The tool Takeda uses to modernize its storytelling

The 240 year-old pharmaceutical company uses Axios HQ to tell its most compelling stories.

The challenge: Takeda needed a modern framework to communicate with its 52,000 global employees in a concise and consistent way.

It had to be:

• Transformational: A complex organization meant competing priorities and overly long content were everywhere. The solution had to be powerful enough to spark broad and growing change.
• Scalable: Different departments communicate in different ways — from internal executive messages to public-facing brand stories. The framework had to be flexible, but impactful for many use cases.

The solution: Takeda uses Axios HQ to draft and edit its most important communications — using its Smart Brevity® tips to sharpen their structure and focus — and invested in a series of bespoke writing workshops to help its Global Communications teams jumpstart their understanding of the Smart Brevity style.

💭Susannah Wesley-Ahlschwede, Head of Global Internal Communications: 

• On Axios HQ: “We love the Axios HQ approach because it’s based on brain science and research. It helps us think about our writing differently — like refining what should be there and omitting needless words. We’ve totally changed our approach to content with help from the Axios team, and internally, we’re hearing a lot more people repeating our key messages back to us since.”
• On Smart Brevity Training: “Everything was bespoke. The Axios HQ team worked with me to tackle and anticipate our specific needs and made an impressive effort to learn our company. We were hesitant to give up three, 2.5-hour blocks for training when we’re all so starved for time, but once the team saw the first training, no one complained about the commitment. They saw the value in what we were doing and the immediate impact it could have on efficiency and results in their day-to-day work.”

How it works: Axios HQ developed and led a series of in-depth workshops for Takeda’s global communicators, aligning lesson plans, hands-on exercises and workshop cadence around a core goal: 

• Explore Takeda’s newly developed corporate positioning, 
• Teach the tenets of Smart Brevity and modern communication, 
• Connect the dots between the two to create powerful stories about Takeda’s impact. 

Axios HQ is the software where Takeda writes and edits those stories, helping the team stay aware of and accountable to Smart Brevity’s best practices.