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Tessa Knight, a cadet of the US military academy is on a Portland-bound United Airlines flight after completing her final semester of her second year. Fatigued and weary, Knight says, “I feel miserable. I have just given a very tough physics exam on renewable energy and haven’t slept the entire night. I’m looking forward to going back home and catching up on my sleep.”

For over a year, the military academy has been rolling out a set of new courses focusing on energy and use of renewable fuels. Deeply concerned about the future outlook of oil prices, the military is preparing itself for alternative fuels. Educating the cadets is an effort in that direction.

The immediate outlook for oil prices is unclear. Weak demand amid strong supply is expected to keep prices low in the medium term. Demand from faster-growing non-OECD countries is forecast to outpace demand in OECD countries. In addition, an increase in domestic production of oil in the United States is likely to reduce its dependence on international crude oil. However, nearly all forecasters agree on one thing: The long-term outlook is for sharply high prices.

This is disturbing news for the US military. The Department of Defense is the single largest user of oil in the world, consuming 355,000 barrels of oil each day and approximately 120 million gallons of oil in a year. For every 25 cents increase in a gallon of oil, the US military fuel bill increases by $1 billion. As the defense budget tightens, the DoD has been preparing to insulate itself from market volatility and global price hikes – and one option the department has proposed is using biofuels rather than fossil fuels. However, there is an elephant in the room. The National Defense Authorization Act, the central piece of legislation outlining the defense budget, restrains the flexibility of the defense department from the production and purchase of any alternative fuels that cost more than traditional petroleum based fuels. Targeted at the DoD’s biofuels program, this prohibition has ignited a debate on how the military plans to reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

DoD’s largest opportunity for renewable fuel use is in its tactical systems and weapon platforms qualifying for 90% of its petroleum fuel demand. Conforming to existing fuel specifications and performance requirements is however a pre-requisite for renewable fuels used in the system. Renewable fuels must qualify and weapon platforms must certify before being used in tactical systems to ensure the fuel does not compromise mission performance or safety.

There is however a fair chance that renewable fuels will face military doctrinal challenges. To simplify fuel logistics, the DoD currently uses a single battlefield fuel (JP-8), while the proposed renewable fuels require separate supply chains or are incompatible with existing infrastructure.

DoD has been exploring the use of renewable fuels in tactical applications through the Services’ comprehensive test and evaluation programs. The services’ technical communities are testing and qualifying drop-in renewable fuels. Certification roadmaps are being developed with plans to procure substantial volumes of renewables over time. So far, it has been determined that renewable fuel blends that meet military diesel and jet fuel specifications will not require separate infrastructure or pose maintenance risk to existing assets.

The DoD faces two crucial challenges. The first is securing adequate supplies. To be able to procure a sufficient supply of drop-in renewable fuel, particularly jet fuel to meet the demand of DoD looks difficult. With the given goals and projected supply, DoD would have to aim for more than 40% of the renewable and cellulosic diesel and jet markets in 2020. The current goals far exceed even the high-end projected domestic supply.

The second challenge is cost. Drop-in renewable fuels are expected to cost more than their petroleum counterparts. In 2015, the estimated price premium will be between $1.43 and $5.24 per gallon. Mid range estimates suggest that DoD’s drop-in renewable fuel use would represent an additional annual fuel cost of $865 million by 2015 and $2.2 billion by 2020. This would beat least 10-15% higher than the cost of conventional petroleum fuels.

Creating a new commodity class for renewable fuels is a possible way to gain greater leadership support and visibility, but an opposing view suggests that the associated redundant infrastructure costs and user acceptance impediments outweigh the benefits.

In the short term, bio-fuels are expected to cost much more but there is a strong likelihood that as the largest consumer of energy, the defense department will be able to drive down costs through its investments. Department of Energy predicts that the cost of biofuels could be as low as $2.32 a gallon by 2017.

Air Force Lt. General Norman Seipargued spoke against the proposed restriction in an op-ed article published by TK publication earlier this week. “What if Congress would have passed a similar legislation prohibiting the military from developing GPS until satellites cost lesser than charts and maps or banned the use of jet fuel until it was cheaper than a gallon of regular?’ Supporting the sentiment, a DoD report states that ‘the payoff to DOD from reduced fuel demand in terms of mission effectiveness and human lives is probably greater than for any other energy user in the world.’

The Office of Naval Research, in the meanwhile, remains committed to the development of alternative energy sources and is moving forward with a new research effort, “The Energy Systems Technology and Evaluation Program.” The evaluation program is bringing together key players during a five-year period to conduct real-world tests on advancing energy technologies at the Navy and Marine corps installations.

Chief of Naval Research Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder made the case for the program in a recent report: “The life blood of innovation is in new ideas and you don’t get new ideas without collaboration across industry, academia and DOD. The partnerships at work under this new program and the alternative energy technologies we are exploring are vital to our energy independence and to the training and education of our sailor and marine energy work force.”

In addition to evaluating and testing alternative energy technologies, the ESTEP program looks to give Department of Navy, personnel training and education opportunities to become part of the future energy workforce.

Partnerships with the energy industry include a new energy curriculum at the Naval Postgraduate School, as well as courses for veterans and wounded warriors at San Diego State University. These programs focus on innovative commercial energy technologies obtained from open-market sources, including small businesses. They also study business side of energy technologies by analyzing the costs, savings and return on investment of different efforts.

“ESTEP is a great opportunity to put alternative energy programs on Navy and Marine Corps bases and really understand how it’s going to work in the field. We’re taking this new energy frontier into a realistic working environment” , an ONR program officer Sharon Beermann-Curtin told Publication TK recently.

There is little doubt about the benefits of embracing alternative fuels for the military. The debate is about the logistical and realistic framework within which this can be made a possibility. An increase in DoD renewable fuel use would contribute to US national security interests, achieve service energy security goals and offer military utility. However, it is also obvious that the projected supply of drop-in renewable fuels will not be sufficient to meet anticipated DoD demands for renewable jet fuel products. The budgetary implications will also need to be taken into account, as price premiums for drop-in renewable fuels may be considerable.

By Karuna Kumar

“I’m a firm believer that sustainability should be about opportunities and not sacrifices and with creativity, innovative thinking and passion, we can actually create a better future. That’s what gets me up in the morning and it’s great to be doing it with a brand that can bring some fun to the agenda, too,” says Katie Chapman, Acting Head of Sustainability and Reporting at Virgin Media.

Chapman oversees the delivery of the company’s sustainability strategy and makes sure she communicates the progress of her efforts to employees with transparency and creativity.

“We’re working hard to embed sustainability into how we do business, making it everyone’s responsibility. Our CR & Sustainability team is relatively small while the rest of our team focus on Virgin Media’s social investment activities.”

Cisco on the other hand depends on a network of Green Ambassadors who work under the leadership of an executive sponsor to integrate sustainability into the fabric of the business. Each of the Green Ambassadors at Cisco hold a dual citizenship which means that in addition to their defined roles within the organization, they also execute the sustainability strategy with their country and region.

“I believe passionately in the need for society to change its relationship with our environment. This is not limited to climate change, but extends to resource exploitation and our collective response to these joint challenges,” says Ian Walker, who currently leads Cisco’s UKI Sustainable Operations initiative, worldwide.

Walker believes that in spite of the proven urgency, few nations are prepared to risk losing competitive advantage by assuming unilateral costs:

“Most citizens are similarly not yet prepared radically to change their behaviour voluntarily. It is therefore up to corporations to take a lead both in creating new markets and enabling the seismic shifts required to reduce our dependency on carbon and increasingly scarce resources.”

Virgin Media’s digital approach

Speaking of the ways to adopt sustainability within large organisations, Chapman and Walker offer insightful narratives.

“Virgin Media is still a young business, so we’re quite early on in our sustainability journey. The past couple of years have been more about making sure we’ve got the right structures and processes in place on the issues that matter. Our biggest initiative has been the launch and development of our new, exclusively digital approach to reporting. The main idea that underpins our approach to content is show not tell,” explains Chapman.

Virgin Media’s sustainability website offers the latest news, interviews with key people and articles and HD videos about their progress on the sustainability journey. From the new teardrop lorries, to closed loop paper system to what it’s like being a female apprentice, employees generate content using flip cams and display what’s going on behind the scenes to the make the business more sustainable.

“We’ve found that there’s no better way to engage our employees in our sustainability story than by making them the stars of the show,” she adds.

When making the film titled, “The Little Red Box”, internal teams approached Chapman with their own ideas about content. The piece came about as a result of the logistics team wanting to tell the story of the Quickstart packaging solution, which can be re-used up to 7 times.

Sustainability at Cisco

Providing insight about the approach to sustainability at Cisco, Walker says, “In 2006, we established the Cisco EcoBoard, focused on combining the power of innovation with collaboration to create the most sustainable model for addressing global climate change. This model ensures that our sustainability strategy remains intimately aligned with our business priorities by means of four key capabilities: market access, market enablement, differentiation, and positioning/competition.”

