Smith Scott Mullan: Strategic Communications for Employee Ownership Transition

Strategic Communications for Employee Ownership Transition

The Challenge

• To ensure absolute business continuity at a time of potential internal

  uncertainty, as the leading architectural practice transitioned to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) model.

Our Approach

Perceptive Communicators designed and executed a robust, strategic communications plan focused on protecting and promoting Smith Scott Mullan’s excellent reputation, maintaining client confidence, and minimising the operational burden on practice directors.

We framed and positioned the transition as a natural evolution of Smith Scott Mullan’s culture and values - emphasising a commitment to long-term independence, team-driven growth, and the preservation of long-standing client relationships. To ensure total narrative control and message consistency, Perceptive developed and delivered a comprehensive suite of core materials tailored across multiple channels.

• Targeted press release: Prepared as a values-led master document using plain English to formally announce the transition to media and wider industry stakeholders.

• Direct client communication script: Crafted a short, conversational script enabling

  directors to proactively engage key accounts via calls and personalised emails,

  ensuring reassurance was delivered before clients learned of the news externally.

• Owned digital content: Created authentic, people-focused LinkedIn copy and

  structured a dedicated news article for the practice's website to drive digital visibility, transparency, and engagement across the wider industry.

• Phased rollout timeline: Managed a tight 6-week action plan encompassing stakeholder mapping, internal briefing prep, media distribution and coverage monitoring.

Results

• 36 pieces of media coverage generated, achieving 295k estimated views

• High-quality coverage secured across influential print, business, and trade media

• titles, including The Scotsman (online and in print), Urban Realm, Edinburgh Architecture, The Construction Index, Daily Business, Scottish Business News, and Project Scotland.

• Significant social media amplification, with Smith Scott Mullan’s own LinkedIn

• announcement securing 140 likes alongside 27 engagements across external media posts.

• Proactive relationship management with the leadership team sending direct communications to approximately 60 key clients.

Outcomes & Impact

• Seamless business continuity: Successfully protected long-term client relationships and maintained commercial confidence, preventing any negative commercial impact during a major structural shift

• Exceptional client response rate: The proactive outreach strategy achieved a 58% response rate, returning immediate positive email and verbal feedback from approximately 35 key clients

• Enhanced industry visibility: Leveraged this structural milestone as a positive platform to showcase Smith Scott Mullan’s values and forward-thinking succession planning to future talent, partners, and peers through standout features in Tier-1 titles like The Scotsman and Urban Realm

• Internal alignment: Empowered the wider team to act as positive ambassadors for the brand, reinforcing the long-term sustainability and cultural continuity of the business.

Client Feedback

“Smith Scott Mullan worked with Perceptive Communicators to deliver the strategic announcement of our transition to an Employee Ownership Trust. Having been referred to them by a trusted, long-term contact, we can confidently recommend their services.

“Throughout our engagement, Perceptive demonstrated professionalism, expertise and a genuine commitment to delivering the project on a very tight programme. They took the time to understand our team, how we work and the exact messages we wanted to convey to our clients and stakeholders. By taking the operational burden off the directors, their communications support made it a much smoother and more efficient process for our leadership team.

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Our ultimate goal was to ensure 'business as usual', and Perceptive helped us do exactly that. The media coverage generated exceeded our expectations, providing the reassurance of knowing our message was being delivered effectively. Ultimately, this partnership successfully supported our engagement with our most important client audiences, and we would not hesitate to work with Perceptive again.”

Rick McCluggage, Director, Smith Scott Mullan Associates