1999 IPR "Sword of Excellence" Award

Scope of Project: In January 1998, GEC-Alsthom announced its intended acquisition of a major competitor in railway signaling- SASIB Railway, of Bologna, Italy, and its subsidiary SASIB-GRS, based in Rochester, New York, USA. The deal was completed in April 1998, and the im../mediate task was to integrate these acquisitions and the other businesses in Signaling (17 in all), to create a global organisation with 7,000 employees, trading under a single name with a common culture. We had six months from completion to analyse the business and launch a new global organisation, and during that period we had to influence attitudes to accept change.

In the middle of this process, GEC and Alcatel, the main shareholders of GEC-Alsthom, divested a major part of their shareholding and floated a new company, ALSTOM, on the stock market. This happened in June 1998, and triggered a complete change in identity, naming styles and culture.

Gaunt Corporate Affairs and Business Communication was retained to handle the internal communication of the integration process throughout the world.

ALSTOM Signaling is part of the multi-national ALSTOM Group.

Stage 1 - Gathering information

ALSTOM created an "Integration team" comprising senior directors from ALSTOM Signaling, and a team from PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Their initial task was to collate comprehensive information about the businesses in the group (people, products, projects, and markets), to analyse it, and to make recommendations on the future shape of the business. It was recognised at the outset that good communication was crucial to the success of the project, and Richard Gaunt was made a member of the team.

At that time ALSTOM's Signaling businesses were "National" units serving their own local markets. There were rivalries over products and systems, and inevitable fears that there would be winners and losers, especially in the acquired businesses. Furthermore, except at a very senior level, few people in the organisation were accustomed to working internationally, sharing information or taking part in a change programme, which added enormously to the challenge.

Stage 2 - Planning

This had two elements, which dovetailed together:

• The Integration Plan - How to integrate the companies

• The Communications Plan - How to communicate the changes and secure employee support

Planning was an iterative process. The "Master Plan" set out the communications principles to be followed during the integration process. This plan then evolved as the process developed and was updated in the light of feedback and comment from the field.

The Basic Plan
Objectives

• Staff retention during a time of change

• Create excitement, interest, support

• Begin to create new culture - make people feel part of the new global organisation

• Provide a regular and authoritative source of information

• Cut out the grapevine and the rumour mill

Communications Principles

• Transparency and honesty

• Frequent communication -even if there have been no major developments and recognising uncertainty and ambiguity

• Face-face is preferred method - backed up by presentation material, printed material and multi-../media

• Two-way - Employees would have a channel for communication, and the company would act to meet major concerns

• Employee feedback would be monitored

Execution

• Target audiences to be clearly defined

• Two-way - Employees would have a channel for communication, and the company would act to meet major concerns

• Strict timetable for delivery aligned to project "milestones"

• All communication must reflect "key messages"

• Communications network to be created from scratch

Stage 3 - Execution
This was divided into separate components as follows:

• Production of the "Strategic Rationale" document by the Integration Team - Reasons for the merger, the benefits which would accrue, the methodology of the integration process and the issues which would need to be resolved.

• Presentation for the Senior Vice-President to give to his management team

• Outline of strategic rationale

• Integration process, methodology and timetable

• Reminder that communication was fundamental to the project's success

• Letter to all employees following completion

• Key messages, basic "Vision", answers to questions

• Regular Briefing pack for each stage of integration -distributed electronically for cascading by local managements to all employees

• Where we are now, what is happening, what are the issues being debated?

• Newsletters, published monthly from June. Translated into French and Italian. All production stages electronic, except final print.

• Video - Shot and edited over 3 days at the end of September -Explaining why change is necessary and introducing the new management structure. Used to launch new organisation

• Guide to ALSTOM Signaling - a description of the new organisation and contacts directory

• Posters to encourage mobility around the organisation

• ˇ All published on the ALSTOM Signaling Intranet

Stage 4- Measurement Stage

• Questionnaire to all unit managers

• Detailed interviews with individual managers

• Monthly programme and budget review with the Client

What the client said:

Comment by Gérard Blanc, Senior Vice President, ALSTOM Signaling

"This was one of the largest exercises in corporate change ever undertaken by this company, and communication played a vital part. I was determined that the process of integrating these companies would be fair, objective and transparent, and our communications effort underlines this, enabling every employee to understand the complexities of each possible scenario, and the background to the difficult decisions being taken.

"This communications exercise was very successful. It accelerated the process of change by helping to change attitudes from "local" to "global", and by making every employee more aware of the issues facing our business. I believe integration would have taken much longer and would not have been so successful without the communications programme.

"By making Communications an integral part of the process from the outset, we saved time and money, and by the time it came to implementation, we had a well -informed communications consultant as part of our team. I was happy to leave the creative interpretation of our plans to him, without undue interference or supervision. This also freed up valuable management resources during a very busy period.

"Despite taxing deadlines and limited resources, Richard Gaunt delivered an ambitious programme on-target, on time, and on budget.

"He has also laid a solid foundation for more effective employee communication in the future, something ALSTOM Signaling has never tried to do on a global scale before".

The Team:

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