reach that social media tools will bring to your communications.

American companies are said to have naturally adopted Web 2.0 far quicker than their colleagues across the Atlan-tic, who are struggling to come to terms with it.

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Getting the most out of the 1.7 million users of software development and consulting firm SAP’s Web 2.0 community network is a large-scale challenge.

by Jürgen Zimmermann

THE FUTURE’S BRIGHT

W eb 2.0 has taken the com-munications and market-ing industries by storm. At the heart of this revo-lution lies social media. Expectations for the new

forms of internet-based communication, including blogs, microblogs, and social networking, are high – but are they realistic?

USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO RETRIEVE AND EX-CHANGE KNOWLEDGE New forms of social media have proven particularly invaluable when it comes to shar-ing knowledge. Experts can quickly get in touch with one another and discuss their specialist areas. Regardless of where they are based, where they work, or when – the new tools make it easier than ever to find the right contacts.

The SAP Community Network (SCN) is a perfect ex-ample of just how successful this approach can be. This entirely virtual community was founded by SAP around five years ago to foster the exchange between experts at SAP, customers, partners, and other interested parties. Using various forms of social media, the experts help each other with technology topics and problems, irrespective of where they live or work.

More than 1.7 million people are now registered SCN members (scn.sap.com). Some actively transfer their knowledge online on a daily basis, while others log on to benefit from the shared expertise. A wide variety of so-cial media tools are used for this virtual exchange: teams work together in wikis to develop solutions to problems and controversial topics are discussed in forums. More than 6,000 new entries every day in around 2,000 discus-sion forums and approximately 500 blog entries a month ensure a continuous flow of new information. The latest developments include an online job site and integrated LinkedIn profiles.

The success of the social media-en-abled exchange lies in the fact that it benefits everyone. Members search-ing for answers find them quickly and experts make a name for themselves, gaining recognition that transcends organisational and national borders and often boosts their careers. Last but not least, it also enables SAP to raise its global profile and profit from new insights and suggestions for im-provements made by experts outside

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the company.These tools are also used internally at SAP – after all, the great-est asset of a software company is its intellectual capital, the knowledge of its employees. All 48,000 employees (half of whom are based in Europe, a quarter in Asia, and a quarter in north and south America) have access to a computer and the company’s intranet. While many different solutions are used here, networking tools and wikis are without doubt the most impor-tant, as well as a growing number of internal blogs and community spaces. The most frequently deployed Web 2.0 tool at SAP is the wiki. Using a centralised platform, individuals or small teams can use part of a wiki to document their collaboration. It is precisely the ease with which it is pos-sible to publish on a website that has seen wikis become the de facto stand-ard for documenting project work. With no need for any special training

or extensive lead times, teams around the world can work on the same documents. Similarly, networking tools that help identify the right contacts for a particular topic are practi-cally indispensable to a global company. It is often the case that information has not been documented, or that simply knowing the right person to ask leads to much faster results. In such cases, a kind of internal Yellow Pages, something SAP has had for many years and continues to enhance, can help. Like Facebook, it contains the names and contact details of employees, but also includes entries about their particular responsibilities, areas of expertise, and fields of interest. The SAP People tool combines existing data from the HR system (such as telephone numbers) with informa-tion entered by the employees themselves (for example, Java expertise). The system also displays the employee in relation to his or her colleagues and manager. The result is an in-valuable tool that allows employees to find the right contact wherever they may be based in the world.

What has this got to do with corporate communications? Knowledge management is not a key topic you would gen-erally associate with this area. Although we can debate whether this should or should not be the case in the fu-ture, one direct connection is clear: when it comes to com-munication between experts on a large scale, it is not just

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knowledge that is exchanged, but opinions too – opinions not only on technical issues, but also regarding strategy, decisions, and the organisation of a company. In this con-text, employees become representatives of their companies, spreading both positive and negative messages.

USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO EXPRESS OPINIONS Many PR employees are concerned about their colleagues publishing their opinions in forums that can easily be ac-cessed by external parties, as is the case with SCN. What if an employee says something that does not toe the party line? Or worse still, something for which the company could be sued? We cannot deny that this risk is real. The only comfort to the anxious employees in communications is that their counterparts in the legal department are probably sleeping even less soundly. To help clarify what is acceptable and what is not, SAP published a set of guidelines for employees and communities. Like many other companies, SAP created the guidelines for its employees and also published them ex-ternally. In the four years since SCN was founded, this has always proven successful. Trust is therefore both essential and justified in this case.Nevertheless, the advantages of the new media significantly outweigh the risks if you consider how employee communications benefits from the improved exchange. The new tools make it possible to quickly deter-mine the general opinion and mood of the employees and give a voice to individuals who would not normally be heard in a large multinational company such as SAP. For the exec-utive management of a modern company with virtual teams, this presents a very effective tool to recognise – and promote

or oppose – trends. In this respect, it is essential to offer the right mix of models that allow participants to ex-press their views both anonymously and using their names.

One good example of this is the Point of View platform that SAP published to capture the mood when the new CEO came into office in June 2009 and new corporate values were introduced in the weeks that followed. In a central discussion fo-rum in the SAP intranet, to which all SAP employees have access, on his first day, new CEO Léo Apotheker published his vision for the company along with the values he considered important, and asked employees to discuss these issues on this platform. Within just a few days, more than 10,000 employees had visited the site and a lively discussion about the values had begun. Many of the com-ments were thoroughly critical, but nevertheless generally constructive. With around 130 longer comments, posted from all corners of the world, it was neither possible nor intended for the CEO to reply to each one. In a few cases, Apotheker did respond himself, but in the main, the dis-cussion focused on the views of the employees. They also had the option to rate every submitted comment anonymously on a scale of one to five, something which proved very useful in allowing general trends among the employees to be identified.

The next, and very important, step was to ensure that the valuable points gleaned from this discussion were not consigned to the realm of social media. Managers and communica-tions employees used the forum and the employees’ anonymous evalu-ations of the comments to identify key issues and follow them up using more traditional forms of employee communications. As a result, for ex-

As part of her thesis, Julia Friedl, a student at the University of Locarno, asked SAP employees under 30 years old (“digital na-tives”) based around the world about their preferences when it comes to social media at work. The results empirically showed that the younger generation also sees social media as a com-plementary offering to – and not a replacement of – traditional forms of media: the participants in the survey clearly preferred traditional forms of communication such as email or meetings to communicate strategies, company news, or customer prob-lems. In contrast, when it comes to exchanging knowledge or expressing personal opinions, discussion forums, blogs, and net-working tools topped the list. Another – and particularly inter-esting – finding of the survey was that there were no significant differences in the way employees from different countries used social media.

HOW DOES GENERATION Y USE SOCIAL MEDIA AT WORK?

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vides us with as many opportunities as pitfalls. While we are constantly bombarded by new tools, new options, and new experiences in our day-to-day lives, at the same time, long-term changes are taking place that call for a strategic approach from corporate communications:

1. Blurred lines: the introduction of social media has re-sulted in an increased blurring of the lines between differ-ent target groups (internal/external, media/public, and so on). The different groups use the new tools to talk to one another. At the same time, the borders between exchang-ing only knowledge and actually expressing an opinion are also blurring, since more real-time communication is now possible online. Corporate communications therefore must take a holistic approach: it is no longer realistic to as-sume that a message communicated to a particular target audience will not be passed on to others. Topics must be planned and communicated in such a way that they are suitable and relevant to all target groups.2. Managing, not monitoring, topics: the sheer volume of communication and the blurring of boundaries mean that it is no longer possible to monitor messages. While it has long since been the case that there is not one company spokesperson, but several, it has taken the advent of social media to make this clear. Every employee essentially speaks for – or against – his or her company. Social media simply makes it easier for any one person to reach an audience of thousands. Corporate com-munications must recognise this and use aids and man-agement measures to help take full advantage of these trends.3. Speed matters: There are numerous examples of how social media can facilitate a crisis over the course of one weekend. The networked world, the ease with which opinions can be published, and the intense competition in the media industry mean that companies must react quickly. Corporate commu-nications can help in this re-spect by training employees on how to use these media.

ample, the most controversial points raised in the Point of View discussion were included on the agenda at the next employee meeting and the most outspoken advocates and opponents of the ideas discussed were invited to take part in an open dialogue that was then printed in the employee maga-zine. By taking this approach, the communications department was able to close the loop and take a vital step towards a true culture of openness and dialogue. This example clearly shows that social media plays a very signifi-cant role in internal communications, especially in global companies, since it facilitates an exchange between employees across cultures, locations, and time zones. Social media is how-ever, only effective if used in addition to existing communication channels. It can never replace the more personal forms of contact, but does offer an invaluable opportunity to extend the conversation in the virtual, as well as facilitate conversations that would be impossible in the physical world.

WHAT EFFECT DOES THIS HAVE ON CORPORATE COM-MUNICATIONS? Social media pro-

Jürgen Zimmermann

Vice President, Corporate Media, SAP Global Communications

Jürgen Zimmermann is re-sponsible for the corporate media department at SAP, including consumer media, in-ternal media, the intranet and the internet. He has been with SAP since 1998, and has held a variety of positions both in corporate communications and related fields. Before join-ing SAP, he was responsible for online PR at Allianz.

Taking the industry by storm

New forms of social media are prov-ing invaluable when it comes to sharing knowledge.

Online tools come with risks, however, such as the possibility for employees to get their own firm into trouble.

Nevertheless, Web 2.0 is ideal for get-ting employees talking with the bosses.

All this requires a strategic approach from corporate communicators.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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Use of the internet as a means of connecting with stakeholders is increasingly popular. Making contact is easy – but so is getting it all wrong. Here are ten steps communicators can take to make sure that their forays into the online world are as hassle-free as possible.

by Meg Pickard

TEN PR COMMANDMENTS OF WEB 2.0 NETWORKING

alised it wasn’t a productive or even necessarily healthy way to spend my time. I even used a fake name. But I kept doing it, all the same. Gradu-ally, through the internet, I became aware that there was a small but dedicated community of like-mind-ed addicts, just like me, distributed across the UK and across the world. We met up occasionally in pubs and felt reassured that we weren’t as weird as everyone else thought. In

I have a confession to make. For the past ten years, I’ve been engaging in something weird and highly addictive that has changed my life completely. I started doing it late at night in the privacy of my bedroom in a shared flat in north London, but the habit quickly escalated

to encroach on breaks and lunchtimes at work. Soon, it was always on my mind. If I wasn’t doing it, I was think-ing about it, and when I couldn’t do it because I was on the bus or out with friends, I would find myself think-ing about doing it later. I learnt not to reveal my habit in public, because there was social stigma attached to it. I re-

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fact, we dared to think that what we were doing might actually be excit-ing. Over the years, things changed. More people started doing it. Some people got together because of it. A few lost their jobs because of it. But it gradually lost its weirdness and risky oddball reputation. In fact, only a few years after I started do-ing it, I found myself talking about the activity in a meeting at work. It felt strange to reveal that I’d actually been doing it for years by that point, but there was no getting away from the fact: I was – and am – a blogger.

TRANSFORMATION As a direct result of ten years of blogging, I’ve made friends; developed an interest-ing network of contacts; discovered new people and ideas and sites and experiences and media; and watched as something weird and geeky has become mainstream.

Blogging used to be a peripheral personal web activity – something you’d never tell people – but as the internet has become an important (dominant, even?) part of everyday life, blogging has developed from

being a personal narrative towards being an important way to communicate with the world (wide web). So now blogging is old hat and normal, and Twitter is the next big thing, along with social networking sites and platforms like Facebook. But they’re not that new, really. Or rather, the sites may be, but the central ideas, behaviours, user experiences, habits and patterns of adoption are the same. It’s all about individuals finding ways to communicate.

