Jeffrey A. Winton
Group Vice President, Global Communications
Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ

Jeffrey A. Winton (right) is named New Jersey IABC Communicator of the Year by Andrew Miller (left), President, NJ/IABC 2004 IRIS Awards Ceremony. NJ/IABC member Rosemarie Yancosek, Executive Director, Global Communications, Schering-Plough, nominated Jeff for the award. Jeff is responsible for Schering-Plough’s corporate internal and external communications worldwide. He also leads a new, integrated product communications group that provides non-advertising communications strategy and implementation support for all of the company’s products on a worldwide basis.

Wanted: A Change-Master
Jeff joined Schering-Plough in September 2003, as part of a new management team that Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan put into place that year. “The company had significant financial, legal and business obstacles to overcome and suffered from a tarnished reputation with many of its stakeholders,” wrote Rosemarie in her nomination for Jeff. “As the new management team
worked to transform Schering-Plough into a high-performing company, Jeff began to rebuild the global communications department that could help management meet its goals.”

In the past 15 months, Jeff and his team have fundamentally changed the way Schering-Plough communicates. His vision and strategy have made the company much better equipped to tell its story both internally and externally; to drive global collaboration; to support product lines; and to work through various issues. “Jeff understands that a healthy communications function is essential to driving a broad cultural change through the organization,” said Rosemary. She gave Jeff high marks for his ability to listen to management and employees across Schering-Plough; diagnose the situation; identify the capabilities necessary to drive more effective communications; and re-establish trust with investors, employees, doctors, pharmacists and other customers.

Setting Clear Priorities
Jeff’s communication priorities included supporting the growth of new sales, strengthening an issues management function to help build and maintain a strong reputation for the company, 2004 IRIS Awards evaluating and building an international communications function, expanding internal communications capabilities and earning back the trust of the company’s stakeholders and external audiences. He:

• Asked existing staff to operate differently than they had in the past and attracted several new professionals to round out his team.
• Implemented the company’s first global product communications function, using outside agencies to assist in implementing strategic communications programs supporting the brands.
• Collaborated with a crossfunctional team to build a proprietary issues management process that enables the company to identify issues that can potentially affect Schering-Plough’s reputation in a public forum.
• Centralized communications activities among Schering-Plough’s operations in Europe, Canada, Japan, Latin America and the Far East, reflecting management’s plan to operate as a global company. He also worked to hire communications leads in those countries to build their own communications functions.
• Expanded internal communications activities as a main conduit for explaining the changes that management has made and the impact these changes have on the way employees do their jobs.
• Created CURRENT, a daily electronic roundup of top news stories affecting Schering-Plough, its competition and the industry. Delivered to 30,000 employees worldwide, CURRENT has eliminated boundaries and helped to build trust between employees and management.
• Drove for transparency and open communication with external audiences, viewing this as key to earning back the trust of the company’s stakeholders. Today, journalists frequently visit Schering-Plough to meet with executives and learn about the company’s business. Today, employees seem enthusiastic about the way the company is changing, investors have given Schering-Plough’s management the latitude it needs and relationships with doctors and other key customers are improving.

Congratulations to Jeff for opening up dialogue about his company’s progress; helping Schering-Plough move in the right direction; and earning the title of “NJ/IABC Communicator of the Year!”