The social media revolution has arrived in financial services. OK, it might be a slight exaggeration to call it a revolution :) but after a long period of just talking about social media, finally the FS industry is seeing some real action! In fact, I noticed a flurry of “social media” headlines recently as I was trolling around the newsletters and blogs of our sister programs in the Financial Services practice. Since I wrote about banks dabbling in social media a few months ago, I thought I would do another roundup on the latest developments and trends around the Financial Services social media landscape – both for Retail and for Private Banking.

So without further ado….drumroll please….

The View from Retail Banking:

The Council on Financial Competition (CFC) sees social media as one of the top 3 transformative forces in retail banking:

“Social media and technology are empowering consumers to receive the advice and expertise traditionally housed in a branch through non-traditional networks–threatening to turn banks from relationship centers into merely cash registers where sales are completed.”

CFC identifies the Shadow Bank as a new and disruptive competitor to the traditional bank. CFC defines the Shadow Bank as the network of customers who are interacting with each other on social media channels to share banking information. This is creating urgency to find ways to differentiate through seamless execution of customer transactions, rather than on just advice which customers can get elsewhere through their own networks.

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By Kirsten Robinson

In a CEC poll, 90% of respondents agreed that thought leadership is critical to executing companies’ strategies. And, it makes sense, because leadership activities help companies build reputation, boost credibility, and differentiate themselves from competition.

Yet, most companies don’t know how to pinpoint what exactly thought leadership is, or how to get started developing a strategy.

That’s where Communications can help—by developing processes to support the discovery, creation, and sharing of thought leadership.

We spoke with Ignacio Gonzalez, Stakeholder Engagement Specialist at Shell USA, and Matt Broder, VP of External Communications at Pitney Bowes, about how their respective companies view thought leadership and use it to achieve company goals.

CEC members, learn more about how Shell USA and Pitney Bowes implement thought leadership by reading excerpts of our conversation with Ignacio Gonzalez and Matt Broder. Read More »

Live Blogging CEC’s Annual Retreat

7:59AM:  I have made it to the AON Conference Room here at CEB Chicago to live blog this year’s Annual Executive Retreat in Washington D.C.  The biggest impediment to this experiment – the variable functionality of our video conferencing equipment – seems to be taken care of, my laptop is fired up, and Rick Delisi, our headliner extraordinaire, is already at the podium.  In the words of the immortal Bart Scott: “Can’t Wait”.

8:28: THE STAKES FOR TODAY:  More than 60% of employees today are experiencing high to severe “change fatigue” and the resulting stress is negatively impacting workforce performance to the tune of US$30million for every $1Billion in revenue.  Now, having been to a few executive retreats in my day, I have a sneaking suspicion that our efforts to mitigate the pain of change may be misplaced…

9:05: Okay, so all is not lost.  The efforts we are making to increase transparency and credibility are not wrong, it’s just that they mainly get us buy-in and only when change is a discreet event.  The problem, as I listen to comments from around the room, is that the volume and pace of change are accelerating and these efforts are therefore having diminishing returns.

9:45:  BIG QUESTION #1:  WHAT DRIVES PERFORMANCE IN A HIGH-CHANGE ENVIRONMENT?  We tested factors associated with 1) effort, 2) responsiveness, and 3) agility and the answer is… AGILITY!  (which we’re describing as proactively adapting, seeking feedback, and supporting peers).  This is great: next time I am asked to work longer or follow direction more closely, I will explain that instead I will just be more agile… I hope my manager gets to see this content at some point. Read More »

By Rebecca Canan

We surveyed Heads of Communications & asked them: in what competency does your team need the most improvement? The resounding answer (63% of all respondents) = business acumen. It’s the foundation of business acumen that helps communicators dissect business partner needs into successful communications support and it serves as a prerequisite to getting that coveted seat at the table.

However, as someone who has “business acumen” as a performance criteria in my annual review, I often struggle to quantify WHAT it actually means and HOW I can get better at it. On our Competency Framework (access the entire Modern Communicator’s Skill Set here), we’ve defined business acumen as:

An understanding of my company’s strategy and “ecosystem,” including global trends, macroeconomic shifts, and regulatory changes.

My common approaches to improve my own business acumen have been to (try to) read dense articles in the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times and, more recently, to watch the film, Too Big To Fail on HBO (which I HIGHLY recommend).

While these tactics help, I think the onus is on us as individuals to constantly look for ways to get more exposure and business education. I’ve provided a few ideas below - based on research & conversations with CEC members. I’d really appreciate your suggestions, experiences, and ideas too. Read More »

The Communications Executive Council hosted 17 heads of Communications at CEB’s headquarters near Washington last week to discuss Building a Change-Ready Organization.  My colleague Rick DeLisi moderated (as he always does) a lively, engaging, and interactive discussion.  Members can find our latest updates on this work here.