Implementing that strategy led Cisco to reduce its carbon output by more than 27% in a single year primarily by shifting internal business collaboration from air-travel to the pervasive use of technology. Cisco’s own use of Telepresence video conferencing has achieved 330,000 tonnes in carbon reduction from unnecessary flights which consequently led to over $500m in cost savings and thousands of hours of saved productivity.

“It’s a powerful message, and proof that technology really can change behaviour in a positive way,” Walker points out.

Two initiatives that have stood out in particular for Walker was Cisco’s partnership with BT to launch the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that works with the industry, academia and young people to promote the concept of a Circular Economy and an employee-led initiative to harvest honey.

Illustrating Cisco’s corporate and individual engagement in sustainability, the two initiatives whilst being radically different, are at the core of making sustainability a key strand in Cisco’s growth and expansion strategy.

Challenges to approach

Taking a digital approach has helped Virgin Media reduce the roadblocks to achieving sustainability. How so? Chapman explains, “It has made the whole process a lot more straightforward. It gives us a flexible approach that means we can tailor content to different audiences. We can update the content instantaneously, so it’s never out of date. It enables us to actually show people what we’re doing in a way that fits with our brand.

“After all, we’re a digital business, so why wouldn’t we put digital at the heart of our approach to telling our sustainability story?”

At Cisco, the biggest challenges are more external than internal.

“With the financial crisis, many people are focused on more immediate threats caused by job losses, instability and economic uncertainty. There are still too many heavyweight naysayers casting doubt on the validity and impact of man-made global warming. Even the government has recently pulled back from some of its earlier commitments to focus on carbon-reduction. As Dr. James Martin has said, there is a danger that only a catastrophe will bring about the necessary will to change,” says Walker.

The role of corporations therefore becomes critical.

According to the SMART 2020 Report, ICT has the potential to reduce global emissions up to 15% by 2020.

Greenpeace identifies Cisco as the leading technology change to create meaningful solutions, such as EnergyWise, that enable active energy management.

Demonstrating the seriousness with which Cisco is committed towards sustainability, Walker highlights some of the recent key initiatives. “Our EMEA CEO, Chris Dedicoat, has been a key influencer in the decision to support Ellen MacArthur’s work and its influence on the Circular Economy. He has also recently appointed a Senior Director to lead sustainability in Europe, thereby further raising the profile of the Green agenda. We have set ourselves ambitious targets further to reduce carbon emissions by 25% by the end of 2012,” Walker says.

Collaboration with internal comms teams and embedding employee engagement

“Sustainability is something that can’t be siloed or isolated from other parts of the business so it’s really important to take an integrated approach. As a Virgin brand, it’s really important that we approach things with the kind of personality you’d expect from us – fun, human, straightforward. Just because we’re talking about sustainability, it doesn’t mean we should change any of this,” says Chapman.

Nearly two thirds of people who responded to Virgin Media’s engagement survey, Heartbeat, said that Virgin Media’s social and environmental performance is particularly important to them.

“Engaging our employees in sustainability is not so much about helping us meet our targets. It’s more about demonstrating what kind of company we are. And that’s really important to us,” Chapman explains.

In March 2011, Cisco formed the Sustainability Steering Group to accelerate its efforts to engage specific business units in Cisco with a critical role to play in emissions-reduction.

“Indeed without the power of internal communications, much of the impact of our efforts would be compromised. As with all large companies, Cisco employees struggle with the fire hose of information received, so the positioning and timing of sustainability communications dictates its impact to a large degree. Employees respond most effectively when there is an integral link between sustainability messaging and our overall go-to-market strategy,” says Walker.

Cisco organizes a bi-annual e-Scrap day where employees can bring in their old electronic equipment and Cisco takes care of its recycling reflecting its commitment to maximise the utilisation of components and rare-metals in addition to links to their work on the Circular Economy and closing the loop on product creation and utilization.

Feedback

“We’re in the middle of this year’s engagement survey as we speak and I can’t share any results yet but we’ve had loads of comments and messages of support from our staff. Like most sustainability teams, we don’t have the budgets of the marketing department but this year, we’ve learned that with great ideas, we can create really innovative and engaging content. We’ll definitely be doing more of that in 2012,” Chapman says.

Walker believes that there are still too many people for whom sustainability is not a priority, for a variety of often very cogent reasons. There are radical changes that can be made, like mandating air-travel reduction, but it is only possible where realistic alternatives, like Telepresence and Webex, are available and pervasive.

“The key is to implement policies and practices which are reasonable, and enable people to perform their jobs, but with a lower energy usage or smaller carbon footprint, and to keep doing this incrementally, year on year. The Cisco-on-Cisco story is very powerful: as a large Enterprise of more than 60,000 people, we use our own employees to test our products and demonstrate the productivity, cost and carbon savings that can be made,” says Walker.

Technology such as EnergyWise is a non-intrusive way of introducing energy management to the desktop, enabling power-down to device-level.

“Although there are mixed feelings about removing the responsibility for powering down your own laptop or desk phone, for me it is more important to achieve the end result of reducing consumption,” he adds.

Lessons for 2012

Moving into 2012, the biggest challenge that Walker sees is to maintain mindshare with employees, reflecting the wider dilution of the climate change agenda globally. The idea is to maintain a longer-term perspective in Cisco’s sustainability strategy by continuing engagement in the circular economy development and the impact that it promises for the supply chain. The cloud strategy is also seen as a key enabler of sustainability by facilitating access to services and applications on an as-needed basis.

On a conclusive note, Walker says, “It is perhaps a cliché, but I continue to hold in my mind a conversation that I will have with my children in 20 years’ time when they ask why we prevaricated for so long in acting on climate change and its implications. I want to avoid that sense of guilt, which accompanies pointing a finger in the direction of politicians and other world leaders when I answer.”

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“It’s not a corporate thing, it’s a Virgin Media thing.”

By Karuna Kumar

“Everyone knows how the Rupert Murdoch story ended: with a kind of giant heave of revulsion at what his employees had been up to and with a multi-million pound merger stopped in its tracks by the most overwhelming parliamentary vote anyone can remember,” says Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the Guardian as he pens down his thoughts for the recently released, Guardian Shots, that reveals how the Guardian continued to pursue the story.

Deeply ingrained in arrests, drowned in numerous civil actions, the phone hacking scandal stands as one isolated case that has shaken prolific aspects of British and American civic life. Policing, politics, media and regulation all stand in chaos and embarrassment.

The man who broke this explosive story, Nick Davies, Special Correspondent at the National News Desk at the Guardian spoke to simply-communicate humbly explaining how he got to the end of the story.

“Simply, I had a phone call from somebody who knew the truth and who wanted me to bring it out.”

At a time when the majority of Fleet Street were turning a blind eye to the phone-hacking issue, Davies continued to religiously pursue the case and remorselessly produce one revelatory story after another.

When it all began: 2006

News of the World’s royal editor, Clive Goodman, writes a story about Prince William’s injured knee. The first seeds of suspicion are sown. Suspicions leads police officials to interrogate deeper into the matter and arrest Goodman and the private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire on charges of intercepting the voice-mail messages of three employees of the royalty.

In a recent report published by the Guardian, Nick Davies reveals that Clive Goodman, on being imprisoned in 2007, wrote a letter to News International’s (NI) HR chief, Daniel Clark. In the letter, Goodman appeals against the decision of News International to terminate his employment and points to the promise of a secure job made by NOTW editor Colin Myler and Tom Crone, the paper’s legal boss, on grounds of maintaining silence while in prison so that the paper does not get implicated.

Though Goodman was sacked from his job at the News of the World after his conviction, he subsequently received payments from News International totaling £243,500—far more than the company has admitted.

“Does the letter imply that Goodman was offered an inducement to withhold knowledge of criminality from the police and courts?” Davies questions in his revelatory report.

Murdoch openly denied any phone hacking culture amid these allegations.

Guardian’s continuous efforts to investigate into further such cases of wrongdoing within NOTW lead the Press Complaints Commission in May 2007 to publish its first hacking report confirming no reports of wider wrongdoing. Myler was able to prove that Goodman was just one rogue case who had deceived the employer.

Hacking revisited: 2009

In 2009, the Guardian reopened the story.

Reports revealed that NOTW paid £1 million to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal more incidents of wrongdoing within the organisation. In addition, the Metropolitan Police had not alerted those whose phones had been targeted and the Crown prosecution service had failed to pursue possible charges against News Corp.

In the same year, it was revealed that NOTW paid £700,000 as out of court settlement in legal costs and damages and asked the court to seal the case that Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballer’s Association had alleged against NOTW on grounds of his phone having been hacked.

What was most interesting to view around this time was the way David Cameron and George Osborn continued to embrace Andy Coulson with a protective arm and insisted that their communications director would not be forced to stand down.

