Communicate your plan
Once the direction was clearly set, Davis’ next task was to
“broadly and boldly” communicate the five BEST Brand Builders
to the more than 50,000 employees throughout the Bob Evans
system.
“We’ve got people working in plants, we’ve got people working in restaurants, we’ve got satellite facilities, we’ve got people in California, people in Ohio,” Davis says. “We had to find a
way to connect with all the different constituent groups across
the country.”
Posters, mouse pads and other assorted paraphernalia were
emblazoned with the five expectations set forth in the Brand
Builders. Davis began hosting departmental lunches and companywide meetings to reinforce the importance of the Brand
Builders.
“It’s a way to motivate and get people energized around the
Brand Builders,” he says. “They’re the key to our future success.”
In addition, Davis now has his own corporate blog within
Bob Evans.
“I have a blog where people can go online and ask me anything,” he says. “People want to know what’s going on in their
company.”
Despite all the improvements in internal communications,
what probably speaks the loudest to employees is seeing actual results.
“The first half [of fiscal 2007] was pretty rough,” he says. “But
the second half was really strong. That’s when the business
started to turn and cash flow started getting better, and we
started being smarter in where we were spending and investing our money.”
For example, when Davis promoted Mike Townsley to executive vice president of food products, he immediately combined the corporately owned but separately branded Bob
Evans Farms and Owens Foods product lines into a single unit,
helping reduce overhead, streamline operations and maximize
buying power. In addition, Davis’ Brand-Builder-inspired
stance that business segments now had to “earn” capital
investment by meeting sales and profitability expectations
helped send a message of fiscal responsibility throughout the
company and stave off losses.
“We went from restaurant openings as a birthright to
whomever has the best return on investment will get new capital in the future,” Davis says. “If we want to improve shareholder value and drive stock price, we have to be great at
return on value.
“I think the majority of people understood what we were trying to do [with the Brand Builders]. But we started really hitting our stride when we started getting results. When that happens, people start to realize these Brand Builders really do
make sense.”
