(1) My task: Roll-out the new strategy at APAC level
The company’s management developed its five year plan and called it “Strategy Roadmap 2016” or “SR2016” for short. My task was to develop communication strategies and plans which can be used by all Schaeffler companies in the APAC region to roll-out the strategic roadmap into their markets. I was also tasked to offer them all the support that they needed and I was also in the lead to roll-out the plan for the APAC managers and staff at the APAC regional headquarters itself in Shanghai. I worked on this project with my newly hired APAC managers for internal communications, press relations, trade fairs and events and digital media.
(2) My team and agency conducted a pre-launch staff survey
I initiated this pre-launch survey as I felt we should establish a baseline to understand what is the staff’s understanding of the company’s core values and strategy so that it can be compared with a post-launch survey after a year. The survey captured the employee profiles in our APAC markets, by sex, education, tenures in the company and work functions. The survey also gave us insights into staff’s current impression and opinions about the new 8 strategic pillars that have been identified in the new strategic roadmap. Staff also gave us valuable feedback on the effectiveness of the various internal communication channels of the company. The final report was comprehensive with 51 slides and offered us a deep understanding of where we were and we leveraged it extensively for our launch planning activities. See some excepts from the report below.
(3) We worked out 3 communication strategies for roll-out
Based on the inputs coming from the pre-launch staff survey and in discussions with the leadership team, I developed a few key communication strategies around which the strategy roll-out communication plan was built (see some related slides below). The three key strategies were:
- We will phase the communication so that there is sufficient time to consolidate the understanding to receive feedback
- There will be flexibility and localisation opportunities for the launch. This meant that we needed to prepare a menu of launch activities from which various markets can select from
- We will built and use an army of communicators to support the strategy roll-out which included all managers plus a group of specially nominated influencers from staff (and I understood from my laters years in change management roles that they were in effect known as “change agents”).
(4) We developed four key messages
Below is an extract of a work-in-progress document of a key messaging effort for the strategy roll-out. Although it is not the final version, it serves to give an idea the amount of care and attention my team and myself poured into finalising these four key messages and proof points.
The development of these four key messages took about three months to complete from brainstorming to alignment, modifications and enhancements with the management and board. The four key messages were very important not only for purposes of communication but also for the leadership’s roles and staff’s engagement. The four key messages served to answer four critical questions:
- Why strategic roadmap 2016?
- What are we doing?
- What does this bring me?
- What do I need to do?
(5) Developed a roll-out plan
With a clear communication strategy and approved key messages in place, we developed a communication action plan that brought everything together. We organised several brainstorming workshops with various stakeholders internally as well as with our agencies to develop an integrated plan and concept for the APAC region. We branded the strategy roll-out, identified communication channels, created a launch pack for the staff as well as a creative concept for the roll-out. Here are some slides from our roll-out plan:
(6) Created the globe branding and rally cry with my team
We developed a globe logo with three colours representing the three product brands of the Schaeffler Group. My team ingeniously created the rally cry “We Make it Happen” (see below). The launch day was eventually known as “We Make it Happen Day”. The rally cry eventually became very popular with the leaders and staff of the company, especially as the last sentence spoken after a speech or presentation.
(7) Worked with my design agencies to develop key visuals for the final four key messages
After further refinements, the four key messages for the strategic roadmap were finalised and we engaged our design agency to develop corporate designs which were used in publicity brochures and posters. Here are the copies:
(8) Everything the managers and staff needed to know about the company’s new strategy in one comprehensive FAQ
It is not uncommon to find leaders and managers sitting in the same room having a different understanding of what the company’s strategy is really all about. Therefore it was absolutely necessary that the key messages were clearly explained and everyone had the same deep understanding.
I worked with my APAC team to develop a comprehensive FAQ about the strategic roadmap for the managers and staff (see below). I can recall that it took several months after that to have it aligned with our APAC leadership team as it was a long process.
When it was finally ready, it was further customised and translated according to local market needs in different countries. It was also adopted for the communicator’s guidebook and was used in the launch website as well as the staff’s launch packs. In effect, the FAQ greatly helped to dispel misunderstandings and to bring greater transparency and alignments during the launch and post-launch.
(9) Wrote a communication guidebook for communicators
On of the communication strategies that I developed was to built and leverage upon an army of communicators to drive the strategy communication. I wrote and edited a manual for the communicators with inputs from my team and our agencies. The manual offered essential information to the communicators for them to have interesting conversations with staff. You can see an early version of the communication manual below.
(10) Conceptualised a strategy launch website and trained communicators
As part of the communication plan, we built a strategy website which offered information on vision, mission, core values and the eight pillars of the Strategic Roadmap 2016. It also carried roadmap stories from the staff, video clips, online polls and also a “live”chat function. I also ensured that the communicators were trained on the CMS so that they can update the website with their own success stories from the various Asia Pacific countries. See below.
(11) Management level launch planning
We built a large sized globe for the management level launch and designed an engagement ritual for the company’s top 40 Asia Pacific leaders to sign on the puzzle pieces on the globe. Each puzzle piece had one of the APAC leader’s signature on it and it was a promise that everyone will work together to make the strategy happen. We also developed a launch souvenir that replicated the globe structure. Most of the credit should go to my team and my agencies who worked tirelessly for three months to bring this concept into fruition.
(12) Teaser campaign playing on the logo
A simple teaser campaign was organised to reveal the globe logo in four stages via emails and intranet posters. It also announced the strategic roadmap launch day, branding it as the “We Make It Happen Day”.
(13) Strategy launch event for Asia Pacific top 40 leaders
The CEO of the Schaeffler Group from our headquarters in Germany flew in for the management level launch and became our chief guest. He delivered a rallying opening speech and took the lead to sign the globe, followed by other Schaeffler Asia Pacific leaders, including myself as the APAC lead for communications. The management also took the opportunity to recognise China’s one billion RMB sales turnover and Korea’s one trillion Won sales turnover milestones.
(14) Strategy launch for managers and staff at the APAC regional headquarters (Shanghai)
We booked an external venue besides the APAC regional headquarters office to hold our strategy roadmap launch in Shanghai. The launch consisted of by key note speeches by our APAC President, Q&A sessions, round robin discussions on the eight pillars of the strategy roadmap, launch packs for staff, a staff mood board activity and ending with a nice buffet. You can see some photos from the event below.
(15) Strategy launch in other Schaeffler companies in the Asia Pacific region
The Schaeffler companies in Asia pacific organised other own launches with an agreed window period of one month. Each of the Schaeffler companies came up with their own creative event concepts but used the branding, key messages, staff packs and program outline developed by us in APAC communications. For example, in Japan which had only one office with not more than 100 staff, the President decided to have the launch as a morning breakfast event in a single location. Whereas in China, the launch was decentralised and held in 28 different plant and office locations country-wide on different days. A similar approach was also followed for Schaeffler India as it also had many plant and office locations. Unfortunately I was not able to get hold of the photos of the launch events from the different locations in Asia Pacific.
(16) The launch was just the beginning of 9 strategy projects
The launch events created awareness and understanding to support 9 strategy projects that supported the new strategic direction. You can find the nine project charters below. In the management council meetings following the launch, the strategy project status was reviewed, best practices recognised and areas for improvements identified. In these meetings of the top 40 leaders in the Asia Pacific region, my role was to organise the events themselves but more importantly to consolidate and present the strategy roadmap follow-up status updates. This was always a massive undertaking several times a year as you need to follow up with all the presidents and their deputies in the region.
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