In 2010, the Guardian names more hacking victims. NOTW continues to settle legal cases out of court. There are confirmed reports that link Andy Coulson to four private investigators. These recurring incidents lead former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott to call for a judicial review.

On being asked if it bothered him that he was a lonely figure in reporting these events and if he would continue to pursue this agenda further with other newspapers, Davies says, “We have to follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

Despite confirmed reports, the Press Commission failed to investigate and garner further evidence. What followed and carried into 2011 were a slew of confessions and criminal convictions.

Explosive revelations

The most explosive evidence that shook News International was the revelation of the Milly Dowler case.

Rusbridger recalls, “What caused a surge of revulsion was the revelation that Nick Davies made about the NOTW journalist hacking into the phone calls of the missing Milly Dowler, deleting her voice mails so that they could listen to new ones. Rarely has a single story had such a volcanic effect.”

Operation Weeting launched

The initiative launched in 2011 to investigate the allegations of phone hacking, conducted alongside Operation Elveden looking into allegations of inappropriate payments to the police by the alleged hackers.

It was revealed in March 2011 that Jonathan Rees, previously convicted of murder was hired by NOTW as a private investigator. Links have been established between Rees and corrupt officials who earned £150,000 a year from NOTW for supplying illegally obtained information.

In light of the above issues, Davies categorically says, “Bribing is illegal. We’re not allowed to do it. I’ve never paid a cent of a bribe, nor ever seen the need to. If there are skills in reporting, the most important of them are around persuading people to talk to us – bribing officials or police doesn’t come into it.”

Academic insight

Paul Dwyer, a former BBC journalist and currently the course leader of International Business Media at University of Westminster, shares his views on why phone hacking at newspapers was not uncovered earlier, considering it was common practice at Fleet Street.

“It is complicated. Police officials always assumed that you didn’t prosecute Journalists considering they were ostensibly involved in public interest activities. Journalists were always after the bad guys and the police was always after the bad guys,” says Dwyer.

He adds, “Another reason was that other newspapers didn’t want to report it. The problem is that we have a tradition of self-regulation in the press. So like doctors and lawyers, you take it for granted that they are professionals and you trust them.”

Rupert Murdoch

In a recent event at the LSE, ‘What’s next for Rupert Murdoch’, biographer Michael Wolff and author of ‘The Man who Sold the News’, gave an inside look at the controversial newspaper publisher.

“He has built an empire around tabloid newspapers whose raison d’être is to catch people in their most vulnerable moments. That’s what he does and that’s what makes newspapers sell.”

“2.7 million people read News of the World and I am sure Rupert is thinking to himself, where did they think this stuff was coming from?” he exclaims.

He points out that Murdoch is bad with dates, names and abstractions and tends to lose track of the conversation when he takes long pauses mid-sentence.

Does the fact that Murdoch has lost support from the Parliament and a vote of confidence from the public unsettle him? To this Wolff responds, “An interesting and fundamental thing about Rupert is that he doesn’t seek affirmation.”

Dr. Daya Thussu, Professor of International Communication at Westminster speaks of the theory of Murdochisation which refers to the excessive marketisation of journalism. “Murdoch is at the forefront of this excessive commodification of news and that news is primarily based on two things – celebrity and sport,” Thussu says.

“This incident demonstrated in all its glory the toxic nexus between politics and popular press that leads to excessive marketisation of news which in turn encourages criminal offences within journalism. Hacking phones, making up stories, lying in private and public conversations are all a result of that nexus,” he adds.

Dwyer believes that there must be an external body for regulation. “While I do know that people think otherwise, I do feel that this incident clearly reflects the need for an external body to regulate and monitor the media. People might argue that after all, it was the Guardian that revealed bad practice but let us not forget that it was just one paper that was consistently pursuing the issue whilst all other papers continued to ignore reporting the issue for as long as they possibly could.”

What does all this mean for communicators?

Post the parliamentary committee proceedings numerous questions about the internal culture at News International and the lack of consistency in confessions made by senior management enveloped the issue.

Indranath Neology, a veteran communications consultant says, “One lesson for every business person from the NOTW scandal is that you cannot sacrifice ethics for profit. It works in the short term but in the long term the damage can destroy your reputation and your company.”

He adds, “Another lesson is about the handling of the crisis – the repeated attempts to cover up bad news and wrongdoing eventually just amplified the impact when the details came out. Part of the communicator’s brief is to present things in the best light possible, but this scandal highlights that two common strategies can go very badly wrong: One is a lack of clarity internally about messages being made public and two of omitting details to make things look better.”

On numerous occasions companies do benefit from non-disclosure and while it is unwise to speak about details that have not been investigated enough, Neology believes that a communication plan must be in place.

Communication expert and change consultant, Tim Johns, holds the view that the communications and media profession is not alone in facing ethical dilemmas. Many people are often faced with having to make difficult decisions based on an interpretation of what is right in a given context. To have a lodestone to guide you at such moments is the first step.

Johns says, “The CIPR’s Code of Conduct is an excellent example and covers areas such as professional integrity, confidentiality, competence and transparency. You also need to be aware of the rules covering market abuse, especially if you are dealing with the media.”

One of the high-risk areas for communication professionals lies in conveying messages that are deliberately disingenuous that act as a smokescreen to what’s really happening.

“The most difficult position to be in is having to not tell the truth. Obviously one should never lie: not only is it unethical but, as the truth has a habit of always coming out eventually, it can affect one’s personal credibility. If you do find yourself in a tricky situation I would recommend sharing it with confidential advisors,” Johns further explains.

Looking forward

As for long-term effects of the NOTW scandal, Davies appears relatively unphased.

“I think people may be exaggerating the long-term impact of all this. The immediate goal is to make sure that the judicial inquiry into press regulation comes up with helpful proposals,” Davies points out.

By Karuna Kumar

It’s black. It’s fizzy. It’s what 85% of the population world over can’t live without: Coca-Cola.

Based in Atlanta, the Coca-Cola Company produces the concentrate that is sold to licensed Coca-Cola bottlers throughout the world. One such bottler that falls under the category of the largest single Coca-Cola bottler in Western Europe is Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE). Post purchasing the bottling rights in Netherlands, CCE began significant European expansion. Acquisition of bottling rights ensued in Belgium, France and Great Britain. It now also has Luxembourg and Monaco under its umbrella.

CCE presently has over 13,000 employees across Europe. In 2010, the Coca-Cola Company acquired all of CCE’s North American territory. CCE retained its European operations and acquired bottling rights in Norway and Sweden.

Rodney Jordan is Director of Employee Communications at Coca-Cola Enterprises, overseeing British and European territories.

“Through our initiatives, we communicate to all 13,000 employees across Europe as the HR communication and employee communication department, ” Jordan explains.

Presenting a more strategic insight into his role, Jordan explains how global messaging and local flexibility lie at the core of his communication strategy. “We have to make sure that things resonate the right way in a different country and culture. So we develop an enterprise wise strategy.”

Structure

The communication structure at Coca Cola Enterprises is unique. It is compartmentalized into two departments – Public Affairs and Communication and HR communication.

Jordan explains, “While public affairs and communication focuses its work on public affairs, public communication and internal communication within each of the different countries, HR communication lies within HR and does broad messaging around employee engagement and the employee value proposition”.

While both are separate entities, the two divisions collaborate on certain projects. Giving an example, Jordan points to the internal magazine and says, “The public affairs and communications department produces this, but we have added content to this. We both have our own set of vehicles to get across to the employees.”

“Our innovation and strategy is targeted at employees and managers and our topics are different from the issues of public affairs that are focused around what’s happening in the business as a whole and what’s happening in different countries,” he adds.

HR communication focuses on performance around development. In 2008-2009, one HR organisation evolved within CCE. With that came the need to consistently communicate with employees from an HR perspective about what was happening within the business and broaden the communications to a new HR model.

“So, it is a fairly new function of the CCE, about two years old. That is why there is a unique sort of environment at CCE,” Jordan says.

While the HR communications team is based in UK and team members look over activities in all the seven European countries, it is not regionally divided; the Public affairs team is spread across a wide range of geography.

Diversity of employees

The average age of employees at CCE is around 32-33 years. Jordan speaks of a great diversity of ages, gender and culture within the organisation. He mentions a 60:40 split of wired (desk-based) employees and non-wired staff who are constantly on the move.

Jordan says the company is heavily committed to cultural sensitivity.

“Our messages are not only global but also have a regional resonance. We are very cautious of what messages we deliver, where. We translate all our messages to make sure that people really get our messages across different locations.” This is particularly true with change management. When any new initiative is rolled out, Jordan and his team keep in mind the consequences of those initiatives.

Capabilities: HR communication team

Jordan highlights the varied initiatives that HR communication undertakes at CCE. Pointing to the pie (below) Jordan remarks, “This is 80% realistic and 20% aspirational. Based on the annual plan of what’s going to happen, we use this to set the agenda”.

