Winner: EDS and The Storytellers: EDS Storytellers
Two years of wrenching change and the replacement of nearly the entire executive leadership team meant that EDS Global Communications was presented with a significant business challenge. As the company embarked upon a new business journey, its 118,000 employees needed to be reconnected to its new leadership, and gain a clear view of the executive team's vision for EDS.
EDS met this challenge by reviving the company's storytelling tradition. Since the company's founding, stories had played a central role in energizing the EDS culture, and ensuring that its people understood the company's business direction. With that in mind, the company looked for a way to align its many initiatives with its employees' stories by engaging them in local storytelling sessions, and creating a web-based tool to access that information.
EDS worked with UK-based company The Storytellers to develop the initial storyline, which focused on key messages in an easy-to-understand framework. The original storyline was then presented to the executive committee, and then to a series of focus groups comprising people from key EDS operations departments. Later, it was tested in the UK, Germany, Hong Kong, and Australia. This led to the final version of the EDS Story, which consisted of seven chapters outlining the company's direction and actions. Subsequently, each story told by EDS employees aligns with one of the seven chapters.
The program was launched in combination with a new integrated brand campaign via global broadcast. The VP of global communications used a 7-foot by 45-foot "StoryMap" as an illustration, walking the length as he told the story. Additionally, tools were developed and provided to leaders to engage their teams in the story and conduct local storytelling sessions, capturing success stories of employees.
In addition, the company's intranet, InfoCenter, provided a tutorial on how one office engaged employees in a live storytelling session; videos and printed stories to bring each chapter to life; artwork for reproducing the EDS StoryMap, and StoryCapture Cards, Commitment Cards, and sample success stories. An online "story factory" process also captured employee success stories, developing and sharing them with the rest of the company. The EDS Story continues to stay alive through large StoryWalls in high-traffic areas of global campuses, and EDS Way classes.
One judge said this was a highly effective campaign addressing an important corporate culture issue. More than 70 employees' stories have been published on EDS' intranet, with an additional 120 being reviewed. Sales increased 25% year on year, and participation in the annual workplace survey doubled.
Honorable Mention: GH/Insidedge and Quest Diagnostics: Understanding the Patient Experience
Quest Diagnostics has grown through acquisitions over the past decade, making it hard for its 38,000 employees to align themselves behind a single brand or mission. Company leaders created a multiyear effort, the "Employee Ambassador Initiative," to ensure that all were familiar with the company's patients, values, and vision. The second installment in 2005 featured elements designed to provide employees with the knowledge and tools to enable them to understand and positively impact the patient experience. Working with GolinHarris, an innovative training session was developed, supported by a resource kit, video, and interactive knowledge-based game to reinforce putting patients at the center of the business. By the end of 2005, all employees completed the initiative sessions, and 98% of the employees said they felt better prepared to represent the company.
Finalists:
EDS and The Storytellers
EDS Storytellers
Fleishman-Hillard and Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Aligning Business Strategy With Guiding Values
GH/Insidedge and Quest Diagnostics
Quest Diagnostics: Understanding the Patient Experience
Ketchum and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company
The Bucket Brigade: Creating Employee Loyalty Through Corporate Philanthropy
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and American Chemistry Council
"I am essential"
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