PR in Action!

I must have been at the right place at the wrong time; but I got to live an important instance in a corporate giant's history. Siemens had announced earlier on this summer that they were planning to fire more than 16,000 employees.

While the story ravaged the business news and made top headlines in financial news; it did not move much the people concerned for it was perceived as a far-off fact that was not directly linked tgo them. It was only after the news had cooled down in the media, that the real action took place. The people in Grenoble were notified yesterday. They were only going to be affected by 17 jobs out of 800, given their good financial performance this year.

The communication strategy was to give the news directly from head down the organization structure, before it could move horizontally and create noise. We were called into a meeting and notified in the afternoon. The news was reassuring, they're doing their best to reintegrate the people concerned in other departments. No one was going to be laid off unwillingly. Right. I was surprised to see that the employees actually believed this, but they did! How gullible can they be, with all the fuss that went around... Having less "per employee profit" than their competitor GE was not reason enough; they truly believed in their good intentions.

Internal communication was perfect. One step down the ladder. One step closer to the truth.

The shock will not be NEWS anymore once the real action will take place. Thus it won't be of anyone's interest to talk about it or revolt against it.

Marrvellously done; and I am left to wonder whether this was spontaneous or planned...

The 1st phase of Marketing: HR

No matter how hard you try to satisfy a customer, if your employee is not satisfied, you're throwing your money away. Yes, I know you've figured out and implemented thousands of ways to sustain control. But trust me, they'll turn your world around, upside down and about if you do not quench their thirst. They know how to make themselves heard. Deep down inside you know it; and admit it, you fear it!

In my last job, one of the first steps I discovered I needed to implement to respond to the company's MARKETING needs was to establish an employee of the month program ...and I thought I had moved away from my field.

But no.

What's the use of promoting your company to the world if at some point in time you'll have an "insider", one of your own, or so you'd think, disconfirm your image? When the employee no longer associates himself with the company, when it becomes a "they" instead of a "we" ring the alarms, you have a problem.

Isn't Human Resources all about marketing the company to the employees at the end of the day? Marketing functions are rarely ever in the hands of the marketing department.

Isn't the general manager's job in some way strategic marketing? ...and the salesman's duty operational marketing? If even accounting can become creative in order to better market to the investors... one might wonder how much further can marketing go.