Channels

Starting with the Intranet, Jordan explains the various activities taking place on the intranet to keep employees well engaged. The intranet pages are well designed and have a meticulous architecture giving sufficient space for every initiative.

My workbench is the manager’s dashboard while My profile caters to employee details and updates. The underlying bed is Microsoft Sharepoint 2008 which also enables an instant messaging service.

Jordan recalls, “The intranet came into place as a result of putting one HR function in place at CCE and having a vehicle for executive and company messages. From an HR perspective, while we put a good system in place, we did not think of a way to continuously improve it. It is important to consistently improve that experience for viewers and interact regularly. We made the intranet accessible from home and kiosks and have begun a branding initiative. Also, HR managers are made to understand and monitor the traffic to reach a sound understanding of their employees’ activities.”

Jordan describes the HR Teamsite as a one-stop shop for HR managers and HR to Business as a monthly HR bulletin.

As for translations, Jordan lays emphasis on seeking support of one vendor to support the entire company thereby managing costs and ensuring consistency. “This is very important from a diversity point of view. We need to speak to employees in a language they understand. We decided to use one vendor for all the translations and now there is one glossary that we all use as an organisation. It is the most cost effective way because we have so many different languages and we may have additional languages in the future. We brought consistency to translations across the world and had a control on spending.”

Each month, the HR Communication department holds an HR connect call which falls under the category of HR for HR. Previously the call only catered to North America and Europe. “Not everybody used to understand the same language. We hence changed the name and structure of the call in 2010 and saw the participation numbers rise from 10 to 110,” Jordan recalls.

Emails, brochures, town halls and videos all fall under Ad Hoc.

Change communications

This is one of the most significant capabilities of the HR communication function. As explained by Jordan, this function is all about connecting the employees with the business. Under change communication, the biggest thing has been drawing up the Employee Value Proposition. “We developed this into a branding and messaging service. We started out by telling people that the employee engagement survey is coming this year and how that engagement survey will help us build the employee value proposition. One of the key things is people talking, listening and acting.”

Explaining this initiative in further detail, he continues, “One of the tactical things we did is we gave a brochure to everyone telling them what engagement at CCE means along with what their feedback has been thus far. We developed an online news channel called CGW News (Connect, Grow, Win) that shows examples of employee engagement. We have engagement champions and have developed a section on our intranet dedicated to videos & articles about engagement. Once the survey is done, we now have a vehicle to keep the interaction ongoing. It’s not just a simple project, it is the backbone of everything we do and why we do it.”

Measurement

Jordan is a big fan of having sound measurement techniques in place. “We developed the brochure only to give some tangible feedback in hand that would clearly articulate the strategy. It was important to give specific feedback telling people how we would be responding to that conversation.”

He explained that the team measured traffic to My profile and my My Workbench on the intranet and as a result, he now knows that managers visit the Dashboard 8 times a month and employees go to my Profile 3 times a month. “Ultimately we would want all those numbers to increase,” Jordan points out.

Measurement of the traffic on the HR Teamsite revealed that from 5 daily visitors, the traffic surged to 110 daily visitors.

“We also have a commercial academy which is a consolidation of the curriculum for our employees. Be it customer management or marketing, we put it all together in the curriculum,” explains Jordan.

The future

The challenge for any communication professional lies in how they add strategic value to an organisation. For Jordan it lies in the balance he achieves in how he divides the capability pie.

“I would want to spend more time in the change communication space and in making improvements to our intranet. I think those are big opportunities there. It’s really just making sure that we are satisfied with the kind of support we supply so that we can always try to be better at it.”

By Karuna Kumar

Some flee their homes in the face of war or civil strife; others may be the victims of natural disasters like floods, droughts, earthquakes and hurricanes. They all comprise one billion people across the world who struggle to get food.

“The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian agency. We are fighting hunger, which is a killer like no other. Hunger kills more people than tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria combined,” says Caroline Hurford, Senior Public Information Officer of the World Food Programme (WFP).

WFP works in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The famine that hit the Horn of Africa last month has already killed tens of thousands of people. According to a recent estimate by FAO, the UN needs $1.6 billion in the next 12 months to provide aid to the region; 12 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda require emergency assistance. WFP is currently reaching more than 11 million people throughout the Horn.

The need for food aid has become a global problem. The severity of the food crisis calls for prompt action. Hurford relates her efforts in communicating these messages globally and garnering support for the cause worldwide.

The team behind the cause

WFP has around 11,000 staff members based in 80 countries, 90% of whom are from and based in developing countries.

Being 100% voluntarily funded, the organisation largely depends on voluntary contributions from governments and corporate partners and urges individuals to contribute. The United Kingdom is among the top ten countries that give the most aid to the WFP, while Hurford credits the United States for helping to feed Darfur and Sudan.

Communicating during the famine in Africa

Hurford explains:

“We have three public information officers based in Nairobi, who cover the whole of East Africa, and have been watching this drought gather momentum. Our colleagues in Nairobi and Rome have been observing the situation closely and gathering information from our partners based in the field. The public information officers facilitate this flow of information, worldwide, helping us to ramp up interest. We inform the governments of donor countries and explain the severity of the food crisis and urge them to respond.”

Despite WFP’s best efforts to alert the international community, the response has been slow. Having been forced to cut its rations as late as March, due to lack of funds, WFP’s Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, travelled around the region again recently, in a bid to raise international support.

Response of the global community

Hurford says:

“It’s generally only when you get the TV cameras in there, and the dreadful images of skeletal children appear on screen, that the international community wakes up to the cause.”

When governments fail to step up the plate, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC, an umbrella for 14 non-governmental organisations) gets UK mainstream media coverage to reach out to the man and woman on the street. The DEC has gathered 20 million pounds so far this way.

Channels of communication – external

“In addition to a public information assistant, I am also supported by a youth outreach consultant. The consultant helps me to tap into schools and colleges and this spreads the word. Schools realise that food is core to development and progress and we are gathering student ambassadors to go and reach out to others,” explains Hurford.

Due to tight budgets, WFP does not spend money on advertising as a means of communication. In recent times, it has begun to harness the power of social media.

“With social media, we have entered a completely different world of communications; Twitter and Facebook are huge new drivers of getting our messages across and LinkedIn helps us to reach out to the corporate world in times of a disaster,” says Hurford.

Staying ahead of the social media curve is what she advocates. The WFP’s public information officers were summoned for a social media training at the headquarters in Rome earlier this year with the aim of furthering WFP’s aims in fighting hunger.

“Now, it would be pretty indefensible to spend money on advertising if we are told that 79% of people trust what their peers say about organisations on Facebook. We want the maximum amount of money raised, to go to the beneficiary rather than invest in advertisements,” Hurford adds.

Internal communications

Pipeline is WFP’s employee magazine which Hurford edited back in 2002 when she joined the organisation.

“It was great fun and I loved working on it. It basically revolved around the stories from staff in the field. It might be something really silly like the longest snake ever found in the Nairobi office and how the program officer tackled the issue and turned out to be a hero. People love to read about their colleagues and what they are upto in the field. They love seeing photographs of people they know and they have worked with”.

WFP Go is the organisation’s intranet and has grown from a primitive tool into a channel that is regularly updated with interesting stories and a highly popular section called ‘Star snapped in action’. Anybody across the organisation can take a picture of their colleagues in action, add a caption and post it under the ‘Star snapped in action’.

Interaction with the head office

The WFP headquarters in Rome has appointed a Head of Internal Communications who has regular meetings with PI’s (Public Information officers) across the world.

“HQ holds a weekly session where a senior member of staff talks about their work and their challenges. I find it a good means of internal communication,” Hurford points out.

She adds, “It is great because we get to interact with our colleagues who may have been on a trip somewhere and this gives them an opportunity to share their experiences with all of us.”

Partnering with NGOs

In communicating with the masses, of essence to an organisation like the World Food Program is an intensive partnership with NGOs. From food to fuel to financial, the NGOs play a crucial role in assisting WFP in delivering critical food and nutrition assistance.

NGOs are described as instrumental in increasing WFP’s global deep field presence and essential in both short and long term responses to hunger. WFP partners with NGOs from 34 countries of which 55% are in Europe. The United States has the highest number of NGOs collaborating with WFP.

One such partner working with WFP for over 20 years is World Vision. In recent times, WFP in collaboration with World vision has implemented a number of school feeding programs, food for work programs and cash for work programs.

Highlighting some of the challenges faced, Walter Middleton, Partnership Leader at World Vision says, “While there have been significant gains working in partnership with WFP, occasionally we do confront a few challenges. One of them is lack of sufficient funding from WFP for development type programs which leads to food pipeline breaks. Also with the short duration of our programs, it is difficult to plan and retain staff.”

He adds, “I would like our partnership to lead to more food for work/cash projects and I would be keen to see World Vision and WFP approach donors jointly for food and funding in the future.”