There are striking similarities in the development and experiences in the early days of micropublishing, social networking and blogging. At the start, they all looked

weird, niche, useless and unnecessarily revealing about the individual; but slowly at first, then quickly, they gained attention and acceptance and piled on users, until we got to a stage where people who don’t use them are considered odd.

Gartner’s famous Hype Cycle depicts visibility over time: after an early technology trigger, visibility shoots up to what Gartner call the “peak of inflated expecta-tions” before dropping swiftly into the “trough of disillu-sionment”. Then there’s a long, slow, steady climb out via gradual enlightenment, before a product reaches a plateau of productivity. I think the experiences of companies and brands using channels like Twitter and blogs shows that

It’s absolutely right that businesses should be using web channels to communicate with online users.

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there should probably be another landmark on Gartner’s Curve graph – the pothole of corporate cluelessness, or the swamp of misguided good intentions.

It’s absolutely right that businesses should be using web channels to communicate with online users. It makes to-tal sense to go where the customer is – and the more genuine and human that communication is, the better it is for your communication plan overall.

Some organisations are finding the potential of com-municating with users online to be enormously exciting. If you do it right, using social media to communicate with – and listen to – customers is extremely beneficial both for the message and for corporate culture gener-ally.

DOING IT BADLY But it’s remarkably easy to get it wrong. In the last few years, there have been a few bril-liant – or should that be dreadful? – examples of brands using social media badly, with embarrassing or negative effects. In June 2009, premium furniture shop Habitat came a cropper on Twitter. They were using topic hash-tags on to ensure their messages were seen by the widest possible number of people. That’s not such a bad move if they used hashtags like #sale and #decorating, but instead, they used hashtags for trending topics – things lots of people are talking about – which meant that their messages were completely inappropriate and irrelevant. Some of their tweets included:

#iphone Our totally desirable Spring Collection now has 20 per cent off!

#mousavi Join the database for free to win a £1000 gift card!

So, not just interruptive and un-welcome, like spam, but also insen-sitive, barging in on a serious topic and trying to get attention. If a person acted like that, you’d think them rude and badly behaved. And so it was with Habitat.

Twitter users reacted swiftly – and badly. So how did Habitat respond? They deleted the offend-ing tweets and replaced them with

some generic product messages with links to their site, then a few days later, issued a statement: “The hashtags were uploaded without Habitat’s authorisation by an ov-erenthusiastic intern who did not fully understand the ramifications of his actions. He is no longer as-sociated with Habitat.” In many ways, this compounded the issue, because rather than taking full re-

Most corporate blogs are rubbish, because they’re full of PR speak.

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do you communicate effectively and appropriately with the online community? The first thing to do, rule zero if you like, is to recognise that it’s not a single commu-nity, any more than there’s a community of mobile phone users or community of television watchers. People use social media in so many different ways and for so many different reasons that you need to understand them, their motivations and their culture before you can start to com-municate effectively. So the first rule is to listen, watch and learn. You have to observe a group, get to know their ways, before you can understand them and start to inter-act with them usefully.

That’s related to the second rule: interact! It’s a conversa-tion between real people. Exchange views, ideas and val-ues. Pay attention. Be careful. Ask questions and learn. Answer question when asked. Be part of the community you’re with. Don’t just stand on the sidelines – give as much as you take: it’s conversation, not just “communication”.

The third rule should be obvious: be transparent. Be au-thentic. Don’t fake it. Don’t pretend to be something – or someone – you’re not. Genuine enthusiasm and humanity is obvious, and infectious. Think less about being on mes-sage and “communicating” and more about being authen-tic and conversing. In fact, given the choice, many people online don’t want to be “communicated to” at all; they’d much rather engage in conversations about the things that matter to them. Most corporate blogs are rubbish, because they’re not authentic – they’re full of PR speak. Changing

sponsibility for the activity that had occurred under their brand, and apologising for any offence caused by their clumsiness, they blamed someone else. Which led people to ask why they’d ceded responsibility for the whole social media market-ing message and execution to an in-tern. Every company or brand needs to have a plan for what happens if you accidentally find yourself at the centre of an internet controversy. Put bluntly, these days, the internet in general and social media in par-ticular makes it simple and straight-forward for people to exchange out-rage, and the links and information required to act on that outrage to make a complaint.

THE BEST ADVICE FOR DEAL-ING WITH SITUATIONS LIKE THIS IS: Don’t be nasty, stupid or wrong in the first place. That’s it. Prevention is better than cure. But if you can’t help it, and you’ve stumbled into something, then recognise that you’ve messed up, apologise quickly and genuinely, learn from the mis-take and resolve to do better. So how

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a press release to first person tense isn’t blogging. Squish-ing press releases into 140 characters isn’t Twittering.

The fourth rule is: be responsive. If someone asks you a question, reply with an answer. That means you have to ensure you have the capacity, will and corporate culture – and the time to respond to comments before you embark on a social media communication strategy. Remember, it’s supposed to be a two-way conversation – if it’s all one way, that’s not communication. That’s a broadcast.

But it brings me to rule 4b, which is: don’t be creepy. Don’t be a stalker. Don’t seize onto any mention of your product or brand and jump out at people from the murky shadows of the internet. Some companies set up alerts/monitors which mean that they are instantly alerted at the merest mention of a keyword they’re watching, like a brand name. They pop up like a jack-in-the-box and start chatting as if they’d been participant in the conversation all along rather than the subject of it, or else they are silent and invisible online, only becoming active when someone invokes their name (negatively, usually). They might think they’re being responsive and reactive, but to users it feels intrusive, big brother-like, odd.

The fifth rule is to be consistent across channels and time. The way a company uses social media should be properly integrated with other communication channels or strate-gies. It’s all very well allowing customers to have a two-way conversation with you on Twitter or a blog, but what about when they try and call your helpline or visit one of your stores – can they expect the same level of personal,

responsive, human service? And consistency over time means keep-ing up momentum. Social media shouldn’t just be an afterthought or an add-on, and it really needs to represent and reflect your brand cul-ture and personality in order to be engaging. And it’s not just a passing fad, so if you start a blog or Twit-ter feed, it needs to be maintained. The web is littered with the husks of abandoned blogs, microsites, Twit-

ter accounts and the like, abandoned as soon as the project is over or the next big thing came along. Don’t let yours be one of them!

Rule six: be prepared for how you will tackle it if you mess up. Re-spond quickly, accept criticism with good grace, try to learn from it, and always, always, act with integrity. Don’t underestimate the power of a social media backlash.

Blogging used to be a peripheral personal web activity – something you’d never tell people.

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like a press release mule or a viral campaign schmuck, and they’ll look stupid, cheap or exploited in front of people whose opinions they care about, and may resent you for it.

Earlier this year, a company called Moonfruit encour-aged people to tweet using a particular hashtag in order to win a computer. On paper, the results looked like a huge success, generating more than 250 tweets a minute for several days. Traffic to Moonfruit.com increased 600 per cent. But the flip side is that they were encouraging people to spam their friends to be in with a chance of winning. Many did it without thinking, but for a small but vocal group, there was a palpable sense of discomfort because the competition mechanic encouraged people to prioritise free stuff over the norms of social communication. Very effective for the brand, not so pleasant for the commu-nity.

The ninth rule is to make good stuff. Make sure your content is good. If it’s supposed to be funny or resonate with a particular audience, then ensure it does. The secret to making things viral isn’t in the communications plan: people get excited when you make good/interesting/con-vivial/stimulating things.

Finally, we arrive at rule ten. Rule ten is… there isn’t one. Or at least, not a fixed one.

Since social media involves a constantly shifting social, cultural and technological landscape, rule ten is to learn from your own experiences, and write your own rules. You know best what your particular organisation has the appetite and culture for, what they’re ready to handle. You’ll also learn quickly from your communities about how they want to be communi-cated with, and how they want to communicate with you – which platforms, tone, frequency suit their patterns of life and media. So above all: try, learn, adapt, and stay flexible.

Meg Pickard

Head of Social Media Development, The Guardian

Meg Pickard has been working in new media for more than ten years, mainly in creative roles for media companies. She curently works as head of social media development at the Guardian, where she is responsible for working with journalists, technologists and users to develop and manage new social web strategies and experiences for the newspaper.

Confessions of a serial blogger

Social networking used to be a per-sonal web activity, but it is now used by businesses across the world.

Communicating online is simple – but it’s remarkably easy to get it wrong.

There are a number of different rules that communicators can follow to try to maximise their online success.

Many of these rules seem rather obvi-ous, but tend to get forgotten by firms.

Ultimately, social media is constantly shifting, so adaptability is crucial.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The seventh rule is a bit like the first, but it’s important, so I’ll say it again: listen to people. Forget about broadcasting to an audience and think about networks instead. Tapping networks for input – sug-gestions, ideas – helps groups and individuals and brands achieve bet-ter results. Even your harshest critics can reveal interesting perspectives about your organisation which you may not have considered – or con-fronted.

Rule eight sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how infrequently it’s done. Social media isn’t just about your relationship with a user – it’s about their relationships with each other. So the rule is: help people look good in front of their network of friends or contacts. Help your users be first with the news; give them sneaky peeks at new products; publicly highlight their suggestions if you value them. Make them look influential, wise, wonderful, and they’ll appreciate you even more. But be warned: make them look Ph

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Early adoption of new communications techniques can be advantageous, but the process also involves a certain amount of danger and risk taking.

by Ian McNairn

BEST FOOT FORWARD

S ocial networking, social media and so-cial computing are the poster children of the Web 2.0 brigade. The huge growth of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the re-sultant explosion of client applications on mobile devices like the iPhone and Black-

berry are testament to the demand for social collaboration between not only the digital natives (Gen Y and the Mil-lennials) but also the digitally aware Baby Boomers and Gen X. While the impact of these technologies is more than evident on the internet, organisations big and small have be-

gun to adopt, and adapt, social com-puting tools to internal use on their intranets as well as in communities with their business partners and cus-tomers. While some organisations have jumped in early, like IBM did, most others are still wrestling with the dilemma as to whether to climb on the social bandwagon or not, and if so, how soon. These tools can be classified according to many differ-

You do not need to be Christopher Columbus to explore the world of social media, but a little courage will always be helpful.

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ent schema, but at the end of the day it really boils down to their ability to help you share information, find and connect with people, and collaborate with people in both real-time and store and forward modes.

From instant messaging, real-time file transfer and web conferencing at the real-time end, all the way to messaging, file sharing and collabo-rative working, these tools – such as wikis, blogs, profiles, social book-

marking, social filesharing, micro-blogging, activities and to do lists, and communities – are available as a standalone tools or integrated solu-tions like Lotus Connections.

While commercial internet solu-tions are focused on fuelling their own growth and success by attract-ing as many participants as possi-ble, the growing trend towards in-terconnection between the various tools suggests a maturing outlook towards users demands to be placed at the centre. While this trend is de-sirable, it cannot stretch across the firewall into your organisation for obvious reasons of privacy, security and commercial advantage. For this reason alone the rapid adoption of these tools inside your organisation becomes a matter of survival.

BUSINESS DRIVERS AND AD-

VANTAGES By providing these so-cial tools inside the organisation, in some ways you alleviate the concern as to whether or not you have to control the use of similar tools out-side the firewall by your employees. As part of your social computing

guidelines, which we will discuss at the end of the arti-cle, simply clarifying where your employees should discuss business issues will begin to reduce the risk considerably. Furthermore, providing social tools inside the firewall will increase the productivity of knowledge workers, get every-one involved in innovation and make individuals’ talents visible and accessible by leveraging the expertise of every-one. This improved social capital within the organisation creates a dynamic environment that will provide sustain-able business advantage through improved employee satis-faction and staff retention. Most importantly it improves with size!

