Case study

An energy company based in Germany wants to expand its business activities to take advantage of the liberalisation of energy markets. To protect itself against a hostile takeover by one of the global players in the market, the company has to add to its portfolio at an international level (in particular in Europe). Doing so will mean changing the corporate strategy. The firm is to transform itself from an electricity company to a multi-utility supplier, i.e. the spectrum will be extended with supply activities in the areas of water, telecommunications, gas, waste disposal, etc.

Within this new strategy, the company is to buy a water supply company based in Great Britain. The task is to integrate the acquired company and adapt the corporate structure accordingly.

Employees in the acquiring firm are resistant to the merger, as previous ones have brought with them significant restructuring and they have been linked to a loss of jobs. As for employees of the target company, there is also scepticism, reinforced (e.g. as a result of events with BMW/Rover) by the British public’s misgivings in respect of German investors.

The communications department of the company approaches its PR agency with a brief to produce a concept to win over employees in favour of the integration process. Employee communication has to play a central role in this and should take place mainly against a backdrop of the fact that the majority of mergers and acquisitions fail because employees are generally insufficiently involved in the integration process.

Your task is to work out the fundamental issues involved in this case. You will show us how you would go about arriving at a PR concept. The aim is to identify the core tasks and formulate a strategic answer for them.