3 lessons from Starbucks’ and Instagram’s leadership changes and departures

This week, both Facebook and Starbucks faced an onslaught of media coverage and scrutiny as executive-level shakeups were announced.

For Facebook, it came when Instagram’s founders abruptly resigned. They tweeted the following:

The @instagram journey is one I won't forget. It started by building simple products that solved universal problems. Now eight years we look back and are proud and grateful to have been part of that journey. Thank you to the entire community as we move on for now.

— Kevin S. (@kevin) September 25, 2018

Over 8 years ago, Kevin and I started Instagram, hoping to build something that would bring out people’s creativity and spirit for exploration. Now it’s time for the next chapter. A huge thank you to everyone in the community who we’ve met along the way. https://t.co/9Omyj6VHbe

— Mike Krieger (@mikeyk) September 25, 2018

Though Starbucks didn’t announce any current leadership departures, it warned employees that it was making changes to its organizational structure—which involves corporate leadership layoffs.

[RELATED: Join us at Zappos HQ for our Role of Communications in Creating Best Places to Work Conference.]

Here are three lessons to take from the announcements, including the organizations’ moves to control the narratives:

1. Unify your workforce—or face dissonance and departure.

The departure of Instagram’s founders highlights the necessity of a unified workforce when it comes to an organization’s vision and business goals.

Bloomberg reported:

[Kevin] Systrom and his co-founder, Mike Krieger, had spent six years running Instagram as a division of Facebook, while pursuing their own vision for the app -- even when that was sometimes at odds with Zuckerberg’s ideas. Lately Facebook had become relentless in its pushes for data sharing, product integrations and other moves that would benefit the overall company, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing internal dynamics. When Systrom came back from leave this week, he and Krieger abruptly announced that they were leaving the social media giant. Facebook was not prepared for the news.

“Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs,” Systrom wrote, without mentioning Zuckerberg. “We look forward to watching what these innovative and extraordinary companies do next.”

CNN Tech reported:

While it's not uncommon for founders to leave after their company is acquired, it's notable that Systrom and Krieger stayed on for six years after Facebook purchased their platform for $1 billion. Both founders were still deeply involved with Instagram: Systrom was CEO and Krieger served as chief technology officer. Instagram largely operated as a standalone company within Facebook, and now some of that autonomy could disappear.

"One of the key hallmarks of Instagram has been its independence and uniqueness from Facebook. The founders closely guarded that," said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer.

Help your employees and executives get on board with major initiatives, changes and goals, but don’t forget how changes in your organization appear to your external stakeholders, including consumers.

Instagram has changed even more rapidly in the past year as Facebook courts marketers and highlights the platform’s ability to boost sales and online traffic. Starbucks is continuing to transform with new offerings and stores—along with the retirement of its former chief executive and executive chairman oft he board, Howard Schultz.

Keep the changing brand perception—and actual brand image—in mind as you craft your communications and campaigns before, during and after leadership changes.

2. Be transparent and straightforward.

Even if you bury the lede by sticking a layoff announcement within several paragraphs of corporate jargon, reporters will still run with that news as the headline for their articles. It’s also the portion of your message on which employees focus.

The Seattle Times reported:

Chief Executive Kevin Johnson, a veteran of several corporate shake-ups while at Microsoft, told employees in a memo this past week that while the company is making progress on its priorities, including faster growth in the United States and China and increased returns to shareholders, more needs to be done.

The memo, with the subject line “Building our future together,” goes on for six paragraphs before delivering the jobs news that “starting next week and into mid-November there will be leadership shifts and non-retail partner impacts as we evolve the direction of teams across the organization in size, scope and goals.”

Johnson’s copy was also loaded with jargon, which didn’t help soften the blow of the news that “significant” leadership changes are on the horizon.

CNBC reported:

"We must increase the velocity of innovation that is relevant to our customers, inspires our partners, and is meaningful to our business," Johnson said in a memo obtained by CNBC. "To accomplish this, we are going to make some significant changes to how we work as leaders in all areas of the company."

Johnson said that the executive leadership team is working with supervisors to find ways of innovating faster in a new retail environment. While some roles will be consolidated, others will be shifted, and there will be some non-retail layoffs, a source familiar with the plan told CNBC.

The Seattle Times reported:

The impacts will include job losses and shifts, though the total number has not been determined, a Starbucks spokeswoman said. The company is starting at the vice-president and senior vice-president levels and doing a function-by-function review, she said.

When communicating both internally and externally, be clear and concise. Drop the corporate speak and try your best to relate to your readers.

3. Be prepared for the worst at a moment’s notice.

Facebook and Instagram were blindsided by the departures of Systrom and Krieger—and it showed in the communications timeline following the announcement.

The Verge reported:

High-level corporate executive departures generally — and Facebook departures in particular — are stage-managed to minimize drama. A replacement leader is identified and named internally. A public-relations plan is developed and put into action. An anodyne blog post announces the news. At Facebook, the executive’s departure is accompanied by well wishes, posted as status updates from Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and others.

The Instagram founders’ exit, by contrast, was as close as Facebook has ever come to the flight attendant who chugged a beer and pulled the emergency chute on his final day of work. The most striking thing in the immediate aftermath was the chaos: spokespeople at Facebook and Instagram didn’t know what was going on, beyond the brief initial story published in the New York Times by Mike Isaac.

Eventually, the choreography of the exit began to resemble something more Facebook-like. The founders posted a farewell note to the Instagram blog. (In a next-level stunt, Systrom used the corporate blog to very nearly confirm that he would form a new company with Krieger.) Zuckerberg offered a few words — though he posted nothing to his profile. Systrom and Krieger later tweeted their farewells, and posted valedictory ‘grams. None of that could cover up for the fact that it all had been a rush job.

Some said the lack of a cohesive message after the departures makes it look like Facebook might not be able to handle the changes coming to its platform and Instagram.

Time reported:

Having the Instagram founders walk out the door — shortly after the WhatsApp founders grew frustrated and did the same — does not project the image of a Facebook on sure footing. The company also seems to have been initially caught off guard by the news of the Instagram founders’ departure, first reported by the New York Times on Monday night. It took the company a little while to issue a bare-bones public statement. Again, the time lag does not project, “We got this.”

You might have to treat an executive departure as you would a different crisis situation, depending on the abruptness of the resignation or termination, along with the reasons and climate surrounding it.

You cannot always see a crisis coming, but you can prepare for the worst-case scenario, enabling you to act quickly when news (such as a founder’s departure) reaches your desk.

Preparing can also help you better craft messages and prepare for your next campaigns. Even though Johnson used jargon in his memo, he also rallied employees to support his lead in removing the barricades that slow down business moves.

Bloomberg reported:

The company said in July that comparable sales increased just 1 percent in its latest quarter -- far short of the rapid growth to which investors have become accustomed. Starbucks shares have been stagnant this year, compared with an 18 percent gain for the S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Index over the same period.

“We have opportunities to better prioritize and move faster,” Johnson said. “We must knock down the barriers in our decision making.”

What additional lessons have you taken from these recent announcements by Starbucks and Instagram, PR Daily readers?

from PR Daily News Feed https://ift.tt/2zAagrQ