EARLY ADOPTER RISKS AND BENEFITS Being an early adopter in this space provides you with first mover advantage. You are able to show industry leadership, and to your customers, by adapting these tools to your unique business requirements early on in the cycle. This makes it far easier to change your processes and capitalise on the advantages these tools provide, than it would if you were to take on board fully finalised processes, designs and tool-sets, and have no opportunity to adjust them to your unique business processes. Clearly the ability to make gradual in-cremental changes in direction during the process is far less disruptive than a huge course change would be.

The message you would be giving your staff, particularly those already engaged in using social tools on the internet, would be hugely positive, and serves to bind the workforce together in a way not possible before.

Clearly there are dangers in being on the leading edge (or maybe bleeding edge!) If your organisation is very risk averse, and tends to punish failure rather than treating it as part of the learning curve, then early adoption would cause warning signs to flash. However, rather than re-ject the concept because it is strange, I would suggest you consider it from a different viewpoint. Be very clear at the outset what it is you hope to achieve. This in my mind is the true test as to whether early adoption is important for your organisation or not. If you are able to clearly express what you hope to gain by early adoption, and that matches your business ethos and strategy, then the risks associated are hugely reduced. You are able to measure the benefits and risks, and are not jumping in simply because it is a new technology.

FACILITATING EARLY ADOPTION So, let us assume you have decided that early adoption will bring significant advantages if successful, how do you facilitate this early adoption? There are three prongs to successful early adop-

Simply clarifying where your employ-ees should discuss business issues will

begin to reduce the risk considerably.

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tion, and while they do not need to occur in this order, all three are equally, critically, important. Visible support from a senior business champion is essential, not only in terms of the project, but also in terms of their active involvement in it. Initial participation and pre-population of data needs to be done by a carefully selected team of early adopters who ideally have each volunteered rather than having been selected by management.

Throughout the initial process of pre-populating data and customisation to the organisation’s specific needs, there needs to be a single passionate, focused, dedicated facilitator, or catalyst, who keeps a close watch on every aspect of the new deployment as a user. This is not a project manager or IT person who is concerned with the success of the project, but rather a business person who is passionate about the business benefit that this early adoption is aimed at bringing about. This role cannot be a small, part-time add-on to their normal daily activities, but rather needs to be, for the duration of the early adoption phase, an al-most full-time, obsessive role. The reason for this is that the eventual success or not of this project is absolutely de-pendent on the early adoption phase. Understaffing it, or expecting it to grow while the demands on everyone’s time remain the same, will lead to its eventual failure at worst, or ambivalence at best.

Besides the obvious advantage that pre-population of data results in when deploying the application beyond its early adoption phase, it also provides a great shakedown when changes can be made easily with minimum disrup-tion. Try and engage the participants in interaction at eve-ry possible opportunity by using polls, interactive widgets and clickable items which give the users positive feedback.

MEASURING SUCCESSFUL DEPLOYMENT The first trick of measuring successful deployment is knowing what to measure. What is the business outcome you are striving to achieve? Look for linked indicators that might enable or hinder this business outcome and aim to measure those. Even better, see if you can measure the individual compo-nents associated with this, but it is critical that you are very clear what changes you are trying to get in behaviour rather than simplistic gross measures like turnover or unit sales or profitability, however vital they may be. These are affected by so many different factors that it is exceedingly unlikely that the adoption, early or otherwise, of a social tool would be able to single-handedly change them in a measurable fashion. What you are looking for is to understand the cause and effect relationship of the aspects that you intend to measure. Just because it is easy to measure, for example

the number of blogs, does not mean you should report on it. If what you are trying to do is reduce the amount of time experts spend repeating the same information on a daily basis in response to queries, and you hoped that by getting them to blog they would reduce this, then measuring the number of blogs is pointless. What you need to measure is the de-gree to which you have reduced the number of calls these experts have to deal with on a daily basis as well as the satisfaction of the people they have helped. In other words, has the introduction of blogging achieved the business outcome you intended, namely giving your expensive ex-perts more time in the day while not dropping service levels? Whether this was achieved through 10,100 or 1000 blogs is immaterial.

Rather than measuring the easy-to-measure number of blogs, wikis, pages, etc., consider measuring ac-tion-related items like postings, comments, tags, bookmarks, dy-namic links, prints, members and even ratings. All of these give a bet-ter daily indicator of the amount of effort the users have expended, thus probably giving a truer indication of the value of those activities to them.

ACTIONS RATHER THAN OUT-COME Try to measure the actions that people take rather than the out-comes you are hoping to achieve, as they are invariably easier to observe and thus measure. For example, if you were hoping to shorten the time taken for certain problems to

The f irst trick of measuring suc-cessful deployment is knowing what to measure.

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period. The number of people pushing the button would be a direct indicator of the apparent importance this applica-tion has to them. Obviously this is a high risk strategy that should be very sparingly used, and only towards the end of the adoption period, when one would expect greater user participation. Needless to say, everyone who participated by pressing the button should be given immediate feed-back that this was part of the test process, and not in fact an actual outage, and then they should be given immediate access to continue using the application.

SOCIAL COMPUTING GUIDELINES TO HELP PRO-TECT YOU AND YOUR ORGANISATION Last of all, the most important thing to give your users is a very clear understanding of what is allowed or not, as well as a clear business explanation to the reasons underpinning this. At IBM we created social computing guidelines based on the understanding that very early adopters got in the space and underpinned by our business conduct guide-lines, which are a series of the business rules that every IBM has to sign off on each year. The social computing guidelines are as simple as: “be who you are, speak in the first person, use a dis-claimer, respect your audi-ence, add value, don’t pick fights, be the first to respond to your own mistakes, use your best judgement, and don’t forget your day job,” and are publically available if you want them: http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html

ADVANTAGES Ultimate-ly, there are huge advantages in becoming an early adopter, but first be clear why you are doing it from a business out-come perspective, then try to ease the early adoption with dedicated facilitators, and at all stages measure your progress in terms of linked actions to your desired busi-ness outcomes. Ph

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be solved, measuring end-to-end time taken is possible, but fraught with difficulty. It might be better to measure the number of FAQ an-swers opened, and had the checkbox “this solved my problem” ticked, if the change involved offering selected FAQs before allowing a new prob-lem to be posted.

Another lateral way of thinking could be in order to measure the importance of an early adoption

tool, to the community who use it, by including a single button that the user pushes when they experience a problem in the application, and then intentionally disabling the applica-tion, but not the button, for a limited

Adopting early for success later on

Social networking, social media and so-cial computing are the poster children of the Web 2.0 brigade.

Being an early adopter with new products and techniques can give first mover advantage and shows industry leadership.

However, there are risks and dangers associated with moving early.

The first trick of measuring successful deployment is knowing exactly what to measure.

The most important thing to give your users is a clear understanding of what is allowed, as well as a clear business explanation as to the reasons why.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Ian McNairn

Programme Director for Web Innovation and Technology, IBM

Ian McNairn is the programme director for web innovation and technology within the office of the IBM chief information officer, based in the UK but in a world-wide role. He acts as a catalyst between innovators and imple-menters, facilitating the flow of ideas, best practices, standards and leadership and is an evan-gelist in the social software, col-laboration and knowledge man-agement arenas. Before joining IBM, he was the global IT strat-egy director for the global insur-ance broker Sedgwick (Marsh & McLennan), and prior to that was a lecturer and researcher at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Rather than measuring the number of blogs or wikis, consider measuring

action related items like postings, com-ments, tags, bookmarks...

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The internet has empowered consumers, giving them the chance to shape brands to fit their own personalities and tastes. Now it is up to companies to listen to them.

by Elliot S. Schreiber

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

developed, allowing businesses to use the internet to realise significant profit from selling to niche rather than mass markets in ways not pre-viously possible.

FROM RECIPIENT TO PRO-DUCER The term social media re-lates to those web-based activities that allow individuals to publish, share or network with others. The consumer is no longer simply a re-cipient, but now also a producer of content. We have moved from com-municating one to many to a new environment in which many com-municate with many.

It is in these social media where people increasingly form their opin-ions of brands and reputations. A 2009 study by the Razorfish agency found more than 97 per cent of con-sumers said that social media con-versations influenced their purchase decisions. This confirms the Edel-man Trust Barometer that found that the most trusted source of in-formation is “someone like me.”

Prior to the internet, companies believed that they were the central repository of information for their employees and stakeholders. The re-lationship between companies and their stakeholders has been changed. Smart companies recognise that the new market environment provides opportunities to bond with stake-

T he internet, although still in its in-fancy, has fundamentally altered our social, economic and political lives. The impact of the internet is equal to that of the printing press, which shifted the means of information

from central authorities to the masses, helping to destroy feudal society, principalities, and undermining the church’s authority over publishing. Until the internet, news gather-ing, editing and distribution were still owned by large cor-porations. Anyone can now gather and distribute news, and the mass media is finding it difficult to keep pace. Consider that the 2008 Mumbai massacre was tweeted and emailed around the world by those caught in the carnage to other in-dividuals before the news media was covering the situation. The internet has transformed the market environment for virtually every company, empowering consumers, increas-ing the threat of new entrants, and creating new competitive opportunities or risks for existing companies. The economist Ronald Coase had found in his Nobel Prize winning article The Nature of the Firm (1937) that the primary economic rationale for integrated corporations was the lowering of

search and transaction costs. The internet has stripped these advantages from many companies, changing industries as diverse as automobile, travel and entertainment.

The nature of what we term a market and the value of the market also has been changed. The Cluetrain Mani-festo (1999) noted that “markets are conversations already taking place” in cyberspace. Christopher Anderson noted in his 2004 Wired Magazine article that a “long tail” had

Prior to the internet, companies believed that they were the central repository of information for their employees

and stakeholders.

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holders. The book Digital Capital (1999) quotes me as saying that the internet would eventually make it possible for me to get a “personalised Schreiber brand.” I sensed then that the internet was moving information and knowledge to the “edge of the network” and that customer-centric brand management would arise, al-lowing individuals to shape brands to fit their own personalities and tastes. We are evolving toward that vision. Many companies have come to realise that brands are co-owned with their customers. This is an exciting change since the emotional connection with the brand enhances perceived value.

IMPACT ON REPUTATION It can be costly to act as if things have not changed. For example, PepsiCo had to reintroduce the old packag-

ing for its Tropicana orange juice after customers reacted negatively to the new package design. The reaction was energised by social media conversations. A wiser future procedure for Pepsi and others would be to engage cus-tomers in co-creating the new packaging design. It could be a shared experience, coming closer to the personalised brand I envisioned ten years ago.

If branding is becoming more difficult, there should be little wonder why companies are concerned about the im-pact of social media on their corporate reputation (“the perception by a stakeholder that an organisation is dis-tinguished from its peers and competitors on attributes of importance to the stakeholder”). Reputations are built primarily on actions, not words, and actions are more transparent than ever before. PepsiCo may have sought to change a brand and package design, but its actions im-pacted the company’s reputation in ways that would not have been expected prior to social media. Companies are now part of, not the centre of, their stakeholder universe. Individuals can now compare and contrast, challenge and contest information. Company websites are secondary sources of information, not primary. The following are

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some key issues social media raises for companies and the challenges these pose for corporate communications:

1. ISSUE: The traditional media is no longer the primary source of information for customers and other stakeholders. Communicators have historically been hired from the ranks of journalists and their relationship with the media and ac-cess to reporters was an important consideration.

CHALLENGE: Corporate communications needs to see media in its widest sense and begin to distance itself from its traditional media relations focus. Companies need to share, to listen, and to participate. Bloggers are more engaged with, and in many cases are more important in, shaping perceptions about a company than traditional me-dia, and they should be treated as such.

2. ISSUE: The internet has increased the number of stakeholders the company deals with. More people have access to information about the company and more are willing and able to utilise technology to comment on the company or otherwise impact the company’s reputation.

