Week 5 Application Assignment- Kristina Quinn

Interview - Strategic Communication

As I read through the strategic communication material this week I thought of my husband, Jason, who ran a small manufacturing facility in Las Vegas for 5 years.  Because it was a smaller company the strategic communication was handled a little differently than in a large manufacturing plant like GM.  It was a $10M sandwich manufacturer that sold sandwiches and box lunches to casinos, hospitals, and store chains.  He was responsible for the entire Las Vegas facility which included 25 assembly workers, 4 office workers, 2 maintenance, 5 drivers, 2 supervisors, 1 sales person, 1 purchasing person, and 3 investors.  I sat down with him and reviewed the readings with him then asked him some questions.

I asked him what strategic communication meant to him.  He felt communication was key at that company because there were so many moving parts.   According to him if there wasn't clear communication then they couldn't adequately satisfy the customer. 

Clearly Communicated Objectives

I was curious if a small company with 3 investors and 40 employees had a clear overall company objective and how it was communicated across all constituents.  He felt they did have a clear objective and was able to clearly articulate it to me, “To be the premier box lunch and sandwich provider for both back of the house and retail”. 

I asked if he felt this message was clearly communicated to his employees.  He felt it had as he held quarterly meetings to outline the quarter and what the expectations were for the next.  He felt his supervisors were probably the most informed about the objectives as he talked about them all the time.  He also felt his customers understood as it was on the communications given to them including price lists, email tag lines, leader head, etc. 

Mechanisms of Communication

I asked him how he communicated the objectives.  His first answer was, “to whom are you referring?”.  Which was a perfect response as it relates to this week’s readings.  As Argenti & Beck (2005) state in their article, it is important to “align the communication to the strategy” (p.87).    Jason was clear he had very specific communications depending on the situation and the constituent.   

The communications of strategic objectives to employees were through quarterly meetings to discuss prior quarter and next quarter’s objectives.  The communications to customers were through monthly meetings. 

He also made sure that all front of the house employees that had contact with customers understood the objectives so there was one consistent message.  This was also in line with Argenti & Beck (2005) concept of “speaking in harmony”.   It is important to make sure the communicated objective appears to be one consistent story.

Channels of Communication

I asked what channels he used to articulate his message and again answered, “to whom are you referring?”.  He kept clear channels of communication as this was an important way to successfully accomplish the consistent story. 

As mentioned before he held quarterly meetings to address all employees at once, but he also required his supervisors to keep this message ongoing to the employees.  The customers channel was either the front office or route drivers.  And he spoke to investors directly. 

Ambiguity in Communication

I reviewed the readings this week on ambiguity with him and he felt it was different based on the type of organization.  In his case he was always very clear on the message.  

In Terthewey, Goodall & McDonald (2006) strategic ambiguity as a communication strategy is used in companies where information needs to get to its audience quickly and be diverse enough that various constituents could get something out of it.  

Jason believes communication gets transferred quickly in a smaller company and ambiguity could mean mistakes and poor performance.  He stressed his messages were always clear and detailed.  He never wanted to leave anyone guessing what he was saying or interpret it in a way that would cause confusion and mistakes.

He also mentioned that budget constraints of a small company must be taken into consideration when talking strategic communication.  He stresses that there is a cost of communicating or not communicating properly.  A small company must always be mindful of poorly communicating a message, communicating through the wrong channel or communicating the wrong message.   Whereas a big company may not take the hit as hard when this happens, a small company can be severely crippled.

Overall I learned a lot about communication strategies in smaller organizations.  It appears to be key to communicate a clear, consistence strategic message to all constituents in the most efficient and effective way.

References:

Argenti, P., Howell, R., Beck, K. (2005) The Strategic Communication Imperative, MIT Sloan Management Review, 46 #3, pp. 83-89 (full article)

Goodall, B., Terthewey, A., and McDonald, K. (2006) Strategic Ambiguity, Communication and Public Diplomacy in an Uncertain World: Principles and Practices, Consortium for Strategic Communication, pp. 1-14 (full article)