Communicating Financial results to Employees

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I presented this material at the annual meeting for the Council for Communications Management in Philadelphia, Spring 2010. https://www.ccmconnection.com/

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© 2010 IBM Corporation

Ethan McCartyManager, IBM Workforce Enablement & Alumni RelationsIntranet Editor in Chief

Communicating financial results to employees

© 2010 IBM Corporation2

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

The ground rules: Regulatory compliance and then some

1.You gotta be totally correct

2.You gotta be consistent across all media

© 2010 IBM Corporation3

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Potential disconnects

You want to present the best picture externally

You want and need to present the facts correctly

You don’t want to undercut communications about business realities by overplaying good news

You want your employees to feel good about and connected to the results

Many people’s eyes glaze over when talking about financial results

© 2010 IBM Corporation4

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

How we’re inclined to present results

Smiling spokesperson! Cheering investors!

Uninterrupted bullhorn!

© 2010 IBM Corporation5

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

How results are often presented to employees…

© 2010 IBM Corporation6

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Inconsistently

© 2010 IBM Corporation7

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Out of context

© 2010 IBM Corporation8

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Not at all

*This slide intentionally left blank

© 2010 IBM Corporation9

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

It’s no wonder that…

95% of employees surveyed by Fortune magazine are unfamiliar with their company’s strategy.*

*I learned this during yesterday’s presentation.

© 2010 IBM Corporation10

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Meanwhile, everyone sees everything

So let’s assume that our employees are ‘the public.’

And that they are going to talk about work outside of work settings.

And that they’ve read the good/bad/indifferent headlines and showed up to work anyway…

So they’d probably rather have something good to say about their company.

© 2010 IBM Corporation11

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

That means reporting your business results correctly, in context, and consistently with external reporting.

© 2010 IBM Corporation12

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

And I’d argue it means doing more than posting the press release on your company’s intranet.

© 2010 IBM Corporation13

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

A bit about IBM’s intranet

© 2010 IBM Corporation14

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

© 2010 IBM Corporation15

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

A few ways we communicate financial results to IBMers

Scorecard quarterly cycle

Annual Shareholder Meeting coverage

Annual Worldwide Chairman’s Broadcast

Annual Investor Day Briefing and subsequent ‘Why IBM?’ series

Annual report

© 2010 IBM Corporation16

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Scorecard – quarterly results cycle

Three part package – The Quarter/CEO-letter, The Street, Performance Reports

Coordinated at CHQ and BU-level to avoid ‘death by a million emails’

Key strategic messages shared to global comms leaders weeks in advance

Business leaders have a variety of presentation choices and can solicit feedback

© 2010 IBM Corporation17

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Dear IBMer

© 2010 IBM Corporation18

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Profiled w3 Sample

© 2010 IBM Corporation19

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Unit SVP Page Sample

© 2010 IBM Corporation20

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Brand GM Page Sample

© 2010 IBM Corporation21

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Results of the coordinated effort

More consistent messages linking results to strategy

Ability for IBMers to see the whole picture (by looking at any letter they want)

Muuuuuch less email for IBMers

Ability for business leaders to get their messages out in a disciplined way

© 2010 IBM Corporation22

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Annual shareholder meeting

On-site reporting (from exciting locales!)

Integrated video

Downloadable prepared remarks

Our SVP of comms has started live-tweeting the events

User-rating

Integrated content tagging

© 2010 IBM Corporation23

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Investor Day and Why IBM? series

Annual event for investors

Like all the other communications, also presented on www.ibm.com/investor

We basically make our case for IBM and each business unit

Consistently high reader-ratings and traffic

© 2010 IBM Corporation24

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Annual report

We present it on our intranet linked from an for all IBMers from our CEO

Interactive Generating Higher Value portion, Printable PDF, client-presentable PPT version

I won’t dwell on this (unironically, I would actually love to)

© 2010 IBM Corporation25

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

Super awesome conclusion

When reporting financial results to your employees, do it in a context for them.

The benefits will manifest internally and externally to your organization.

© 2010 IBM Corporation26

Communicating financial results to employees

Ethan McCarty 2010

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