CHALLENGE: This is an area that offers great opportu-nity to corporate communications. No other function in the corporation has responsibility for weighing the coun-tervailing interests of the organisation’s myriad of stake-holders. Reputation management is a process that bal-ances financial interests against the informed interests of stakeholders. Corporate communications should assume a major role in corporate decision making.

3. ISSUE: Brand management has changed. The inter-net puts the power in the hands of the consumer. This can undermine brand value. Consumers have insight into costs and pricing. This puts tremendous pressure on brands that seek to position themselves on value.

CHALLENGE: Corporate communications needs to help focus the organisation on greater transparency, relation-ships, customer service, and quality to maintain advantage and build brand. Companies can listen to customers and use that information to develop new products or improve existing ones. Branding and packaging will need to adapt to an open engagement model, encouraging customers to become actively involved in helping to define the brand and personalise it.

4. ISSUE: Social media is blurring the distinctions be-tween marketing and communications. Both functions are engaged in social media. Activities are often difficult to dis-tinguish as being marketing or communications and corpo-rate executives are not certain in what area to invest.

CHALLENGE: Corporate communicators will need to understand more about marketing and business and also

develop more metrics to show the financial value of relationships. Marketing wants to sell via social media; communicators to date seem content to build relationships and listen. Corporate communications has a core competency in relation-ship building. A middle ground is needed, but to seize the opportunity public relations will need to do a bet-ter job in showing the value of social media relationships, both in terms of monetisation and risk mitigation.

5. ISSUE: Companies find it dif-ficult to hear criticism of their prod-ucts and services. Corporate com-municators have been those who are charged with producing positive messages and refuting criticisms.

CHALLENGE: It is impossible to deal with every criticism that occurs in cyber space. Companies need to have better metrics to delineate im-portant criticisms, i.e. those that can become ‘sticky’, and those that are unimportant. Communicators also need to both learn and help their companies learn that criticisms are an opportunity to engage and have a dialogue with their critics. Social media provides an important focus group for those who adapt well.

Time for companies to start listening

The consumer is no longer simply a re-cipient, but also a producer of content.

Many companies have come to realise that brands are co-owned by their in-creasingly empowered customers.

Social media raises some new key chal-lenges for corporate communicators.

The technology is constantly evolving, and while it is dangerous to ignore it, playing the Web 2.0 game can be risky.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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suade the community or sell them something (product or perspective of your company). Social media is the ultimate cocktail party. If you went to a cocktail party trying to sell something to everyone, you would likely find people moving away from you. Once you have built credibility as a legiti-mate and concerned member of the social community, you might be asked for some suggestions. - Focus on your organisation’s values – they must be hon-est and transparent. Values are the foundation of reputa-tion. They determine the corporate culture (“the way we do things around here”), which determines who we hire, who we reward, who we promote, and what behaviours we ac-cept. Identify and clarify your values and make certain that you hold people responsible for following the values – they are now on full display.- Engage your employees and help them to understand your reputation objectives and their role in building them. They are the ones who give your brand life. Make certain that you have clear guidelines for employee use of social media. Get them involved in sharing honest stories about the com-pany online; ask them to help you listen and monitor what is being said about the com-pany externally. Companies have done a poor job in this regard. - Monitor, listen and remain calm and good humoured. Not everything said will be positive. Not every blog is important, but some are very important. There are a number of com-panies that offer monitoring software to help companies keep track of what is going on in social media. - Build relationships. As noted, this is a core competency of corporate communications and public relations. Com-panies will need to be open to building relationships with responsible stakeholders with whom they might have had little contact in the past. New relationships may turn into new partnerships and help to further build reputation, which in turn builds value. Ph

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6. ISSUE: Reputation manage-ment is a process, not an activity. Its goal should not be to make the corporation well liked, but rather to build competitive advantage.

CHALLENGE: This will be a dif-ficult transformation for corporate communications, which has tradi-tionally pushed programmes and phi-lanthropy based upon a philosophy that these engender goodwill from stakeholders. Communications pro-fessionals will need to become more process oriented and adopt research and measurement to prove that their programmes are strategic to the com-pany and that they build value, not just esteem.

Companies often ask if there is a risk in not investing in social media. The risks are great. As noted here, social media is not an add-on to oth-er media. It is transforming markets. Not being involved will put the com-pany at a disadvantage versus more engaged competitors. The company’s ability to listen and its knowledge of where the market is going will be compromised versus more actively engaged competitors. I would offer the following recommendations to corporate communications and pub-lic relations professionals:

- Technology will continue to evolve and change. Focus on strategy and reputation objectives, not on the tech-nology. Be clear about what you want to be known for and by whom you want to be known and valued.- Understand that social media is not all the same. Some is good for listen-ing, some for sharing, some for net-working, and other types for publish-ing. It is important to use the social media appropriately. - Become a real member of the com-munity – do not try to always per-

Prof. Elliot S. SchreiberDrexel University,

Philadelphia

Elliot Schreiber is clinical profes-sor of marketing and executive director of the Centre for Corpo-rate Reputation Management at the Bennett S. LeBow College of Business, Drexel University in Philadelphia. He was also a pro-fessor at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster Uni-versity, Hamilton, Ontario from 2001to 2004, and has been a visiting professor at Penn State, Syracuse, Temple and Villanova. From 2006 to 2007, he was senior adviser to the Reputation Institute, New York. Other devel-opments in his career led him to work for major corporations such as Bayer and Nortel.

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The colonisation of real-time, the rise of extreme opinions and the emergence of national webs are all recent internet developments.

by Geert Lovink

EXTREME OPINIONS: NOW IN REAL-TIME

W eb 2.0 has three distin-guishing features: it is easy to use; it facilitates the social element; and users can upload their own content in whatever form,

be it pictures, videos or text. In this text, I discuss three recent trends in internet culture: the colonisation of real-time, comment culture and the rise of extreme opinions, and the emergence of national webs.

THE COLONISATION OF REAL-TIME There is a fun-damental shift away from the static archive towards the

The rise of the machines has implications for freedom

flow and the river. We see this occurring in metaphors like Google Wave. Silicon Valley is gearing up for the colonisa-tion of real-time, away from the slowly changing webpage, which still had similarities with the newspaper front page. Some have even said goodbye to the very idea of a search because it is a time-consuming activity with often unsatisfactory outcomes. This

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prophets were wrong here. The virtual wants to penetrate and map out our real lives and social relationships. The virtual is becoming more real. All the investment is there, and moving away from Second Life and virtualisation and pretending to be someone else. We are not being encour-aged to pretend to be someone else, but to be ourselves. We constantly log in, create profiles in order to present our-selves on the global marketplace of jobs, friendships and love. We can have multiple passions but only one ID. The earlier idea, that the virtual is there to liberate you from your old self, has broken down. It is all about self-manage-ment and techno sculpting: how do you shape the self?

NETIZENS AND THE SPREAD OF EXTREME OPINIONS Where has the rational and balanced neti-zen gone, the well-behaved online citizen? The internet seems to become an echo chamber for extreme opinions. Is Web 2.0 getting out of control? At first glance, the idea of the netizen is a mid 1990s response to the first wave of users that took over the net. The netizen moderates, cools down heated debates and, primarily, responds in a non-repressive manner. The netizen does not represent the law, is no authority, and acts like a personal adviser, a guide in a new universe. The netizen role is proposed in the spirit of good conduct and corporate citizenship. Users had to take social responsibility themselves. It was not a call for government regulation, and was explicitly designed to keep legislators out of the net. Until 1990 (the late academic stage of the net) it was presumed that liter-ally all users knew the rules (also called netiquette), and would behave accordingly. Of course, this was not always the case (in the end, we are all human , all too human...), so, when misbehaviour was noticed, the individual could be convinced to stop spamming, bullying, etc. This was no longer possible after 1995, when the internet opened up to the general public and the world wide web, with its browsers that made it so much easier to use. Because of the rapid growth, the code of conduct, carefully developed over time by IT engineers and scientists, could no longer be passed on from one user to the next.

At the time, the net was seen as a global medium that could not be easily controlled by national legislation. Per-haps there was some truth in this. Cyberspace was out of control, but in a harmless way. But after 9/11 and the dot-com crash, things changed dramatically. Over a decade later there is a great deal of legislation, government bodies and a whole arsenal of software tools to oversee the na-tional web, as it is now called. Retrospectively, it is quite easy to deconstruct the rational netizen approach as a lib-

could, potentially, be the point where the Google empire begins to crum-ble – and that is why they are keen to be at the forefront. Google Wave integrates the feeds of Facebook and Twitter accounts into one real live event happening on the screen. It is a meta online tool for real-time communication. Google Wave looks like you are sitting on the banks of a river, watching the flow go by. It is no longer the case that you ap-proach the PC with a question and then dive into the archive. The in-ternet as a whole is going real-time in an attempt to come closer to the messiness, the complexities of the real world.

The main driver of the real-time internet is the microblogging serv-ice Twitter, but we can also think of the social networking sites and their urge to pextract as much real-time data out of their users: “What are you doing?” Frantically updated blogs play a role in this process, as do frequently updated news sites. The driving technology behind this is RSS, which makes it possible to get instant updates of what is happening elsewhere on the web. The increasing proliferation of the mobile phone has a significant background role as the main facilitator in mobilising your computer, the social network, video and photo camera, audio devices, and eventually also your TV. The minia-turisation of hardware, combined with wireless connectivity, makes it possible to incorporate technology into everyday life. Web 2.0 applica-tions are responses to this trend and attempt to find value in every situa-tion we find ourselves. The machine constantly wants to know what we think, what choices we make, where we go, and who we talk to.

There is no evidence that the world is becoming more virtual; the cyber

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ertarian form, a figure from the neoliberal age of deregu-lation, but the issues have only grown exponentially, not gone away. These days we would probably rather frame it as a part of education programmes in schools and general awareness campaigns. Identity theft is a serious business. Cyberbullying among young kids does happen, and both parents and teachers need to know how to identify and respond to it. Much like the mid 1990s, we are still faced with the problem of massification. The sheer user numbers and intensity in which people engage with the internet is phenomenal. What perhaps has changed is that many no longer believe that the internet community can sort out these issues itself. The internet has penetrated society to such an extent that they have become one and the same.

IMPULSIVE REACTIONS In these times of global reces-sion, a rise in nationalism and ethnic tensions means that comment cultures in Web 2.0 seem to have become a major concern for media regulators and the police. Blogs, forums and social networking sites invite users to leave short mes-sages. It is in particular young people who react impulsive-ly to news events, often posting death threats to politicians and celebrities without realising what they are doing. The professional monitoring of comments is becoming a seri-ous business, as the following two Dutch examples prove. Marokko.nl has to oversee 50,000 posts every day, and the right-wing Telegraaf news site gets 15,000 daily comments on its selected news items. Populist blogs like Geen Stijl encourage users to post extreme judgments – a proven tac-tic to draw attention to the site. Whereas some sites have internal policies to delete racist remarks, death threats and libelous content, others encourage their users to do exactly that, all in the name of freedom of speech. Current soft-ware enables users to write statements, often without the possibility of others to respond. Web 2.0 was not designed to facilitate debate. The terror of informality inside walled gardens like Facebook is increasingly becoming a problem. If the web goes real-time, there is less time for reflection and more technology that facilitates impulsive blather. This development will only further invite authorities to interfere in online conversations.

