Mitie

At the end of 2023, Mitie redefined its business strategy. Putting innovation at its core, it sought to reposition from the UK’s leading Facilities Management company to the UK’s leading Facilities Transformation company. In turn, the Corporate Affairs team reshaped its strategy to diversify media engagement while investing in government relations.

The team evolved with multi-disciplinary consultants experts in corporate communications, media relations and public affairs, and actively drove Corporate Affairs up the board level agenda, elevating its reputation inside the business as well as the role of Mitie externally. This required a step-change in perception of the team, who were previously regarded predominantly as a crisis and issues mitigation function. The team’s challenge was to accelerate brand recognition for Mitie, which was previously described as ‘the biggest brand people have never heard of’. While this presented an opportunity to carve out a name, the team also needed to carve out the time to achieve this. Finding a voice was mission critical ahead of Labour’s anticipated election win, as well as establishing a cohesive narrative on areas that resonate at the heart of Mitie, such as skills, decarbonisation and pay. Furthermore, the responsibility of being a large UK employer of 72,000 colleagues and a strategic supplier to government demanded a belt and braces approach to crisis and issues management while demonstrating expertise and additive value. While the brief was wide-ranging, the revised strategy provided focus for the team while orientating around the areas of greatest business impact.