Structuring and Streamlining Corporate Communications after Acquisitions
Cameron is a leading provider of flow-equipment products, systems, and services to worldwide oil, gas, and process industries. Since its inception in 1833, the company has grown exponentially through innovation and strategic business acquisitions. Today, Cameron employs more than 18,000 people at over 300 locations worldwide.
The Challenge
- Cameron operates under eleven divisions, managed through three operating groups. It has grown extensively through mergers and acquisitions (over eighty acquisitions in the last forty years), resulting in a collection of companies that needed help with cohesive employee communications across the enterprise.
- In June 2010, Cameron hired FrogDog to develop a framework for company and employee communications.
- Consideration was given to employee generational differences, comfort levels with technology, and accessibility given different employee roles (from office staff, to the field, to satellite employees in countries across the globe).
The FrogDog Approach
- FrogDog led a series of consultations at Cameron’s corporate offices to gain perspectives on the company’s environment, employee roles and interactions, existing communication vehicles, the frequency and urgency of communications, and the types of content communicated.
- With a deeper understanding of Cameron’s current communication processes, FrogDog developed a framework to guide streamlined communications around employee programs and outreach, specific project-related communications, and corporate top-down messages.
- The strategic communications framework grouped employees based on job function, computer accessibility, and title and identified tactical communication methods by communication avenues for internal and external audiences.
- The overall strategy was designed to help create a consistent, shared corporate communications action plan where none previously existed.
The Results
- Subsequent to FrogDog’s work, Cameron hired internal communications staff to implement the framework, using it as a starting point for an intensive internal campaign to communicate Cameron’s current strategic initiatives and build cohesiveness across the company.
- Early results are encouraging, even as development and implementation of the internal strategic communications plan continues.