Baker lost a beloved co-worker Thursday evening, May 16, 2013. Helen Aktuna died after battling a serious illness. Each of us grieves not only at the passing of a tremendous individual but also for the loss her husband and family suffer.

Baker lost more than just an important member of our staff, we lost a true friend. Helen had worked as a production manager at Baker for more than 10 years, yet this title does not express the real scope of her duties or work ethic. She took her responsibilities seriously and worked tirelessly for clients and our firm.

Before joining Baker, Helen sharpened her talents in the international design community. She compounded this experience with diverse work for companies throughout London, from advertising firms to merchant banks. Helen had also overseen design and production for numerous independent music labels, working with labels, artists and photographers at a UK-based music media manufacturing agency.

An innovative and creative spirit, Helen is an irreplaceable part of the Baker family. She will be greatly missed by her co-workers, past and present.

Please join us in celebrating her memory today and in the coming weeks, months and years.

— Everyone at Baker

CEO Julia Stewart supports the franchise model because it reduces costs and increases profit, and the numbers support her claim. The company’s stock is up more than 8% this year. To read the entire article, click here.

To learn more about our work with DineEquity, click here.

Congratulations, DineEquity, on achieving your goal and a successful year!

As a creative director, one of my consistent objectives is to look at problems from new and different perspectives. Each one of us has a unique thumbprint, DNA and personal style. These contribute to an almost automatic approach to problem solving. The universal challenge is after you have exhausted all the ideas that come naturally — how do you push yourself further? How do you explore new angles that typically aren’t your first thoughts?

In a recent article, Tina Seeling, a PHD in neuroscience at Stanford University, offers many excellent examples and analogies on how taking different perspectives can lead to breakthrough thinking in any industry. Read, enjoy and apply!

Imagine that you’re a physician, ready to work with your patients and help them thrive. Your patients come in, and you try taking a family history, doing a complete physical and ordering appropriate lab work before diagnosing the problem — and suggesting an approach. But alas. Your patients aren’t interested because they already know that all they need is a new bottle of…

Oh, I feel your pain, frustrated physician. Employee communications often suffers from this same syndrome — capabilities misunderstood, value uncertain, leading to less-than-optimal results.

And frankly, it’s understandable. As a profession, we’ve gone through a huge amount of change over the past 10 years. Go on, tell me what comes to mind when you think about employee communications:

• Writer
• Researcher
• Benefits communicator
• Newsletter editor
• Speech writer

And you’d be right. We do all of that, and we have to do it well. But while that’s necessary, it is not sufficient. Because employee communications should be so much more. Here’s what comes to my mind when I think about employee communications:

• Influencer
• Coach
• Advisor
• Risk manager
• Engagement expert
• Change agent
• Truth teller

Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re thinking that I have a rather grandiose view of my profession. And I do. But only because I’ve lived it and have seen the difference it can make to the culture and success of a company. Let’s look at an example that is very fresh to all of us — a high tech company which made an important announcement.

Yahoo

The story is well known by now. High tech company struggling to rebuild its products, culture and reputation announces a new “work only from the office” policy. Proverbial you-know-what hits the fan. Howls of protest from employees. “They don’t get it” criticism from the media. Defenders of the decision, pointing out the advantage of in-person teamwork in an innovation company.

Here’s the email from Human Resources that started it all:

YAHOO! PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION — DO NOT FORWARD

Yahoos,

Over the past few months, we have introduced a number of great benefits and tools to make us more productive, efficient and fun. With the introduction of initiatives like FYI, Goals and PB&J, we want everyone to participate in our culture and contribute to the positive momentum. From Sunnyvale to Santa Monica, Bangalore to Beijing — I think we can all feel the energy and buzz in our offices.

To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together. Beginning in June, we’re asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices. If this impacts you, your management has already been in touch with next steps. And, for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration. Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices.

Thanks to all of you, we’ve already made remarkable progress as a company — and the best is yet to come.
Jackie

Was the email well written? Why yes, it was. Was the messaging clear? Yep, it was crystal clear. Was it obvious that this was for internal purposes only and wasn’t to be shared? Uh huh.

There was clearly a good writer at work. A lot of thought went into the messaging. From a tactical standpoint, it’s hard to criticize this communication.

