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Predicting Organizational Outcomes with Confidence
William Plummer, vice president of external affairs at Nokia Inc.
In a luncheon address, William (Bill) Plummer, vice president of external affairs at Nokia Inc., focused on organizational change — something that the Finnish mobile phone supplier knows a bit about, having transformed itself several times since 1865 when it began as a timber company. Its most recent strategic reorganization came this year when it formed four business units to concentrate on convergence and growth, with its traditional mobile phone business joined by mobile networks, enterprise solutions and multimedia units. The challenge: How to communicate the fundamental overhaul internally and externally to people who think Nokia just makes phones.
By and large, the job of the typical Nokia employee didn't change, although he or she might have a different title and report to a different business group because of the move to four specific business units. So, internally, Nokia developed a very proactive and tailored outreach, using its corporate intranet as well as internal "champions" to sell the restructuring.
But, he added, Nokia didn't fully anticipate how employees viewed the reorganization's enormity. That required some retooling of the company's message and, generally, Bill believes his team was successful. "When we have a general meeting and bring people together, what we're hearing back is that they understand the reorganization and there's no change without pain."
Nokia's tagline, "Connecting People," helped in explaining the changes, Bill noted. Externally, the company used influencers and the media to explain its changes. Only the financial markets didn't seem to accept the message, an outcome Nokia continues to find frustrating. Bill's key points are:
- You have to build relationships with influencers, both inside and outside the organization.
- You have to truly understand your marketplace.
- You must know your stakeholders and what they think about you.
- You need to have measurable tools in place to determine how you're being perceived in the marketplace and whether your marketplace tactics are succeeding.
- You must make sure senior leadership understands not just what they've implemented, but how it's being perceived. They must get a thermometer of sorts to let them understand how the company is being perceived.
Unlike many of its PR peers, Bill's team closely aligns itself not only with investor or analyst relations but with the company's strategy platform as well as its market research platform. "We've made it a very strong point to stay close to the people doing market research, who are doing that for the business units so they can plan. So we built our own line into market research," he explained. That has proven invaluable to the team's ability to work as peers with leadership "in addressing future changes in the market so everyone understands what we're communicating," Bill said.
Still, he emphasized, no matter how well you predict and prepare for outcomes, a "zinger" can always emerge to catch you unawares. For dealing with the unexpected, he advised, a responsive and adaptive mindset will serve you well.