Partnering with corporates

“While the support of NGOs is fundamental to our approach, I would be very keen to actively continue to partner with corporates like Unilever especially in the area of internal communications. I believe they could share key insights on the practice of internal communication and help us improve our game. Corporates gain a lot of kudos out of partnering with us and it would be helpful if they would share their experience with us. This is what partnership is all about,” says Hurford.

The future

Stationed in a competitive world and yearning for the money to fight hunger, of utmost significance for the WFP is continuing and active support of governments, corporates and the public.

In Hurford’s opinion, it is only through constant engagement with the public that WFP can gain more support. WFP must use traditional and social media alike to advocate and communicate, the plight of those suffering across Africa and Asia.

Hurford says, “We have to remember that in some ways, the humanitarian aid story may only ever be a kind of a sidebar; the main story is always about how many people are dying and who is trying to steal food aid etc. In disasters like a Tsunami, suddenly the efforts we’ve made all through the year get drowned in media scepticism and public scrutiny. This must change.”

By Karuna Kumar

Some things in life are better seen than read.

RSAnimates is an initiative that was sparked off in December 2009 by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). With its new strapline, 21st century Enlightenment, the RSA seeks to enhance human capability in the modern world. Aimed at improving the quality of people’s lives, the charitable foundation has 27,000 fellows across the world and is committed to the cause of gaining from the power of cumulative minds.

As Jeremy Rifkin, President, The Foundation on Economic Trends puts it in one of his lectures at the RSA, “There is no place better than the British Royal Society for Arts because this is the place that started the discussion for the modern world.”

RSAnimates has created a furore on the video sharing website, YouTube, as it innovatively adds pictures to words. If the numbers could explain it, the RSAnimates series has witnessed 19,400,000 views of its videos and its YouTube channel qualifies for being the most subscribed not-for-profit channel on YouTube.

If that doesn’t speak enough of the accolades it has won, the RSA’s events are also the number one audio podcast in the UK on iTunes and have over 8,000 followers on Twitter and 17,200 fans on Facebook.

Curiosity about this overwhelming success led me to speak to Abi Stephenson who’s been intrinsically involved in the research, production and programming of RSAnimates. Stephenson is a researcher and programmer in the events team, which sits within the External Affairs Department of the RSA.

The idea

Director of External Affairs, RSA, Nina Bolognesi says, “The germ of the idea for RSAnimates was a moment of sheer inspiration on the part of my colleague, and 90% of the credit goes to that colleague. The other 10% should be attributed to the fact that the External Affairs team recognized it to be a great idea and put all their energies behind it to make it land.”

RSAnimates gives RSA access to a new generation who would not normally sit down and listen to lectures or event podcasts. It has opened its doors to stimulate conversations with a new audience.

Andrew Park is the man whose magical hands have been instrumental in bringing so much traction to RSAnimates. Park is a fellow of the RSA and currently Director of Cognitive Media. “We asked Andrew to draw us an illustrated analysis of one of our events for the RSA Journal. It was just a static illustration initially, but we decided to bring it to life by adding the audio track and animating all the images,” recalls Stephenson.

The success

Despite the modest expectations of Stephenson and her team, RSAnimates went viral in May 2010. “We knew that through RSAnimates we would expand our viewership gradually, but we did not remotely expect it to be this successful in such a short span of time,” Stephenson says.

The success of RSAnimates could stand evidence to how strong content when shared on social networks can make a profound impact on millions across the world. “It is overwhelming to receive emails from 14 years olds who write in to say that they would have never sat through the lecture but have thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the RSAnimate series.”

RSAnimates have also been shortlisted for a Webby Award, honouring excellence on the internet including websites, interactive advertising and online film and video. RSAnimates came in second place in the People’s Choice category.

“The turning point for us was Dan Pink’s RSAnimate, ‘Drive’ which examines the interconnected ideas of creativity, motivation and purpose. It currently runs on 5,889,633 views. Another one that went viral was Sir Ken Robinson’s Changing Education Paradigms. Both videos have been revolutionary for us,” Stephenson points out.

Content creation

While the final frame might look spotless, the efforts put behind to achieve just that are painstakingly meticulous. “It is a nerve-wracking process to pull 10 minutes out of an hour ensuring that the context and thesis are maintained and the content is visual enough for illustrating. We look for aspects of arguments that will really move people and prompt debates and conversations globally,” explains Stephenson.

Issues of accents and presentation style are some of the challenges that the team struggles with while ensuring that the content they create is universally appealing.

While millions across the world laud most of the content on RSAnimates, sensitive issues see some backlash.

To name a few, Choice by Renata Salecl and The Internet in Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens. “Critiques of capitalism have seen some strong resistance. Issues that relate to ideology or that question deeply-held assumptions do tend to stimulate passionate discussion – but we consider it a success just to have got people talking,” Stephenson explains.

So how to respond? Stephenson believes that intervention would only fuel fire. Self-regulation within the online community is what RSA maintains on such occasions with exception to remarks that might be racist, sexist, homophobic or bigoted in nature. Such comments are usually deleted.

Facing challenges

Bolognesi adds, “We have learnt that there are challenges to turning a global online community into an off–line community. How do we encourage people to engage fully and actively with the ideas contained in the RSAnimates, and take action beyond simply watching and enjoying them? If we could harness the potential of those 20 million viewers we could have a very powerful movement indeed.”

What makes RSA unique?

The RSA is a completlely unique institution – it combines socially progressive research with practical action, has a diverse international fellowship, and provides a free platform for conversation around the latest world-changing ideas. We are attempting to move beyond the individualistic, ‘homo-economicus’ view of human nature and society, and toward a more cooperative, empathetic and community-centred one.

Accepting the challenges that the 21st Century brings in, Bolognesi says, “Tackling the challenges requires us to draw on the best thinking and new evidence about the world around us. Our events programme is widely recognized as one of the most exciting in the UK. However RSAnimate took us to a totally different level, and positioned the RSA as a global brand able to reach out to an audience of over 20 million worldwide.”

What’s next?

While RSAnimate series has met stupendous success, the vision to continue strengthening public debate and providing free platforms for debate, discussion and for sharing the best new thinking across a range of disciplines pushes the teams to keep itself abreast with new tools and means.

Stephenson reveals:

“We have brand new partnerships with Mixcloud, Blackberry Podcasts (for audio and podcasts), Hulu TV in America and ABC TV in Australia (videos). We are also launching an international film competition to encourage new creative talent. The competition will allow members of the public to come up with a unique short film that communicates some of the ideas from our events programme.”

By Karuna Kumar

If an army of bankers marched into a local school and decided to run it for a day, the first impression one would draw is that of utter chaos or a callously designed PR campaign.

That was not the case when the retail HR team of Lloyds Banking Group decided to do just that. “Back to School” is what they called the initiative and the underlying purpose was to make a radical departure from regular conferences organized annually by the group.

“The idea was to take the people out of their comfort zone and show them what they are capable of. We felt it would equip the employees with the confidence to accept the changes that were coming through in the next 12 months. We wanted to engage and inspire them so that they feel proud of where they are working,” explains Janine Osborn, who worked with Russell Martin, Retail HR Director of Lloyds Banking Group.

From an idea to an event

While annual conferences are often the way companies choose to share their future strategy and apprise employees of the progress they have made in the past year, holding one in a school is rarely heard. Osborn recalls how the idea took shape:

“The idea initially came from the HR function of the Lloyds Banking Group who had signed to a school’s partnership program for charity. When someone visited my boss asking about the school partnership program, an idea struck him as to why we shouldn’t conduct the conference in a school this year.”

Soon a full-fledged event was in the works. Not only would the conference occupy the entire space of the school, the idea grew to actually running it for a day. The event involved senior managers of the Retail HR and Communication function who are essentially responsible for nearly 60,000 people across Lloyds.

Karen Sawyer, Head of Events for Retail at the financial institution, says, “This was ground breaking for us. It was the first time we had actually gone out to the school, taken it over for a day and worked with the community in that way.”

While the working title of the conference was “Back to School” for Lloyds employees, the title used for the students was “Be the Best You Can Be.”

Preparing for school

The Retail HR function at Lloyds Banking Group looked to leading events agency, drpgroup, to help them stage the event.

The first task at hand was choosing a school. However, this wasn’t going to be easy considering there were a few criteria to be filled. It was essential to find a school that required some support; whose management was willing to listen to new ideas; and one that had the facilities to accommodate an event of such a large scale.

Osborn says, “One of the reasons that events of this nature occur rarely is because it is difficult to find a school that meets all of the above criteria. I have to accept that it was purely through personal networking that I was able to get our feet into a school that fit our needs.”

St Mark’s Church of England Academy in Mitcham was the school that was finally chosen. It was visited by 180 of the banking group’s employees to lend an educative and inspiring experience to the children.

Dale Parmenter, Managing Director, drpgroup, remembers, “At first I don’t think it sunk it. I took the brief as though it was any other event. But the realisation actually sunk in at the first meeting with the school’s head teacher who asked me – ‘how many of these have you done before?’ I realized this was going to be different.”

