Sampler: Communication Director 04 2017 by Dafydd Phillips

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR Issue 4/2017 EUROP EAN EDI TI O N

www.co mmunicatio n-d ir e cto r.co m

THE MAGAZINE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

Strategy and the CCO The chief communications officer as strategic player

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Strategic communications 2.0 In recent years, the conversation about the role of the communications function and its relevance to an organisation’s overall business strategy has been personalised in the form of the chief communications officer. In reports, white papers and blog posts, the position of the chief communications officer in relation to the executive board has become a stand-in for the relevance and respect accorded to the function as a whole. Whether this way of thinking is helpful when applied to a profession as multifarious as communications is open to argument: but in a year when one executive search firm found that a majority – albeit a slim one – of FTSE 100 companies have communications professionals on the executive board, it is even more urgent to define the relationship between the chief communications officer and corporate strategy. To do that, we need to look at the CCO’s relationship with several other parties – stakeholders, the executive board, the rest of the organisation, and of course with the chief executive officer. And before we begin that investigation, we first need to clear up a few definitions. What exactly is strategy? What defines the difference between strategy and tactics? Is being strategic a right or a privilege – that is, do even small, overworked communications ‘three-person teams’ (that’s three persons as in ‘me, myself and I’) have a hope of moving their work into a more strategic direction, rather than running to play catch up with social media channels, press releases and publications? These questions are explored in the Issue Focus section of this issue of Communication Director.

DAFYDD PHILLIPS

Photo: Laurin Schmid

Editor in Chief

Brought to you by the European Association of Communication Directors www.eacd-online.eu

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

CONTENTS

29 Facts and Figures News and views from the world of communications

10 Agenda Setter Recent eye-catching public relations campaigns

MEASUREMENT

15 Defining your universe

Research in practice How to drive employee engagement through online employee news

INSIGHTS AND A N A LY S I S

33 Don’t get it twisted How to navigate the potential for misunderstanding in team communications

36 The science behind personalised communications

The road to meaningful insights

Personalisation offers loyal customers and improved response rates

Battle plans

Organising and communicating in hypermodern times

Seven steps to deploying, tracking and reporting on your press relations activity

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

22 The employee economy A distinct economy is emerging, with a focus on the people at the heart of the company

25 Engineering the employee experience A communication director’s guide to building a culture with character

48 Closing the authenticity gap In a world where organisations are under increasing scrutiny, understanding expectations is fundamental

51 Future-proof your brand A new book for a C-level audience presents an overview of considerations and processes involved in improving and changing a brand

54 Interview

Findings from the 2017 European Communication Monitor on communicators and our hypermodern society

BRAND AND REPUTATION

42 CEO reputation vs. corporate reputation 2017 has been the year of the bad boss, but what real impact does the profile of CEO have on corporate reputation?

Androulla Vasilliou on defining a common European culture, and why the European Union needs to improve its communications to survive

84 Communications reader New and upcoming titles for the communicator’s bookshelf

86 Association Latest developments in the European Association of Communication Directors

45 50 ways to find your lover A love-letter to the relationship between brands and online influencers

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

5 tips for … … building internal relationships

SAMPLER

CONTENTS

ISSUE FOCUS: STRATEGY AND THE CCO

What is strategy?

Doing more with less

The boundary spanner

Understanding the different definitions of strategy can help chief communication officers in their counselling of the CEO and the C-suite

Too busy to be strategic? We present a few practical tips on how to be more strategic in your work when you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have time or energy to do more

Which tasks are performed by communication executives, and where do they fit into the organisation? A new tool reflects the multiple facets of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s communicators

Building business growth through governance

An executive definition

How getting to grips with governance helped the communications function at Volvo Construction Equipment improve its strategic influence

How do some of the leading executive search firms define, describe and help develop the profile of the chief communications officer?

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

FACTS AND FIGURES

S URVEY

What the world is coming to … according to CEOs

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR ON CAMERA

have quadrupled, global internet traffic has risen by a factor of 17.5

K I M L AR S E N

million, and globalisation and technological progress have helped boost

“Everybody has the responsibility to talk about the ethics of all of the data that we collect from people, how do we store it, what do we do with it, who do we share it with, and what kind of opportunity do we give people to have their own decision-making power in terms of what data they want to give to you. Communications people need to start that conversation in companies.”

living standards, lessen inequality between countries and lifted a billion people out of extreme poverty. But, as PwC notes, CEOs have long predicted divergences in the global status quo: in last year’s survey, most CEOs foresaw a world in which multiple beliefs, value systems, laws and liberties, banking systems and trading blocs would prevail. Twenty years after the first edition of PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey, nearly 1,400 CEOs shared their concerns about economic, policy, social, environmental and business threats to their organisation’s growth prospects. Find the full survey at www.pwc.com

Uncertain economic growth and over-regulation are top concerns for CEOs Q: How concerned are you about the following economic, policy, social, environmental and business threats to your organisation’s

Kim Larsen leads com-

growth prospects?

munications at Dankse Bank and feel strongly

Top ten threats Uncertain economic growth

82%

Over-regulation

80%

Availability of key skills

77%

Geopolitical uncertainty

74%

Speed of technological change

70%

Increasing tax burden

68%

Exchange rate volatility

70%

Social instability

68%

Changing consumer behaviour

65%

Cyber threats

61%

about the role of communications professionals in leading the ethical debate about data use. Communication Director spoke to him ahead of the EACD Copenhagen Debate on 31 August 2017, which was generously hosted by Danske Bank. The EACD Debate series takes place in cities across Europe: to look out for future events by the EACD, visit hwww.eacd-online.eu/activities/calendar Watch the interview with Kim on the YouTube channel of the European Association of Communication Directors

Respondents who answered somewhat or extremely concerned Base: All respondents (2017=1,379; 2016=1,409; 2015=1,322)

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

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Since the first Annual Global CEO Survey by PwC in 1997, trade flows

FACTS AND FIGURES

MUNI RA S UBAŠIĆ

“The ultimate injustice is to have to wait for justice to be done.” Munira Subašić is the chairman of the Association of Mothers of Srebrenica and Žepa enclaves, a non-governmental organisation established in in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the mission of gathering survivors and relatives of the victims who disappeared or were killed in Srebrenica and Žepa during the fall of the UN “Safe haven” in 1995. They are actively engaged in global activities to raise awareness, pursue justice and ensure that those who were responsible are held to account. Munira’s husband and son, Hilmo and Nermin Subašić, and 20 other members of the Subašić family were killed in July 1995 in the Srebenica genocide. Two small bones, found in separate mass graves, belonging to Nermin have been identified by ICMP, the International Commission on Missing Persons. Hilmo’s remains were identified in

S HE R MI N VO S HMI G R MA RC US E AST

“The political system in most countries now doesn’t reflect the pace of change in society. In many parts of the world there have been some quite big seismic shifts … and politics is slow-moving and very much geared around the institutions that drive it. The world has problems today that need to be resolved, and the power lies with us as individuals to take a stand and to do things that will allow us to resolve those problems. I do believe that it is for us to solve the problems not politicians.”

“On the Blockchain, transactions are transparent, everyone can inspect it. So there won’t be a need for corporate communications.” Blockchain is the driving force of the next generation internet, also referred to as the decentralised web. It allows us to decentralise trust. Smart contracts on the Blockchain radically reducing transaction costs creating the basis for a peer to peer society, allowing for new forms of organisational structures. Shermin Voshmigr is the founder of BlockchainHub, an international network of autonomous hubs that promote the idea of Blockchain and the decentralised web. Communication Director asked Shermin how Blockchain will change the

2005, and he was buried in the same year. Communication Director spoke to Munira

In his keynote at this

job of corporate communicators and, more

at The Circle of European Communicators

year’s European Com-

than that, how she believes it will change

in Amsterdam on 20 September and asked

munication Summit,

how humans interact with each other based

her about the role of the mothers of the

Marcus East, executive

on trust.

missing in post-conflict resolution, and

vice president and chief

what the private sector can do to support

technology officer at National Geographic,

such work.

drew on his 20+ year experience in IT and digital transformation to explain how

Watch our interview with Munira on the YouTube channel of the European Association of Communication Directors

cutting-edge technology can encourage

Learn more from Shermin on the YouTube channel of the European Association of Communication Directors

collaboration at work and in society. Communication Director spoke to Marcus about the collaboration lessons Silicon Valley has to teach the rest of us, why social collaboration tools are worth the effort, and why we can’t expect politicians to deliver

Photos: Private

solutions for the challenges that face us all. Watch the interview with Marcus on the YouTube channel of the European Association of Communication Directors

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

AGENDA SETTER

Changing perspectives When Hamburg’s spectacular new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie, was finally set to open in January this year, it was seven years too crisis-hit major public work projects in Germany: a list that includes the country’s new Foreign Intelligence headquarters, the Stuttgart 21 train station and the new, much-delayed, Berlin-Brandenburg airport. But an integrated campaign by advertising agency Jung von Matt and communications agency achtung!, which included interactive drone flights that allowed users to discover the Herzog & de Meuron building from outside and inside, turned boos into bravos and set the stage for a hugely successful opening. / Image: Digital Experience: Rock‘n’Roll ©Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

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late, 700 million euros over budget and the latest in a succession of

AGENDA SETTER

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

FIND ALL WINNERS ONLINE AT www.digital-awards.eu

Thank you to mynewsdesk for sponsoring the DCA.

7 W W W. D I G I T A L - A W A R D S . E U

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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF THE #DCA2017

MEASUREMENT

DEFINING YOUR UNIVERSE: THE ROAD TO MEANINGFUL INSIGHTS These days, people are so consumer with data that they are struggling to absorb it let alone make sense of it. But do we really need to analyse every data point to ascertain where impact is being delivered? Or shouldn’t communicators instead figure out how best to examine audiences, competitors and key messages? BY MA ZE N N A H AWI

oday, the communications indus-

and attempts to translate something that – to

try finds itself awash in data. The

many – is much more opaque and uncontrol-

binders of clips that landed with a

lable. That approach follows the path of least

thud on clients’ desks decades ago

have been replaced by 0’s and 1’s in the ‘cloud.’ With traditional media now joined

by social media, citizen journalists, podcasts and a proliferation of new media outlets, the potential to build a brand in a day has never been so great. But the opportunity to ruin a brand with a single misguided Tweet or off-handed remark caught on video, meets or exceeds that potential. The concept of public relations measurement used to be defined by metrics aligned with the advertising industry. Rather than linking press coverage to business outcomes or gauging the impact on corporate reputa-

“Appreciating the role of humans in the data analysis process will lead to better outcomes.”

resistance, eliminating difficult conversations at the expense of accuracy and insight. Nowadays, with so much at stake – and so much data available to analyse – communicators must figure out how best to examine audiences, competitors and key messages.

