SUPPORTING INTEGRATION OF TWO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSES

In September 2002, French-owned BNP Paribas Securities Services acquired Cogent Investment Operations. Their intention was to integrate the two organisations to create one, unified business. Communication was needed to keep employees across 17 locations across Europe and Australasia informed, and to support achievement of speedy, efficient integration - on both a practical and cultural level.

The Integration Project team was supported to ensure that clear, consistent messages were communicated to all staff regularly through established and new channels.

An intranet site was maintained to provide a shared forum for information about integration and a facility to ask questions.

Human Resources and IT were supported to communicated specific changes.

A specific communication programme was developed and delivered to launch the new unified brand to all staff - this included a range of materials and presentations.

A set of shared values was developed and articulated with input from across the business.

The internal communication team were supported with 'business-as-usual' communication, creation of a new integrated communication team and development of future strategy The new, integrated business was launched to the market on 5 June 2003. The process of engaging staff in the new business was ongoing, but following the initial briefings an encouraging 93% of Cogent staff understood how they fitted within BNP Paribas.