Except it failed spectacularly.

Because this was far more than a tactical communication issue — it was a strategic communication issue, involving change management, leadership and cross-department collaboration.

Instead of sending an HR memo out to employees, suppose this had happened:

1. The business researched the impact of work-at-home employees and has decided that the best way to maximize innovation and grow a healthy, productive culture is to have all employees work from the office.

2. A meeting is called with internal communications, external communications and human resources. Actions prior to communication are identified.

3. A change management plan is put into place, analyzing stakeholders, potential risks and opportunities, and putting great clarity around communication objectives of knowledge, attitude and action.

4. With the results of the change management plan in place, it’s clear that highly personal, sensitive and strong leadership is an imperative for success. The CEO is set up as the champion of the change, and the main spokesperson for it. Key stakeholders are informed of what is happening and why in advance of the communication.

5. On announcement day, the CEO holds a global town hall. With use of technology, she acknowledges that this was a difficult decision to make, because it does impact employees so strongly. She then sets out the business case for it, clearly explaining what’s in it for the company and for employees. Her comments are followed by 45 minutes of questions and answers.

6. Managers are given support materials to explain the change in the context of their own departments.

Will Yahoos be happy employees after this announcement? No. It’s bad news for them no matter how you paint it. But at least they’ll understand the reason for the change, and they’ll respect their leadership for having the guts to personally talk about it and openly answer questions in an adult, straightforward way.

So what do employee communicators who are at the top of their game do? I repeat:

• → We’re risk managers, protecting our companies from rash actions.
• → We’re coaches and advisors, helping our executives communicate in a way that enhances their reputations and ensures communication success.
• → We’re change agents, leading the change management effort to make sure the communication, when it happens, occurs in the optimal environment.
• → We’re influencers, using our knowledge of employee perspectives and business needs to shape the discussion.
• → We’re truth tellers, willing to talk about the ugly truth, even when that’s painful.

Writers? You bet. Deck creators? Of course. But the very best communicators do so much more. And your company is healthier and stronger for it.

A member of the Baker Network
Terry McKenzie brings over 25 years of experience in change management, internal communication, strategic communication planning, and implementation for corporations and agencies. In addition to applying her knowledge and skills to building informed, engaged and aligned workforces, Terry is a trainer for Melcrum’s prestigious Black Belt communication courses. You can follow her thoughts on life and work at tmacwords.wordpress.com.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Move over G3. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is on track to finalize G4 reporting guidelines by May 2013. Significant changes will have a major impact on the 3,900+ companies that use the GRI standard for corporate responsibility (CR) communications. Here are some things you should know.

Goodbye Application Levels

There’s been too much confusion about what application levels mean. Calling the levels “A,” “B” and “C,” gave the mistaken impression that it was an indicator of sustainability performance or quality of reporting. Neither is the case. The new proposal is based on “in accordance” criteria.

Good news for beginners and smaller companies

A big emphasis on user-friendly guidance should make the guidelines easier to use and understand, especially for people new to sustainability reporting. A web-based version of the framework will be available — a welcome option to the current hefty PDF. Smaller companies will have an easier time reporting, because the number of disclosure items will be reduced for them, a recognition of their relative lack of complexity compared to larger organizations.

“As people become more aware, and actually see more information, they actually become more skeptical.”

— JAMES CERUTTI of BRANDLOGIC

Focus and clarity

The goal is to produce more focused reports that are specific to an organization’s key operations and challenges. The trend has been for organizations to produce glossy reports with generic content. As a result, a company like BP could produce outstanding GRI-based reports that don’t focus on real challenges. Improving the technical definitions should make it easier for organizations to get external verification of reported information.

This is evident in the disclosure changes for Anti-corruption (in a new Ethics section) and GHG Emissions Indicators (grouped into three subsets). Energy Indicators also have been modified for more streamlined reporting.

Changes to management approach disclosure and reporting boundaries will require more specific information on how organizational strategies are implemented and how far impact disclosures should go. Product and supplier disclosures bring supply chain into closer view.

Harmony

The new guidelines are designed to better harmonize with other internationally accepted standards.

MORE IS LESS

Most companies are doing better at sustainability performance but many aren’t getting credit. That’s one finding in the 2012 Sustainability Leadership Report by Brandlogic and CRD Analytics. Key audience perceptions aren’t rising at the same rate as their performance improvements. That may be because more reporting can simply mean more information that people can’t evaluate.