RISE OF NATIONAL WEBS Due to rise of the worldwide

internet user base, focus has shifted from the global poten-tial towards local, regional and national exchanges. These days, only around 25 per cent of the content is in English, and most conversations are no longer conducted in English. A host of new technologies are geo-sensitive. What peo-ple care about first and foremost is what happens in their

immediate surroundings – and there is nothing wrong with that. This was predicted in the nineties; it just took a while to be implemented. The background of the national web is the development of increasingly sophisti-cated tools to oversee the national IP range (the IP addresses allocated to a country). These technologies can be used in two directions: to block users from outside the country from watch-ing national TV programmes online

and visiting public libraries such as in Norway and Australia (in the case of new ABC online services); and to prevent citizens from visiting over-seas sites (mainland Chinese not be-ing able to visit YouTube, Facebook, etc.). The democratisation of the in-ternet really only happened over the past five to ten years and the Obama campaign was a significant landmark in this process. Participation, in this

Three recent internet culture trends

Social media tools like Google Wave and Twitter have shifted the internet from a static archive into real-time.

Web 2.0 seems to have become an echo chamber for extreme opinions.

An increase in the worldwide internet user base has shifted focus towards lo-cal, regional and national exchanges.

The Obama campaign is a great exam-ple of the internet’s democratisation.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

What people care about first and fore-most is what happens in their immediate surroundings – and there is nothing wrong with that.

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communicating in one’s own language and not having to use the Latin script keyboards and domain names, can be seen as liberating necessity to bring on board the re-maining 80 per cent of the world population that is not yet on the net, the new dig-ital enclosure also presents a direct threat to the free and open exchanges the internet once facilitated. The internet turns out to be neither the problem nor the solution for the global recession. As an indifferent bystander it does not lend itself easily as a revolution-ary tool. Increasingly, au-thoritarian regimes such as Iran are making tactical use of the web in order to crack down on the opposition. Against all predictions, the Great Firewall of China is remarkably successful in keeping out hostile con-tent, while monitoring the internal population on an unprecedented scale. Ph

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context, is an old school concept. It presumes that firms and politicians have a goal and then invite others to contribute. In this age of large corpo-rations, big NGOs and government departments, it is all too easy to de-ploy Web 2.0 strategies as a part of your overall communication plan. It is true that this open knowledge for all has not arrived everywhere, and there is still a role to play for the Web 2.0 consultant. But Web 2.0 is certainly no longer a well-kept secret. There is already a lot known about web demo-graphics, usability requirements, and which application to use in which context. One would, for instance, not use MySpace to approach senior citi-zens, and it is also known that young people are reluctant to use Twitter, it is just not ‘their thing’. These are all top-down considerations.

AMBIVALENT DEVELOPMENT It gets more interesting if you ask the Netizen 2.0 question. How will people themselves start to utilise these tools bottom-up? Will activ-ists start to use their own Web 2.0 tools? Remember that social net-working sites did not originate in a social movement setting. They were developed as post-dotcom respons-es to the silly e-commerce wave of the late 1990s that had no concept what users were looking for online. Instead of regarding users merely as consumers of goods and services, inside Web 2.0 people are pressed to produce as much data as possi-ble. From the so-called user gener-ated content profiles are abstracted, which are then sold to advertisers as direct marketing customer data. Users do not immediately experi-ence the parasitic nature of Web 2.0. From a political point of view, the rise of national webs is an am-bivalent development. Whereas

Prof. Geert Lovink

University of Amsterdam

Geert Lovink is an assistant pro-fessor at the University of Am-sterdam. He is also the direc-tor of the Institute of Network Cultures and a media theorist. In 2004, he was appointed research professor at the Ho-geschool van Amsterdam (in-teractive media) and associate professor (new media) at the University of Amsterdam. Lovink holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne. In 2003, he was a postdoc fellow at the Univer-sity of Queensland in Brisbane.

China’s national internet firewall is an example of the rise of national webs

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for the Russian corporate world. One of the major problems that prevent companies from using Web 2.0 capabilities to their maximum effect is a catastrophic shortage of social media specialists in the Rus-sian market – specialists who would be able to work as public relations operatives in the blogosphere and on social networking websites. Al-though it is true that small compa-nies specialising in the development and promotion of virus video sprout like mushrooms after summer rains,

I n Russia right now we are witnessing a boom in public companies entering social network-ing sites and the blogosphere – the name of the game is Web 2.0, which is so popu-lar nowadays. Brands get socialised in three ways. Some stick their necks out and imme-

diately singe their feathers with bad experiences (these types of brands are thus far in the majority). Others take a wait and see attitude, analyse the competitors, and un-dertake occasional attempts at social media and randomly taking a crack at this market. And, in third place, the most numerically insignificant group establishes an inte-grated strategy for their presence in Web 2.0 and follows it. But, at any rate, 2009 could be called a Web 2.0 year

Although still in its infancy, the application of Web 2.0 in Russian public relations is viewed with great enthusiasm, if not yet fully-developed expertise.

by Marat Rakaev

DIGITAL REVOLUTION TAKES HOLD IN RUSSIA

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but they only carry out small jobs in social media, these being aimed mainly at special product advertis-ing at specific moments in time. No integral approach exists, which is supposed to come from the client in the first place. Here, a second prob-lem emerges – a blatant lack of coor-dination between the marketing and public relations functions and a con-flict of opinion on how best to enter social networking sites. It is no secret that the public relations departments of many large Russian companies, including the representations of for-eign corporations, appear to work on the same objective, but are often in fact following a separate plan. The social media advertising campaigns of the marketing department are not always coordinated with the public relations service strategy – moreo-ver, they can often even contradict one another. Social media strategic activity planning should be aimed at making direct or indirect profit and sales increases, but, so far, no com-pany can boast of being able to con-vert its social media activities to a substantial profit. Nevertheless, ex-perience is gradually gained and that means that conclusions and results will surely follow. And it is very im-portant to be among the pioneers in this process rather than among those who will have to catch up with the pioneers afterwards, making child-ish errors which the pioneers have already made and learned to avoid. Among the major Web 2.0 chan-nels that are really efficacious for PR service activities, we can single out the following:

BLOGOSPHERE The Russian seg-ment of LiveJournal is rather active, and this platform is popular with students and young people rather than just with teenagers expressing

their thoughts with laconic words, like cool, lol, etc. At the moment, three million bloggers are registered in the Russian segment of the blogosphere, and, of this number, less than a half are more or less active. According to Google statistics, 29 per cent of all LiveJournal posts are in Russian. So, as regards the Russian market, it should be recognised that a company should be present on LiveJour-nal in one form or other. Speaking of Samsung’s Russian office, we have a corporate blog of our own on LiveJournal (http://community.livejournal.com/ru_samsung/), which was established for more informal communication with our end-user audience.

While working on the corporate blog, we had to take into account a number of significant issues in order to learn to talk with the audience rather than to speak to ourselves. The complexity also consists of the fact that

people will more readily look for and discuss, say, cheap travel and inexpensive hotels, but, how do you get them to take part in your company’s LiveJounal community?

GIVING ADVICE We are now already in a position to be able to give some advice on what are the must dos of a corporate blog. Samsung Russia has decided to establish just a community in LiveJournal rather than a blog. This has been done so that anyone can write a post address-ing the community, and discussion will be concentrated right on this post. As a result, the information contained in the community will be of interest to everyone, includ-ing rumours and so forth. It is bad form to publish dry and formal press releases in such a community. Probably the main prerequisite should be the presence of a formal representative from the company in a social media com-munity. Besides taking care of regular communication activities, the representative should respond to comments online; in other words, it is important to let people know that the community is not just termed official but is actu-ally and demonstrably so. Of course, some difficulties may exist related to the fact that a company representative is not always able to comment on unofficial rumours, but the right words can almost always be found depending on the situation. It was only in 2009 that bloggers in Russia

It is no secret that the PR and marketing departments of many large Russian companies, including the representa-tions of foreign corporations, look like they are working on the same objective, but they often have a separate plan.

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began to be accepted as a potentially interesting audience to be invited to press events, press tours or press product tests. Now bloggers are perceived in virtually the same way as journalists, but the problem is that companies have not yet gained enough experience of dealing with bloggers. In fact, while it is the job of a journalist working for a high tech publication to write articles on high tech subjects, a blogger is not supposed or compelled to do so, and, corre-spondingly, the template for working with him/her must be different. Here we are getting to grips with one of the major problems of the Russian Web 2.0 segment – a lack of a sufficient number of proficient public relations specialists in social networking websites and the blogosphere, and also a lack of public relations Web 2.0 subscriber service experience for agencies. Of course, public relations sup-

port in social media channels is offered by agencies, but it is often misunderstood what exactly is on offer. In order to work effectively with bloggers, it is necessary, so to speak, to lead them. That is, you first have to decide on the list of those who are of potential interest to your company. You have to regularly read the contents of a blog in order to know the overall tone of the blogger’s posts, preferences, etc. And you should not use a typical formal letter to invite bloggers to events, but should instead prepare an optimal individual text where you show why your company event can be of interest to them. A separate subject – paid posts in the most popular blogs. Some are flat against this, but some won’t reject out of hand, and others suggest that these posts are strictly marked as being for publicity pur-poses. In my opinion, this situation is not worth a heated debate. Nobody is forced to read a blog where advertising posts can be found. If a blogger succeeds in presenting ads in a manner that appear attractive and interesting to their readers, then the readers will not abandon him or her. And if a blogger fails to do so, then there will be no more readers and no new proposals for paid advertising posts. At any rate, this phenomenon exists already and is used by almost all those companies in the Russian market who are involved in social media.

SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES The most popular social networking website with Russian users is Vkontakte.ru, which is virtually a replica of Facebook. To date, Vkon-

takte has more than 50 million regis-tered users, while the Russian version of Facebook has well under a mil-lion. Vkontakte.ru has over 15 mil-lion unique visitors a day, and each visitor views scores of pages. That is why Russian companies try to open their own groups on this particular social networking site, and invite users to join these groups through a variety of means. Samsung has its own group (vkontakte.ru/club2611), which comprises more than 42,000 “friends”. According to the statistics, a daily audience of the group is about 1,500 to 2,000 readers, that is, about three to four per cent of the overall number. It should be noted that these readers spontaneously emerged as a group of Samsung product lovers, to whom we only used to offer informa-tion support, but now we are taking control of it and mean to increase the number of participants in this group by three to four times during 2010.

SELECTING THE RIGHT ONES Otherwise, the social networking website Odnoklassniki.ru is the most popular in Russia in terms of regis-tered users, but its interface is not so user friendly, the audience is not so active and the site is more overgrown. That is why we at Samsung decided not to establish our presence in this particular social networking site. But we do mean to represent ourselves on the Russian part of Facebook. We do not expect the Russian audience of Facebook to grow quickly, due to the overwhelming majority of internet users already “residing” at other social networking websites. Nevertheless, Samsung’s Russian office is opening a group on Facebook, but, in view of the similarity of this social network-ing site to vkontakte.ru, the optimal option would be the establishment of a “mirror” group. Although social

Twitter is most popular in Europe and the USA, but the Russian segment of Twitter is just beginning to develop.

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audience. On LinkedIn it is best to speak to the audience in a language they understand very well – the language of figures and statistical presentations, and show works of re-search companies, etc. That is, to aim for the business audi-ence and show it the business success of your company, the promising outlook for investments and so on.

TWITTER This service is most popular in Europe and the USA, but the Russian segment of Twitter is just beginning to develop. For example, there were about 100,000 registered users of Twitter in the autumn of 2009, of which number eight to nine per cent were active. Clearly, this is not a suf-ficient audience as yet for doing mass market business, but this does not mean at all that this platform is worthless to work with. If anything, the most active internet users who are joining Twitter in Russia right now are opinion leaders, and it is they who will help shape the development and tone of Twitter in Russia. That is why companies need a Twitter account that should aim at a small but important audience, namely opinion leaders. I am positive that in about one or two years the Russian segment will be large enough to carry out public relations activities aimed at a mass audience, and in the long run direct sales through Twitter will be con-ducted.

