Innovating leadership communication: an internal agency approach
Cisco recently formed an in-house communication and collaboration services bureau to provide services for vice-president spokespeople to improve their skills, reach, and influence.
Like all companies, Cisco, a multinational corporation that designs and sells networking and other communication technology and services, has not been immune to major industry shifts during the recent global economic downturn. At a time when vendors have been consolidating and competition is intensifying, the USA-based company has scrutinized operating costs to find new ways to reduce expenses. At the same time, employees have been encouraged to apply new thinking to their spheres of influence and we are experiencing a surge of energy and enthusiasm for finding new models for doing our work. Terms like "shared services" and "global disciplines" are being heard across the business.
Adversity brings opportunity
The communication community at Cisco was ripe for change. Communication professionals had long served as integral strategic partners to move Cisco's business forward by working with appointed senior spokespeople. As a discipline, executive communication was characterized by informal cooperation and coordination, few repeatable practices, and a great deal of autonomy. As the number of company and industry spokespeople at Cisco neared several hundred, it became apparent that we had to organize and scale leadership communication to support the company's growth expectations. Suddenly, the changing climate provided an opening for new approaches and we took the opportunity to move toward a more coordinated practice with greater central direction and control.
After internally auditing and assessing the communication services and needs of Cisco, we concluded that not all our spokespeople required the same level of support. The "Communication and Collaboration Services Bureau" emerged as one of five new communication models for a global communication community that could meet the company's future needs. The remaining four, which are in various phases of implementation, included "Global Centers of Excellence", a "Governance Model", "Functional Communications" and "Council and Board Communications".
The Communication and Collaboration Services Bureau harnesses collective talent across the Cisco communication community to deliver a disciplined, centralized service to Cisco's executive spokespeople and their organizations.
The shared services model allows us to provide more services for more people. It enables us to scale communication services to support more spokespeople; drive consistent messages across Cisco's portfolio of functional and cross-functional businesses; and encourage best-practice standards and career development for our employees.
A business model for today's climate
Instrumental to our success has been enlisting management support and buy-in at the highest levels. A move away from dedicated, one-on-one communication support and pooling resources into a shared service for executive communication runs counter to Cisco's culture and calls for a shift in thinking. However, when we presented our proposal for the Bureau to Cisco's most senior leaders, they were very receptive because the model makes such pragmatic business sense.
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This article was originally published in Strategic Communication Management.
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