Finding purpose behind analysis The biggest problem we see is people hunting for data and not for insights – this leads to over-investment in automated tools, platforms and data sets – and under-investment in the

tion, the focus was on perceived return on

hard work needed to put this data into con-

investment measures like advertising value

text and to extract meaning that helps keep

equivalency. Advertising value equivalency

organisations well-informed and empowered

provided neither any real value in terms of

to make good decisions.

strategic data, nor made any correlation to

Appreciating the role of humans in the

actual business impact. It was designed to

data analysis process will lead to better out-

justify public relations budgets and give the

comes. The appeal of technology is that it can

communications department a pat on the

accelerate insights and improve affordability,

back for a job well done.

but it is vital to assess the value of the analysis

As much as measurement gurus dis-

provided. Through a prudent combination of

parage advertising value equivalency, it is

technology and human expertise, organisa-

understandable that it took root. After all, it

tions can achieve better results.

is a simple measure that executives can easily

It’s easy to become enamoured with

understand. It uses what they already know

the idea that big data can help improve your

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

MEASUREMENT

BATTLE PLANS From preparation to execution to tracking, reporting and sharing: the seven steps to deploying, tracking and reporting on your press relations activity. BY TH I ER RY N I C OL E T

This is the best time to validate, to remove or

of any public relations strategy: it

even add any publications that the general

is vital in order to position your organisation as a thought leader

in its field as well as to align your media presence with the strategic initiatives of your organisation. But neither of these goals can be achieved without a well-planned approach to measurement before, during and after a press relations campaign. In my experience, the following seven-step approach has provided a clear and thorough framework.

1. Define your press relations budget Based on your desired level of activity; define what your press relations agencies retainer fees and mechanicals will be. Don’t forget to add

“In order to drive strategic execution of your press relations, you need to build a coherent tactical plan.”

any activity which would bear an ad-hoc ele-

These are simple tasks, but they will allow you to set expectations with consensus.

3. Arm your troops Although you are the press relations professional within your organisation, most of the time you might not be the one whom the journalist will want to interview. Your general managers, your business vice presidents, your channel vice presidents and so on are most likely to be the ones whom a journalist will be happy to talk to. And although talking to the press is not really their specialty, it is important that they provide you with all the support they can. For that you need their buy-in. key market segments or specialised topics,

conferences and trade show support which

2. Define your battlefield by tiering your media landscape

to not be on anybody else’s radar screen.

Based on your specific business units,

ment such as special projects like surveys, press typically aren’t constant but opportunistic.

manager wants to target and which happen

identify whom in your organisation will be (tier 3). It’s a pretty straight forward exercise

the go-to person and whose role will be to

which is actually lots of fun to do.

support you and be the face of the company

However, it needs to be a collaborative

with the media.

approach: if you use an agency, then start with

You’ll notice that, for many topics, your

them. Have your agency give you a recom-

company’s general manager will not be the

mendation for which publications or blogs

right spokesperson. So it’s ok to have a techni-

you should go after and have them tiered

cian, a sales representative or a customer care

in three tiers (as described above). Then ask

person to be your designated spokesperson.

your sales teams which publications or media

Once identified, get that list of key

It would be great to be able to target all the

outlets they read on a regular basis to keep

speakers validated by your management,

publications out there. But the reality is that

themselves up to date with where the industry

media train everybody on that list and make

we all have resources constraints in the likes of

is going, as well as for the publications that

sure that their contribution to supporting press

people, time and money (budget). So you will

their customers read. Same here: ask them to

relations is valued in their annual bonus plans.

want to understand which are the publications

separate them into three tiers.

As we are talking about bonus plans, it’s also a

you have to be in (tier 1), you want to be in

Consolidate both lists and then submit

good idea to negotiate for some bonus schemes

(tier 2), or in which it would be nice to be in

it to your country general manager for review.

to be built for the sales representatives for

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

SAMPLER

ress relations is an important part

MEASUREMENT

THE 7 STEPS APPROACH •

Define your PR budget

•

Define your battlefield

•

Arm your troops

•

Define your PR plan

•

Monthly activity tracking

•

Monthly or quarterly KPI reports

•

Sharing and communicating on your results

This is the ‘what we do’ part of the measure-

After the ‘what we do’ report above, this is the

ment process. It’s important at all times to

‘what we get’ report, tracking and measuring

track which press releases went out and when,

the outcome. Again and as previously stated,

which of them are still in validation mode,

it is of paramount importance to produce

each happy-customer testimonials they would

which spokespeople are available and have

reports on your performance within your

bring to you. Customer testimonials are great

been media trained, which interviews took

competitive landscape.

content for the media. It gives them easy access

place, with which speakers and with which

Tracking only your own press cuttings

to users who will talk about their experience

publication. It should also bear sections on

would be like a professional athlete working

with your organisation and your solutions in

which trade shows have been supported with

out at the gym but never taking part in com-

an unbiased way. It’s pure gold.

press relations activities, which product tests

petitions to evaluate their own performance:

have been followed-up on, which contributing

missing the point. In the same way, it would

articles and customer testimonials have been

be totally unprofessional to be satisfied with

worked on and if they have been placed in

a 10x year on year increase in your number of

the media yet.

featured articles, for example let’s say from 20

4. Define your press relations plan Photo: www.thinkstock.com

5. Monthly activity 6. Monthly or tracking – tracking quarterly KPI the output reports

Finally this report should bear a whole

to 200: if your biggest competitor achieved to

In order to drive strategic execution of your

section on budget tracking where should be

be featured in 2000 articles, you’re still invis-

press relations activity, you need to build a

logged agency retainer fees, mechanicals, out

ible. Over the years and in all organisations

coherent, tactical plan that takes into con-

of pocket expenses, special expenses (photo

I’ve worked in, the four following metrics

sideration your budget, your organisation’s

shoots, translations, studies, surveys and so on)

are those which I was looking at in each key

priorities and your past press relations results.

and the cost of producing the clipping booklets.

performance indicators reports:

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Today, acquisition, retention and actions of employees directly fuel a company’s bottom line. In line with this, a distinct employee economy is emerging, with a focus on the people at the heart of the company and a constant re-evaluation of how best to work with them. Furthermore, the employee economy sees organisations developing strategies to make the most of this valuable resource and compete successfully for the very best of talent. All of which begs the question: how can a company stand out in this emerging economy, and attract and retain the right people? BY ANI TA VA N D E V E L D E

curation of our culture,’ says Nadella. “If you

pion running the race in today’s

don’t focus on creating a culture that allows

global talent marathon. To remain competitive, companies are artic-

ulating the fittest versions of themselves and empowering their employees deliver the employer brand message with impact and scale. As Frans Mahieu, Kimberly-Clark‘s global marketing director for people strategy, put it to me: “Everyone is a living billboard and ambassador for the company.” Among the first to recognise the value of employer branding is the tech industry, where competition for talent has always been rife. According to Ineke Hoekman-Van Hassel, human resources director at Microsoft,” In

“Everyone is a living billboard and ambassador for the company.”

people to do their best work, then you’ve created nothing.”

Breaking the functional divide The employer brand is part of the holy brand trinity for many companies: corporate, marketing and employer. The growing energy around employer branding is leading to greater functional collaboration and is an opportunity for co-creation. Alfonso Auñón García, head of global talent acquisition at HEINEK-

our industry, this is ongoing and always has

EN, told me that the HR Leadership team at

been a strategic imperative.” With the arrival

HEINEKEN raised the question of employer branding three years ago. “In the beginning

of Satya Nadella as CEO, the company and its employer brand has been reinvigorated:

have certainly made Satya Nadella a popular

it was a team of two getting under the skin

“Satya looks not only to human resources, but

man inside the company: he enjoys a stagger-

of who HEINEKEN was, what did employees

to our storytelling communications team to

ing 93 per cent approval rating among current

really think of the brand and the HEINEKEN

bring the mission and culture initiatives to

and former Microsoft employees, which is

culture? We wanted to go on a journey but

life through storytelling and major compa-

well above the industry average. “What I

we had to ask first ‘what is that journey’?”

ny-wide programs,” says Ineke. The changes

realise more than ever now is that my job is

That journey went far and wide: a survey of

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

Photo: www.thinkstock.com

he employer brand is the cham-

SAMPLER

THE EMPLOYEE ECONOMY

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

700 employees across 20 countries, reflecting

most of our staff can identify with and that

the diversity of the business and a survey of

helps to motivate them. From there, we frame

1,300 external stakeholders. After six months,

our corporate strategy as a means to ‘lead

HEINEKEN had isolated three key themes as its brand DNA – fame, adventure and friends – and Alfonso had the beginning of a exciting story. But it went further than simply a story. For HEINEKEN’s human resources function, employer branding was an opportunity to co-create with other functions such as marketing, corporate communications and IT. The resulting glocal Go Places campaign channelled real company truths and insights, cross-functional collaboration, was localised and had a clear proposition that worked across all roles and functions. It embraced marketing methodology in a meaningful way and offered a clear framework to deliver against both human resources and brand key performance indicators. If you’ve not seen it, do: goplaces.

“The growing energy around employer branding is leading to greater functional collaboration.”

the HEINEKENcompany.com/en

the way in science, technology and health for the benefit of humanity’. This enables staff to better understand what our journey is and how we intend to reach our business goals. Today’s employees want to feel that special sense of synergy between what they stand for and what a company represents, and developing a clear employer brand for us is central to that process.”

Micro-branding: personalised attraction Does a homogenous employer brand proposition address the nuances which exist across

While HEINEKEN is a great example of

different functions in an organisation? ABN

co-creation between functions, Kimberly-Clark

Amro is moving away from the traditional im-

went in a different direction: moving one of

age of a bank towards becoming a digital brand,

their senior marketers into human resources.

which will see them compete for talent not only

According to Frans Mahieu, Kimberly-Clark’s

has influenced organisational developments

with other banks but with the likes of Google,

global marketing director for people strat-

in more mature companies, too. How do you

Facebook and Dutch online retailer Coolblue.

egy, “When I first came into this position

change your proposition and attract a new

To achieve this, ABN Amro has translated its

six years ago it was a rarity for a marketer

breed of talent into your organisation?

positioning into a targeted talent strategy based

to be undertaking a human resources role.