To sum up, it could be said that Web 2.0 has become an unavoidable buzzword in the field of Russian public rela-tions. Both large and small companies alike are master-ing the blogosphere, micro-blogs, and social networking sites. However, in the mean-time a lack of practical experts can be seen. So far, so-called social media experts in Rus-sia are generally people with-out real work experience, but who can set out their ideas in an engaging manner. The overwhelming majority of experts – both real and fake – offer services in the field of marketing; in other words, promotional activities on so-cial networking websites. But the public relations market in Web 2.0 is very narrow, and experts with practical experi-ence are few in number. Ph

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networking sites feature their own unique peculiarities when it comes to public relations promotion of a company, fixed similarities do exist. The company’s formal representative should be on the administration of a group. This statement is valid for any public relations activity of a company in Web 2.0. Of course, beside the aforementioned, there are other social networking sites popular with Rus-sians, and some companies choose to establish their own groups at each and every social networking site, but we have chosen a different approach. Official groups are established in the key social networking sites, plus a mirror in Facebook; additionally, two more social networking websites have been picked: Habrahabr and LinkedIn. This is mostly because we have our own audience on these sites with their own peculiarities and par-tialities, and it would be much more logical to deal with them directly in the place where they are used to and comfortable with. Habrahabr.ru is a social network where the majority of visitors can be described as high tech geeks, and you must admit that it would be strange for a high tech company not to work with such an

A Russian PR buzzword

Public relations Web 2.0 is a young de-velopment in Russia.

Companies are only beginning to learn how to view and interact with blog-gers.

Early pioneers are tomorrow’s opinion leaders, and will help determine future development of Web 2.0.

In the future, direct sales will be con-ducted through Twitter.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Marat Rakaev

Head of PR, Samsung Electronics, Russia

Marat Rakaev is head of PR of Samsung Russia. He joined the company in 2006 and is responsible for all PR activities in the Russian market. This in-cludes the PR strategy as well as all activities for media, Web 2.0 channels, corporate PR, internal and external commu-nications. Previously, he was a journalist and worked in media for almost eight years as an editor and new project director.

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It is hardly a business secret that working together is the key to success. Alstom’s all-encompassing Collaborative Way programme has allowed the group to get the best out of its communications and its employees.

by Michael S. Salone

TIME TO COLLABORATE

social media has been a major con-tributing factor to the aggregation and combination of small individual actions into meaningful collective results. These can range from the signing of online petitions, mobilis-ing people toward a specific cause or fundraising, as we saw during the presidential election in the US when millions of people tweeted as they watched the inauguration. Commu-nities are groups of people brought together by common opportunities,

problems and forces that may be professional or personal. The last C, probably the most important, is the value brought together by collective ideas and knowledge sharing. The old adage holds true: “Two heads are better than one.” Or, as authors Barry Libert and John Spector say: “We are smarter than me.”

CHALLENGE FOR ALSTOM So-cial media can take various shapes and forms, such as blogs (Blogger, LiveJournal, Xanga), microblogs (Twitter), social networks (Bebo,

S ince the first appearance of social media, the way we interact with others has dra-matically changed. The latest forms of in-formation and communications technol-ogy allow us to improve interaction with those in close proximity but also with

those who are far from us.A social medium is designed to be propagated through a

form of social interaction created using simple to use pub-lishing techniques. Most social media is web-based and transforms what is usually a one-way interaction into a social media dialogue. It contributes heavily to the spread of information and knowledge transforming internet surf-ers from consumers to producers and building on the idea and technological foundations of Web 2.0. It allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content (UGC) anywhere at any time.

Social media is separate and distinct from conventional mass media like television, film and newspapers. One is cheap, accessible, providing information in little time across the globe not limited by shelf space in the physical world, with wide and fast distribution. The other can take significantly longer to produce, requiring expensive re-sources and a skilled workforce, and once produced, can-not be altered easily. For social media to work, it relies on interactions and collaboration between people to build on a common meaning and goal using the available technol-ogy as a platform.

THE FOUR CS There are many different definitions of social media, but they can be summarised by using the 4 Cs: content, collaboration, community and collective intelligence. The first C, content, refers to the idea that media tools allow everyone to become a creator by making multimedia free and easy to access, even for those who are not Web 2.0 savvy. Collaboration is about the idea that

There are many different definitions of social media, but they can be summarised by using the 4 Cs: content, collaboration, community and collective intelligence.

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Facebook, hi5) and wikis, online web pages where users can generate and modify content on the site.

Like many companies, Alstom is faced with the challenge of stay-ing abreast of socio-technological changes and innovations while har-nessing the collaborative potential of employees. New social media tools and communication tech-nologies, now standard networking platforms, are evolving at a furious pace and this major shift cannot be

ignored. We are all used to hearing about B2C companies or other consumer goods companies using social media as a marketing tool. However, for a high tech industrial company such as Alstom, the use of such media is not so evident in the culture, thus challenging everything from hierarchy to intellectual property, ideas that were previ-ously often taken for granted.

COLLABORATIVE WAY Alstom is a leader in the world of power generation and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom built the fastest train and the high-est capacity automated metro in the world, and provides

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turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind. The group employs 79,500 in 70 countries, and had orders of 24.6 billion eu-ros in 2008/09.

With this in mind, Alstom set up the Alstom Col-laborative Way (ACW) approach in 2008. ACW was in response to the collision of three forces: people, technol-ogy and economics. This programme aims to progres-sively integrate state of the art collaboration in working practices using communities, networks and collabora-tive information systems. It is based on the social media model by which anyone can produce, copy and share in-formation with anyone at almost no cost. The scope of the project is to share, search and connect through the use of people databases, methodologies and processes across all functions, projects and business units. This approach is based on experimentations and pilots and is not dictated or predefined. The project will bring many benefits to Alstom and will offer its employees the opportunity to learn and share more with other staff members, help em-ployees change their ways of working and increase staff engagement and involvement across all Alstom business-es. It is hoped that in the short term everybody in the company and not just some, will be able to: replace long written documents by short videos, share their thoughts and feelings with other staff members they might not know, work with complete mobility, draw on the entire talent pool of the entire world and generate ideas on an as-needed basis. But in order to achieve this, it requires new management approaches, to develop ways of inte-grating communities and Web 2.0 tools, to develop and work on governance policies that support the collabora-tive culture in the company and to truly understand the different meanss of collaboration within Alstom.

SUPPORTING THE GOALS We want collaboration to serve our strategic drivers and HR priorities by manag-ing the integration of new employees by meeting their expectations and encouraging them to contribute. We want to improve our operational performance by pro-moting the dispersion of our activities and people and accelerate access to state of the art practices and their diversity and to make Alstom the best place to work by sharing our culture and values (trust, team, action) and capitalise on expertise and know-how. We can gener-ate organisational effectiveness by helping formal and informal communities be more active and efficient and by avoiding possible silos often created by geographical

location and company history. We strive to help communities achieve breakthrough performance, work smarter not harder, and share infor-mation, knowledge and resources.

The results of the ACW approach by Alstom are ahead of the curve and according to one recent report

only 9 per cent of companies are us-ing collaborative tools for learning. Within the company three pillars categorise the different types of col-laborative possibilities that are on offer to employees. We’ve tried to define this under three pillars: col-laborative workplace, communities and people.

DIFFERENT TOOLS The first pillar, collaborative workplace, consists of the tools. There are cur-

The collaborative way

New social media tools and commu-nication technologies are evolving at a furious pace and cannot be ignored.

Social media can be summarised by using the 4 Cs: content, collaboration, community and collective intelligence.

Alstom’s Collaborative Way is in re-sponse to the collision of three forces: people, technology and economics.

Fostering collaboration can lead to stronger communications, happier em-ployees, and better company results.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

We can generate organisational ef-fectiveness by helping formal and infor-mal communities be more active and efficient.

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and can be either formal or informal. These should not be confused with teams where members know each other: there are clear task interdependencies, explicit timelines and goals, and there is expected reciprocity. Communities are also based on common interests, however members may not know each other before joining the group. There is a focus on learning with contributions remaining vol-untary. By asking questions, obtaining advice and shar-ing ideas and experience people are able to expand their knowledge and know-how and solve problems in a more informal and direct manner.

GIVING OPPORTUNITIES The third pillar, and the most important under the Alstom collaborative pro-gramme, is people. This pillar is not only about the ad-aptation of training programmes around collaboration with skills that are evaluated and recognised, but also about giving more oppor-tunities to employees to reap the full benefits from what the ACW has to of-fer. This pillar also strives to appease the apprehen-sions employees might have about new technologies or the change in working methods. The expectations the net generation brings to the workforce, and the abil-ity of managers to develop the competencies required to effectively communicate as a collaborative leader, is a change we are working on continuously.

Fostering collaboration is an essential need for Al-stom, both to successfully implement its growth strat-egy and execute complex op-erations in the best possible conditions. We must capi-talise on expertise, know-how, diversity, creativity at all levels. Communities help us go beyond our national frontiers and sustain collab-oration across organisational boundaries. Ph

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rently 20 document sharing systems where employees can store and re-trieve documents held in a vari-ety of formats (currently 140,000 documents are shared through this system), various blogs with an av-erage of 2,000 page views daily, and nearly 100 wikis, a collection

of web pages allowing users to add or edit content with an average of 22,500 pages views daily. The glo-bal financial crisis has also helped us advance with other collabora-tive tools. Ten Cisco Telepresence conference rooms have been in-stalled globally across Alstom sites and more than 950 web meetings have taken place so far thanks to web conferencing systems. These of course have brought the expected benefits of reduced travel costs. What was not expected, and has been a very positive impact, is that our employees have quickly adopted to new technology they might not have otherwise been ready for, and in addition have seen an impact on work-life balance due to reduced days away from the home.

CONNECTING PEOPLE The sec-ond pillar, communities, consists of connecting people with knowledge. There are more than 30 structured communities in the Alstom Col-laborative Way programme ranging from indirect sourcing, environ-ment, health and safety (EHS) to the financial graduates community. Within these communities collabo-ration possibilities exist at all levels

Michael S. Salone

Vice President Alstom University

American-born Michael S. Sa-lone is experienced in strategic human resources responsibil-ity in the areas of strategic planning, employee relations, recruitment, learning and de-velopment and international issues in various manufactur-ing, technical, sales, field and corporate environments. He has been vice president of Alstom University since Sep-tember 2006. Prior to this, Salone has held different hu-man resources positions at Alstom, such as vice president management development and vice president human re-sources. Before joining Alstom in 1998, he managed human resources activities for Schlum-berger in England, the United States and France.

What was not expected, and has been a very positive impact, is that our employees have quickly adopted to new

technology.

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BOOKSCommunications Reader

A collection of es-says on crisis communicat ion in Finland and Sweden after the Asian tsunami

in the winter of 2004? “What in the world did the tsunami have to do with Finland and Sweden?” is probably the first thought that comes to mind. How could the tsunami, which struck the coastlines of the Indian Ocean five years ago affect communications some 10,000km away? However, though the basis for the book may at first seem slightly far-fetched, a closer inspec-tion reveals it to be a highly interes-ting lens through which we can view crisis communication in these two countries. Both countries were affec-

ted badly by the tsunami, as their citizens took advantage of the Christmas holidays to seek out some winter sun, only to find their lives endangered by this disaster. More than fifty Swedes died, and many more Finns and Swedes were left stranded or injured in the aftermath of this freak natural disaster.

DRY THEORY News of the disaster quickly reached all corners of the globe, so the compilation benefits from being an event about which everyone knows at least a litt-le. By placing what can often be dry communication the-ory within the highly emotive framework of an event we can vividly remember, the authors make the theory more accessible, helping retain the reader’s interest. The effects of the tsunami were covered more extensively and for a longer period in the media than those of any other natu-ral disaster. Mervi Pantti explains that this was a unique catastrophe because the western audience was not only in the position of witness and helper, but also a victim, which Pantti argues was the reason behind the concentrated me-dia coverage afforded to it.