No Integrated Reporting Guidance

While integrated reporting remains the goal for many organizations, there is no internationally agreed-upon standard yet. Organizations pioneering this effort are inventing it as they go. Standards will likely emerge in future GRI versions that codify the best practices of these leading edge organizations.

Will there be a grace period?

This is not expressly stated yet, but a grace period of up to 2 years was given with previous framework updates. Since this is a major upgrade, a similar grace period is likely.

The bottom line

This is a step forward for sustainability reporting in a landscape that’s fast evolving. While the GRI framework is only a guideline, it’s a great tool that promotes consistency and clarity. We’re ready to welcome CR 4.0.

Head to the GRI site to learn more about the changes or to read the G4 Exposure Draft.

The idea of marketing to your brand’s influencers is not new. But it’s important to understand who they are and what will influence them. Finding out how you should rev up or change your messaging to meet their particular needs is also key. We’d like to offer some basic considerations on how to do that. But keep in mind that re-evaluating who your influencers are — and changing your approach and researching the affects of your actions — should be an ongoing process.

Identifying your influencer: Who?

There is never just ONE influencer. Identifying your audience(s) is essential. Let’s say you work in marketing at Bacardi. Your influencers can be anyone from the bartender, server, food and drink bloggers to the retail sales person at BevMo — you name it. The best way to identify these groups is to ask the following:

• Who recommends my product/service?
• To whom do I want to recommend my product/service?
• Whose opinion would I trust about my product/service?
• Who would I ask when deciding products/services?

The “I’d Google it” response is simply not sufficient to answer these questions. How do you know what articles or resources to trust?

Engaging your influencer groups: How?

Marketing to your influencer is probably the most difficult part. Often, it will come down to trial and error. Although we have laid out the steps above in a linear fashion, many times the research needs to come before the initiative. We’re all inundated with consumer product marketing in our everyday lives. Influencers are too, so keep the following suggestions in mind:

Be authentic. Why do YOU recommend your brand? If you are Vizio making TV sets for far less than the competition — but you have a killer story and the technology to match — talk about it! Engage your influencer with emotional brand stories — the kind you buy into, like the ones that made YOU drink the company Kool-aid in the first place. Influencers are influencers because they are seen as experts in “this thing,” not because they can spew back marketing speak.

Teach them. Many influencers don’t know anything about your competition. They have their go-to brands and products — and that is what they recommend. This has worked for them in the past, so why stop? When you are not the company being recommended…teach them. Spend dollars educating your influencer on your product. Retail sales associates across the globe have to know about the products they are selling, so training initiatives can be vital. That’s why manufacturers often use existing marketing budgets earmarked for field marketing and other purposes to finance product training.

You’ll need to go through some trial and error to figure out what works and what doesn’t and what may need to be revved up. Maybe you have a killer field group, but you have been trying to educate influencers through digital webinars. Step back and consider the big picture. Then adjust your approach according to your strengths.

Research: Why?

This is all about follow through. Over and over again, we hear “what you measure, you improve.” So measure it! Of course, this will involve time and money, but it’s important to track how your initiatives are affecting your sell-thru and impacting your bottom line. Obviously, this action will help champion future influencer programs with your company’s leadership. But it can also show you where your initiatives are working and where you need to try something else.

Recently, we stumbled across a company called MSS (http://www.mssmulti.com/) — Multi-Sponsored Surveys. They primarily focus on point-of-purchase influencers, but what they offer can be invaluable. It can help guide every aspect of your marketing and branding. With multiple competing brands, they survey influencers to find out what they recommend, why they recommend it, what questions they get asked, what the market looks like, etc. Of course, using MSS is not the only way to do this kind of research. The important thing is to just get it done. However you research your influencers and what moves them will change how you market, price and develop future offerings. Essentially, it will help you make your business more successful.

Values. Forget the posters. Forget the words. A crisis is the prime moment that reveals what a company is really about and has prepared to do. Corporate responsibility comes to life, values turn to action. The rest of the world gets a front row seat to seeing who knows how to serve and who is still being self-serving.

