Harvard Business Publishing:
Helping a New CEO Build
Trust and Alignment  

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Challenge

In 2022, Harvard Business Publishing was navigating a period of significant transition and uncertainty. A new CEO had joined the organization with a mandate to accelerate growth, sharpen market focus, and drive organizational change at a time of growing economic concern and heightened employee anxiety.

Employees were looking for greater clarity around the company’s direction, leadership priorities, and what the changes would mean for the organization and its culture. At the same time, the new CEO—who came from outside the publishing industry—needed to build visibility, trust, and alignment across a global workforce.

Approach

I was brought in by the CEO to develop and execute an internal communications strategy and support select members of the Executive Committee on internal and external communications. Following a broad assessment that included interviews with senior leaders and stakeholders across the organization, I developed a communications strategy focused on strengthening leadership visibility, reinforcing strategic alignment, and fostering a more unified “One HBP” mindset across the company’s business units.

Key priorities included:

• Clarifying the company’s strategic direction and growth priorities
• Building employee confidence during a period of change and uncertainty
• Increasing focus on market conditions, client impact, and business performance
• Reinforcing mission, culture, and organizational values in support of a high-performance culture

Outcome

The strategy included a more structured and consistent cadence of leadership communication, redesigned companywide meetings, a new enterprise newsletter, improvements to the intranet, and more systematic tracking and response to employee questions and concerns.

As engagement increased, employee feedback on leadership communication and the company’s direction became noticeably more positive. Following an initial five-month consulting engagement, the company asked me to join the organization in-house.