Elsevier has been on this journey: Han-

on six specific personas, each with its own at-

Now it’s a movement, with 50 per cent of

nfried von Hindenburg, senior vice president

traction strategy. Each persona represents the

large companies actively using marketing or

of global communications, provided me with

current and future skills ABN Amro needs to

communications professionals to bring in new

some valuable insights. “We are now an in-

take the company forward on its journey. For

approaches to their employer brand efforts.”

formation analytic s company specialising

example, as Ruth Bielderman, head of talent

At Kimberly-Clark, human resources owns

in science and health. As such, we need to

attraction, explains: “We took our employer

the employer brand; it’s more integration than

attract technology talent

brand to The Next Web,

co-creation, Frans told me. We work closely

and brand ourselves as

an international digital

with marketing and use the same processes

a technology company.

as our consumer brands. We apply the same

That’s why employer

philosophy, techniques and processes we use

branding is so impor-

in marketing for our consumer brands, for

tant. I believe that if

our employer brand.”

you brand yourself as a

For more on the Employee Economy watch our video interview with Anita here:

tech employer then your

Changing propositions through people

event where most of the attendees tend to be start-ups, innovation labs and so on. We wanted to discuss the transformation that digitalisation is

overall brand positioning shifts towards tech

bringing to banks with the right target groups;

as well – a much-welcomed and mutually-re-

why they should work within ABN Amro

inforcing virtuous circle.”

and not a company like Coolblue.” With such

With such a shift in positioning and

a segmented approach to talent acquisition

strategy, embedding this with existing em-

by job function, is ABN Amro creating an

ployees was critical for Elsevier. So how did

organisation of micro-cultures? Do you need a

Technology and the Internet of Things have

they translate this to their employee value

homogenous group tied to the same behaviours

given us a plethora of new companies with very

proposition?

to make an organisation successful, or can

different structures and cultures. The question

“Our employee value proposition is

you construct a group of tribes all working in

of what makes them attractive to millennials

based on a purpose and mission that we think

their own way to deliver the greater company

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

ENGINEERING THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE: A COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR’S GUIDE TO BUILDING A CULTURE WITH CHARACTER As the value of companies is increasingly embedded in their intangible assets, corporate culture has become the new Holy Grail. One of the main challenges is to make sure leadership, communications and human resources pursue a genuinely integrated approach. But what are the roles of communications directors in building a culture with character?

ilicon Valley is famous for giving

presses their companies’ personality. From

birth to the most innovative and

there they’ve had the courage to stand out

fast growing companies in our day and age. Google, Apple, Tesla,

Facebook, Adobe and Netflix are redefining the world as we know it. While there are many theories to explain their success, one red thread shines through: they all nurture their culture as one of their most precious assets – if not their most precious one. Surely, there is something communication directors from all fields and industries can all learn from here.

Nurture your culture The way these tech companies have changed the world of work might be more game-chang-

“Increasingly, recruitment sites and career pages on Indeed and LinkedIn are celebrations of the culture of a company.”

from the crowd, explore and experiment – and literally invent, pivot and evolve their own people-practices as they grew. Netflix chose to abolish its vacation policy: according to its CEO, “our vacation policy is: there is no vacation policy”, testifying that its culture centres around freedom and trust. Adobe was one of the first to abandon the traditional performance management cycle and ratings in order to make regular, ongoing ‘check-ins’ the new normal. Google continues to set new standards in creating stimulating, creative work environments and extraordinary teams. Facebook engineers enter a six weeks’ on-boarding programme where they get to work on numerous projects in order to discover what their exact job profile will become. And Tesla’s hiring approach is not

ing than we realise. Unlike many large, tra-

based upon education or experience: rather,

ditional organisations that are blind-sided

it is geared at selecting people based upon

by focusing on benchmarks and generic best

their ability to solve complex problems and

practices, these companies started at the root

learn under uncertain conditions.

of their existence and identity – and then

Clearly, these companies share a con-

invented the people practices that best ex-

sensus on the true secret of their success:

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

SAMPLER

BY C HR I S K ER S B E R GE N

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

The want-perspective is typically owned by the specialists of marketing and communica-

“The ‘no vacation policy’ example of Netflix is a human resources practice that perfectly strengthens their ‘creator’ archetype.” their people. They are fundamentally ‘people-businesses’, and lo and behold: they act like they actually care about their people. In

tions who are dominantly externally focused, with the emphasis on external stakeholders

Redesigning the employee experience

like customers, shareholders and society. The

Alignment starts with identifying the core

can perspective is typically considered the

personality archetype, and then permeating

territory of human resources and is focused

this consistently into the employee experience

on internal stakeholders like managers and

across the full employee journey. This journey

employees. Each function has their own orien-

starts outside with attracting and assessing

tation, convictions, dynamics and jargon, and

new talents to the company. Then, once people

cross-functional collaboration isn’t the easiest

are hired, the internal activation focuses on

thing. To top it off, senior management tends

brand-specific on-boarding and activating

to ignore the topic or waive it aside as fluffy

employees to perform, towards developing

and vague. We are talking about intangible

and appraising them in order to ultimately

stuff that doesn’t fit into a spreadsheet or let

convert them to become ‘advocates’: both for

itself be managed in the traditional sense.

the companies’ products and services as well

Culture is something we can’t afford

as for the company as a place to work.

to leave to coincidence. Which is why we as

When one wants to influence people

communication directors should look be-

and culture, a traditional approach based on

yond our traditional scope to pursue a truly

top-down steering, planning and control is

integrated approach to culture, an approach

no longer sufficient. We know this, right? The

co-owned by leadership, communications and

relationship between people and the brands

human resources.

they work for is highly sensitive and dynamic. Internal activation is really a matter of

Connecting people and brand through the shared personality

consciously orchestrating the way values, rituals, culture and behaviours are experienced by managers and employees. So we need to take the 360-degree employee experience as the starting point and build interaction and iteration in by design. And we want to make sure employees ‘want’ and ‘can’ demonstrate the behaviours and commitment we hope to

the exceptional cases where these types of companies seem to not care much about their

The first thing we need is a practical way to

see from them. Creating coherent employee

people, guess what? Eventually they pay the

look at culture, one which unites both per-

experiences requires perfect alignment. So

price. Ask Amazon. Ask Uber.

spectives and worlds, and helps the specialists

let’s look at who does what on a practical level.

across functions to combine their strengths

Connecting what the organisation wants with what it can

into an integrated approach. In a book on brand culture that I’ve written with two fellow authors1, we argue that companies, like people,

Internal activation

have personalities and this ‘shared personality’

It all starts (or ends) with leadership en-

is the key to connecting people and the brands

suring vision, connection and commitment.

they work for.

The vision that enthusiastic employees create

Culture, brand and reputation are

The underlying idea is that companies

enthusiastic customers inspired Tony Hsieh to

more closely intertwined than ever. When a

with a ‘hero’ personality have a different culture

shape a unique ‘happiness culture’ at Zappos.

reputation issue emerges around a company,

from companies with a ‘caregiver’ personality.

‘Delivering happiness’ became a gospel and

the culture is often mentioned as the root

As do ‘explorer’ versus ‘everyman’ type compa-

is permeated in extraordinary values – like

cause of all evil. Apparently it appears quite

nies. The shared personality unites an essential

“create fun and a little weirdness” – that are

a challenge to connect the perspective of what

element of brands – the brand personality –

brought to life in exceptional ways.

the organisation wants – mission, values and

with the personality of the people and culture

For the human resources team, the

brand promise – with the perspective of what

of the organisation. Defining an organisation’s

focus should be on ensuring truly characteris-

the organisation can based on the people that

shared personality means looking at the organ-

tic on-boarding experiences, original employ-

actually work there: their talents, capabilities,

isation as a living ecosystem, with the shared

ment terms and conditions, culture-specific

engagement and culture.

personality as the organising principle.

learning and development experiences, and

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

RESEARCH IN PRACTICE: HOW TO DRIVE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT THROUGH ONLINE EMPLOYEE NEWS A recent study by software company SAP found a significant correlation between employee engagement and internal news that helps users understand the company strategy and provides immediately useful and work-relevant information.

Europe’s largest software company. However, continuing to thrive in a fiercely competitive international environment is only possible if the company can attract and retain the best and most talented people, and inspire them to do their best. In other words, with the support of a highly-engaged workforce. Employee engagement can be defined as the level of effort an employee is willing to expend on behalf of their employer. It is the extent to which they may promote the company (e.g. employer branding), their commitment to the goals and objectives of the company and belief in the company’s strategy. It has also been linked to individual levels of vigour and health. Many studies have shown connections

between engagement levels and corporate mployee communications de-

The following article describes our own study

performance. Perhaps most famously, the

partments are often given a bad

at the European software company SAP, and

Gallup State of the Global Workplace survey

rap. A cost center for some, a

offers some concrete advice on how to move

claims that businesses in the top quartile

necessary evil for others, few

from being perceived as a cost center to a

outperform those in the lowest by 10 per cent

powerful and vital strategic enabler.

in customer loyalty, 21 per cent in profitability

Photo: SAP AG/Wolfram Scheible.

realise the strategic potential this oftenunappreciated profession offers. What if you could empirically illustrate how your many hours surrounded by towers of empty pizza boxes, tirelessly slaving away over a hot keyboard, may actually be measurably in-

What is employee engagement?

and 20 per cent in productivity . Other studies have found similar effects. While the link between employee communications and employee engagement seems increasingly obvious, the ability to generalise

creasing employee’s engagement and belief

With over 87,000 employees supporting

research to individual companies is exceed-

in your company’s objectives and strategies?

