Katie Buchanan has led Virgin Media from transactional relationships with 31 charities to a five-year strong partnership with a single charity, which delivers more than the others put together.

The story of Virgin Media’s charity partnerships is one of big decisions, sleepless nights, learning and honesty. “You have to take a hard look in the mirror to drive significant impact,” Buchanan, head of sustainability for Virgin Media says.

Virgin Media undertook a deep review of exactly what it wanted from its charity partnerships, and what was really creating value for the partners. The result was that the company decided it was spreading its assets too thinly and failing to make the most of the support it could give. From working with 31 separate – and often unrelated charities – it set a target of ‘reducing to increase’, creating greater impact and more than the sum of the parts. Initially, the target was to reduce it to 23, but this logic continued to push the company until it realised it could only fully focus on one.
“On reflection, I would do that again – just do a few things really well,” Buchanan notes. “By focussing on one relationship we have achieved more than before.”

A leap of faith

The decision to focus on a partnership with Scope was made for reasons of alignment. Virgin Media feels it can hold the capabilities and help provide the platforms to really help those with disabilities reach employment potential. However, the decision was also a difficult and testing moment. Buchanan and her senior team decided Scope was the right fit and made the decision before consulting employees of the company. That alone was the cause of a few sleepless nights, but, almost immediately, she received emails praising the decision.

“We knew it was the right thing to do – but it was a leap of faith” she reflects, noting that the main reason for the decision was a real belief that the partnership could create significant impact.

Impact might have been the main factor driving the decision, but it wasn’t the only one. The matching of brand values was just as important, too. Honesty is a part of the process and so Virgin Media had to consider the value to could give, but also what the partnership could also provide to the company in terms of its own goals. Such an open conversation is not always easy, but in order to achieve a sustained partnership, it is impossible if it is not working for both parties.

Another major concern for a high- profile consumer company like Virgin Media is the reputational impact by association. Buchanan pulls no punches here, either: “We looked at governance [of the charity] very hard before deciding.”

When it comes to issues that need resolving, it has been a learning process – “over the last five years, we have learnt to pick up the phone” – but it hasn’t been a one-way street. “Things have changed in the last five years. We [Virgin Media] are scrutinised too,” Buchanan explains.

A successful marriage

Longer term relationships are becoming more common and so it is worth noting that when this particular partnership began, it was the exception rather than the rule. The fact that Virgin Media was willing to sign up for five years also gave other organisations and individuals associated to the company confidence to support the message and the cause.

Five years is, however, a long time and during the period Scope changed its CEO (Mark Hodgkinson replacing Mark Atkinson). Trust was the vital ingredient here. The VM team knew what was happening, but even so, different leaders have different styles. The working relationship between the two organisations – with its two-way streets of learning – helped smooth the transition, and learnings had occurred at Scope that had made
the charity see commercial companies differently.

Despite their respective (and very different) ways of working, it was like a marriage, where communication and learning are the bedrocks of longevity. Buchanan actually takes part in Scope ‘town halls’ and sees Virgin Media and Scope as “part of the same family”. Indeed, Hodgkinson is ex-Virgin himself, albeit from a totally different off-shoot of the brand.

As with every marriage, there are external challenges – the biggest of which has been the uninvited arrival of Covid-19. As an immediate result, Virgin Media managed to double its fundraising efforts to help bridge any immediate shortfalls. This is another example of how narrow focus helped to create a strong attachment between the employees of Virgin Media and the cause.

Post-honeymoon hiccups

This isn’t to say that everything works perfectly – for example, significant time was misspent on the wrong target (see key learnings) and that lesson brings home the need to set effective tactics as well as goals and keep questioning them. Virgin Media is open about the fact that after having achieved nearly a complete set of green lights on its sustainability dashboard, it hit a red with inclusion.

“Inclusion is so wide, we had to focus for a goal”, she says, “trying to tackle diversity has made us more committed”. “We have delivered the most significant social change, even though the one where Virgin Media has not actually met its goals,” she adds. Failing to meet a big goal is sometimes far better than over-achieving on a small and limited one. “Set big hairy audacious goals and be prepared to fail,” Buchanan advises.

Scope, for its part, was fully informed, understood the reasons and welcomed the message. “If you are serious about driving social change, it takes time.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KEY LEARNINGS

1. Set long term goals
Allow headroom to change tactics. In the case of Virgin Media and Scope, the initial idea to help develop and deploy eye-tracking technology was realised to be putting the technical solution in front of the issue. The technology was needed to help employ people, but to employ people you need to create the job first. It took two years to get “back on track”, Buchanan notes, “to focus on what was going to produce results”.

2. Focus for results
Continually question what it is that that you are able to do and do well. There is often a desire to ‘make things happen’ but it needs to be focussed and refined. In management textbooks this is the forming–storming–norming– performing model that was defined by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, where groups or teams have a chaotic second stage before finding more rigid and focussed practices, and finally build on this to create enhanced performance.

3. Leverage opportunities
Learn from each other and accept diversity of thought – this can open up new opportunities and create new efficiencies. The biggest impediment to progress can be the ‘not invented here’ syndrome, but it is common, and sometimes not easy to see yourself – so another reason to accept new ideas and criticisms.

4. The compass of consistency
Keep one central principal or idea for the partnership, which can help navigate through times where direction is uncertain. For Virgin Media, this
also meant that the core message of using its technology and brand allowed it to create some traction with partners – such as Southampton Football Club players wearing special Scope tops.

5. Big goals that can fail
The biggest failure outlined in Virgin Media sustainability report is the missing of its inclusion targets, yet one that Buchanan feels most proud. The lesson is that it is right to set ambitious goals and move toward them whatever the outcome.

Share Story: