International beverage company turns its 600 managers into active strategy communicators

Successful transformation through effective leadership communication

Challenges / Approach

A team that is familiar with its company’s strategy and understands key business decisions can actively support them. Communicating strategic contexts is therefore a key leadership task. However, this can only be achieved if managers embrace their role as strategic communicators and possess the necessary communication skills.

A major company in the drinks industry was undergoing a far-reaching transformation in 2022/2023. Digitalisation, new sustainability requirements and a shortage of skilled workers were changing the company and the day-to-day working lives of its staff. An internal survey revealed that many staff members had only a limited understanding of the overall strategy and perceived the communication from managers regarding the change process as weak.

Klenk & Hoursch therefore developed a series of training sessions for more than 600 divisional and team leaders. The aim was to enable managers to communicate the company’s strategy in a way that was clear and tailored to the target audience, whilst maintaining an ongoing dialogue with their teams.

Implementation

The training programme was divided into two consecutive phases: in 2022, the focus was on storytelling; in 2023, on making an effective personal impression and handling challenging conversational situations. In both phases, Klenk & Hoursch combined an in-depth examination of the company’s strategy with practical exercises and individual feedback.

In total, more than 600 managers took part in 54 live training sessions across four locations. Senior management supported the training sessions as sparring partners and co-coaches, incorporating the core strategic messages into the discussions with the managers. Supporting measures and the training of internal coaches helped to ensure that the learnings were applied in day-to-day management.