Building a COMmunity for Daimler Trucks & Buses

Next week, our shareholders will vote to establish DAIMLER Truck AG, bringing together DAIMLER Trucks and Buses as a separate legal entity and 42+ billion revenue market leader. Naturally, that carries lots of implications for all of us as we communicate on behalf of and about this incredibly diverse and global company. In order to prepare for and to continue to be driven by our aspiration for benchmark communications, we are coming together stronger than ever to share best practices, strategies, projects, and challenges - both physically and virtually. Here is why and how.

WHY are we emphasizing more than ever before the global collaboration among communicators for Daimler Trucks & Buses?

This is stating the obvious, but it’s especially important in a time of change - for the company and the industry - to work closely together and in a joint direction. We represent a strong and global company â€“ with over 100,000 employees, revenues of 42 billion Euros (Trucks & Buses consolidated) and with seven brands around the globe. Such a diverse and global company not only needs a fully integrated communications department, but also a strong COMmunity of its communicators worldwide. Our philosophy is a network, a COMmunity that goes beyond our global communications organizations and includes everyone from the individual market organizations, regional centers, general distributors and even our outside partners in countries such as China, Russia or the U.S.

HOW are we building the COMmunity?

We call it the global collaboration model for Daimler Trucks & Buses Communications and it’s the underlying strategy for my global communications team. Based on the strong belief of a functioning and agile network, we are coming together virtually through our social intranet COMmunity and physically through our exchange meeting in Germany this May. Colleagues from our communication department, market performance centers and regional centers were exchanging ideas, listening to one another and progressing together in a collaborative way over the course of two days. In addition to expert talks and best practice sessions, we also welcomed Martin Daum, our CEO of Daimler Trucks & Buses, for an inspiring keynote speech. Even though a CEO‘s time is very limited and valuable, Martin Daum took two hours of his time to speak to the global communications community – needless to say, we felt very appreciated.

“Sharing is caring” â€“ 1st Daimler Trucks & Buses Social Media Summit

When discussing communications strategy and global exchange, the relevance of shared / social media communications cannot not be ignored. That’s why we held the first-ever Daimler Trucks & Buses Social Media Summit. An inspiring, diverse group of communicators, marketing and digital experts were discussing Daimler’s social media strategy, talking about the latest social media trends, sharing lots of best practices and progressing together in creative workshops, e.g. “Create video content for social media quickly” or “Tips & tricks for effective social media communications.” This was an important and valuable meeting for reaching the next level of innovation in communications for Daimler Trucks & Buses - and, of course, we will continue to push these innovations forward!

A network is only as strong its participants

It has been a great pleasure and source of inspiration to participate in the exchange with all of our communications colleagues. The key is to carry this collaborative spirit forward and beyond the actual "in person exchange." That‘s why our social intranet COMmunity is so important. Every network is only as strong as its participants. I want to thank everyone involved in organizing such a great self-made event! We have an awesome communications team and we will try to carry it forward.