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What people say about us
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Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE, Director General, The National Trust Alistair Wilson became the National Trust’s Interim Internal Communications Director for six months, to manage and help us review the function. He managed a lively team of 5 and was highly effective in overseeing all the National Trust's internal communications channels (the monthly staff newsletter and team briefing process, the intranet and various electronic bulletins) and managed a major and highly successful staff conference for some 400 senior managers in the Trust. As well as ensuring the smooth running of the department, he gave the Senior Management Team a thought-provoking and intelligent report on options for the way ahead. Alistair Wilson is a highly effective, empathetic and canny person, with plenty of drive and talent. His inter-personal skills are second to none and he has an enviable ability both to fit in and to challenge. He would be an asset to any organisation, and has certainly provided a brilliant service to the Trust.
Alistair joined us on an interim basis to manage internal communications in September 2007. He was able to hit the ground running and helped to manage our management conference in November 2007 as well as keeping our internal communication team motivated and productive during this time. He is a good people manager with a calm, measured, positive approach. He is also seasoned in dealing with very senior people and is skilled in challenging pre-conceived ideas effectively in tactful and diplomatic ways. He is extremely experienced in internal communication matters and demonstrated this in providing a thorough review of our approach to internal communications which has helped to shape our actions moving forward. He has lots of creative and innovative ideas and is able to suggest these in appropriate situations to suit particular circumstances or particular communication issues. He also helped us to recruit our permanent successor and did so in a timely and professional manner. I would recommend Alistair's services to anyone.
Alistair came to the Trust as our interim Head of Internal Communications for six months, with a brief to keep the show on the road while conducting an audit of internal communications across the organisation.
Nick Lakin, Head of Communications, E.ON Retail (Powergen) Alistair has had a major positive impact on the way we approach internal communications in E.ON Retail. I engaged his services to conduct a complete review of the effectiveness of internal communications in April 2006. His review covered our channels, the competency of our staff, the resources and budget and included a detailed benchmarking exercise with other blue chip companies of similar size and scale. This review was extremely comprehensive and was carried out to budget and within the required tight time scales. I then asked Alistair to come back into our business in July 2006 to implement the recommendations contained in the review. This required Alistair to work as our interim internal communications manager with full responsibility for centralising and up-skilling our IC team as well as rebalancing our channel mix and helping us gravitate towards the intranet as a principal channel of communication. Alistair has been extremely effective in this role and we have made a successful step-change in the way we manage internal communications as a business. Other parts of E.ON are now interested in the way we have moved things forward, the structural model we have adopted and other innovative processes and ways of working we now deploy. In short, I was very satisfied with the work Alistair carried out on our behalf. He is a good guy to work with: at once very knowledgeable about the subject of internal communications but at the same time pragmatic and sensible about what works within a given set of circumstances or the specific environment such as ours. He is also a good people manager and has helped the new team gel and work as a motivated unit. Quite simply, he brought the experience, perspective and expertise you look for in communications consulting services.
Alistair’s vision for this new way of working at E.ON and his tenacity for seeing it through means he has left behind at E.ON a well established, competent and professional internal communication team — which has in only a few months, with Alistair’s guidance and support, gained the credibility and respect of the business. Alistair used his in depth understanding of best practice internal communication and his knowledge of the value that it adds to a business to remain focused on the desired outcome. He engaged with the most senior stakeholders in the business and provided a high level of support to his team to ensure a unified approach which means the team is well on the way to becoming the required centre of excellence. On a personal level, Alistair has been great to work with and I have gained great insight from him in terms of what truly constitutes best practice in internal communication. I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again!
During his time here Alistair has designed and implemented an integrated Retail Internal Communications team, consisting of a business partner model. The structure is now well established and is running successfully. The business partner model has allowed us to work closely with the business areas and the relationships are continuing to grow. Alistair is great to work with, he brings all of his experience and best practice from his many roles working in Internal Communication at large organisations, but is always willing to work collaboratively with the team and take on feedback. Alistair has spent time developing the team and individuals, and is very supportive. He has dedicated a lot of time to successfully influencing stakeholders and building the team’s relationship with them. I have learnt a great deal from the time I have spent working with Alistair and feel that all organisations would benefit from his practical and professional approach to Internal Communication.
