Internal communication

by Pamela Mounter

When we started looking at ways to improve internal communication in BP’s (British Petroleum) marketing business we asked managers for their views. Two comments stand out:

‘I haven’t got time.’

‘Don’t they read the papers?’

Sounds familiar? The case study that follows explains the steps we took to persuade BP management that communication is essential to leadership, that – like financial analysis – it is a tool for improving the bottom line. It is not a soft issue. Some general principles should be set out first, though, to put the BP case study in context.