Case Study: American Express
Awakening a sleeping giant through communication
THE CHALLENGE
Charged with transforming a complacent global technology unit into a proactive internal business partner, the CIO of one of the world’s mega financial institutions installed a new leadership team, developed a new business strategy, and adopted a new vision, mission, and set of values. Even so, the company was ill-equipped to seed and support the required cultural transformation.
OUR WORK
Recognizing that this effort required a strong communication team to reside in the epicenter of the changes, we restructured and moved the existing team and equipped it for managing the change process. We augmented findings from the most recent worldwide employee survey with business-unit specific data relating to communication and culture, and developed a comprehensive communication strategy and implementation process. We then led managers through an intensive simulation designed to provide a visceral sense of the effects of ineffective communication, rolled out the global communication plan, and engaged managers in making their own personal communication commitments.
THE RESULTS
Over the two years following the implementation of the communication plan, measures relating to the unit’s critical success factors improved dramatically, including new product development cycle time, re-engineering saves, charge-back accuracy, and brand loyalty.
