Paul Osgood is a senior communications professional with a wide range of international experience in corporate communications. He has worked for companies and consultancies and has specialised in M&A, post-merger integration, crisis and leadership communication, transformation and change management, digital communications and corporate restructuring.<\/p>\n
The people who worked in communications always seemed to do more interesting work. I started my career in financial services and so the choice between a career working with people who were fascinated by balance sheets and a career where people and communications were the focus was an easy one.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been very lucky to work closely with a number of great business leaders in my career \u2013 Derek Wanless at NatWest, Alan Parker at Brunswick, Frans van Houten at Philips and Helge Lund at BG Group. It\u2019s been both a privilege and an inspiration to learn from all these leaders. There\u2019s nothing quite like watching business leaders address issues and challenges in real time.<\/p>\n
I think that I would attempt to become a Renaissance communication person – immersing myself in as many different communication activities as possible. There\u2019s no substitute for breadth of experience in your early years. Depth can and usually does follow.<\/p>\n
The things that I love the most about my work are:<\/p>\n
Businesses are embracing digital innovation through their strategies and business objectives. At the same time employees are increasing their digital IQ through their daily experience and through digital capabilities that are simply unrecognisable from even five years ago. So, without doubt, digital communications represent our biggest professional challenge. If we align ourselves with these business strategies and our people, we\u2019ll create relevant and value-added communications.<\/p>\n
The Philips rebrand. When I was Head of Internal Communications at Philips, we created an \u201cinside out\u201d approach to rebranding which involved building awareness and understanding of our brand promise across 115,000 employees before we shared our new branding with our customers and the media. This was a dream communication project and certainly was the most complex communication challenge that I have ever faced. The launch took place over 12 months and included a whole raft of communication strategies and channels \u2013 an all employee brand jam, #uncoverphilips (using global social media to reveal the new Philips logotype), new video making apps, YouTube live broadcasts, gamification of social media guidelines and 62 simultaneous employee events on the day of the launch, to name but a few.<\/p>\n
The trends are fascinating:<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing like an economic cycle to challenge thinking and approaches. I think that communications will always be seeking to demonstrate its value to organisations and this is a force for good. Corporate complacency should be avoided at all costs and we have the opportunity in almost every piece of work we do to remind our colleagues why communications matter.<\/p>\n
I think that we\u2019ll see greater integration of communication teams and activity. Also, in five years\u2019 time, we will have forgotten many of the digital communication challenges that we faced and will have entered a new digital communication paradigm.<\/p>\n
Leaders \u2013 these men and women are faced with strategic communication challenges that we can support. Which strategy? What message? Which audience? Which channel? How to remain authentic? What\u2019s my digital presence? How do I monitor and respond to feedback? How do I use my time best to engage with stakeholders? As professionals, we need to be ready and capable to answer these and many other questions with leaders.<\/p>\n
It may sound glib but I really do believe that relationships are key to successful communications careers \u2013 relationships on a day to day basis contribute to organisational success and longer term relationships are usually responsible for career development and enhancement. I can see that learning how to build strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders is the single most differentiating factor in our profession. Successful communication professionals who are not well connected are a very rare breed.<\/p>\n
The major talent gap that I see is the senior communications professionals who have limited experience of digital communications and yet who are charged with developing and delivering digital communications strategies. This is a potentially high risk area due to the level of investment associated and the urgent requirement for these digital strategies to support critical business needs.<\/p>\n
Go with your heart and not your head! Always look for the challenge in your work and never settle for the mundane or mediocrity. Do the interesting projects that offer you the opportunity to learn from new experiences and develop your skills.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n