Complex Communication Planning

Two large telecommunications companies had just announced their intention to merge and needed to carefully manage communications with all stakeholders (investors, employees, customers, elected officials, regulatory officials, media, etc.) throughout the nine-month merger approval process.

The large number of merger approval workstreams, the vast range of stakeholders and the fast pace of activity required a well-defined, disciplined plan for communicating the right information to the right stakeholders at the right time.

We first established the communications core team and assigned each member with a particular area of responsibility (e.g., one team member was responsible for informing the communications core team of upcoming regulatory milestones and other regulatory news).

The communications core team then drafted the overall communications plan, identifying key stakeholder groups, the most effective way of reaching out to each of those groups, and the likely types of information that would need to be communicated to them throughout the merger approval process.

During the course of the merger approval process, the communications core team met on a weekly basis to discuss upcoming activities, news, milestones and agree on timing for communicating with each stakeholder group.

The program manager of the communications core team had overall responsibility for ensuring constant coordination among team members and regular, consistent communication with stakeholders.

The merger was approved one month ahead of schedule without any conditions.

Throughout the merger approval process, all stakeholders were informed in a consistent manner limiting the spread of rumors and incorrect and misleading information.