Alistair has been working with E.ON since June 06, firstly carrying out a review of Retail internal communication practices and then as the interim Retail Internal Communication Manager. Alistair built the IC strategy based on his research within the business and knowledge of internal communication best practice. He is an excellent relationship manager and has influenced some of the key Retail senior managers, who are often very challenging. He brings a wealth of practical internal communication experience and knowledge which has helped build the reputation of the Retail Internal Communication team. As well as recommending the IC strategy he has influenced the senior team to provide the appropriate budget for the structure to support the strategy. He has built the team with key external appointments and by encouraging the development of existing team members. Personally I have been in the role for several years and Alistair has guided me to develop my internal communication professional skills; encouraging me to build up networks with other internal communication professionals. He has supported my development and assisted with key stakeholder management issues, which is often the key to successful internal communication. As well as his experience and knowledge Alistair’s inter personal skills are fantastic, he always ensures the team are kept on board with developments and everyone has a clear direction of what our purpose is and key objectives/deliverables. He also has an excellent sense of humour which helps when things maybe fraught. Overall, I have really enjoyed working with Alistair he always looks at things from a cup half full perspective; he gives you inspiration but has a sense of what is practical and achievable.
Emma O'Brien, Senior internal communications manager, Recruitment is always a challenge and yet the formation of a centrally
Alistair joined Norwich Union Life (NUL) as our interim head of
internal He did a great job in putting together a new corporate strategy for internal communication across the business. This was an extremely complex task involving some very tricky negotiation between different business areas. It also involved balancing the communication needs of the whole business against those of its constituent parts. The project involved some very comprehensive research which Alistair organised & managed successfully. This provided the bedrock for our strategy for which I've now picked up responsibility. Alistair continued to help us on a retained basis for the rest of 2005 with aspects of strategy implementation. His main focus has been on leading a major recruitment exercise designed to enhance our strategic capability. With his help, we've been able to build an excellent management team to take internal communications forward over the coming months. I would heartily recommend the services of Wilson Gallagher to others. Alistair's in-house experience gives him the edge over others in the sense that he can really empathise because he's been there and has 'got the t-shirt'. His advice is always pragmatic and practical, based on sound common sense.
Alistair has worked with Norwich Union Life since November 2004 with the specific brief to refresh and further develop an effective communication strategy for the organisation and at the same time lead and develop the existing communications team. Alistair quickly formed meaningful business relationships, won the confidence of the senior Human Resources team and the Internal Communications team and contributed to the organisations challenging change agenda. Successes have included researching, exploring and finally articulating communication strategy, delivering a meaningful and motivational conference for the top 200 senior managers and playing a key role in leading, driving and supporting the communications team. Alistair is great to work with and is hugely supportive of colleagues at all levels while challenging current thinking and suggesting alternative ways of doing things. Alistair is constructive in all his working relationships and will speak out if he believes something will not hit the mark. I would have no hesitation in recommending Alistair as an experienced and seasoned senior Internal Communications professional who will significantly enhance the communications approach of any organisation. Alistair involves all stakeholder groups, grasps and plays back the current state, suggests solutions which are based on clear evidence and feedback, and produces sustainable implementation plans. We look forward to working with Wilson Gallagher in the future
Catarina Tagmark-Olaisson, VP communications, I worked closely with Alistair Wilson on the re-branding of Amersham plc in 2001. I had responsibility for customer communication aspects of the project and he for employee communication. He worked extremely effectively to ensure that the feelings and sensitivities of our global workforce were taken into account as part of the re-branding exercise. He also worked well as a team player with me and with other project group members to ensure that there was synergy in our brand communications to all stakeholder groups. Wilson Gallagher are very sensitive to cultural differences. As a native Swede I was always conscious of the fact that a great effort was made to ensure that employees who spoke English as a second language were well catered for in the suite of internal communication media he developed for the organisation. Alistair Wilson is a good person to have on your team as he is very creative, but practical at the same time and uncommonly possesses a lot of common sense. He is not frightened to express his opinion and on matters of employee and change communication his judgement is invariably right.
Alistair built a durable framework for global internal communications in his four years with the company. This was a global Biosciences business with a workforce of 4500 staff based mainly in the US, UK and Sweden with sales offices scattered across the world. He was faced with a blank sheet of paper when he joined and succeeded in developing a credible multi-channel approach to internal communications, which supported our values and business strategy. He worked flexibly to agreed budgets and timetables and the work was always of a high standard. He also succeeded in putting internal communication on the radar of the most senior managers of the organisation – a major achievement in itself in most organisations. His judgement on employee communication issues is usually spot-on. Alistair helped the senior management team to handle various potentially difficult employee communication issues, including reorganisations, rebranding and the introduction of a new business strategy. His advice was always timely, effective and practically oriented. Alistair is sensitive to cultural differences in terms of language and ways of working and used this knowledge to great effect in designing and implementing communication solutions which met the needs of our global workforce.
