Communication Standards in a Holding – Where to Start
Three companies in one holding often mean three different versions of the same truth. Without a common dictionary, each company speaks a different language, which costs real money with every error in local and industry media. Odra Media Link helps to organize this without writing 100-page strategies that nobody reads.
Why a Holding Needs One Voice
In June 2024, we analyzed the communication of a capital group in the construction industry. They had 3 subsidiary companies, and each of them used different names for the same technological processes. As a result, journalists in Poznań received conflicting data, which led to 4 erroneous publications in just 9 days. Such confusion is not just an image problem, but a real waste of time for the board, which had to correct this information over another 32 hours of work.
The problem escalates when the holding employs 47 people in various marketing departments. Everyone wants to prove themselves, but without common guidelines, information noise is created. Our experience from the last 7 years shows that chaos most often results from the lack of one person responsible for final fact verification. Odra Media Link implemented a control system in this group that shortened the press release approval time from 3 days to just 4 hours, while eliminating product naming errors.
Consistency in the media is not a luxury, it's a time-saver for the holding board.
Step 1: Communication Inventory from 9 Months
Before you start building new standards, you must check what went wrong. We reviewed 87 archived messages sent by subsidiaries between September 2023 and May 2024. It turned out that as many as 19% of them contained financial data provided in different ways – some gave net profit, others gross, suggesting a lack of financial stability in the holding. This was a warning signal for investors that we managed to catch during our media monitoring.
The analysis allowed us to select 12 key phrases that must be identical across all companies. We are not looking for flowery descriptions here, but hard data. For example, if the holding provides employment figures, it must be one figure, updated once a quarter, and not approximate values thrown around by directors of different branches. Implementing this simple rule eliminated 14 potential information conflicts in the last six months.
Step 2: Building a 4-Page Glossary of Terms
Forget about huge brand books that nobody opens. We created a document for our clients that is exactly 4 pages long and contains specific answers to journalists' questions. The glossary includes service definitions, ownership structure, and the method for reporting results. In July 2024, we tested this solution on a group of 7 press office employees. The result? The time to prepare a response to a newsroom inquiry fell by 28% in the first month of use.
At Odra Media Link, we make sure that each subsidiary knows where its communication competencies end. If a question concerns the entire holding, the answer follows template No. 3 from the glossary. If it concerns a local investment in Poznań, the employee uses template No. 1. These are simple rules that provide a clear media picture. Introducing such a division allowed us to handle 156 communication projects without a single correction in regional newspapers.
4 pages of specific rules work better than 100 pages of theoretical strategy.
Step 3: Info-Field Control Automation
24/7 media monitoring is the only way to catch errors before they go viral. We use tools that check news portals and social media every 14 minutes for selected holding keywords. In August 2024, our system detected a mistake in the CEO's name on a niche industry portal just 8 minutes after publication. Thanks to the quick reaction, the text was corrected before larger sites managed to quote it.
For small and medium holdings, every hour of delay in reacting to an inaccuracy is a risk of a decline in trust among contractors. Our team, consisting of 5 analysts, delivers a short report with the most important facts every day at 8:30 AM. We don't send hundreds of links – we choose 3-4 most important mentions that require board attention. This saves about 45 minutes each morning that directors would otherwise have to spend browsing the press themselves.
Step 4: Fact-Based Team Training
Standards don't work if people don't know them. Instead of boring lectures, we conducted workshops for 9 people responsible for media contact in the group's companies. Each participant received 3 specific crisis situations to solve in real time. It turned out that explaining convoluted connections between companies caused the most problems. After a 2-hour training, response consistency increased by 47% according to our internal tests.
Robert, our lead analyst, always says: news doesn't wait. That's why we teach teams how to provide specific data without fluff. Since September 2024, we have observed that these companies' communication has become more technical and substantive. Journalists call less often with requests for clarification because they get complete information the first time. This builds the holding's position as a reliable source of data, which is key when planning further investments in the region.
