Video Aspect Ratio: 16:9

Change Management with

The Quality Summit event

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EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS WITH THE QUALITY SUMMIT

Mars, Incorporated is an American multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products and a provider of animal care services. It boasts, amongst others, iconic brands like M&M’s, Snickers, Pedigree, Whiskas and provides high-quality medical care at BANFIELD® Pet Hospitals.

Marketing Mademoiselle has been asked to lead the communications for the Quality Transformation team. Together with director Ouidiane Dhem, she has come up with the concept of the Quality Summit.

Anne was responsible for stakeholder management, senior leader engagement, and video content production.

''Anne is an excellent partner to co-create an impactful event with. She quickly integrated our Mars culture by building relationships with key players - she helped shape the event using her extensive external network and her creativity and organizational skills. Her high drive for results and iterative approach allowed her to adapt to the situation to answer the needs of the customer.

And it was a real pleasure to work with her really communicative positive energy!''

Ouidiane Dhem - Corporate Quality Transformation Director

EMPOWERING ASSOCIATES TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE QUALITY ETHOS

Quality is one of the five pillars of how the business operates at Mars, it is also a function within R&D that is heavily dynamic and is experiencing high pressure from in and outside of the business. To drive the quality strategy, a new quality vision has been developed and the Mars quality principle has been renewed. This means, ambition! The tagline for the quality campaign is: ‘Quality Begins With You’ and it underscores that quality is not just a function, but it’s a living culture and it is the responsibility of everyone at Mars. The central question for the assignment was – how can we bring to life the new vision and engage all associates, to drive the change necessary for the business?

PREPARING EVENT AND CHANGE
COMMUNICATIONS

Four months before the event started, the team started with communications, rebranding Quality, sending out communication packages to the segments, creating ‘Yammer’ posts, building a new Quality SharePoint, releasing video Q&As in collaboration with quality leadership, and sending out newsletters.

The brand new internal Quality Hub saw an increase in visitors of 500% during the month of the event.
On Yammer, the ‘social page’ the posts on the Quality Summit reached 6000+ views.

A VIRTUAL EVENT AS A PLATFORM FOR CHANGE MANAGEMENT

The Quality Summit has been crafted to raise awareness across the business and to act as a platform for Senior Leaders to connect with Associates around the topic of quality. This all virtual, immersive event is bringing together leaders from across the business, thought-provoking external speakers, and associates from all segments and functions. It aims to explore how the new quality strategy is helping to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world, and how it is designed to make quality simple and relevant for all associates. The themes that have been selected by the quality leadership team are company culture, risk-taking and digitization. In addition, associates were provided with the opportunity to win a ‘golden ticket’ to partake in solving real Quality Business Challenges and work alongside Quality Leaders in virtual working sessions. A true opportunity to drive innovation with Design Thinking and put the consumer at the center.

CREATING ENGAGEMENT AND SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEARNING AND COLLABORATION

The virtual event was planned to air four consecutive Tuesdays, with one hour of content for all Associates. During the virtual event, a constant flow of engagement happened in the chatbox where associates provided feedback, thoughts and valuable builds. Most importantly, Quality leadership was present and interacted with the Associates and broke with the stigma of ‘ivory tower’ of quality. In a separate part, the teams would work on solving the Quality Challenges. Associates had the opportunity to network and work alongside the Leaders, providing their point of view to build better solutions, together. In a townhall call, the VP R&D and Chief Science Officer has called this event: ‘The new best practice for the business.’

testimonail marcel event mars incorporated

''Anne supported the Mars Quality Leadership team in setting up a quality summit across our enterprise. She navigated this complex challenge with a clear drive for results, a strong view on how to design elements in the most impactful way, a creative mindset to overcome hurdles and a courageous approach to engage with all layers in our organization. On top of that she brings a personal touch and a regular smile 😊''

Marcel Velthuis, VP Corporate Quality, Mars Incorporated

CONCLUSION

The Quality Summit has set a new benchmark and expectation with regards to cross-business collaboration, fresh innovation and high-quality content and event organization. Branding wise, Quality has changed the game – from dusty and old-fashioned communications, to playful and fresh, welcoming all associates to the conversation. As desired, Quality has moved from the space of ‘Ivory tower dictation’ to open and vulnerable collaboration. From being hampering business processes to a business enabler. The goal was to raise awareness, but instead, it has gone much further- it has created an appetite for many Associates to help create a better business, to improve Quality together and to create a better world for tomorrow.

Incoming VP Quality, Mrs. Pereira:

''Thank you so much – this is MUCH better than anticipated and I could not have gotten a better present to start in my role as a new Quality VP!’]

WHAT'S NEXT?

Most important for the leadership team is to keep the momentum going, leverage associate enthusiasm, and integrate the learnings. The envisioned step-change has been achieved. The most difficult task is to keep the energy going and the dedication from the many people from across the business to create purpose-led value!

+ 500 %

Visitors Quality SharePoint

7000

'Quality Lucky' socks designed for attendees

+ 6000

Views of a Yammer post

60 %

Event returning rate