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COMMUNICATION

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EDITORIAL

C

ontent is a boardroom issue, according to the usual experts. For evidence, they point to websites such as HSBC’s Global Connections or GE’s GE Reports: these sites dig deep into the knowledge sources of their various businesses to present stories with mass appeal. Or they point to the kind of content produced by Nissan or Unilever, which is indistinguishable from the kind of high-end, polished news reports you would expect from an established media institution rather than a car manufacturer or consumer goods company. Somewhere in the collision between online communities’ apparently bottomless appetite for content and the collapsing structures of traditional media, a new brand of communication has emerged. Blurring the lines between corporate communications, marketing and journalism, this new phase of corporate media is one of the most exciting developments in business communications in recent years. In this issue, experienced journalist and editor Andy Bull describes the evolution of this hybrid form, which he likes to call “brand journalism”. The key to powerful content seems to be the application of journalistic standards – fact checking, creating strong narratives, f inding the right hooks to catch the reader’s attention. Of course, some organisations have a head start here: Inge Wallage and Brian Fitzgerald explain to us how Greenpeace frame their messages with urgency and directness. And corporate media is more than a matter of words: in this issue, experts from the University of St. Gallen share the secrets of conveying complicated information in striking and clear visualisations. However, creating compelling content is half the battle: delivering it via the variety of tools available today (tablet, laptop, smart-phone?) is a challenge described in this issue by Heineken’s John Clarke. These are just a few highlights from this issue: as ever, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the articles we’ve collected within these pages.

Marc-Oliver Voigt Publisher marc-oliver.voigt@communication-director.eu

Photo: Moritz Vennemann

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“Many executives find it hard to address such sensitive topics with their employees.”

“The reputation of the chief executive officer is a capital that must be properly managed.”

TEAM PLAYER

AGENDA SETTER

How to improve personnel management and your career

Communication ideas in the eyes of experts

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Clarity and concision Breathing new life into corporate sustainability reports

PR ESSENTIALS Key aspects of corporate communication and public relations

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Mental health and stress relief at work are topics too important to ignore

Must-have titles for the public relations bookshelf

Christian Gravert

STRATEGIC THINKER

THE STORY OF PR

A positive narrative Communicators must make the business case for sustainability

Looking back at landmark communications

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Communicative assets The latest findings from the European Communication Monitor 2013

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A conflict of interests Recent events in Turkey inspire reflection on the emergence of public relations in that country

THE BIG INTERVIEW

The winner of the inaugural Young Communicators Award on preparations for the Financial Times’ digital strategy

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Throughout history, political cartoons have always packed a polemical punch

A. Banu Bıçakçı

Internal preparations for a digital age Emily Gibbs

Pictures with a point Richard Scully

Dejan Verčič , Ángeles Moreno and Ansgar Zerfass

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Avoiding the breaking point

25 books every communicator should read

Connie Hedegaard

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How to look out for and interpret give-away facial signals in important interviews

Kasia Wezowski

The corporate and academic stand on communication

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Body language in career management

Key communicators under the spotlight

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Stephen Elop Nokia Corporation’s chief executive officer shares his communication strategy

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“A brand journalism story isn’t necessarily a branded story. In fact it’s just the opposite.”

“It is not easy to focus on the past when you are an eye-witness to modern history in the making.”

STORY TELLER Looking at the important questions of communication

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Curating corporate content Why companies of all descriptions are becoming their own publishing houses

Dafydd Phillips

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Generating content across a variety of platforms sets the stage for innovative and integrated campaigns

Embracing the visual Knowledge visualisation can help bring clarity to complicated communications

Martin Eppler and Sabrina Bresciani

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Photo: Uygar Ozel

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Reviewing new developments in the field of sustainability reporting and integrated reporting

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The meta dimension of knowledge Content is king for internal communicators who create links between knowledge and the way the company uses it

Fabio Delton

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Honing the homepage Corporate websites have evolved to become one of the most important platforms for promoting a positive image

Christo Kaftandjiev

92 ASSOCIATION

European Association of Communication Directors

On brand journalism Brands of all description are telling their stories through a variety of media

Andy Bull

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Fusing facts and value Tineke Lambooy, Sander van ‘t Foort and Michiel Brandt

Creating content that works for you Ricardo Adame

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Media with a message

The latest developments in the EACD

98 QUESTIONS TO...

The personal side of communication directors

Few companies do compelling communications better than non-governmental organisations

Gudjon Arngrimsson

Inge Wallage and Brian Fitzgerald

Vice President, Corporate Communications, Icelandair

Delivering consistency on different platforms

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How responsive design enables Heineken to fit the message to the mechanism

John Clarke

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AGENDA SETTER Communication ideas in the eyes of experts

CLARITY AND CONCISION Colour and comprehensibility are just two of the ingredients used by one company to breathe new life into their corporate sustainability report.