Many responses to Hurricane Sandy reflected that CR has become an active, ongoing concern inside companies. This is a more strategic approach to CR than setting up that once-in-a-while Volunteer Week. It’s a sign that CR leaders are integrating lessons from customer-centric branding — putting customer needs first rather than lobbing pots of money for the best photo op. Then there are those companies (stand up, American Apparel) that continually remind us that they connect with their customers’ money more than with their reality.

Fast, effective and empathetic CR responses don’t happen by accident. They demonstrate planning, forethought and a strategic approach to being a partner in a 360-degree relationship with consumers and community. What does that look like? Here are some examples of companies that do this well and a few who don’t.

The good and the clueless

In response to the Hurricane Sandy, AT&T worked with Mayor Bloomberg and the City of New York to get generator-driving charging stations and RVs with charging capabilities to local food and water stations set up throughout the five boroughs. P&G’s Duracell rolled out its Power Forward Community Center and Rapid Responder 4X4 truck to power up people’s mobile device and give them online access.

Comcast took one step forward and then one step backward from their poor reputation for customer understanding. On a positive note, they followed in AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s footsteps and opened up their WiFi network to anyone in affected states. At the same time, the company’s customer service department failed the “good citizen” test by charge a customer for flood-ruined cable equipment (and The Consumerist publicized it).

Anheuser-Busch could have been the butt of plenty of jokes had they sent in truckloads of beer. Instead, they were smart and used their facilities to package 44,000 cases of emergency drinking water — a great example of asking first what was needed, rather than what was in the warehouse to give.

Not so PepsiCo, who sent (among other things) Doritos and Mountain Dew. Gothamist’s Rebecca Fishbein blogged that while the donation was “pretty nice” it also offered “little-to-no nutritional value,” and hoped that an expected cereal donation from Walmart didn’t mean Froot Loops. All part of what left many with a Sandy Five.

It would have been easy for Ernst & Young to send a check and sit out the mess, but with many of their colleagues left homeless, more than 271 E&Y families opened their homes to colleagues. More than a gesture of goodwill, this speaks volumes about a corporate culture that values trust and compassion.

Focusing on after-the-aftermath, Groupon set up a fundraising campaign for Accion to provide small business recovery microloans. Best Buy put Geek Squad Agents on the ground to support nonprofits, schools and libraries that were delivering disaster relief. OfficeMax partnered with nonprofit AdoptAClassroom.org to launch the Hurricane Relief for Teachers (HuRT) program to help restore damaged classrooms along the east coast.

POST KATRINA CHANGE FOR THE BRIGHTER

CFL lightbulbs today are near ubiquitous, the result of a concerted effort by Walmart and GE in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A price cut in the months following Katrina and press about their superior energy efficiency from the likes of Oprah shot the curlicues to national attention and into America’s homes.

Read all about it in Fast Company’s “How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World? One. And You’re Looking At It.”

Sympathy is nice — empathy connects

Smart CR leaders understand (and know how to demonstrate) the difference between offering sympathy and connecting with empathy. Of course, while CR should shine a halo on corporate reputation, that should never be the driving purpose for any one action. (Washing clean pots is a recipe for PR disaster.) Authentically turning values into relevant actions proves that a company can see beyond its own self-serving interest in consumers. Those companies can see that “consumer” is just one aspect of a fuller partnership with a community and nation of people.

RESOURCE

Business Civic Leadership Center Hurricane Sandy Corporate Aid Tracker

Today companies face similar brand and culture challenges, which limit their potential.

We’ve seen it with our own clients. Case in point: We are currently helping several companies transform their businesses and evolve their cultures and brands to better reflect their potential today and their vision for tomorrow.

These companies are in different industries. They range from 20 to 98 years in business, and have revenues ranging from $200 million to $6 billion. Despite the differences in industry, size and age, they all face similar challenges: They lack a clear vision, purpose and set of values. They have poor internal communications. And their brand stories and differentiators have not kept pace with how the world has changed over the past decade.

The factors that are holding these companies back fall into two categories: culture and brand. Both are mission critical to any company’s success — and when not handled properly, can even threaten an organization’s future growth and sustainability.

Cultures need leadership, purpose and alignment.

Many leaders have excellent backgrounds and track records in operations or engineering or finance. However, they lack a clear and consistent vision and do not possess the communication skills to effectively reach their people. For employees, that translates into the feeling that the company’s leadership is either weak or confused — or both.

