The challenge

Harmony grew as a company through aggressive acquisition and needed to create a single, strong unifying story that resonated as much with miners underground as it did with international shareholders.

How we solved it

We simplified the corporate strategy into a compelling story (which became known internally and externally as the “Harmony Way) and created a series of  innovative channels per employee segment (including Visual Strategy Maps, Cartoon Manuals, Industrial Theatre groups and an in house radio station) to communicate it.

“We got to a stage where a miner in Welkom and a fund manager in New York could probably quote the so-called the “Harmony Way” with equal degrees of eloquence.  What worked? We kept it simple; and we created specific innovative communication/internal marketing channels, which reached every employee. I truly believe that the fact that the top team owned the story, and relentlessly communicated it and lived it enabled us to transform Harmony from a single lease loss making operation into the worlds’ fifth largest gold producer”.

 

Bernard Swanepoel, Harmony CEO, 1995-2007