Driven with passion and a genuine interest for making a difference in the lives of the school children, the team was committed to making the event a meaningful one. From choosing the lessons to deliver, to drawing the lesson plans and arranging for all the equipment, the preparations began with full steam.

Reaction of employees

When the initiative was introduced to employees, their reaction was one of sheer terror.

Sawyer points out, “To stand in front of 30 rowdy kids in a school that has had five head teachers in the past seven years is a difficult task. Everybody had his or her own assumptions about how it would be in reality. While the managers were supportive, they were unsure of what the outcome would be.”

Contrary to all the scepticism, with due support from the school’s Head of Art, Paul Osborn and Head of PE, Lee Cholewa, the team from the drpgroup – along with Osborn and Sawyer – managed to deliver a gripping show.

Osborn mentions that the support from Gresham Street was particularly encouraging:

“Angie Risley, Head of HR at the Lloyds Banking Group came down to the school to pay a visit. She spoke to our teams and was impressed by all the activities taking place around the school.”

D-Day

Sawyer recalls:

“On the day of the conference, we started the morning with two large assemblies. Roger Black, the famous athlete-turned-motivational speaker conducted the first assembly while Steve Backley, retired British athlete and former world record holder for Javelin throwing, conducted the second one. We chose them because of the upcoming 2012 Olympics, which is a significant event and we wanted to bring in this element for the children.”

While the assemblies were going on, Sawyer and Russell Martin were briefing the HR professionals in the gym from the boxing ring. Strange as it was to hear managers giving instructions from a boxing ring, it held everyone in rapt attention.

Following the assemblies, the HR managers took over lessons, teaching and helping students across 5 year groups with work and life skills. The morning was purely devoted to delivering lessons that focused on reading, goal setting and work experience.

“The whole premise was to give them an insight into behaviour at the work place, which was especially relevant for the Year 11’s. I feel that while they were all confident young kids, they were lacking a worldwide knowledge about things, which is what we were there to share,” Osborn says.

Following a joint lunch the HR managers used the school hall for their traditional conference. While the day was filled with interesting sessions being delivered by the Lloyds employees, there were some fascinating activities planned for the afternoon.

“We had music, drumming, dancing, a fitness video, a fashion shoot, painting of banners and some phenomenal singing. There were pockets of activities taking place all over the school,” recalls Sawyer.

Following this, the drpteam had just 90 minutes to create a closing ceremony for the day featuring the 750 students; this included all the activities practiced in the afternoon session, weaved together to create one final show.

Not quite a piece of cake

Parmenter remembers:

“In the morning, everything was all quite calm. The realisation of how difficult it could get actually set in after lunch. One such situation occurred during the dancing activity we had organised. As I entered the room where the activity was taking place, I saw groups of kids who had dropped out of the activity and the choreographer was struggling. I stepped in at this moment and delivered a pep talk to motivate the kids and explain them the very reason behind it.”

“We had ten to twelve areas where all these activities were going on and just 90 minutes to make all this happen. The pressure was intense,” he adds.

For Osborn, the experience was truly amazing.

”We could not believe it, the crew could not believe it and the kids themselves could not believe it.  I don’t think any of us could have envisaged the impact it would have on every single person involved. In particular, the closing ceremony was stunning. Afterwards, we got our people to line up from the school door to the gate and we clapped them all out.

They absolutely loved and the cheeky ones went three times around to get the applause.”

Making a difference

As the day wrapped up, the teachers and the employees – as one team – watched the moving flashback video which left salt water in everybody’s eyes.

In the end, the school’s Head teacher related an overwhelming story of how a girl who didn’t participate in the normal lessons and was also unwilling at the beginning of the event to participate in any of the activities was – at the end of the day – one of the most enthusiastic cheerleaders:

“Now I can tell you that you made a difference.”

Both Osborn and Sawyer are going back to the School to help with their Sports Day and are keen to encourage an ongoing relationship.

By Karuna Kumar

Born out of the disillusionment that surrounded the Second World War, was an ambitious structure expected to preserve global security – the United Nations. The idea was to create a peaceful global order that would act as a custodian of human rights and a resolution for territorial conflicts.

From 1945, when the UN was first set up, through to 2011, the UN has grown to include 192 member states and has over the years left an indelible mark in resolving international economic, social and humanitarian conflicts. Condemning Syria for using tanks and live ammunition against protestors; investigating allegations of human rights violations in Libya; criticising the 2009 Sri Lankan war crimes – the UN is playing a ubiquitous role to defend human conflicts.

Amid the crucial role the UN has assumed in present times, Stephane Dujarric, Director of News and Media at the UN, speaks of the challenges it faces, the dynamic strategies and the platforms of engagement that the UN currently deploys, in addition to the wealth of learnings he drew from his role of Spokesperson for Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

Challenges

“The UN is a fragmented organisation – it is a brand of a thousand faces.” He elaborates, “The UN is an organisation with numerous arms – Secretary General, Security Council, General Assembly, UNICEF, UNDP and a long list of acronyms. All these agencies have their own viewpoint and pursue their own needs. However, it is important to understand that while the audiences for each of these might be fragmented, the messages come from the same platform. The right thing is to ensure consistency of the message, which is a huge challenge for the UN.”

Speaking of other constraints facing the UN, Dujarric speaks of technology and a shift in the acceptance of communication and ideas by the public as two profound areas of concern. “Managing technology that is ever changing brings forth questions of what platform and what medium to use. Few years ago, organisations would speak and people would listen; today populations at large don’t want to hear any more from organisations, they want to hear from their peers”, he says. Emphasizing on the role social media plays, Dujarric speaks of social networks as instruments of peer-to-peer communication and the challenge for the UN as that of inserting into that dialogue.

Reputation

Engulfed by events and incidents of economical, social and humanitarian conflict, the reputation of the UN faces constant threat. Adopting an approach that meets the needs of stakeholders and influencers becomes key. If a small group of peacekeepers abuse children in Congo; the work of the organisation is tainted – such is the precarious nature of UN’s reputation.

“Managing reputation requires quick words and reaction. In my experience, after having dealt with some highly delicate political scandals, I am convinced that all of them could have been avoided if the information had been out there ahead of time and people would understand it. Hence, I believe it is all about proactive transparency,” says Dujarric.

He adds, “The UN needs to be humble in its approach and more open about its fragilities. The strength lies in adopting a multi language and multi cultural approach.”

Advocacy journalism

An organisation like the UN is present in every segment of life – from nuclear energy to regulating civil aviation, to humanitarian and development work. Maintaining focus on a particular issue while sustaining efforts on many other fronts becomes significant.

The role of advocacy journalism emerges here. Advocacy journalism as conventionally defined is a genre of journalism that intentionally adopts a viewpoint for a social or political purpose. What distinguishes it from propaganda is that it is based on facts.

“It is this component of advocacy journalism embedded in the mandate of the UN that enables it to ensure that forgotten stories are not forgotten. When the earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan, last month, the UN pushed as many facts on issues of nuclear reactors to the International Atomic Agency. The UN also saw opportunities in offering pre-mix and edited raw material for producing news themselves. Our aim is to ensure that the organisation is in the background and people are in the front,” explains Dujarric.

Global news vs foreign news

Speaking of journalism, Dujarric draws light to the imperative nature of the global versus the foreign news agenda. “Foreign news includes events overseas – whether it has an impact at home is secondary. However, global news is understanding that what is happening over there and at home is exactly the same thing. Climate change is a primary example. Whether you live in Denmark or Mali climate change will have an impact on you, and that is global news. That is the concept that we have to sell to news editors,” he says.

A pertinent question that arises here is that at a time when audiences across the world are being inundated with news through numerous sources and there is a scenario of information overflow, how does an organisation like the UN that reaches out to fragmented audiences identify the right platform for engagement?

“It is easier to get distracted with new platforms and invest time and people when you don’t know the reach. If you have the luxury you should sit back and wait a little bit and see what is the latest thing that actually works, as supposed to putting your time and effort in something that doesn’t work. We have to remember – we are producers of news and content, but we are also consumers. If we as consumers find it boring, then our audience will have the same reaction,” explains the Head of News and Media at the UN.

Communicating for development

At present, the UN is making rigorous attempts to unite on the issue of violence in Syria; it is quizzing Libyan officials on human rights in Misruata and facing attacks by the Lankan government for its report on the Sri Lankan war crimes, in addition to facing much criticism for its resolution in support of the Palestinian statehood.

Core to each of these issues, is a dire need to communicate for development to increase efficiency and bring about social change. Reaffirming this, Dujarric says, “Communication for development is about social impact and behavioural change. How do you convince societies that the polio vaccination is not a plot by Western countries, how do you convince societies that boys and girls need to go to school? That is what communication for development is all about.”