365,000 customers in 180 countries, SAP is

ingly difficult, especially in consideration of

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

SAMPLER

BY S E A N MAC NI V E N A N D J U L I E T H O M S O N

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

the highly specific nature of employee engage-

helps users understand the company strat-

the company itself. This is not surprising, as

ment and how it is measured within different

egy and which provides immediately useful

quality suggests a high level of attention to

enterprises. To address these limitations we

and work-relevant information. News that

detail, the importance of the subject discussed

decided to run a study specific to both SAP

was deemed easy to understand and com-

and the overall professionalism of the author.

and to readers of the official employee news-

prehensible, as well as conversational and

In fact, studies into the perception of web

room, SAP News.

comprehensive, were all positively correlated

sites have found that both site and content

to engagement. Of all the variables however,

design plays a major role in the perceived

a few stood out from the rest, and are now

value and surface credibility of the website.

being considered for use as an official com-

Which leads us to the second driver of organ-

munications index for online news.

isational buy-in:

The Five Item Model for engaging news The SAP study showed several communications items were significantly correlated to employee engagement, including news that

Cue for quality. The perceived quality of the news played an important role

in reader’s perceptions of both the news and

Credibility counts. While quality alone may tip the scales in terms of

an initial evaluation of the site’s credibility,

the actual credibility of the content needs to sustain that belief in the long term. Content that is deemed credible and believable, and which offers the reader a balanced view of the facts, leads to higher reader frequency and greater belief in the company’s objectives

ABOUT THE STUDY The SAP employee engagement index has evolved over a number of years to include cognitive and affective aspects of engagement and organisational commitment. To address these aspects, a study was designed that would both add to the academic literature and lead to immediate insights that could be applied within the individual context of the enterprise studied. Drawing upon prior and ongoing research, questions from SAP’s employee engagement index were chosen as impact variables, in addition to items around reading frequency, strategic buy-in and participation via sharing, commenting and rating. Further questions then focused on the perceived value of the news, questions around quality, credibility and comprehensiveness. A survey was developed and sent to a random sample of employees, resulting in 1890 completed surveys (a response rate of 10 per cent). Survey demographics were tested against the actual distribution of employees by geography, business unit, tenure and job-level, and found to be sufficiently representative. Furthermore the data set was split into training and test data (a 75:25 split). The training data was used to generate the model, while the test data was used to validate the ability of the model to predict responses by applying it to new data.

“Businesses in the top quartile outperform those in the lowest by 10 per cent in customer loyalty, 21 per cent in profitability and 20 per cent in productivity.”

studies around perceived objectivity as a foundation for both credibility, and perhaps more importantly, changing pre-existing mindsets.

Corporate culture. A much-quoted organisational adage by management

guru Peter Drucker, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, could not be truer when considering what employees expect from a corporate blog or employee newsroom. Cultural value, or more specifically, the sense that the news reflects the company’s living culture, was a significant predictor for both belief in the company’s goals and objectives, and enthusiasm for the company’s future. Interestingly it was the strongest stronger predictor of reader frequency, which is arguably the single most tangible and comprehensible metric for any employee newsroom.

Well informed. The sense of being generally well informed was a slightly

stronger driver of the key engagement questions than culture, even though it was not a significant predictor of reader frequency. That said, as a high-level goal for any employee communications department, culturing an informed reader base is likely to be among

Following several statistical tests the strongest predictors were extracted as drivers and regressed against each of the impact variables.

and strategy. This supports numerous prior

the top priorities, and our study placed it as the second strongest predictor of engagement.

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

INSIGHTS AND ANALYSIS

DON’T GET IT TWISTED Technology has increased the choice of options for interacting with colleagues, whether in the same office or in another country. But that only means that the potential for misunderstanding is greater than ever. However, by keeping a few basics principles in mind, virtual communications can be a positive force.

rganisations often rely on teams

This requires an awareness of which types

to accomplish tasks and solve

of virtual communication media to use for

problems that are beyond the capability of one individual.

Teams allow individuals to pool their different knowledge and perspectives in order to develop innovative solutions to complex problems. At the same time, teams are increasingly using virtual communication where team members interact using technology (e.g. email, instant messaging, tele-conferencing, and video conferencing) instead of face-to-face. The growing use of virtual communication in teams is occurring for many different reasons; for example, team members are often distributed across different work sites, geographic locations, and time zones, making frequent face-to-face communication difficult. In addition, due to the widespread availability of different communication technologies, even team members that are in the same location often choose virtual communication over face-to-face meetings out of convenience. I have observed many teams where members prefer to send emails or communicate

“A team member who receives a text-based communication is more likely to interpret the message more negatively than intended.”

through other electronic means rather than

including understanding when virtual communication works well and when face-to-face communication is the best option. Applying a few basic principles, can help team members make more effective communication choices.

Reducing misunderstanding Teams today have a wide range of options for communication media to support their collaboration. These range from more traditional text-based communication such as email and instant messaging to those such as web and video conferencing that incorporate audio and video. Two important dimensions that differentiate these various media are their information richness and ability to provide interactivity. Information richness describes the extent to which a communication medium allows for the exchange of different types of information such as non-verbal cues, tone of voice and immediate feedback that help the

take the time to get together face-to-face, Photo: www.thinkstock.com

different types of team communications,

even though they are in the same office on

potential pitfalls that can undermine the

receiver understand the intended meaning of

the same floor.

quality of a team’s collaboration. To avoid

the communication. Interactivity refers to the

There is no doubt that virtual commu-

these pitfalls, team members should be

exchange of information in real-time. Face-

nication can offer a team great convenience

thoughtful in how they use virtual commu-

to-face communication scores high on both

and flexibility. However, researchers have

nication, rather than basing their commu-

information richness and interactivity whereas

found that virtual communication involves

nication choices primarily on convenience.

a text-based medium such as email is low

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

SAMPLER

BY S HA R ON HI L L

INSIGHTS AND ANALYSIS

sonal relationships between team members.

“Have you ever found yourself struggling only to give up and phone the other person instead?”

Effective use of virtual communication must consider both of these aspects of teamwork. When working on the team’s task, teams engage in activities that have different levels of complexity and require different levels of interactivity between team members. These range from straightforward information sharing to more complex communications to solve ambiguous problems with no clear solutions and where it is necessary to reconcile differences in viewpoints and approaches between team members. More complex tasks where a lot of communication back and forth between team members is needed for an effective outcome require richer and more interactive communication media. For example, sharing status updates can be done effectively using email or posting the information online for other team members to view, but intensive collaborative work is best done using a medium that allows for audio, video

on these dimensions. Other communication

and document sharing. For highly complex

media fall somewhere in between these two

tasks, face-to-face is often the best option. Of

extremes. For example, video conferencing

course, teams might be faced with practical

is also a rich and interactive communication

constraints that impact their communication

medium, but since communicating parties

choices, for example, some team members

are not physically in each other’s presence,

not having access to certain communication

video conferencing does not provide as much

technologies. However, where possible, teams

situational information as a face-to-face meet-

should follow the general guideline of selecting

ing or promote as much awareness of one’s

the communication medium based on the

communication partner.

purpose of the communication.

Not surprisingly, since human beings

In teams where meeting face-to-face

have evolved over thousands of years to com-

is a challenge and using technology for in-

municate face-to-face, this is the mode that

tensive collaborative work seems daunting,

we tend to find less effortful and that most

many teams default to taking a more pooled

reduces the potential for misunderstanding

approach to working on such tasks. This in-

in communication.

volves team members separately working on different pieces of the task and then combining

For what purpose?

the components together at the end. However, although it is more convenient, this approach limits sharing and debate of knowledge and

Teams should select the medium that best

ideas and, therefore, may undermine the very

fits the purpose of the communication. Have

reason the team is collaborating in the first

you ever found yourself struggling to explain

place – i.e. to promote integration of diverse

something back and forth via email only to

expertise and perspectives. Therefore, if true

give up and phone the other person instead?

collaboration is needed, the team must force

If so, then you were feeling the mismatch

itself to use the available communication

between the communication medium and the

technologies – ideally ones that are high in

communication purpose. Teams use commu-

information richness and interactivity – to

nication to facilitate team members working

facilitate the collaborative process, even if

together on the task as well as to manage

face-to-face interaction is not possible.

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

Text-based dangers In addition to working on the task, effective teamwork also involves dealing with frustrations, disagreements and personal conflicts between members that can disrupt team functioning. Here again, the general rule is to use richer, more interactive communication media for dealing with issues that are more interpersonally sensitive. When using text-based media, individuals tend to be less inhibited in their communication because they are less aware of their communication partner as individuals. Hence, a team member who is angry or frustrated is more likely to blow up at another team member or use inappropriate language when communicating using email than when the communication is face-to-face. In addition, a team member who receives a text-based communication is more likely to interpret the message more nega-

S H A RO N HILL GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Dr. N. Sharon Hill is associate professor of management at The George Washington University School of Business in Washington, D.C., United States. She has previously worked for multinational organisations in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and the United States. She is also founder of Hill Management Consulting Services, where she works with organisations to implement researchbased strategies for improving teamwork and organisational change implementations.

Photo: Private

emotions and maintain positive interper-

INSIGHTS AND ANALYSIS

ORGANISING AND COMMUNICATING IN HYPERMODERN TIMES Change in overdrive is a characteristic of our modern global culture: organisations have to adapt to these changes in order to survive. Results from the European Communication Monitor 2017 show how European communications professionals are helping their organisations to function in a hypermodern culture.

n today’s global society, organisations are

according to a different logic – for example

expected to continuously reflect not only

health care and education. Modern rationality

on their own behaviour but on the role they play in society at large. The modern

environment organisations must operate in what has been described as a hypermodern society, a successor of the modern, secular-rational society of 20th century and the individualistic self-expressive postmodern society that came into being after the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s. A hypermodern society combines the two and accelerates the pace of change. A hypermodern society is a society in overdrive, characterised by a culture of hyper consumption, hyper change and hyper individualism. The communication function plays an important role in helping the organisation to adapt to a hypermodern society.

Attitude of consumption

“A hypermodern culture of overdrive and paradox yields many new challenges for the communication profession.”

is also in overdrive, causing continuous change and flexibility. Furthermore, postmodern individualisation has shifted to hyper narcissism or hyper individualism. For example, everybody is expected to behave responsibly on their own accord in all sectors of life . That is also expected of organisations: every person and every entity is expected to be responsible for its do’s and don’ts.

Paradoxes Hypermodern culture is full of paradoxes. In fact, paradox is one of the most eye-catching aspects of hypermodernity. For example, while belief in rationality, science and technology is bigger than ever, so is criticism of scientific developments and technological applications. A typical hypermodern organisational paradox is that organisations have to be open and flexible but at the same

The concept of hypermodernity was introduced

time should carefully manage and control

by the French social theorist Gilles Lipovetsky.

their internal and external environment in

In a hypermodern culture, he wrote, an in-

order to reach their goals (for example to

creasingly large part of life is characterised by

earn a profit and to increase employment).

an attitude of consumption; also, a majority of

Meanwhile, the management of organisations

people have become turbo-consumers outside

is constantly confronted with all kinds of

the domain of the economy. The result being

contradicting interests and opinions, not only

not only the selling and buying of vast amounts

outside the organisation but also inside by

of products and services, but also a consumer

their hypermodern employees. What’s more,

mentality in sectors that traditionally operated

an effective and responsible answer to all of

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

SAMPLER

BY PIE T V ER HOEV EN A N D D E JA N V E R Č I Č

INSIGHTS AND ANALYSIS

Statistical analysis identifies three different clusters of organisations with modern, modern/postmodern and postmodern/hypermodern attributes

Modern Organisations

Postmodern Organisations

Hypermodern Organisations

• • • • •

• • •

• •

Labour division IT is secondary Stabile workforce Rationality at work Ethics of duty

• •

Modern Cluster 14.4 %

Knowledge Centralised IT Flexible adjustment of the workforce Innovativeness at work Ethics of virtues

Modern/ Postmodern Cluster 42.2 %

• •

Managing change Rapid adjustment of the workforce Creativity at work Ethics of perceived responsibility

Postmodern/ Hypermodern Cluster 43.5 %

www.communicationmonitor.eu / Zerfass et al. 2017 / n= 3,387 communication professionals. Hierarchical cluster analysis based on Q10 (characteristics applied to the organisation, ranging from not at all to very much) and Q 11 (importance of characteristics within the organisation’s culture, ranging from not important at all to very important) identified three different groups of respondents.