This collection of essays, which were primarily writ-ten in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, were re-written to be included in this new edition, which was published at the end of 2009. The essays deal primarily with how the governmental agencies of the two countries handled the crisis in its immediate aftermath, as well as how the media reacted in the days and weeks after the news of the tragedy first broke.

REACTIONS Perhaps of most interest here are the ways in which the two governments, similar in many ways, re-acted differently, and the reasons behind this, as well as the differing levels of criticism which were aimed at both governments, by the press and the public. There is also a stand-out chapter by Tomas A. Odén, Marina Ghersetti and Ulf Wallin, who take the reader on a journey from the moment the news broke to the coverage in several of the largest Swedish daily papers and broadcast organisations over the following days, an approach that allows us to ob-serve the decisions made on ground level as if we were a fly on the wall of these offices at one of their most trying moments. By building on prior knowledge of a horrific event, this worthy and thoroughly readable compilation effectively manages to create an interesting and illumina-ting account of how an unimaginable crisis was seen and handled from a communications point of view, helping to flesh out our understanding of the tragedy, as well as of la-test strategies in crisis communication. Neil Cranswick

AFTER THE TSUNAMI: CRISIS COMMUNICATION IN FINLAND AND SWEDENEDITED BY ULLAMAIJA KIVIKURU & LARS NORDNORDICOM, 2009

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NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY: HOW BUSINESS PROPAGANDA HIJACKS DEMOCRACYDONALD GUTSTEINKEY PORTER, OCTOBER 2009

A re large, face-less corporati-ons inherently evil? Most of us would probably say so. After all,

these industrial giants are respon-sible for cutting down vast swathes of rainforest every day, selling us gas guzzling cars by the million, and offering women contraceptive pills that might prevent them from having babies, but that cause all manner of dangerous, potentially lethal, side effects. The list, formed by the sole overriding desire for fi-nancial gain, goes on. And yet we continue to buy their products on a daily basis, stuffing their already bloated coffers further and safeguar-ding their corporate futures for years

to come. Lots of us work for them, too. So it’s all rather hypocritical of us to complain at all. Governments, on the other hand, are fair game. We constantly berate our poli-ticians whatever their decisions. Whenever anything goes wrong, it’s an error on the part of the administration. But although our elected leaders may often be at fault, they are at least trying to make life better for the citizens they represent.

What the majority of us fail to recognise, however, is that corporate-sponsored propaganda techniques are being used, and have been for decades, to undermine public confidence in government institutions. At least, this is the view put forward by Donald Gutstein in Not a Conspiracy Theory. Gutstein is a senior lecturer at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and is seemingly a man on a mission, having previously written a number of other “acclaimed but controversial” – in the words of his pub-lishers – books on the immoral and self-serving nature of big business, mass media and corporate propaganda. This latest volume picks up where the others left off, diving in immediately to discuss the relationship between the Ca-nadian and US economies post 9/11.

STICKING THE BOOT IN Gutstein comes across as a rather proud Canadian, and so wastes no time in sticking the boot into the policies of his nearest neighbours – or the Yanks, as he teasingly refers to them early on. The first chapter is dedicated to the integration of the two econo-mies, and is therefore rather uninteresting for those on the other side of the Atlantic. Fortunately, though, procee-dings do start to spice up a little in the following sections. The rise of corporate dominance throughout the 20th cen-tury is dealt with in extended detail, with a number of case studies highlighting the author’s highly critical view of capitalism’s role in delaying action on climate change, highjacking democratic debate, reducing public levels of confidence in politicians, and more.

Unfortunately, it’s all a bit hard to follow. Gutstein’s complex layers of intellectual analysis come thick and fast, and there are precious few devices used to split the blocks of text up, meaning that you might be ploughing on for 30-odd pages of solid prose before you get a break. It can get rather mindboggling. Chances are if you approach a chapter from anything but the first paragraph, you won’t be able to follow proceedings at all – just dipping in and out when and where you choose is not an option. But for those who can stick with it, this is an extensively re-searched, challenging read, whether you agree with the author’s strongly held views or not. Richard Morgan

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ASSOCIATIONEuropean Association of Communication Directors

COMMUNICATION SUMMIT 2010Mark your diaries now for the European Communication Summit 2010, which is to be held in Brussels on July 1 and 2.

by Neil Cranswick

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A lthough the new year has only just begun, the Euro-pean As-

sociation of Communication Directors is already completing preparations for this year’s Euro-pean Communication Summit. Now in its fourth year, the sum-mit is the largest conference for inhouse communication profes-sionals working in Europe, and represents the highlight of the association’s calendar.

The European Communica-tion Summit 2010 will take place at the Square in Brussels on the first and second of July, and around 400 inhouse communica-tions professionals are expected to attend. Building upon the suc-cess of previous summits, it will gather leading communications figures from companies, associa-tions, NGOs, politics, academia and the media to speak and par-ticipate in a wide variety of activ-ities, all with the aim of creating an even more value-packed and inspirational experience for those in attendance.

The summit will seek to reveal exactly which communication ideas and strategies have been

effective in achieving results for communicators in recent times, thereby shaping the future state of the profession. This year’s summit will focus on two main topics: communication strate-gies, and communication tools and campaigns. Best case pres-entations will focus on the top-ics of strategic communications, change and international com-munication, issues management, crisis communications and repu-tation management. There will also be case studies on the com-munication tools used in social media and digital communica-tion, storytelling and branding, consumer and product commu-nications, and intercultural com-munication.

The first evening of the sum-mit will also see the presentation of the European Communication Award in a glamorous ceremony at Brussels’ elegant Concert Noble. The award is presented annually to the individual or or-ganisation who is judged to have been the most effective in com-municating the European idea.

More information about register-ing for this year’s conference will soon be available online at: www. communication-summit.eu

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NEW EUROPEAN SURVEYThe results of the new European Communication Monitor, published by the Europe-an Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) in partnership with the EACD, will be revealed at the European Communication Summit 2010.

Prof. Ansgar Zerfass has been involved with the project as the EUPRERA re-search leader since its inception, and is currently making preparations for the Eu-ropean Communication Monitor 2010.

You have worked on the European Com-munication Monitor (ECM) for three years now. What were the biggest surprises for you in the data you have collected over this time? A most interesting fact is that communi-cations professionals are still struggling to link their ac-tivities to business strategies. This has been identified as the most important issue in European PR each year since 2007, so there have been no significant advancements. The surveys tell us why: only six out of ten communi-cation managers feel responsible for helping to define corporate strategies, and measurement practice is often focused on media output, not on value creation.

What are the goals you have set for the ECM 2010?The survey will focus on communication strategy and identify factors for communications excellence. In addi-tion, we will take a critical look at social media. Many respondents said that they will switch their activities to those platforms in previous years. We will check the re-ality of 2010: are PR departments responsible for those budgets? Who takes the lead? And so on. Last but not least, job satisfaction will be an issue. Many professionals started to think about benefits, threats and career oppor-tunities again during the crisis. We’ll take a closer look into this.

The monitor is run by professors from 11 countries. Can you explain who is involved and how the collaboration works?It’s quite complicated to run an intercultural research project in the academic world, so we have implemented

a clear structure. The research group, led by me, and involving colleagues Angeles Moreno from Madrid, Piet Verhoeven from Amsterdam, Ralph Tench from Leeds and Dejan Vercic from Ljubljana, defines the questionnaire, evaluates the data and interprets the results. An advi-sory board formed by professors from the universities of Bordeaux, Milan, Oslo, Mälardalen, Lugano and Poszan helps with ideas, pre-tests and national dissemi-nation. This is a non-profit project, so we

collaborate online and involve student assistants for deal-ing with the statistical information.

What impulses do you think a study like the ECM can give to communications practitioners in their daily work?Identifying trends and future developments helps to re-flect one’s own concepts and worldviews. It’s challenging to see the visions and realities of colleagues throughout Europe, and identify new ways to compete in the future. I myself worked in communication practice for a long time, and some of the best ideas were inspired by these kinds of studies.

Prof. Ansgar Zerfass is professor of communication manage-ment at the University of Leipzig. He is executive director of EUPRERA and the editor of the International Journal of Strate-gic Communication.

PROF. ANSGAR ZERFASS

The results of the European Communication Monitor 2010 will be announced at the summit, with participants each receiving their own personal copy. To help make this an even more representative survey of the state of the industry, we would ask all members to devote a little of their time to providing answers when the survey reaches them in March.

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CHANGING WITH GRACEMattel’s Christian J. Schultz will speak on authentic leadership and communi-cation after change at the European Communication Summit 2010.

2009 was a great year for Mattel, with the celebrations of Barbie’s 50th anniver-sary getting a great deal of publicity and attention. How much were you affected by the negative economic environment?2009 was a milestone year for Barbie and the full year of publicity she received truly underlined her iconic status. My team and I thoroughly enjoy working with a power brand such as Barbie, who is the number one worldwide property in the traditional toy industry. In regards to the challenges in the global financial environment, we were obviously af-fected like everyone else, but the toy industry has historical-ly always been less impacted than other industries as parents would rather save money on themselves than on their kids.

In your talk at ECS 2010, you will be reflecting on change communication and how it should be adapted when compa-nies recover and get back on track. Why should companies not go abruptly back to business as usual, and which steps are important in this process? In times of change and crisis, some businesses go into a mode of panic as they see the change as a break from rou-tine and a turn for the worse. A healthy business should always be looking to change and adapt to its environment regardless. The global financial challenge of 2009 was not a mere crisis but a game changer for the business world, and those businesses that haven’t realised this and adapted will not be with us long term. As Charles Darwin once said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Authenticity is definitely one of the PR buzzwords of the moment, but it is mostly used in the context of external communication. What role do you see it playing in leader-ship and internal communication? Authenticity in leadership has never been a more impor-tant aspect of internal communication than today and is perhaps one of the best outcomes of the global financial

crisis. Leadership and management teams can no longer hide behind complex or-ganisations and intangible numbers as employees and stakeholders demand full transparency and accountability. Being an authentic leader today means that you involve and empower employees in the decision making process at an early stage so they get ownership and help shape the direction of the organisation. At the same time, the whole work-life balance thought is being replaced by work-life integration.

You will also reflect on ways to escape the silo mentality and win a seat at the boardroom table. What are the main hurdles to overcome in these areas? All of us within the industry are a big part of the prob-lem. For example, why is it that most bachelor’s and mas-ter’s programmes in communication only have subjects that focus on communication? When we sit around the boardroom table, most of our colleagues from finance, HR, sales, etc., have broad and rounded university de-grees which have touched most business subjects. They all speak the same language, so I am never surprised to hear stories that senior management often find commu-nication professionals to be fluffy, which is why many in our industry are merely executing strategies, rather than developing them. I would therefore urge programme leaders at universities and organisations such as EACD to lobby for a bigger variety in subjects offered by uni-versities to enable the next generation of communication professionals to be more rounded.

Christian J. Schultz has been head of communications of Mattel in central, northern and southeast Europe, as well as the Middle East and Africa, since 2008. Before that, he was running Ogilvy PR in Denmark from 2005. Schultz will speak at the ECS on July 1.

