The Corporate Story

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Jonathan Steffen has published widely on the subject of corporate culture and communications.

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Everyone has the most beautiful baby
(First appeared on the website of Surrey Chambers of Commerce)
Jonathan Steffen on a very basic lesson in communication
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Maximising your PR for free
(Presentation first given at the Winning Business 2006 Exhibition on 13 June 2006)
Owner-managed businesses need good PR as much as large companies do – but they don’t have comparable budgets. Jonathan Steffen provides tips on how developing your own corporate story can help you to maximize your PR for free.
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Are your organs healthy?
(First Published in Surrey House's customer magazine "Showcase", Autumn 2005)
It’s as messy business. Expectations. Emotions. Hormones. It’s a tricky business. Market dymanics. Regulatory changes. Media interest. It’s your business. It’s full of people. Those people are full of problems. And those problems are – full of problems. Welcome to Internal Comms.
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Good Communication Comes From Within
(First Published in "Insurance Day", 15 October 2003)
Everyone agrees that good internal communications can help insurers perform better – but what constitutes ‘good’ internal communications? Jonathan Steffen offers five rules of thumb for insurers ...
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Making belief believable: a European perspective
(first published in "Internal Focus", Volume One/Issue Two, 2001)
Internal Communication specialists understand employee value systems and produce inspiring dialogue – or do they? Jonathan Steffen argues that when dealing with a multi-cultural audience, we are in danger of confusing the message.
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Breaking lances, dying in ditches: A survival guide for the international change manager
(First published in "The Journal of Change Management", November 2000; reprinted in the WPP journal "Atticus" Volume 7, 2001)
The high failure rate of change management projects is well documented. One of the key reasons for this is the selection of change agents who are either temperamentally unsuited to their role or else inadequately trained for it ...
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What makes a champion of change?
(First published in The Journal of Change Management, November 2000)
What makes a champion of change? The most cursory study of mediaeval literature makes clear the scarcity of great champions, and the many sacrifices which the role entails. Anyone planning to do battle in the corporate lists should be fully aware of what the job means before volunteering to break a lance in a strategic cause ...
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Cultural Due Diligence: A specialist communication service for M&A transactions
(First published in "Strategic Communication Management", November 2000)
With one in three mergers failing for cultural reasons, professional communicators have an opportunity to counteract the trend by offering a proactive diagnostic service ...
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The three in ten method: A practical tool for managing change
(First published in "Internal Communication" Issue 60, November 2000)
Whether planning a corporate relocation or developing a rebranding strategy, business leaders need to keep their messages simple to cut through the noise of an ever more complex operating environment. Jonathan Steffen proposes a straightforward and powerful methodology to help decision-makers deal with the challenges of change even as the ground is shifting underneath them ...
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Dilbert and the Duke of Wellington: The role of strategic communication in knowledge management
(First published in "Knowledge Management Review" Issue 12, January/February 2000)
‘All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don’t know by what you do; that’s what I called “guessing what was on the other side of the hill.”’ (The Duke of Wellington in The Croker Papers) ...
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The culture of communication and the communication of culture in the modern corporate environment
(First published in "The Journal of Communication Management" Volume Four Number One, August 1999)
This article proposes a methodology for helping organisations steer through the flood of information generated by contemporary information technology ...
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Winning hearts and minds: How to change flipchart diagrams into change programmes
(First published in Training Technology & Human Resources, July 1999)
The best-laid corporate plans often get no further than the meeting-room in which they were hatched out. Jonathan Steffen gives a few tips on how to get people to buy in to your bright ideas ...
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The rock, the hard place and the middle manager: A survival guide
(First published in "Modern Management" Volume Thirteen, February 1999)
The pressures of the modern workplace are placing almost intolerable burdens on middle managers. Jonathan Steffen explains how by understanding the changing nature of the demands made of them, middle managers can successfully adapt to their new operating environment and significantly reduce their stress levels ...
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Blessed are the Geeks
(First published in "Conspectus", January 1999)
When personal computers entered the workplace in the 1980s, they subverted not only standard operational and administrative procedures but also traditional attitudes towards the employment relationship ...
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Intercultural fluency: A crash course for the busy manager
(First published in "Focus on Change Management" Issue 50, December 1998/January 1999)
The globalisation of business is bringing together individuals and organisations from widely differing cultural backgrounds and with widely differing cultural expectations. Inevitably, however, most of us are only conversant with the norms of our own culture ...
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Successful demergers: How planned communication can help
(First published in the lawyers’ magazine "axiom", 1999)
When a demerger is in process, a carefully formulated and implemented communication plan is essential to help the new entity rapidly establish identity, direction, and self-confidence. This field is not, however, the core specialisation of lawyers who handle demerger transactions ...
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