“Only about 14 per cent of communication professionals characterise their organisation as typically modern.”

Fig. 1: Three different clusters of organisations in Europe as seen by communication professionals

Watch a discussion of the full results of the 2017 European Communication Monitor at this year’s European Communication Summit here:

Postmodern/hypermodern organisations communicate significantly more about current societal issues Participating activly in societal debates about …

Ecology, climate

Open borders for business

Future of Europe or the European Union

Migration, refugee crises

Modern organisations Modern/postmodern organisations Postmodern/hypermodern organisations

Populism, anti-elitism 1 (Not at all active)

5 (Very active)

www.communicationmonitor.eu / Zerfasset al. 2017 / n = 3,387 communication professionals. Q 13: To what extent does your organisation actively communicate in the following current societal debates? Scale 1 (Not at all) –5 (Very active). Percentages: Frequency based on scale points 4-5.Meanvalues. ** Highly significant differences (Kendall rank correlation, p ≤ 0.01). Fig. 2: Participation of European organisations in societal debates

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

BRAND AND REPUTATION

CEO REPUTATION VERSUS CORPORATE REPUTATION From Travis Kalanick’s enforced departure at Uber to the allegation of sexual abuse and intimidation by Harvey Weinstein, 2017 has been the year of the bad boss. But what real impact does the profile of the chief executive officer have on the wider corporate reputation, and how best to align the two? Research from earlier this year offers several insightful answers. BY AAR ON R EI D

higher the chief executive officer’s pro-

file, the better the perceptions of company performance. If high-profile chief executive officers

are a benefit to a company, what relationship

company’s?

5.6 5.4 Bezos Amazon Neutral

Reputation intelligence analysts at alva

have examined the reputation of Apple and Amazon (Figures 1 and 2), we find consistently

5.8

5.2

should their own reputation have with their

SAMPLER

twined with the profile of its leader: the

Source: alva

6.2

success of a company is strongly interSentiment score

t has been claimed that the apparent

6 30

6 31

l 16 31

g Au

16 30

6 31

t 16 30

6 31

7 28

7 31

r 17

Figure 1: 60-day rolling average sentiment for Amazon and Jeff Bezos (UK and US)

high ratings for both firms, while their chief executive officers also show steadily positive scores, though to a lesser degree. ship between the corporate reputation and tablished corporation is one in which the company has the most prominent positive profile. When the company generates the bulk of stakeholder goodwill it creates a reputation buffer against negative issues concerning the chief executive officer. It also protects the company against boardroom changes, either voluntary or enforced, and ensures success is not reliant on one personality.

6 Sentiment score

that of the chief executive officer at an es-

Source: alva

6.2

This implies that a healthy relation-

5.8 5.6 5.4 Cook Apple Neutral

5.2 5 30

6 30

6 31

l 16

g Au

16 30

6 31

t 16 30

6 31

Figure 2: 60-day rolling average sentiment for Apple and Tim Cook (UK and US)

As the chief executive officer is responsible for setting the strategy and vision of the company, ideally they should also maintain a good reputation, reassuring stakeholders that the business is in good hands.

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

7 28

7 31

r 17

BRAND AND REPUTATION

But what is the dynamic when a major global brand persists with a high-profile leader? An

6.2

Figure 3 shows that despite Branson’s visible media-profile, his relationship with Virgin is similar to the pattern established with Apple and Amazon.

Sentiment score

obvious example of a celebrity figure head is Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson.

The strong reputation level of the main company takes prominence over its

5.8 5.6 5.4 Virgin Branson Neutral

lationship fluctuates in terms of which party is driving reputation. While Virgin’s founder can affect the

5.2

most high-profile executive, though the re-

reputation of the brand, the brand isn’t re-

Source: alva Insights

6.4

6 30

6 31

l 16 31

g Au

16 30

6 31

t 16 30

6 31

7 28

7 31

r 17

Figure 3: 60-day rolling average sentiment for Virgin Group and Richard Branson (UK and US) 60-day rolling average sentiment for Virgin Group and Richard Branson (UK and US)

liant on the founder. The chief executive officer can add value in good times and have confidence in the brand to take the lead if they encounter difficulties. a number of highly-successful start-ups, tive officers”. If the growth of these firms is largely attributed to the strong reputation of their leaders, is the model the same for these companies?

5.6 Sentiment score

primarily driven by “celebrity chief execu-

Source: alva

5.8

However, in recent years we have seen

5.4 5.2 5 Travis Kalanick Uber Neutral

4.8

Uber case study: the risks of a chief executive officer’s reputation outweighing the company’s

4.6 31

6 30

6 31

l 16 31

g Au

16 30

6 31

t 16 30

6 31

7 28

7 31

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Figure 4: 60-day rolling average sentiment for Uber and Travis Kalanick (UK and US)

Since Uber launched in summer 2010, it

President Trump during the controversial

When Uber was accused of profiteering from

has established itself as one of the most

travel ban. Claims of a rampant and un-

a subsequent strike, an estimated 200,000

successful start-up companies ever. Much

checked culture of sexism resulted in the

people deleted their Uber account.

of Uber’s success has been attributed to the

resignation of Kalanick as chief executive

driven but abrasive personality of its chief

officer in June this year.

executive officer, Travis Kalanick.

Despite being quick to issue a strong response to the travel ban, and resigning

Throughout 2016 Kalanick was a

from the advisory board, Kalanick was now

Uber’s growth has been built on dis-

positive asset, while the Uber brand had a

the focal point for criticism around a string

rupting an established industry through

slightly negative perception. Uber’s issues

of subsequent incidents.

lowering prices and improving convenience.

really started in late January with the exec-

By bending the rules and offering

The benefits of competitive pricing and con-

utive order restricting immigration from a

a disruptive service, Kalanick was helping

venience outweighing any negativity around

number of countries.

drive Uber’s rapid growth. However, these

employee pay and conditions.

Kalanick had joined Trump’s econom-

values were simultaneously permeating into

However, 2017 has been very challeng-

ic advisory board and the travel ban was

ing for Uber, with a string of controversies,

of particular concern among employees in

As the company had consistently

including multiple lawsuits, driver-less car

Uber’s sector, many of whom are immigrants

scored negatively, there were warning signs

crashes and Kalanick’s connections with

themselves.

that, should a reputational issue arise, the

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

the public’s perceptions of the Uber brand.

SAMPLER

BRAND AND REPUTATION

50 WAYS TO FIND YOUR LOVER Relationships are hard work. After the first giddy infatuation, for a relationship to succeed in the long run it requires patience, compromise, give and take – and a reasonable agreed-upon level of payment. (We’re talking, of course, about the relationship between brands and online influencers) BY AST R I D D EI L M A N N

Photo: www.thinkstock.com

hen we first fell in love, it

aka “ungespielt” (@unge on Twitter and Ins-

tweets, and Instagram-posts during those two

was a typical foul weather,

tagram) simply swept us of our feet. Being a

summer weeks helped stopping the Brazilian

mid-January Cologne after-

smart, funny, warm hearted yet slightly shy

government from issuing a new law that would

noon. We had come in by

guy who adored WWF’s work, he directly

have destroyed one of the world’s most crucial

train from Berlin, and the three of us had

leaped into our hearts. We parted after several

protected areas. When he asked his subscribers

used the four hours ride to discuss how we

hours seeing the darkening grey Cologne sky

to sign a WWF-petition to protect the Amazon,

wanted the upcoming meeting to work out.

through rose-coloured glasses.

our petition tool cracked. Too many people

My colleague Marco was all business about

From that point on, we did typical

wanted to sign within minutes. At the end,

it, while Anne suggested listening to our guts.

love-bird stuff. Simon and WWF embarked on

50,000 mostly young Germans had added their

Right she was. When we finally met

an adventurous journey, first just a fab night

voices to a global WWF campaign to protect

one of the most hyped, top 10 YouTubers

when he supported our global event Earth

protected areas. #VivaAmazonia!

in Germany, we instantly fell in love. On a

Hour in March 2015, later for a full-blown trip

Looking back, a lot of our early work

professional level, of course, but Simon Unge

to the Brazilian Amazon. Simon’s daily vlogs,

with a popular influencer could have gone

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

BRAND AND REPUTATION

wrong. We didn’t have a contract; we had

scrutiny was demanded, I don’t believe that a

no say whatsoever in what he as a creator

lot of today’s brand-influencer relationships

uploaded onto his channels; Simon did not receive any money from working with us and could have pulled out at the last minute.

Lingering rumours Then, of course, there were the critics, and there was hate speech. After a firestorm in 2011 caused by outrageous false allegations by a freelance journalist, WWF Germany’s reputation online had suffered. Although a court decision had made it absolutely clear that there was nothing to that sloppy piece on television (that later was “enriched” by a sloppy book), rumours lingered. When some of Simon’s subscribers started to bash WWF, he answered with a 15-minute “Real Talk” typical for YouTube, setting things straight. Without involving us in any kind, he rose to our defence like an angry tiger. Why did our team-up with Simon Unge turn out to be such a huge success? I believe it was an all- time favourite of mankind: trust. We trusted each other completely. This rare instant trust derived from a perfect fit. To quote from the best movie about love ever: “I knew. I knew the way you know about a good melon.” (yes, that’s from Rob Reiner’s 1989 classic When Harry met Sally.) Simon Unge just was the natural born brand advocate for us.

“Influencers should be reasonably paid for good influential content that drives brand engagement and conversions... Reasonably and conversions are the keywords in that sentence. Tit for tat.”

would stand up to it.