Oil for food scandal

Drawing from his wealth of experiences as Spokesperson for the Secretary General -Kofi Annan, Dujarric speaks of transparency as a key enabler of diplomacy. The Oil for food program in Iraq has been the undercurrent for much speculation for the UN. The program that was established in the year 1995 by the United Nations to allow Iraq to sell oil in exchange for food, medicine and other humanitarian needs, was terminated in late 2003. The then Secretary General, Kofi Annan faced much criticism from different stakeholders for the financial irregularities and the callous management of the project that emerged through investigations. Many called for Kofi Annan’s resignation.

Recalling his work as Spokesperson, Dujarric says, “There were a lot of political and financial scandals that happened at the same time. Many of these scandals could have been averted had we been much more transparent as an organization. However, it is important to understand that the UN is a sum of its member states and the Secretary General is not an independent actor. He is given instructions by member states to do something. My disappointment was largely a lack of real defence for the organization by those countries that always supported the UN”.

Winning in a transnational world

It is a real need of the UN to work in conjunction with the private sector, with civil society and students to extend its unique international charter to those who need it the most.

Dujarric says, “To survive, the UN has to open its doors. It is a member state organization based on the concept of nation states that existed over 100 years ago. The world we have today is so much more transnational with many actors on the stage that have more impact. You have to ensure foundations, civil society, and the private sector work hand in hand with the UN in a transparent and more productive manner.”

In winning transnational stakeholders, the UN must present irrefutable evidence of its exemplary tools and forces of engagement so as to infuse in the member states – the ability to create a world order that conforms to the cultural values and political ambitions of its mandate.

By Karuna Kumar

It was a marriage in 2008 that made it a multinational firm employing over 55,000 employees across 100 locations and reporting revenues of $13.1 billion for 2010. It identifies itself as the world’s leading source of intelligent information for business and professionals and we know it as the world’s most trusted news organisation – Thomson Reuters.

As it reaches its third anniversary this month, Thomson Reuters has much to reflect on. The aim of building a great experience for the customer unites the company together and reinforces the nature of what the merger between Thomson and Reuters aimed to deliver.

The merger

Anne Marie Bell, Global Head of Internal Comms – Markets, the financial division of Thomson Reuters, recalls:

“The cultural integration between Reuters and Thomson began three years ago. Reuters already was a very global company, while Thomson was largely a Canadian American footprint. It had some operations outside of this but not to the extent that Reuters had.”

In a big merger, the first year is the most critical, where two companies integrate into one as employees adapt to being part of one company with a common culture and aim.

In Thomson Reuters’ case, their first year was one that was focused on ‘One Company in One Year’. At this level, the first step was integration and called for some major organisational re-structuring.

Bell explains:

“When we began the integration we had five things that we set out to do in the first three years: get to one company in one year; deliver an outstanding customer experience; innovate, innovate, innovate; deliver the numbers (revenue, growth, cost savings) and build the best place to work.

One Company in One Year’ was all about doing the heavy lifting needed to get us to simply function as one single business. The challenge was enormous and the timescale ambitious. We had to put in place new organisational structures, appoint people to new roles and new teams were being created around the world.”

Integration is key

As a result of the merger, property moves ensued all around the world as Thomson Reuters co-located teams and functions that would be working closely together. It also called for a merger of product sets and determining which products to continue from both companies and which products to sunset.

Bell says: “All our systems and policies had to be integrated too – finance, HR, customer data and technical infrastructure. Everyday tools like email, accessing calendars and merging/cleaning up hundreds of thousands of lines of content from the intranets all posed very real communications challenges. People needed to have access to information sourced from both companies.”

As one would expect of a major merger, the customers felt the immediate effect. They now had to deal with a bigger and a different company, with a broader range of products and services and, in some cases, deal with new people on their accounts. To this effect, Bell explains that their most important task at that point was to not let the services fall and keep up to the demands and expectations of customers.

“The first year was an incredible challenge because there was so much at stake – and so much that could have gone wrong – but sheer determination and resilience won the day, and we got through it.”

Constant Innovation

While Thomson Reuters was keeping the wheels turning for its clients, it was innovating too.

Both companies had several new products in the pipeline and work on those had to continue apace, but with the strengths of the combined new company built in. Last year, the markets division launched three major new products for the financial markets with Thomson Reuters – Eikon, the new financial desktop and mobile platform, being the biggest product launch that either Thomson or Reuters have delivered till date.

SWITCH – redefining the customer experience

Speaking of the new initiatives, Bell points out, “None of this matters if our clients are not seeing and feeling the benefits of the merger. We had committed to delivering an outstanding customer experience but that in itself would mean major change to our frontline operations and elsewhere across the firm. So we introduced a program called SWITCH which redefined the customer experience.”

This meant switching to a much more tailored and ‘best fit’ approach to sales and service, depending on the customer’s business mix, area of specialism and workflow. It was about matching the skills of the salesforce with the specialist demands of the customer.

In reality it caused a huge shift for the frontline. Over 3,700 people switched to new roles in new customer segments after months of intense training to get the specialist knowledge and expertise to serve those segments. It called for the set up of a new Direct virtual sales channel to stay in touch with customers more regularly.

Bell elaborates, “We also created a new virtual training function for customers called the Thomson Reuters Knowledge Network. It means that we can offer live and on-demand training to many more customers than before, teaching them how to get the best out of our products and tapping into the expertise of our employees around the world. We’ve made the switch and now the new of working is being embedded across the frontline.”

Changes post-merger

Three years post the merger, how has the marriage affected the internal culture?

“It really feels like we have lived through a decade of change in just a few years and the entire financial industry has changed fundamentally in that time. The disciplined approach of Thomson has merged with the risk-taking culture of Reuters, creating a business that is more curious, more customer savvy and with innovation in its DNA,” Bell explains.

She adds, “I also believe that employees are incredibly proud to work here. We put a huge amount of effort into building the brand and the best place to work – from career development and training, talent management, diversity and affinity groups, reward and recognition and great communications”. Making a difference through internal communications Internal communications is an important strategic asset at Thomson Reuters and is firmly positioned at the outset as an enabler of change within the business. “The internal communications challenge of a huge merger is unlike any I’ve faced in my career. The level of change, and the sheer volume of what had to be communicated to whom and when seemed overwhelming at times,“ says Bell.

She further explains: “We had two main communications challenges – the first was keeping communications simple, clear and consistent for a global audience where over 60% do not have English as their first language. The second was to help our employees cut through the noise to get to what was important for them and their team. With so much change there was a tendency for everyone to want to over communicate.”

The job at hand for Bell was to persuade people that not everyone in the company needed to know everything and to keep commnications as targeted and relevant as possible.

Measuring the success

As the business gears up for its next phase post-integration, staff engagement levels are high. The annual employee engagement survey and pulse surveys show that the scores as a combined business are better than each company had as separate entities.

“It is both reassuring and gratifying, especially when I look back almost three years later and see how the business has completely transformed, and what it took to get there,” says Bell.

Even better is the fact that Thomson Reuters has maintained their number two ranking in the Financial Data Services category in Fortune magazine’s recent World’s Most Admired Companieslist. They’ve also been named to the Ethisphere Institute’s World’s Most Ethical Companies list for the third year in a row and are tops when it comes to Excellence in HR Management in large organizations.

The road ahead

Moving further into 2011, Bell plans to focus on keeping staff engaged and knows that there is still much work to be done, even three years after the merger.

High on her agenda is to provide more communications support and tools to managers across the business, keep the organization focused on its growth ambitions, and involve employees in helping to simplify the business.

“Simplification is the name of the game for the Markets division of this year. As one of our executives said recently: “simplification is hard to explain but you know it when you see it.”

And are they starting to see it?

Bell says they are, “but that’s a whole other story.”

By Karuna Kumar

In 2003, when the US and its allies chose to wage war on Iraq, it was a situation of armed conflict. Another armed conflict ensued in January 2009, when the Gaza war kicked off between Hamas and the Israeli forces.

In both situations, one institution that played a crucial role in helping those worst affected by these conflicts was the International Committee of the Red Cross. As the name suggests, this institution is part of the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent movement.

“Our specific goal, which is where we differ from national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, is that we specifically help people who are victims of armed conflict or other situations of armed violence,” says Florian Westphal, Deputy Director of Communication and Information Management at ICRC.

He adds, “Among the things we do is distribute relief aid to people who have been displaced by war or patients in hospitals and clinics, people who have been injured in combat or people who have difficulty in accessing medical care because of fighting. We also visit people who have been detained and imprisoned in connection with wars, armed violence or other political and security incidents.”

The mandate

The Geneva Conventions of 1949, which are at the core of International Humanitarian Law, the body of law that regulates the conduct of armed conflict and seeks to limit its effects, dictates the underlying mandate of ICRC. One of its main functions is to promote this body of law and try to maximize respect for it.

Westphal believes that “by promoting respect for this we can ensure that all those who are not fighting civilians, for example, soldiers who have been wounded and who are detained are protected and assisted in line with this body of law.”

