Right before starting PR393, I had taken the module PR Corporate 360. I have to say I never saw the relevance of that module until I started interning under my team - Impact.
Here's just a brief overview of what the PR department at Ogilvy looks like. Ogivly PR consists of 8 teams: Engage, Pulse, Brand Marketing, Technology, Common Health, Social@Ogilvy, Corporate & Finance, and Impact.
Each team handles a different aspect of PR.
Engage - motivate and assist consumers and other stakeholders adopt socially-beneficial behaviors that are good for individuals, good for society, and good for business.
Pulse - Consumer goods
Technology - migrates online, tech pages in major business media outlets are shrinking and new influencers are being recognized in bloggers and podcasters.
Brand marketing - connect with brands that engage through authenticit, purpose, relevance and a bit of fun!
CommonHealth - pharmaceutical and biotech arena
Social - integrated social solutions that combine deep disciplines like CRM, public relations and shopper marketing and rooted in what drives behavior.
Corporate & Finance - helps corporate clients achieve their business goals
Impact - employee engagement and change management
My team is the smallest team in the PR department. Other than myself, there are three other people - Michelle, the team's director, Valerie, my supervisor, and Vanessa.
So, what gave the 'Euraka' moment of relevance of the module taught in school? I've always thought PR was very much limited to media relations, B2B and B2C strategic planning. One of the topic taught during class was 'Change Management'. It pretty much talked about how leaders' role are important in Merger and Acquisitions (M&A), and the impact they have on corporate reputation and corporate culture. To that end, I just brushed it off as any other topics that have been taught in any other PR classes.
Little did I realised how the knowledge would be relevant to what Impact does. While most PR practices focus on external communications, Impact handles a lot of internal communication towards corporations' employees especially during M&As.
Unlike most strategic planning, the clients undergoing M&A require a lot of in-depth primary research work that include blueprint workshops, focus groups, online surveys, one-to-one interviews with key leaders.
I had the privilege of putting together survey findings and transcribing some interviews for a client who is undergoing merger. Honestly, listening to an hour-half recording can get really dry, but after awhile, I could hear some repeating issues and messages from the recordings. Some of the key takeaways I had were:
- Leadership has to be aligned during M&A to reduce uncertainty and distrust of employees
- Leadership of the various department do not necessary have the same feelings towards corporate issues
- Consistency of communications can become limited by technology
- Different hierarchy of employees have different point of view of what a corporate brand is
- Combination of different corporate culture can be a challenging task
- Mergers do not happen over night; it could take many years to change the mindset of employees and keep them aligned
- Employees look up to the action of their leaders and expect leaders to walk-the-talk