An influencer goldrush? In April 2016, John Hall wrote a piece in Forbes, titled “The Influencer Marketing Gold Rush is Coming”, observing that in times of ad block and ad fraud, influencer marketing seems to be the perfect answer. At least as perfect as social marketing and content marketing, which solved all of our problems, too, right? Working with influencers is just one more tool in the public relations and marketing toolkit. It can be an enormously powerful and beneficial one for both sides. But we are about to break it. In a moment I’ll tell you why. But first let’s go back to John Hall and his article in Forbes. He made a very important distinction between earned and paid influencer marketing companies: “Earned marketing stems from unpaid or preexisting relationships with influencers (…). For example, Patrón has a ton of influencer advocates for its tequila; these people drink the liquor regularly and endorse the product because they enjoy it. On the other hand, you have the paid arm of influencer marketing, in which brands employ the Kardashians to tweet about their products or services.”

We shared the same values and we

To put it bluntly: with the first you

shared the same vision. We respected each

build reputation, the second gives you reach

other’s work, each other’s brands, and we

(before it gives the reach to 23 other products

adored each other on a personal level. Al-

over the next couple of weeks). Don’t get me

though initially brought together by a net-

wrong, I like reach. I know it’s important,

work, Divimove, we established personal

and what it can do for a brand is common

bonds. Talking with Simon did not mean

textbook knowledge. The thing is, though,

talking with his management.

why should I settle for reach if I could have

On the other hand, we liked each oth-

interactions, real engagement, reputational

er’s friends (something that, if it doesn’t work

gain plus precious conversions?

out, can kill off relationships – you knew that

Please embrace my following plea

one already). For instance, Simon’s friend Jo-

wholeheartedly: do not smash the potential

seph Bolz aka “DeChangeman” accompanied

of influencer relations by settling for reach.

us on our trip to the Amazon. Today, this great

Do not break this promising tool.

guy is the brain behind a lot of what’s going

Buying a testimonial to promote a

on at WWF Germany’s YouTube channel.

product is neither new nor particularly de-

The thing is: true love is hard to find.

manding, budget restrictions left aside. But

I dare say that you remember very vividly

in the long run it poses a set of difficulties. It

how many people you dated until you found

may ruin the good idea of perfectly matched

someone you had more than just fun with. If

brands and influencers forever.

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

BRAND AND REPUTATION

CLOSING THE AUTHENTICITY GAP To succeed in a world where organisations and management are under increasing scrutiny, understanding expectations is fundamental. Companies must align what they say and how they behave with the shared perceptions of others. The pressure to bring brand and reputation together is driving the evolution of a new model, where the intersection of brand and reputation offers executives a new, single view of their organisation. BY NIC K A N D R E W S

One of the main principles in the study shows

that a marketing message

that authenticity requires the synchronisa-

was authentic? Did you feel like you were getting the

plain truth about what what’s on offer, and why it might be a good option? In a world of digital meerkats and overly enthusiastic dance numbers about mundane services, a lot of brand communications seem somewhat confused. If you’re feeling a little lost in the sea of marketing messages, perhaps it’s because your instincts are telling you that something seems off. Authenticity is a big deal. All companies want to be authentic, innovative and ethical because they feel this is the best way to reach their target audiences – and they’re right. Earning trust doesn’t come easily, and this is why it takes a little more than spectacle and talking animals to gain some real

“Understanding what authenticity is, and what drives it, lets a company focus on what matters most to their audiences.”

credibility. But how?

tion of brand and reputation – what you say about yourself, and what others say about you. To put it more simplistically, if you say your customer service is top of class but every customer complains of how they have been treated, we call that an Authenticity Gap. This gap can either be positive, where companies exceed expectations and surprise the stakeholder, or negative, where they fail to deliver on what is promised (or perceived to be a promise). As the negative gap increases, authenticity goes down.

The Nine Drivers Before embarking on authenticity research, we looked at how companies are judged and what drives their reputation. This research told us there are nine drivers of reputation.

Authenticating authenticity

Splitting these into three interconnected groups with three drivers each, they consist of management behaviours, customer benefits and society outcomes. However,

While it is difficult to define authenticity in

To further explore this, FleishmanHillard

it’s important to note that these drivers are

the communications space, there’s no doubt

has been conducting research on authenticity

not all weighted the same. The ones which

that those who are seen to have it do better

since 2013 and found that businesses can have

relate to customer benefits are among the

– especially in an age where corporate and

an ‘Authenticity Gap’. Spanning across five

most valuable, addressing areas of customer

marketing messages surround us at nearly

countries and thousands of companies, the

service, better value and innovation.

every moment of the day. Understanding

latest report was published earlier this year

Across every market and sector in-

what authenticity is, and what drives it, lets

with some important learnings for corporate

cluded in the study, these customer-centric

a company focus on what matters most to

communicators looking to break through

drivers account for (on average) 51 per cent of

their audiences.

the noise.

the impact on reputation, with the remaining

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

SAMPLER

hen was the last time you felt

BRAND AND REPUTATION

but equally significant is both customer care

Man

and, increasingly, transparency on how prodem

countries studied, 81.6 per cent of consumers, agreed with the statement that “I expect

Doing right

ucts are made. For example, across the five tb

Society o utc o

Consistent performance

Care of environment

companies to be more transparent about the source of materials and manufacturing of their products.”.The question, therefore, of

Credible communications

Community impact

how much a company can and should reveal of the inner workings of its organisation and activities continues to grow in importance. Working out loud, if you like, will almost certainly have to become the new normal. Global companies are also expected

Better value Employee care

to take a lead when it comes to larger-scale social movements. Just under 74 per cent of those questioned expected major companies

Innovation

to go beyond their mandatory regulations

Customer care

e Custom

r be

fi ne

and be drivers for improving social issues. However, it seems they need to work more on their environmental credentials, with 61 per cent of people experiencing a significant authenticity gap when it came to green matters.

The echo chambers

The Nine Drivers of Authenticity

number split by the other six. With so much

fall into three, interconnected

budget usually devoted to purely customer

groups – Management Behaviours,

benefits, companies can often run the risk

One of the most prolific new phrases of 2017,

Society Outcomes, andCustomer

of neglecting six other drivers and leaving

‘fake news’ may be used in a humorous con-

Benefits – each with three individual

their reputation in these areas in the hands

text by most people, but it does show just how

drivers.

of outside parties.

little people have grown to trust what they

Society outcomes •

Taking better care of employees

•

Contributing to society in a way that

•

Great expectations

hear or see. When consumers were asked by FleishmanHillard, only 11 per cent of consumers thought that company leaders could be considered as credible sources. Politicians

has a better impact on my community

The 2017 Authenticity Gap report shone light

fared much more poorly at a lowly four per

Taking better care of the environment

on new data and put forward new ideas for

cent. However, respondents were three times

those who are responsible for creating and

more likely to trust the actual employees of a

Management behaviours

maintaining their company’s authenticity. It

company, who alongside friends and family

•

More committed to doing

shows, for example, that better value is both

were most likely giving more anecdotal infor-

the right thing

the greatest expectation and the source of

mation, which naturally has more credibility

Having more consistent and

most disappointment in almost every country

than a company line.

stable financial and operational

that were studied. It ranks in the top three

When comparing the trust levels be-

performance

drivers in 86 per cent or more of sectors

tween corporate messaging and information

Communicating more frequently

in every country except Germany, where

shared by other stakeholders, it’s clear to see

and credibly

companies appear to be better at meeting

which one feels more authentic. Humans

customer expectations on value. In four of

have been telling stories for thousands of

Customer benefits

the five countries, 70 per cent or more of

years as a primary way of passing knowledge,

•

these companies show gaps.

but in the modern age, a corporate overtone

•

Offering products and services that are better value

This is compounded by an increased

has muddled the way we communicate and

•

Taking better care of customers

definition of value, pushing way beyond just

•

Innovating new and better products

price. Product characteristics, innovative

This is not particularly surprising

and services

features and social cachet plat their part,

when you think about just how many people

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

created a tangible disconnect.

BRAND AND REPUTATION

FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BRAND When talking about brands, the focus is usually on brand strategy and how it should be applied. But the sustainable implementation and management of a brand is just as important. A new book, written for a C-level audience, presents an overview of considerations and processes involved in improving and changing a brand – an organisation’s most valuable intangible asset.

rands are an organisation’s most

data speed – bandwidth will no longer

important intangible assets, and

be a limitation

their management is absolutely

“In 2017 brands account for 18 per cent of the top 500 global brands’ market value.”

critical. According to branded

business valuation consultancy Brand Finance, in 2017 brands account for 18 per cent of the top 500 global brands’ market-value. Traditionally, brands have been created by agencies, and brand management has been undervalued. Fortunately, that mindset is now shifting, and we are pleased to have been part of the effort to build awareness about the value of brands. My co-author, Laurens Hoekstra (managing partner at VIM Group) and I have recently published our new book, Future-Proof

•

Artificial intelligence and machine learning. Think of services like Google Now or Amazon Recommendations: from analysing data today to predictive analytics tomorrow, artificial intelligence is already reaching into healthcare and defence and will reach into other industries, led by technology companies like ABB, Siemens, General Electric and others

•

Internet of things. Devices connected with each other digitally – always.

•

Virtual, augmented and mixed reality. Currently a gaming hype, but tomorrow relevant to mainstream business,

Your Brand, with the goal of helping organ-

radically changing the possibilities for

isations deliver and manage brand change

new customer experiences. Imagine the

– continuously. From our 25-plus years of expe-

cost of refurbishing a car dealership, for

rience, we have found that smart integration of

example, and imagine how that changes

data-driven insights, mission-critical logistics, and predictive analytics for future change make that delivery possible and successful. We began with a deep understanding

Welcome to the future

when virtual/augmented reality and machine learning reach maturity The main consequences for an organisation

that strong brands drive competitive advan-

Whether you are prepared or not, your busi-

tage and shareholder value. Research by

ness is being disrupted, impacting all aspects

respected organisations supports this fact.

of your brand. Four innovations that will both

Brands are built from the inside out, helping

challenge and inspire are:

Effectively, this means that communica-

you recruit and keep the best employees who

•

Fifth-generation wireless standard. 5G

tions must start internally, before bring-

solves the issue of not having enough

ing the branding to the outside world

are essential to your marketplace success.

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

and its branding are: •

Increased transparency. Inside is outside.

