We talk to internal communications leaders constantly.
And one thing comes up in almost every conversation: they're under-resourced, fighting for budget, and more often than not, someone has already decided that SharePoint or Workday is "good enough" for employee communication.
On paper it looks like savings.
In practice it's a bet — that the information people need will somehow find its way to them anyway.
History is pretty clear on what happens when that bet goes wrong.
Nokia's engineers knew Symbian couldn't compete with the iPhone. They said so to each other. They just didn't say it to the people making the decisions. The culture didn't allow it.
A $250 billion company became a cautionary tale — not because it lacked smart people, but because it lacked a way to get what those people knew into the rooms where it mattered.
Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975. Leadership buried it because it threatened film sales.
Same story at Blockbuster. Same story at BlackBerry.
In every case: not a knowledge problem. A transmission problem.
That's what under-investing in communication actually costs. Not a less polished newsletter. A company that can't turn what it knows into what it does.
I wrote about this at length because comms leaders deserve better ammunition when they're making the budget case. The historical record is there, it's stark, and it's more persuasive than another deck about engagement best practices.
Read more here: https://www.mangoapps.com/articles/why-communication-fails-before-companies-do
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