Change Management vs Communications

Microsoft’s Aquisition of Skype and Change Management
Tobin Burgess is Senior HR Business Partner

Tobin lead Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype, the largest in the company’s history, and talks about the success of change management vs communications.

Skype (by the numbers)

• 25% of all international calls are done through Skype
• 300 Billion minutes of voice and video calls
• 200,000,000 active users (over 100 minutes a month)
• 40% Growth Rate

Challenges:

• Big & Expensive – Largest company acquisition ever ($8.5 Billion).
• Truly Global – In 10 countries with no headquarters.
• Stand Alone Division – On it’s own, and has the first president that’s not in Redmond.
• Change fatigue – Leadership changed frequently, and most employees tenure was less than 2 years.
• Brand, consumer base, and culture – Strong engineering culture were critical to preserve

How do you win their hearts?

They started with a communcation plan, built a team, and made tools to carry out their plan. After a few months, they didn’t win their hearts and minds – 2/3 were negative about the acquisition. So, they gave them XBoxs and Microsoft Phones – but you can’t buy love. So they changed their strategy, and learned, it’s not just about communications, it’s about change management.

Created a change roadmap – Included communications, training, leadership, invovlement based on leadership levels.

• Leader lead communication – Utilized the CFO because he was trusted (CEO hadn’t been there that long to be trusted)
• Make a big splash – They had a very interactive culture, and everyone had a voice. They used the company meeting as a platform for kicking things off. They picked 27 of the most influential people to help carry the flame (everyone from new employees to executives) – flew them in and did a week long series of meetings for dialogue (not push, truly a dialogue). Also created a change managment leadership team by supplementing the 27 people with more senior level folks, as well as key stakeholders (based on feedback). They reviewed Skype chats and saw the tone change based on the influence of these individuals.
• Integrate Milestone Videos – Show and emotional and emersive view of the changes taking place.
• Let them Help Themselves – Homepage for information about the acquisition.

Survey at the end showed 75% of employees surveyed felt the change was good, and 90% felt they had enough information, and most importantly, production didn’t suffer and product continues to grow.

Ultimately, communications is just a part of a overall change management strategy. It’s important to remember how collaborative and wholistic approach you must take.