SAMPLER

BY MA R C C LOO ST E R M A N

BRAND AND REPUTATION

liv

ery Co

Brand Life Cycle Model

cts Pro

Brand evaluation

Brand strategy

agile organisational set-up to deal with

Continuous change, which requires an

•

the new dynamics •

Full availability of data, providing more real insight than ever when unleashed

Brand organisation

and utilised properly. Also, data-under-

Brand operations

standing and interpretation have tra-

Brand development

ditionally not been incorporated in the curricula of strategic communications

Totally new brand experiences continue

changing •

Brand implementation

and marketing directors. But that is

to emerge, offering lots of opportunities

to disrupt traditional customer and company journeys •

Community thinking will prevail over

Brand experience

policing the brand: a huge challenge for organisations as they’ll have to re-assess and define their brand governance

Brand performance strategy for the C-suite From our experience, we’ve addressed 14 topics in our book that are most common in our conversations around brands with boards. Let’s briefly mention two here. 1.

How brand licensing and brand valuation affects the C-level debate: board members want to understand how the financial value of brands can be grasped, and how it relates to the necessary investments over time. They understand that brand is their most valuable intangible asset.

Brand governance and management

consistency and coherence. For brand governance, this means that re-assess-

“The way you organise your brand directly influences the brand manifestation.”

ment of how you organise the branding is needed, from simply policing the brand to community thinking, and investigating what this implies for the organisation at strategic, tactical and operational level.

Brand management and change process that drives ROI Our Brand Life Cycle Model shows how you can organise your brand manifestation. Over

return on investment: the way brands

the years, we’ve developed two proprietary

are being orchestrated over time has

processes that have achieved results for

the attention of senior management,

1200-plus organisations around the globe:

much more than the creation of a brand.

Branding is moving at a rapid pace, and

• Brand Performance Improvement

organisations and consumers expect

• Brand Change Delivery

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

EUROPE

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cultural heritage is the cement that binds the people of the EU together.â&#x20AC;? In a Europe confronted with populism, nationalism and Euroscepticism, what role does culture and communications play? In this interview, taken by Stavros Papagianneas as part of a series of interviews with key stakeholders in European communications for his book Rebranding Europe. Fundamentals for Leadership Communications, Androulla Vasilliou, former EU Commissioner for Education, Culture Multilingualism and Youth, shares her perspective on a common European culture.

Stavros Papagianneas: What are the main communication

guage which is understood by them. Unfortunately we always

challenges in Europe today?

make the mistake of using technical language which is not well

Androulla Vasilliou: The main challenge for Europe no-

understood by citizens. Therefore, instead of really making peo-

wadays is how to combat populism, nationalism and Euroscep-

ple understand Europe and bringing them closer to the Euro-

ticism. All these populist parties, nationalists and Euroscep-

pean Union, we are alienating people.

tic groups in the different member states have one common

enemy, which is the European Union. So all of us that are for

Communication is not included in the political priorities of

the EU have to join forces in order to address this challenge.

the European Commission. Do you think that communication

The point is, when you want to communicate something you

should be a strategic priority for the EU now more than ever?

must be very careful about the content of the communicati-

Communication is a horizontal activity. It does not mean that

on. What do you communicate? How do you communicate, by

because it is not included as a political priority that it is not a

whom and when? These elements are very important. To be

priority for Europe. Whatever are the priorities of the Europe-

perfect in your communication you have to watch this. And we

an Union, communication of those priorities is important. And

have to avoid EU jargon. We have to speak to people in a lan-

do not misunderstand what I will say because I am a Greek

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

Photo: By Marina Ofugi /flickr.com, CC BY 2.0, wikimedia.org

SAMPLER

I N T E RV I E W BY STAV RO S PA PAG I A N N E AS

EUROPE

Cypriot, but choosing Margaritis Schinas as chief spokesperson of the European Commission is part of the prioritisation because he is a political choice. Schinas knows Europe well. He has lived through the different stages and under different offices, so he knows what the priorities are and I think he has the capacity with his team to make communication more effective.

ANDROULLA VAS S I L I O U

Every commissioner of Barroso II had to conduct two or three dialogues with citizens. I will never

CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES BANK OF CYPRUS ONCOLOGY CENTRE

forget my first citizen dialogue was after the ‘bailin’ in Cyprus. Can you imagine how hostile the audience was? Still, I found it very effective because to listen to the complaints of participants was very useful. They felt aggravated and they needed a way to express their dissatisfaction. So you are absolutely right that you have to listen to citizens and

Communication is more about listening than about

of course we have the Eurobarometer. If you pay

speaking. Are the EU Institutions listening to their

attention to the Eurobarometer of how they go up

citizens sufficiently?

and down, you’ll have a sense of what is happening on the citizen-level.

We have a number of institutions that communicate. There is the European Parliament, because they are the elected representatives of the people and therefore they communicate what happens in the European Parliament to their voters. We have the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee, who are all representatives of citizens. On top of that, we have the representations in the Member States and their task is to communicate the priorities and problems to the citizens and to listen to the people. Now moreover it is very important that we create good relations, and I think that many commissioners do so because of their portfolio and relations with European and national NGOs. For example in my case, I had a tremendous variety of NGOs in education, culture and youth. In my previous portfolio I also had a lot of NGOs which dealt with health, animal health fare, sanitary GMOs or the enemies of GMOs. You have to really exploit the NGOs in order to communicate your priorities. So it is not a question of having the right means. We have the right means but we have to communicate it well. About 10 years ago, the European Commission launched Plan D for better communication with citizens and creating a European public sphere. Does Europe needs a new Plan D as was the case during the first Barroso Commission? Under the Barroso II Commission we initiated a new narrative for Europe. I remember very distinctly that Barroso, myself and Viviane Reding inaugurated it in BOZAR, the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, and then we went to different capitals to try and develop this new narrative for Europe. This new narrative we should continue. Mr. Barroso wanted the new narrative to be more exclusive with prominent philosophers, writers and musicians. The crème de la crème came and debated this new narrative. But I think we must expand it to more people and to different parts of Europe. At the same time we initiated the Citizen’s Dialogues.

Between March 2008 and February 2010, Androulla Vassiliou was the European Commissioner for Health and then, until November 2014, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. Her political career dates back to 1996, when she was elected to the House of Representatives of Cyprus for the Movement of United Democrats, and re-elected in 2001 until 2006. During this time she served on the European Affairs Committee and the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Cyprus and the EU. She was also an alternate representative of the Cyprus to the European Convention which drew up the European Constitution. Between 2001 and 2006 she was vice president of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, and the chairperson of the European Liberal Women's Network. Since 2002 she has been chairperson of the board of trustees of the Cyprus Oncology Centre and president of the Cyprus Federation of Business and Professional Women since 1996.

What you are saying is that Barroso II introduced a new narrative dialogue initially for a select group. Do you think we must enlarge to all groups of society? Exactly. The dialogue with citizens has to continue and it has to be organised at different levels. The European Youth Forum is part of this new narrative. I was actively involved in this new narrative and we involved the European Youth Forum because we it is important that we appeal to the youth. We have to listen to the youth. I remember in the panels, we

"Can you imagine how hostile the audience was? Still, I found it very effective because to listen to the complaints of participants was very useful. They felt aggravated and they needed a way to express their dissatisfaction."

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

ISSUE FOCUS

Strategy and the CCO 60

What is strategy?

Building business growth through governance

Doing more with less

Understanding the different definitions of strategy can help chief communication officers in their counselling of the CEO and the C-suite

How getting to grips with governance helped the communications function at Volvo Construction Equipment improve its strategic influence

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

Too busy to be strategic? We present a few practical tips on how to be more strategic in your work when you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have time or energy to do more

SAMPLER

ISSUE FOCUS

An executive definition

The boundary spanner

How do some of the leading executive search firms define, describe and help develop the profile of the chief communications officer?

A new management tool reflects the multiple roles of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s communications executives

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

What is strategy? Understanding the different definitions of strategy can help chief communication officers in their counselling of the CEO and the C-suite, as well as in their own attempts to support the larger corporate strategy. BY C R A I G E . CA RRO L L

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

SAMPLER

ISSUE FOCUS

Strategy is one of the most important concepts for chief communication officers, yet also one of the least understood. Everyone knows of its importance. The echoes of critique, “You have no strategy,” “That’s too tactical,” “That’s a bad strategy!” combined with the advent of strategic communications, planning, counsel and management, only reinforce the belief that communication professionals must develop strategy and strategic plans, as well as think strategically. Greater precision in our ways of thinking and talking about strategy will help us gain greater clarity in the development, discussion and execution of strategy. It will also give us a better understanding of the immense value that strategy brings to the work of chief communication officers. But what exactly is strategy, how do we know it when we see it, and are we clear on why we need it? Consulting the classic work of strategic management researcher Henry Mintzberg provides guidance on this. Mintzberg offered five definitions and types of strategy that we will review to discuss how understanding the fine points between strategic thinking and planning help communication professionals in their field. We will focus on how this improves communication professionals’ counseling to the chief executive officer, the rest of the C-suite or the board, as well as their personal design and execution of communication strategy in support of the larger corporate strategy.

Five types of strategy Let’s start with Mintzberg’s unpacking of the different types of strategies. An intended strategy is one that is planned before action takes place. An emergent strategy is one that is not intended or planned ahead of time, but emerges step by step. A deliberate strategy is one that is intended and is seen through to realisation. Once it is discovered, however, an emergent strategy can become deliberate. A realised strategy is a strategy that is accomplished. It may be the result of a deliberate strategy or an emergent strategy. Finally,

Intended Strategy

Deliberate Strategy

Unrealised Strategy

Realsed Strategy

Emergent Strategy

Figure 1: Five types of strategies (Note. Adapted from Mintzberg and Waters (1985)

an unrealised strategy is one that is planned ahead of time but abandoned before realisation.

Five definitions of strategy Mintzberg also offers five definitions of strategy: 1. A strategy is a plan. It is a consciously intended course of action and a set of guidelines for dealing with situations in routine or formulaic ways. Here, strategy is a unified, comprehensive, and integrated plan designed to ensure that an organisation’s objectives are achieved. From this definition, strategies have two characteristics: they are made in advance and they are developed purposefully. 2. A strategy is a pattern. That is, it is a pattern of actions in a stream of behaviour, without necessarily having a plan. Through adaptation or improvisation, a routine emerges from constant refinement. This is where an intended strategy emerges from a pattern of action and then becomes the strategy. Alternatively, others may observe the pattern, routine or consistency in behaviour, infer a strategy and then label it so, whether or not a strategy was intended. 3. A strategy is a position. Here, strategy is a way to locate an organisation in the context of its environment. It describes the organisation’s choice of where in the market or environment it concentrates resources. This view of strategy is not focused on contending with one competitor but with all competitors, or on avoiding competition altogether. Likewise, this view allows for collaboration.