Alistair was one of the first within our company to recognise the need for the intranet to serve the business, and recruited me to develop a brand new site. He provided guidance and support to me in developing an intranet strategy and in getting buy-in to that strategy from all levels of the business. His knowledge of the business and his ability to provide proactive support, as well as his excellent interpersonal skills, ensured that the intranet initiative was endorsed and implemented swiftly. He acted as an excellent sounding board for new ideas and developments and encouraged me to develop my role into managing broader aspects of internal communication work. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Alistair and feel that his creative and knowledgeable approach to internal communications would benefit any organisation.
I first started working with Alistair soon after he joined Amersham plc in 1998. For a multi-national company in a rapidly changing, high-tech market, the need for effective, timely internal communication is critical to provide focus and sustain the commitment of staff globally. From the outset, Alistair demonstrated a strong commitment to understanding the issues through engagement with individuals and teams across the organisation. He actively sought input from his various internal target audiences as well as from other support functions, such as HR, in the formulation of the style, content and distribution route for communication. This approach was particularly valuable in establishing widespread understanding of a new business strategy for Amersham Biosciences and the subsequent global organisational changes that followed. Throughout this period of change for the company, Alistair was sensitive to the diversity of cultures in the organisation, and travelled extensively to work with local senior management, both to develop their local communication plans and support their delivery. This was particularly valuable in the European and Japanese Regions where different channels and languages were needed. He established a well-earned reputation as a champion of communication, ready to seek and take advice, and with the determination to see a project through. Alistair is a good team player, always ready to contribute, constructive in his argument, and ready to listen. He has a collaborative interpersonal style with a strong achievement orientation.
Sally Sykes, Head of communications, UK Business Services, AstraZeneca plc, Alderley Park, Macclesfield, UK We are a global pharmaceutical business of 61000 staff with around 12000 in the UK. We went through a major transformation process in the UK in 2003 and Alistair provided excellent advice and guidance to the senior management team of AstraZeneca UK on the critical employee communication elements. He provided us with a detailed communications action plan, as well as writing and editing the materials we published and presented, working closely with a diverse range of senior staff. This involvement was critical in keeping our workforce committed and motivated during the period of change. Alistair led the development of our external website in the UK during 2003. As a consequence of his intervention and project management skills, in leading a diverse range of managers representing different areas of the business, our .co.uk website is a true reflection of the UK’s position in our global organisation. This was achieved against the backdrop of managing stakeholder relationships in our matrix organisation and was delivered on time and to budget. More to the point, hits on our website have increased tenfold as a consequence of our improved web presence. Alistair’s approach is results-oriented and he well understands the challenges of working with senior teams to communicate business change. He is one of the new breed of professional internal communicators, capable of demonstrating how internal communications adds business value through increased employee engagement – in a strategic way.
Alistair worked with the newly formed management team, and me in preparing for the launch of a new organisation, employing around 1300 staff. His contribution naturally covered the communications component of our plans, but Alistair also made a significant contribution to the broader business agenda.
I worked with Alistair in developing a network of communicators across our UK-based organisation. Through his leadership we created a strong team-like atmosphere amongst a very disparate group of people with different bosses reporting into different parts of the organisation. This was no easy feat! Alistair was also a great source of advice and guidance to me in my role in helping our UK HR organisation through a critical period of change.
Paul Hartley, internal communications, Bentley Motor Cars, Crewe, UK (now account director, Creative ltd, Congleton, UK) Alistair managed internal communications at a critical period in the company’s development. It was at a time when Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars were produced at our factory in Crewe and the company was put up for sale by our parent company, Vickers plc. His role was important in helping to keep the workforce informed of developments with the sale process and helping executive colleagues keep the workforce motivated at an important time in its history.
Nick Simpson, General Manager, Exel plc, Bedford, UK (now logistics director, Decco, Stone, UK) Alistair provided excellent internal consultancy advice to us during a period of business transformation. Our business was a key part of a FTSE 100 multi-national logistics plc with 35000 staff based in the UK. His opinion and guidance was vital in getting us through a period of critical process change with a continually motivated and committed workforce. He is a good man to work with. We were able to get the job done on time and to budget but also enjoy the process – most of the time, which is an achievement.
Peter Newman, Partner, Applied Works, based London, UK Wilson Gallagher surpassed our expectations with the quality of their work. It was an enjoyable and valuable process. We look forward to working with them again in the near future. Alistair provided a very thorough analysis of our situation and then provided a set of very practical solutions. This has provided us with the confidence to implement key changes to our business strategy.
© 2008 Wilson Gallagher
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