When you're serious about culture change
As published in the Journal of Employee Communication Management
July/August 1999
Summary: Changing the culture at Monsanto wasn't "nice to do,"
it was "need to do." As the company faced a transformation in
its business, it required a revolution in its culture. The next
scene showed executives in cubicles, consolidated communication
vehicles, and a thing called a "Communications Process Hub."
These people weren't fooling around.
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A few years ago, Monsanto Company, the emerging leader in the
new field of life sciences, consciously rejected what chairman &
CEO Robert B. Shapiro called the cold and debilitating
traditional corporate culture. Instead, Monsanto began to shift
to an environment characterized by increased openness,
creativity and free thought. Lots of companies, we know, have
begun that very same shift. But have they gotten as far as we
have? Judge for yourself.
When Monsanto made the decision to enter this new field called
life sciences we had several advantages, but we also faced
significant obstacles. Our advantages were a big lead in
technology and innovation, a compelling vision and strategy, and
people willing to take on the task of transformation. However,
the obstacles were daunting. Monsanto did not have the size,
market penetration or financial muscle of our competitors. So
our advantage had to come from an organization that could be
more flexible, innovative, creative and faster to market. We
would define and lead in this new industry through the strengths
of our people not our infrastructure. Coming in second place was
not an option. The start involved a list of daunting tasks:
* Increase shareowner value
* Communicate our new vision and values of a company committed
to doing well by doing good
* Launch our large and promising product pipeline faster, better
and smarter than all of our competitors who had the financial
resources to beat us to market
* Help our people adapt to new operating principles and
understand how we were going to create a life sciences growth
company out of a stable, traditional value-based chemical
company
In 1997, we were asked to help to support these efforts and
communicate these new messages throughout the company. It had to
resonate with employees (or, as we call ourselves, Monsanto
people--in striving to achieve cultural and operating shifts
we're learning that language is important and plays a
significant role in credibility, clarity and success). Our
challenge was to develop and execute an internal communications
strategy based on the company's new values of creativity and
open lines of communication. Giving people the freedom and tools
to get the job done.
Shapiro and Monsanto's leadership had knocked down the walls
(literally--moving all top executives into open work spaces,
making them more accessible to all our people) and announced
that the company was open to change. It was our job to challenge
the old-model communication and to make this culture change
credible--to make it meaningful and real to Monsanto people. It
was, in effect, our job to use communications to help transform
a culture.
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