At the end of the day, we asked these leaders for their top takeaways from the meeting. I personally find their responses incredibly insightful in terms of where the communications profession needs to go next.  Drum roll, please!

Top Takeaways

5. Better communications = quantifiable impact on the bottom line. There is a measurable – and large! – link between (a) what communications can do to drive employees’ agility and (b) company performance. For the average large organization, a 10% improvement in three aspects of the communication environment drives over $16 million in incremental profit per $1 billion in revenue. A 10% improvement isn’t unreasonable: it’s essentially moving up one quartile in relative performance from wherever you are today.

4. How to use your seat at the table. The key to creating this measurable value lies not so much in better writing or other traditional communication skills, but in enabling more effective communication within the organization.  What are the new skills and how can you get them?  Check out the Council’s resources here. Read More »

By Rebecca Canan

Do you have a solid understanding of your skill strengths?  Or in what areas you have the most room to develop and grow?

Most communicators have a decent idea of how they’re performing on basic technical skills (e.g., does my writing need edits?) and overall leadership competencies (e.g., do I work well on teams?), but don’t know how well they’re doing on some of the most critical skills for success in Communications.

If you’re the leader of a team in Communications, this should be a startling realization. When you’re not specifically defining or measuring what success looks like for each of the necessary skills, your team members will struggle to know what it takes to move up to the next level. Furthermore, it’s hard for you to know whether you’re providing them with the right training and coaching when you don’t have a good sense of what skills you should be targeting.

To help communicators identify skill strengths and development areas among their teams, we’ve recently created an Online Skills Assessment. The results will help you steward the professional growth of team members, prioritize L&D investments, and clarify expectations for success in Communications.  Below is a sample page from the report: Read More »

Change is the new normal

With the average employee experiencing 3-4 different types of organizational change over the last two years, CEC is updating our work on how leading organizations manage these events. Coming soon are toolkits to help you with the communications challenges surrounding specific change events ranging from M&A to changes in organizational strategic planning.

Communications challenges

We’ve observed two different types of challenge facing communicators during change:

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By Laura Newman

As I get ready to leave London and head State-side (Duke School of Business here I come!), my to-do list gets longer by the day. That said, as a foodie, I did have one thing sorted a while ago – dinner reservations at my favorite restaurants. As I reviewed the list, it struck me how difficult many were to categorize. If a restaurant blends Indian flavors, French cooking techniques, and tapas-sized portions in a British colonial environment, what style is it? (Londoners, check-out Colony in Marylebone if you’re curious to experience the result.)

At a restaurant, we may refer to this kind of blending as fusion. What if we consider the equivalent in the workplace?  In today’s global, complex businesses our environments are just as diverse. But are we collaborating effectively? Are employees blending approaches and processes to develop new ideas? In other words, are we using collaboration and knowledge exchange as inspiration for innovation; to achieve outcomes? Read More »

You might recall that I blogged about the complexities of managing a global comms function a few weeks ago. I have spent the past several weeks speaking with our members who either work across global and dispersed teams, or manage communications for a specific country unit of a large international company, to better understand what kinds of challenges they face in their respective roles and what tools would be helpful to their jobs easier. These interviews, as well as a recent survey of the CEC membership, indicate three top of mind challenges for global communicators:

1. Message consistency: balancing consistency in what we say with local relevance
2. Governance and process: creating the right organizational structure, processes, and roles
3. Coordination and collaboration: idea-sharing among communicators around the world

Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

It’s no surprise that companies feel like their image is being pulled in many different directions. Between tougher competition and increasingly demanding customers—just to name a couple—brand values must evolve to keep up with changing business environments.

But after examining and redefining their brand values…many companies are asking themselves, How do we get our employees to really live the brand?

After facing their own corporate identity crisis, Standard Chartered recognized that a key to getting their employees to “live” the new brand values was tapping into the power of their line managers.

Debbie Whitaker, Head of Organizational Change at Standard Chartered, spoke with us about how they execute change by selecting an influential group of managers and providing them with tools and a support system to navigate the process.

CEC members, check out our new online resource, which illustrates how Standard Chartered uses front line managers to drive brand values among employees.  You’ll also hear firsthand from Debbie Whitaker  and read excerpts from our conversation with her.

Related CEC Resources:

• Corporate Brand Management Topic Center
• Implementation Pack for Standard Chartered’s Brand Values Activation