Dec 19 08
Industry Spotlight: Hill and Knowlton
By Dave Imperiale
I recently sat down with MaryLee Sachs, Global Director of Consumer Marketing at Hill & Knowlton. We talked about how technology and social media is affecting the way H&K communicates internally with employees and externally with their customers.
Despite the economy, H&K had its best year ever in terms of generating top line revenue. But they’re still reorganizing their business to deal with the continuing financial maelstrom in 2009. My guess is New York will be the first to see cars set on fire.
» Given the economy and having what was our best year yet…
When the discussion turned to internal communication she told me about Hank. Hank will be the H&K Facebook – a mix of the professional and the social. As scary as it is, the targeted community seems like the next logical step for a global corporation to communicate.
» Hank has been on the drawing board for a little over a year…
It is a terrific way to get that older generation to understand the space. I just question if they’ll accept it to conduct business and how they’ll use it. Take my mother on Facebook for example. After I friended her (one of the few people I’ve actively friended) I saw that she was writing rampant on everyone’s public walls – admonishing cousins about doing their schoolwork or asking my childhood friends about their wives. When I wrote her explaining that everyone she’s friends with can read everything she’s writing, she responded: “That’s why I didn’t want to be your friend.” So maybe the boomers will be savvier than I think.
» We already have a bunch of people communicating…
They’re mashing their social and professional online lives. Imagine a curmudgeon having to look at an adoring mother’s baby picture next to a Powerpoint slide or status updates complaining about holiday shopping on top of a proposal. Another concern might be productivity. I personally couldn’t ask for more accessible and acceptable procrastination. But when I asked MaryLee about it, she didn’t blink. People have their work and they’ll do it. That’s probably the type of leadership that will take procrastination off the table.
***Note…
You may be noticing that in some clips MaryLee has a mug of coffee, and in some she does not. I drove her to this. We don’t have CGI at SNP.
What about the entitled millennial workforce? One of my favorite topics.
» I have 2 perspectives on the millennial workforce…
At a small company like SNP we can’t hide anything personal. We all know every scandalous detail. The potential for that type of intimate knowledge at a huge global company is fascinating. Think of that poor 22 year-old guy from Ohio, at his first big New York City job, who decides to log onto Hank at 3am on a Sunday morning after being introduced to and then wrecked by Long Island Iced Teas. It’s inevitable and it’ll be glorious. I’m hoping they’ll grant me access for a follow-up article.
I think where I agreed most with MaryLee was when I asked her what kind of advice she’d give business leaders communicating in today’s environment.
Open and honest, two-way communication has always been one of SNP’s tenets. In fact the only times I can think of where we haven’t been successful working with an executive is when they try to keep delicate topics under cover. While that was ill-advised before, it’s unacceptable today. Now more than ever executives need to let their employees know what’s going on and let them talk back.
