No organisation is immune to change. Most will at some point be forced to reconsider their current strategy – often due to factors beyond their control – and to refashion themselves to adapt to those different circumstances.

Corporate restructuring activities range from simple strategic actions that can be executed in a short timeframe, to hugely complex transformation programmes that take years to work through.

Whether simple or complex, management teams can become so focused on the structural, operational, and logistical reforms necessary that they forget those are often only half the challenge. The task of communicating those changes – to colleagues and the full range of external stakeholders – is equally important and can define a reputation for good or otherwise.

Done well, it will enhance your ability to deliver the changes necessary, smoothing the path to your goal by ensuring those within and outside your organisation understand the rationale for the changes and are motivated to help implement them. Done badly, it will compromise the successful delivery of elements of the plan and, at worst, jeopardise the whole exercise, undermining the reputation both of the organisation and those in leadership positions.

We relieve pressure on executive committees and boards by assessing risk and applying mitigating measures. We both create content and carefully plan its delivery, to ensure your actions and rationale are communicated clearly to all stakeholders. We become an integral part of project teams to support the orderly execution of your strategy, protecting not only value but individual and corporate reputations.

We provide a wide range of services, advice and practical support to organisations looking to restructure their business and those implementing major change or transformation programmes. We will always tailor our support to fit the specific circumstances an organisation faces, but areas we typically cover include:

• Minimising and mitigating reputational damage arising from a restructuring exercise
• Ensuring all internal and external communications are clear, consistent, and strategic
• Safeguarding plans and the individuals who are responsible for delivering them
• Mapping an organisation’s stakeholders with a view to developing appropriate communications approaches for each
• Preparing for the risk of information leaks and stepping in to manage the situation if that transpires
• Proactive and reactive media relations and public affairs support
• Retaining an engaged workforce throughout a transformation programme
• Maintaining a good working relationship with regulators to ensure they have faith in the plan and your ability to communicate it.

Delivery

We are highly flexible in the way we deliver these services and endeavour to shape our approach around your organisation’s structures, values, routines, and resource levels.

The only thing we won’t adapt to suit you is our advice; our senior and experienced team believes in the value of providing a candid, objective view based on protecting an organisation’s best interests, rather than the feelings of those running it.

Tailored media training

A half-day media training session for up to three people, designed to focus on the issue or situation you face and to test messages and narrative. We will work with your in-house team to understand the issue and wider context before devising a bespoke media training experience that will help sharpen your messaging and prepare spokespeople to face a potentially hostile media.

Comprehensive stakeholder mapping exercise

We will spend time with the relevant members of your team to carefully document your organisation’s various stakeholder groups, including customers, employees, suppliers, regulators, and the media. We will also consider the full range of communications channels available and advise how best to reach and engage with each group in the most effective and efficient way possible.

Scenario testing

If you are considering two or more potential courses of action, we can stress-test each option from a communications and reputation perspective, listing the pros and cons of each and setting out how they are likely to be received by different stakeholders. In doing so, we will identify risks and opportunities and make clear, actionable recommendations based on our analysis of the situation and the different options available to your organisation.

Preparing for an information leak

Most major change programmes represent a reputational risk at the point they are announced to a workforce and the outside world. They are almost always a risk for several weeks or months before that point too, because as long as there is a project team, there will be documents, meetings, and rumours that risk leaking out into the wider employee base and/or the world beyond. If your executive team is working on a confidential project or plan you fear may leak before you are ready to share the details, we can help ensure you are prepared for that worst-case scenario and provide peace-of-mind that any damage would be minimised.

Bolstering in-house comms team capacity

When organisations come under intense media scrutiny, internal capacity is often stretched to the limit. We can deploy a team of expert media handlers or public affairs specialists to assist with everything from drafting content to stakeholder engagement and handling incoming enquiries. Given the variable nature of this work, we can rapidly scale our support to meet specific needs.