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

BOOKS

Communications reader

LEADE R S HI P

SAMPLER

Motivation with a cause The growing recognition that employee engagement, reputation and relationships are all deciding factors in the success or otherwise of organisations puts a new focus on the leadership: leaders who can inspire and engage, who nourish relationships and are generally as strong figurehead to the team have an advantage over their less successful competitors. As Kevin Murray spells out in his new book, leaders who communicate a defined mission, alongside clear and genuine values, allow their employees to feel a sense of purpose in their roles and embody

D I G I TA L

From products to needs to experiences

their company's vision: this inspires engagement, loyalty

Creating products that serve a defined function is no longer sufficient: in an age

and a powered-up performance. People with Purpose fea-

of “smart” objects connected by the Internet of Things, companies that want to

tures a collection of persuasive research into how to cre-

remain competitive have to develop products that reimagine the relationship bet-

ate a valuable framework that integrates purpose, valu-

ween user and product, and carve out new, previously unimagined needs and ser-

es and goals on a single page in order to articulate their

vices. That’s the premise for The Inversion Factor, where the authors describe the

organization's unique vision to employees and stakehol-

impact of IoT through three different perspectives : the Internet of Things (de-

ders. Alongside interviews with chief executive officers –

vices connected to the Internet), the Intelligence of Things (devices that host soft-

several who have turned their organisations around from

ware applications) and the Innovation of Things (devices that become experien-

a state of near-collapse – the work of neuroscientists is

ces). A tour of the companies that are leading the way in IoT – including obvious

mined for evidence for why purpose matters more in a

names such as Amazon, Google, Tesla and Apple alongside less well-known com-

digitally connected and transparent world.

panies like Tile, Visenti, and Augury, offers practical lessons for businesses that are eager to follow their example and invert the product-customer relationship.

People with Purpose: How great leaders use purpose to build thriving organizations by Kevin Murray;

The Inversion Factor: How to thrive in the IoT Economy by Linda Bernardi,

Kogan Page, February 2017

Sanjay Sarma and Kenneth Traub; MIT Press, October 2017

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

IMPRINT Editor in Chief Dafydd Phillips info@communication-director.com Art Direction Jeferson Brito Andrade, Veronika Neubauer Layout & Design Veronika Neubauer Pre-production Daniel Tronicke Illustrations Chaim Garcia Photo Editor Jana Lengler

L E A D E RSH I P

Power behind the throne

IN N OVAT I ON

Mindfulness at work

Not everyone wants to be no. 1. Ask any chief communications officer, whose work conceals the art of communications in order to focus the spotlight on the chief executive officer, or promote the organisation in the right tier one media. What’s the psychology of someone who

With a background in investment banking and business

devotes their working life to advising, suppor-

administration, Gretchen Steidle brings a fresh perspecti-

ting, and, to all intents and purposes, staying

ve to the already-heavily subscribed field of what could be

invisible? The choice of “consiglieri” – with its

called “mindfulness-lit.”: a documentary maker, interna-

connotations of The Godfather (consigliere is

tional aid worker, and a CNN Hero in Haiti for her work

a position within the leadership structure of

providing support for survivors of the earthquake the-

the Sicilian, Calabrian and American Mafia)

re, Steidle’s book pitches mindfulness practices head to

and sinister, secretive rooms deep in the Do-

head with wider social change. Leading from Within de-

ge’s Palace in Venice – as a title for what is

scribes how self-awareness shapes inspirational leaders,

essentially a business book could be seen as

argues for the neuroscientific and psychotherapeutic be-

an ironic choice: a shadowy figure, pulling the

nefits of mindfulness, calls for compassion for the needs

strings, unaccountable. But this book is a ce-

and perspectives of all stakeholders, and offers a roadmap

lebration of what it takes to “kick the craving

for integrating mindfulness into every aspect of social ch-

for recognition” and instead offer counselling

ange. Steidle’s five capacities of conscious social change –

and advice to the boss. From anchor to advi-

Creating Presence, Becoming Whole, Ensuring Well-Being,

sor, first lieutenants to first violins, Consiglie-

Engaging Mindfully and Leading from Within: if you’re

ri is a modern-day classic, rich in literary and

the kind of reader who tends to reject such easy catego-

historical illusions without being glib, combi-

risations, Leading from Within - with its vividly-written

ning interviews with leaders in sport, business,

style that never loses sight of the bigger picture – could

politics and music and research from psycho-

be the book to change your mind.

logists and academics to produce a new take on true leadership.

Leading from Within: Conscious Social Change and Mindfulness for social innovation by Gretchen Ki

Consiglieri: Leading from the Shadows, by

Steidle; MIT Press, November 2017

Richard Hytner; June 2014

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017

Advertising Helge Schlüter helge.schlueter@quadriga-media.com Website Melanie Kuhles, Simon Mista Publishers Rudolf Hetzel, Marc-Oliver Voigt Subscription 120 euro annually for four editions of the print magazine, access to online archives and receipt of monthly newsletter. Members of the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD) receive a subscription to the magazine as part of their membership. subscribe@communication-director.com Online www.communication-director.com Twitter @codimag Printing PieReg Druckcenter Berlin GmbH, Benzstraße 12, 12277 Berlin Last words “A brilliant strategy is, certainly, a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audaciousness is not enough.“ Garry Kasparov, FastCompany.com, September 2004

Publisher and editorial address Quadriga Media Berlin GmbH Werderscher Markt 13 10117 Berlin Telephone: 030 / 84 85 90 Fax: 030 / 84 85 92 00 info@quadriga-media.com

ASSOCIATION

Contents 86 A new chapter for EACD Introducing the association’s new managing director

Recent highlights from the EACD’s calendar

We welcome the latest communications professionals to join the EACD

A NEW CHAPTER FOR EACD Board member Inge Wallage has been appointed as the association’s first ever managing director.

he European Association of Communication Directors has appointed Inge Wallage as its first ever managing director. The role has been designed as part of the Association’s new strategy to further cultivate its collaborative member network, ensure quality growth and address areas of innovation. Inge Wallage brings 25 years

of communications experience in both the profit and non-profit sector, from oil to Greenpeace to sustainable water management. Most recently she led the introduction of FashionforGood. The decision to create the role of managing director was taken by the EACD’s board, led by president Herbert Heitmann who said: “The EACD has had 11 successful years, securing ongoing growth of members across Europe year on year. Now is the time to build on our success and, with the appointment of Inge Wallage we aim to further our proposition of driving excellence in our profession.” Upon taking up her new role, Inge Wallage said: “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the board to lead the association into its next phase, for the benefit of our current and future members. The communications function needs to continue to enhance and adapt to new societal realities. It’s wonderful to be able to contribute to that. I believe we have a great opportunity to innovate and to deliver the foundation for the EACD’s next decade of success.”

Photo: www.ducodevries.com

89 New members

SAMPLER

87-88 Event review

ASSOCIATION

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EACD’S CALENDAR

EVENT REVIEW 25 September: Coaching Day, Geneva

Big data and small data for smarter stakeholder management

and Altimeter states that where 71 per cent of brand marketers rate influencer marketing as a strategic or highly strategic marketing category, 43 per cent are still experimenting with the practice and 28 per cent are only involving influencers at a campaign level. However, 83 per cent of respondents cited a top priority to “identify and build one-on-one relationships with industry key influencers,” in-

While communicators know why stakehold-

dicating a readiness for influencer relations

ers matter to their success, how to approach

programmes. The latest EACD breakfast sem-

stakeholder engagement in a way that deliv-

inar explored influencer relations 2.0: Anni

ers organisational value is less well under-

Hautala, one of the most popular television

stood. During this coaching session co-host-

and radio hosts in Finland, and who boasts

ed by Leidar, communicators from a variety

over 100,000 followers on Instagram, shared

of corporations, NGOs and government en-

her do’s and dont’s of influencer relations. Toni

tities shared the challenges they face making

Perez, chief executive office of OSG Commu-

sense of the stakeholder landscape to deliver

nications Agency (see 5 Tips On …, Commu-

their organisation’s message in a compelling

nication Director issue 03/2017), spelled out

way. Leidar’s Lukasz Bochenek and Phil Rig-

some hard-earned lessons on influencer rela-

gins shared trends, data and cutting edge ap-

tions, while Juri Volama, managing director

proaches to help them sense check their or-

of Meltwalter Finland, explained how ana-

conversations. Nokia’s Jane Rygaard argued

ganisation’s current and desired stakeholder

lytics can help find the right influencers for

that we’re past the point of caring about pri-

engagement. Lukasz led a discussion on trends

your audiences.

vacy because we willingly share our data via

Jane Rygaard (left) Cathrine Torp and Kim Larsen take questions from the audience / Photo: EACD

in big data, strategic engagement and the role

Wi-Fi, geo-tagging and apps. Instead, our dis-

of analytic tools to make sense of fast moving

cussion should now focus on how the mass

and complex stakeholder relationships. Phil focused on the role of small data (e.g., qualitative and quantitative research) to ensure our messages and content have the greatest impact. Active listening to the audiences that

31 August: The Copenhagen Debate

Slave to the algorithm?

are key to organisational success – whether

of data is shared, corroborated and used for good. Using smart cities as an example, Jane visualised joining various touch points such as traffic lights and connected cars, while noting that, with such great data comes great responsibility for its proper use. Cathrine Torp

consumers or other stakeholders – remains

What is an algorithm and why should we care?

of DNVL Oil and Gas brought her marketing

the main ingredient for effective campaigns.

The third stop-off in the EACD debate series

expertise to bear on the conversation, as she

considered a topic usually left by communi-

delved into the limitations of using data to

cators to their data analysists. According to

target audiences (she used the example of a

Kim Larsen of Danske Bank, new technolo-

chief financial officer who has a financial in-

gies offer opportunities for communicators

terest in news about deteriorating oil pipes,

to better understand stakeholders based on

an interest typically undetected by the data)

their actual behaviour and thereby to be-

and suggested how algorithms could be used

come much more relevant, targeted and ef-

to distinguish between fake and real news.

ficient. However, there are also a number of

While also cautioning against blind faith,

ethical questions that need to be addressed,

Cathrine emphasised the power that data

and communicators have a “big responsibil-

has to move the marketing and communica-

26 September: Breakfast Seminar, Helsinki

How to build a successful influencer programme

ity to understand and drive the technology”,

tions function in a more strategic direction.

Influencer relations is the term du jour across

an especially urgent priority in a world where

Our thanks to Anders Rendtorf of Relation-

many marketing and communications de-

algorithm-generated echo chambers make

speople for opening the event in his role as

partments. A global survey made by Traackr

it hard for corporations to have fact-based

EACD regional lead for Denmark.

COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 4/2017