Crucial to understanding the role of ICRC is gaining clarity about armed conflict. Situations of armed conflict are mostly of two kinds – one that is fought between atleast two countries and another that is fought internally between different groups within a country.

On the ground

In explaining the role ICRC actually plays on the ground, Westphal uses examples of the situations in Sudan, Columbia, Somalia and Afghanistan. “We have been working in these countries for decades. Initially we began our presence when the fighting started, since then our presence has remained permanent because the tensions and the suffering it caused, continues till date. Unlike in natural disasters, in war, there is seldom a kind of single event that triggers things. Our long-term presence is extremely important because it helps us to really understand people’s needs in what are often very complex and polarised situations,” explains Westphal.

In the event of an armed conflict, typically the first thing that ICRC does is to remind governments and rebel groups of what their obligations are under the law and how they have to treat civilians and other people it protects during combat. Depending on its presence and ability, it starts to access what the needs are, who is most in need and how to develop a relief activity around it.

Regions under operation

While ICRC is present in roughly 80 countries, not all these countries are actually involved in war. Some find themselves in what are effectively ‘frozen’ conflicts: while there may not be any fighting there is no lasting peace either and the conflict is yet to be resolved. Here the ICRC tries to tackle some of the lasting after-effects of war, for example, by supporting the families of people still unaccounted for or helping those displaced by war and unable to return home. In these situations as well as in many countries at peace the ICRC also works to raise awareness of International Humanitarian Law, including by engaging in training with armed forces and discussing with armed forces and discussing with officials on how to translate its rules into national legislation.

“There are at present around a dozen situations where two-thirds of our budget goes, where more than half of the staff is employed. These areas currently include Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Columbia, Yemen, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Unfortunately war and the suffering it causes, especially for civilians has been an everyday reality in these countries for many years,” says a passionate Westphal.

Assistance, Protection and Prevention

Investigating further into the activities undertaken by ICRC, Westphal divides them into three broad categories – Assistance, Protection and Prevention. While assistance involves delivering food, shelter and providing clean drinking water, protection aims to ensure that the vulnerable and the needy are treated in accordance with the International Humanitarian Law.

“We visit prisons to make sure that the prisoners are treated humanely; that they have access to basic living conditions, sanitary conditions and medical care”, says Westphal elaborating on the protection function. Prevention is largely related to training and making more people aware of the law. We also make countries that are at peace, aware of their obligation to respect and ensure respect for these rules,” explains Westphal.

To be able to do its job and to reach those in need on all sides of the front lines while ensuring the security of its staff, the ICRC has to be scrupulously neutral, independent and apolitical. Westphal categorically insists, “We are not a political organisation, we are purely humanitarian and neutral in our operations. This can be an extremely difficult position to convey and convince people in war zones. It can almost sound as though you are indifferent but we have to be certain of maintaining an unbiased, apolitical stand.”

Building a communications strategy

Westphal coordinates with a network of communicators throughout the offices in the 80 countries, establishing the link between headquarters and the field.

Drawing specific light to his current role, Westphal says, “I am currently coordinating our activities in public communication including media relations, social media, audio-visual production and online and print publishing. I am also looking at a plethora of activities linked to environment scanning, issues management, reputational research and internal communications and public communications. With a view to building a long-term strategy around communication, my role involves overseeing all the various domains and integrating all the channels as much as possible.”

Environment scanning

Environment scanning aims to strengthen the ability of ICRC to understand what is going on around it and to gain an in-depth understanding of the situations they work in. “As part of this process, we not only analyse our presence in the media but also the broader issues that are of interest to us. This is also used to see how we benchmark with our competitors. Our colleagues in the various field offices monitor the environment in which they work. The aim and the challenge is to prioritise and to analyse information and to make it accessible to our colleagues so that it can contribute to their planning and implementation of activities in the field.”

Reputation research and internal communications

Over recent years, the ICRC has also consulting key stakeholders including governments, senior military officers, journalists and leaders of International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Society on its reputation and the drivers that shape it. “In future we also plan to consult other stakeholders such as the direct beneficiaries of our aid work in the field and our own staff,” says Westphal.

Considering internal communications as a major support function to enable the managers to communicate effectively, Westphal explains, “There is an understanding that major institution-wide initiatives that bring about significant changes to the way we do things have to be systematically supported by internal communications. For example, we are currently working on a new people management policy. How to explain that policy to 13,000 staff in 80 countries and how to gauge their feedback is a core element of that project.”

Social media and online communication

The 2009 Red Cross and Red Crescent Campaign titled – ‘Our World We Move’ – familiarized the institution with the use of social media. ICRC has begun using Facebook, YouTube, Scribd and Twitter and is continuing its presence on these social networking sites.

“In terms of tools I would also like to highlight the Intranet. Even though we have not had it for a very long time, it is a hugely valuable tool. We are now able to push the information out to our colleagues all over the world, much quicker which leaves less space for rumours and half-truths.”

He notes, “I must add here that the tools on their own without the behaviours and the mindset needed for effective internal communications will only have a limited impact.”

The only reservation Westphal holds in using social media is jeopardizing the neutral image ICRC must maintain at all times. He is categorical about not getting involved in politics and continually trying to maintain an unbiased image, whilst using new media to its greatest benefit.

Public communication

Much of ICRC’s public communication happens in the field. In addition to relying on social and traditional media, ICRC also spends much time on face-to-face dialogue that can go right down to the rebel groups who manage the check points. Westphal considers this field-based communication absolutely vital and supports it through training and capacity building. The use of online media, social media and print publications helps to maintain strong media relations.

Crisis communication: ‘The Gaza War’

Westphal refers to the confrontation in Gaza as an apt case study of a crisis communication situation.

In December 2008, sustained terrorist attacks began in Gaza and they continued through most of January 2009. In retaliation to the attacks by Hamas, the militant group in Gaza, Israeli forces opened fire on the Gaza strip. ‘The Gaza war’ continued for a period of three weeks.

“We were one of the few aid organisations that had a substantial presence inside Gaza. Also, under International Humanitarian Law, Gaza is an occupied territory – it is a situation where the law directly applies,” explains Westphal.

Much of the debate in the media worldwide at the time focussed on how both sides conducted their operations and whether this was done in accordance with international humanitarian law. Westphal recalls:

“We had many questions about the behaviour of the two sides. But the very first challenge we faced was internal, namely to bring everybody on the same page. It is a tough task, given that it is not that easy to know what’s actually happening on the ground. Communicating in Gaza and with Gaza was very difficult. Our own peoples’ movements in Gaza were very restricted and for them to explain what was going on the ground was not that easy.”

He continues, “Secondly, we are a very diverse organisation and people approach these issues very distinctly and under various influences. We had to make sure that colleagues in Gaza, Tel-Aviv, the rest of the Middle East, Europe and Washington are all on the same page. It takes a lot of internal communications to do so and it all has to be done very quickly. There was also a lot of public and media pressure on ICRC to take a position and to publicly judge, assess and give a verdict on what was going on. But to do this publicly risks jeopardising our acceptance as a neutral and independent organisation and thereby our ability to reach those people who need us most.”

Describing it as “a very intense operation – 24 hours a day/7 days a week” – he accepts that while everything went well on the ground, there were moments of incredible tensions; and quite a few learnings were drawn from the event. In particular, there was a need to develop a more comprehensive communications strategy – even if to do so in the midst of an acute crisis can seem counter-intuitive.

Case of Egypt and Tunisia

The sort of situation there is, largely conditions the presence of ICRC and the role it is able to play. While Egypt and Tunisia experienced a lot of violence earlier this year, neither situation could be described as war. Traditionally, in both countries the ICRC had been focusing on communications around International Humanitarian Law.

“In Egypt and Tunisia, the first thing we wanted to know was if anything had happened to our colleagues based in these countries. That is where the internal communications work first began,” Westphal explains.

“Prior to the recent events, our activities in Egypt had been very much focused on communications. We ran our Arabic language websites from Egypt and had experts based there promoting the awareness of the International Humanitarian law and building contacts with National Red Crescent Society.”

In response to the most recent crises in both countries, the ICRC quickly stepped up its action distributing medical supplies to hospitals in Egypt and visiting prisoners in Tunisia.

Evaluation

Westphal mentions that both quantitative and qualitative evaluation is crucial to assessing the ICRC communications. “We use Factiva and broadcast monitoring services, focussing in particular on a core list of more than 100 media outlets to measure our visibility. We occasionally commission more in-depth media analysis to assess our impact. We then decipher what needs change and adapt our communication strategy on the basis of those learnings,” explains Westphal.

With a passionate belief in the mission of ICRC and with a conviction to see it grow, Westphal has many plans for the ICRC’s communications. One of them is the idea of organising an event on the Red Cross and Red Crescent in association with TED later this year.

“But no matter what new ways we find to communicate about the ICRC, we must never lose sight of an organisation that is above all rooted in reality of the situations it works in and the people it tries to help. That’s where we have to be able to deliver.”