The Dormann Letters

In crisis, ABB’s chairman & CEO writes a weekly letter to all staff.

During a deep crisis in ABB, Jürgen Dormann, the Chairman of the Board who had just agreed to double as CEO, began to issue a weekly letter to all staff, with a possibility for those who read the letters on the intranet to comment – using a functionality that would send comments directly to the CEO, with a copy to the Communications Department.

The “Dormann Letters” – published each week for the 112 weeks he held the position – became pivotal to the company’s recovery, and central in a process of deep culture change. Head of ABB’s Communications, Björn Edlund, collected Dormann’s thoughts and wrote those letters every Friday. They sent them to local reporters, too, and they also served as a weekly briefing to the Board of Directors. The outside world took notice, and asked for them to be published in book form for posterity.

Download a pdf of the “Dormann Letters.”