CHRISTIAN J. SCHULTZ

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CSR WORKING GROUPYannis Freris (head of corporate communication and sustainable development, Gefyra SA) was elected as head of the EACD working group on CSR at the EACD Anniversary in November. He initially proposed the creation of the group to the EACD board earlier in the year, and has taken an active role since its formation as the organiser of both of its pre-vious meetings (at the European Communication Summit and the EACD Anniversary). Freris is an IEMA-approved CSR practi-tioner and was a nominee for CSR Manager of the Year in 2008. His past experience includes research as scientific director of the In-stitute for Research and Policy Strategy (INERPOST), commu-nication and event management of the Greek action plan for the 1997 European Year against Rac-ism, as well as and consultancy work as part of Planet SA.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

FINANCE WORKING GROUPVéronique Bockstal (communi-cation consultant, Febelfin) was elected as deputy head of the EACD working group on finance and insurance at the November group meeting at the EACD An-niversary. She will serve alongside working group head Miriam Ro-emers (public relations manager, European Association of Public Banks), who has led the working group since the EACD’s founda-tion in 2006. Bockstal has previ-ously held various management po-sitions in corporate, marketing and internal communications as well as investor relations. She has served at international healthcare insurance consultant Vanbreda International, Fortis and the EVCA (the Europe-an private equity and venture capi-tal association) among others. She started her career in the banking industry, holding different sales po-sitions at Générale de Banque and Kredietbank Luxembourgeoise.

EACD IN LUXEMBOURGPhilipp von Restorff (head of communications, ABBL) has re-cently been announced as the new co-coordinator of the EACD’s ac-

tivities in Luxembourg, where he will work alongside Jean-Jacques Picard (secretary general and head of communications, Luxembourg for Finance), who has held the post of regional coordinator since it was introduced in 2008. Von Restorff is a graduate in the field of communication sciences and holds a master’s degree in busi-ness administration, as well as be-ing responsible for marketing and communications for several start-ups in Germany and Switzerland. Before taking up his current posi-tion at the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association, von Restorff worked for the press service of the govern-ment of the Grand Duchy of Lux-embourg. Ph

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There have been several notable developments within the EACD over the last few months, with a number of new coordinatorsbeing appointed at regional and working group levels.

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Jeff Archambault is vice president of communications at Euro Disney Associés SCA and has been the EACD regional coor-dinator for France since 2008. For more information on all of the EACD’s regional groups, and to get involved in the regional debates, please visit the Regional Coordinators page at: http://www.eacd-online.eu

JEFF ARCHAMBAULT

Congratulations for recently hosting a very well-attend-ed event in Paris. Can you tell us a little about what you were able to take from the event as a group? The topic of social media remains one of the most im-portant for all communications directors today and was certainly one of the main reasons for the exceptionally strong turnout. Our three speakers were able to share their experiences with Web 2.0 as an internal commu-nication tool, engaging all of those present. The Alca-tel-Lucent internal communications implementation of Web 2.0 throughout the company demonstrated that, despite initial concerns about no longer being able to manage what employees were saying (a concern shared by most executive committees), the results showed that employees felt empowered, and in fact shared great ide-as to improve the performance of their company.

What do you see as the main benefit of hosting regional debates, with reference to the French communication community? The creation of strong events attended by a critical mass of communications directors in France will permit us to es-tablish the EACD as the association for networking and the exchange of best practice in the communication com-munity. Clearly the regional debates are the most impor-tant vector for the credibility of the EACD in France.

Given the increased freedom that regional coordinators now have to organise their events, are there any chang-es in particular you would like to make to the traditional format? I believe we found a good format for our recent debate: a late afternoon time slot, a topic of strong current in-terest and a prestigious location in the centre of Paris. However, having three speakers made the formal pres-entations too long and limited the time available for networking. For the next debate, I will limit it to two speakers, totalling one and a quarter hours of presenta-

REGIONAL FOCUS: FRANCE

tion and Q&A with three quarters of an hour for cock-tails and networking.

What plans and ambitions do you have for the French regional group in 2010? As I said at the conclusion of this year’s summit in Brus-sels, I want to increase membership in France to the same levels as the UK and Germany. This can only be achieved through successful, well-attended French regional de-bates. We need to repeat our success in the spring.

What seem to be the issues most affecting communica-tors in France at present? Like all communicators, we in France are concerned with the evolution of the media from traditional to online and how to manage this new paradigm. In ad-dition, most communicators are still determining how and what to implement with regards to Web 2.0.

The EACD hosted a well-attended regional debate on Web 2.0 in France in November and has welcomed a lot of new members in recent months. Here, regional coordinator Jeff Archambault gives his views on the assication’s activities in his region.

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ASSOCIATION


WELCOME!The following communicators have joined the EACD

Vitor Bento, Marketing Manager, PANELUX S.A.Sheri Besford, Head of Communications, Building Design Partnership LimitedCaroline de Bie, Associate Director Corporate Communications Europe, Genzyme Belgium NV/SASofie Bockaert, Manager Internal Communications, DE POST/LA POSTE - Belgian PostVeronique Bockstal, Communication Adviser, Fédération belge du secteur financierMartin Boer, Group Head of Public Relations, ING GroupBent Bøkman, Head of Press and Communications, The Danish Con-sumer CouncilCor Brockhoven, Director Communication, Enexis Nathalie Brosse, Communications Manager, Danisco Ing. France SARLBärbel Bussenius, Manager External Communications, Federal Express European ServicesNicole Chemali, Director of Communication, GenopoleViviane Clauss, Responsable Marketing, Banque de LuxembourgJosé da Costa, Marketing Manager, Loterie Nationale du LuxembourgMaria-Isabella Detand, Assistant Public Affairs, ElectrabelKristin Dom, Communications Manager, Atlas Copco - BelgiumIldegarda Ferraro, Media Relations Manager, ABI - Italian Banking AssociationVirginie Ferre, Corporate Communications Manager, ociété GénéraleAnne Grandjean, Senior Manager Manager External Communications, SPE NVPascale Hemmer, Marketing & Communication Manager, Alter DomusFlorence Henriet, Head of Business Development & Communication, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLPChristina Hippisley, Secretary General & Spokesperson, Portuguese Chamber of Commerce in the UKNick Hyrka, Communications Manager, RIPE NCCRené Jacobs, Team Manager Communications, Loyens & Loeff N.V.Robert Jenkins, UK Head of Corporate Communications, BNP Pari-bas UK Holdings LimitedSimon Johnston, European Project Manager, Corporate Communica-tions, Chubb InsuranceSaskia Kapinga, Global LNG Communications Manager, Royal Dutch Shell plcChris Kersbergen, Global Head of Brand Activation & Identity, ING GroupPäivi Korhonen, Director of Communications, Laurea University of Applied SciencesJelena Krstovic, Corporate Communication Director, Delta HoldingÅsa Kultje, Director of Communications, School of Business, Econom-ics and Law University of GothenburgSimone Lauper, Head Media Relations & Financial Reporting, Swiss Reinsurance CompanyMarc van der Lee, Director Corporate Communications, Vion N.V.Helma van Leeuwe-Bak, Senior Director Internal Communications, Schering-PloughDirk Lemmens, Head of Corporate Communications, ING BelgiumJake Locke, Head of Media & Communications, SATRA Technology CentreOliver Lönker, Pressesprecher, Siemens Wind Power A/SSabine Lunau, Media relations & PR Manager, Europäisches Patentamt/European Patent Office

Zrinka Makovac, PR and Citizenship Lead, Microsoft CroatiaBárbara Manrique de Lara, Communication Director, Grupo PrisaClaude Michaux, Head of Marketing & Communications, caceis Inves-tor ServicesKathrin Mück-Puelacher, Staff member Communication, FEEI Manage-ment Service GmbH Saskia Nuijten, Communication Manager, DSM Food Specialities N.V.Shane O’Riordain, Communications Director, Lloyds Banking Group LimitedTeddy Østerlin Koch, Communications Director, The Danish Cham-bre of CommerceJosé María Palomares, Communication and Relational Marketing Manager, Telefónica ASSabine Parisse, Head of Unit Media Relations, European Investment BankKate Philipps, Communications Director, ValeoPatricia Potts, Global Communications Manager, Innovia Films LimitedAndreas Priefler, Director Communications & Government Relations, WintershallCorina Ramers-Verhoeven, CA Manager Communications European Midsized Countries (EMS), Eli LillyFrank Renggli, Head External Corporate Communications / Geneva, Pictet & Cie BanquiersColin Roberts, Vice President Group Technical Press, SKF B.V.Mark Roberts, Head of Investor Relations, SES S.A.Oliver Schwartz, Leiter Unternehmenskommunikation, Netviewer AGEuan Sellar, Head of Public Relations, SwiftEmma Silva, Associate Director Marketing & Publications, American School of ParisValérie Siniamin-Finn, Head of Communications, Société Générale Securities ServicesCaroline Smith, Communication Expert, Inland Navigation Europe Ward Snijders, Director Corporate Communications, LeasePlan Corporation N.V.Gunilla Stenfors, Vice President Communication, Nordkalk Corpora-tion Roger Strandahl, Director Business Affairs, E.ON Energy Trading SEBogdan Tataru, Central Marketing Group Lead, Microsoft RomâniaClaudia Thyme, VP Marketing & Communications, International P&C, XL Insurance SwitzerlandFrédérique Tissandier, Senior Associate, Media Relations, Global Alli-ance for Improved NutritionSobha Varghese, nternal Communications Manager, Tata Consultancy Services Belgium S.A./N.V. Valoree Vargo, Head of Communications, International Post Corpora-tionSonia Villarreal-Stevenson, Head of Marketing and Communications, British AirLine Pilots’ Association (BALPA)Fiona Wilkinson, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications, Visa InternationalFrederik Wittock, Senior Director R&D Communications, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D, a division of JanssenErik Zsiga, Media Relations Manager, AB ElectroluxFranciska Zsigmond, Director of Public Relations and Communica-tions, E.ON România S.R.L.

98


QUESTIONS TO...The personal side of communication directors

CLAUS SONBERGExecutive Vice President, Corporate Communications and IR, Scandinavian Airlines

What personal objects decorate your desk? Four small children’s paintings of the SAS logo, blue sky with cotton clouds and a very cute airplane. I got them for Christmas from my three girls. Who are your present-day heroes? Without doubt the frontline personnel in SAS who deliv-ers world class punctuality and service despite the fact that most of the airports we operate are covered in snow and ice four to five months of the year. I truly believe that change theory will have to be rewritten based on the SAS case history. Our people have managed to dramatically increase our quality and customer satisfaction in a decade of endless cost cuts, turn around processes and negative publicity.

What book do you have on your bedside table? Right now, John Irving’s A Widow For One Year. I just love his style!

What has been the most emotional moment in your ca-reer?August 20 2009. I walked down the stairs of the relief flight at Madrid airport. We could still smell the jet fuel and smoke. I cried thinking of all the passengers who were injured or dead in one of the worst airline accidents in Europe (Spanair Flight 5022).

What is utter happiness for you? Many things: the feeling I get as a solution to a ma-jor problem emerges from within; hearing my clos-

est employees giggle and laugh around the meeting or lunch table; preparing a great meal for good friends; or entirely by myself, cross country skiing in beautiful Norwegian nature.

Would you ever have liked to belong to another nation? If yes, why? My family lives in Oslo, Norway, but I work in Stockholm from Mon-day through Thursday. I have become very fond of Stockholm and Sweden. Of course, the change from Norway is not huge, but there still are cultural and social differences. If I were to choose a bigger change, it must be Australia. I lived there 20 years ago and sim-ply love the continent and their people. They are fun, friendly, sincere and outgo-ing. I still have great friends there, but have not been back since 1987.

Claus Sonberg

Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications and IR, Scandinavian Airlines

Claus Sonberg was appointed the executive vice president, corporate communications and investor relations of the SAS Group and a member of SAS Group Management in 2007. Before that, he was based in Oslo as the Nordic Regional CEO at Burson-Marsteller. He has held sev-eral other different positions at Burson-Marsteller, including as president of Norwegian operations between 2000 and 2005. Prior to that, he worked as a journalist and press officer at TV2 in Norway. Sonberg, who is Norwegian, has qualifications in political science from Oslo University, and journalism and interna-tional politics from Indiana University.

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