In addition, the demands of downsizing, right sizing and every one doing double and triple what they once did is also taking its toll — translating into lackluster earnings and employee performance. It’s commonplace for employees today to be burned out, apathetic and ineffective — issues that all come to light in the Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce Study which highlights issues such as employees’ stress and anxiety about the future and job security, and doubts about the level of interest and support from upper management.

Having a cultural common purpose does impact a company’s bottom line. In IBM’s recent CEO study, Leadership Through Connections, three imperatives were found essential for outperformance: empowering employees through values, engaging customers as individuals and amplifying innovations with partnerships. CEOs see greater organizational openness ahead. As rules are redefined and collaboration explodes, having a strong sense of sense of purpose and shared beliefs to guide decision-making will be key to avoiding chaos, protecting a business’ future, and delivering stellar results.

Companies need to practice brand basics.

For a variety of reasons, many companies have not invested the time, resources and money into developing effective brand fundamentals such as platform tools, consistent and aligned touch points, and internal methods for disciplined brand stewardship over time.

We often encounter companies that have not adapted or evolved their brands, even though the world and the marketplaces in which they compete have changed significantly. As a result, their brands look dated and their messaging and positioning are no longer appropriate or relevant.

A good brand positioning is a differentiated market position that no other company can legitimately claim, captured in a powerful brand idea. It should be simply worded and function as a totem pole around which actions, behaviors and communications are aligned. The brand idea must be used internally as an affirmation of a distinctive and dedicated culture and externally as a competitive advantage.

Another frequently missed opportunity is the lack of emotional connection to a brand. Companies need to make a connection with their audiences with compelling messaging and a riveting, authentic brand story. The story helps people connect on an ethical, logical and emotional level to capture hearts and minds.

It is also imperative to have the right touch points for your audiences to receive your messages. Today corporate communications is a two-way street. All audiences expect to receive it the way they want — when and where they want. Only by knowing your audiences intimately will the right delivery channels become apparent — social, digital as well as traditional.

In conclusion

So, what will help you become the market leader your company has the potential to be? It’s simple. Make an investment in integrated brand tools and acquire the discipline to execute your brand across company silos, as well as media channels.

Manage for your long-term success and sustainability. Brand development is not inventing what you should be. It’s uncovering the potential of what you are. Help your company develop a distinctive culture and strong brand that’s unique. Then, reinforce the connection between your brand and your audiences — both internally and externally. In doing so, you’ll create employees and customers that will be ambassadors and advocates for life.

Read more of our thoughts on our website here!

Summary
Baker | Brand Communications (www.bakerbrand.com), a brand and communications design firm based in Santa Monica, CA, has an immediate opening for a Production Artist. Why Baker? Our people and work culture are second to none. We have a passion for creative excellence, strategic problem solving, and fun—and we do it all in a casual work environment by the beach!

Production Artists execute the strategic and creative vision of a project by producing precision digital and traditional mechanicals. They play a key role in preparing presentations and final art, implementing revisions and producing quality work. Production Artists often work on multiple projects with overlapping deadlines.

Critical Job Responsibilities
— Produce assets and files in appropriate software programs
— Implement file revisions as directed by team members or client
— Prepare files for handoff to printer or other vendors
— Ensure deliverables meet highest standards of quality

Skills and Experience Required
— Advanced working knowledge of current design software programs (Adobe Creative Suite, etc.)
— Extensive knowledge of printing and proofing processes
— Detailed knowledge and capabilities in most or all of company’s service areas; i.e.: print collateral, interactive, video, branding, etc.
— Mature interpersonal communications skills; professional, positive and respectful attitude toward clients, vendors and colleagues
— Strong verbal and writing skills
— Extreme attention to detail and commitment to quality in fast-paced environment
— Patient, mature approach to problem-solving and issue escalation

Candidates will likely have 5+ years production experience in a design firm environment. Familiarity with production of annual and other corporate reports is ideal; web or multimedia experience a plus. Competitive salary offered.

To apply, please send your resume and cover email, including salary requirement, with the position title and your name in the subject field to jobs@bakerbrand.com (subject example: Production Artist – John Doe). No phone calls please.