By Dafydd Phillips

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ince its roots in the 1980s as an environmental report published by chemical companies with image problems, the corporate sustainability report has evolved into a uniquely telling document. Representing a landmark in any company’s communication strategy, the sustainability report presents up-to-date data on the one hand while also offering a commitment to the future. As Tineke Lambooy, Sander van ‘t Foort and Michiel Brandt write in their article in this issue, sustainability reporting presents companies with an ideal opportunity to publicly communicate their good practices and as such “should be compared with budget spent on advertising and other means of communicating the company’s values and strengths.”

A sustainability report is unique in that it covers such a broad range of topics: not only financial facts and figures but also subjects such as the environmental effect of different parts of the business, the company’s commitment to diversity, community engagement, challenges and employee-related matters, human rights record, anti-corruption measures and so on. But how are the communicators responsible for preparing these reports supposed to synthesise these different issues, draw clear conclusions and communicate them in a way that different audiences can easily approach and digest?

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REACHING NEW LEVELS One company that seems to have cracked the code is the Mahou-San Miguel Group, the venerable Spanish brewing group. Although the company can trace its roots back to Madrid in 1890, it is for innovation and forward thinking that the company has recently been recognised. Convinced of the business case for strong sustainability reporting, the company’s “memoria sostenibilidad” (sustainability report) won several awards this year. Jesus Nunez, head of corporate social responsibility at Mahou San Miguel, describes the publication of the 03/2013 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR

report as a “key annual milestone for the company” since its first edition in 2010. The Mahou-San Miguel report groups together relevant social, business and environmental developments by the company: it is “a unique channel to our stakeholders”, according to Jesus Nunez, who also points out that the most recent edition took the report from level B to level A of the Global Reporting Initiative’s stringent guidelines.

The Global Reporting Initiative is a non-profit organisation that promotes economic sustainability and which produces one the most global

As the company’s strategic publication, we needed our sustainability report to be the best showcase for our new look. recognised standards for sustainability reporting. The Initiative’s guidelines serve as a tool for companies to set goals, measure performance, manage change and adjust the company’s strategy and activities to sustainability issues.

The new report is part of a wider over-haul of the group’s commitment to sustainability. In 2011, the Mahou-San Miguel Group chose to strengthen its corporate social responsibility practice within the company. As part of this, it was de-

Photo:Tarvo Metspalu

AGENDA SETTER

cided to improve the appeal and dynamism on its sustainability report, renewing its design and the means by which it is distributed. The decision to revamp the report’s format also mirrors changes in the company’s corporate visual identity, a process it carried out in collaboration with the global branding consultancy Interbrand. In the words of Jesus Nunez: “As the company’s strategic publication, we needed our sustainability report to be the best showcase for our new look… As industry leaders we also seek to be leaders in the design of all our points of contact with our stakeholders.”

For help in revolutionising the look and content of their report, Mahou-San Miguel turned to Spanish-based communication consultancy firm Infopress. With support from the Inforpress design team, one graphic designer and one flash programmer worked to change the previously-established layout design in order to create a graphic style to match the implementation of the company’s corporate social

A colourful layout brings clarity to the sustainability report

responsibility as well as specific graphic illustrations used by the corporate social responsibility team. Taking advantage of the wealth of visual material produced by the company for advertising campaigns, television, online and print ads and so on, the new report was designed to be heavily visual – not a page goes by without eye-popping visualisations in cool summer colours, or photographs illustrating the length and breadth of the Group’s operations.

COLOURING CONTENT The report is organised into

seven chapters or blocks (“bloque”): Milestones 2011, Our Group, Our Team, Our Products, Our Contributors, Society and Environment. The group’s history, philosophy and leadership style are introduced early on: other subheadings include welfare and employment, training and development, corporate volunteering, social actions, protecting the environment and minimising the environmental impact.

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AGENDA SETTER

A model of transparency In the food industry, communication is vital. This is understood by Mahou-San Miguel Group and Inforpress, who have developed a tool to improve access to information for its various stakeholders, thereby improving public relations.

Indeed, this report is a balanced, transparent and complete presentation on the company’s main economic, social and environmental impacts that affect its publics; in which the design and use of colour is extremely effective. However, facilitating access to information would not be sufficient if that information did not satisfy the needs of stakeholders. From this perspective, this sustainability report is a model – the information is complete and presented with simplicity, clarity, warmth and nontechnical language, offering at once a feeling of solidity and of dynamism. The current international financial crisis requires that transparency is the best guarantee of success. Transparency begins with understanding the message, and this depends not only on what is said, but on how it is said. In short, complex organisations should not use complex language. Just as is the case with individuals, a smar t company is one that expresses itself in a simple, straightforward way. And in an industry such as food, perpetually under the threat of crisis, this is crucial in order to limit risk and to avoid crises. So, from a different perspective, the sustainability repor t of Mahou-San Miguel Group becomes an issues management tool.

Jordi Xifra

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Professor, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona Professor Jordi Xifra teaches public relations strategies and tactics at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. He has written books on public relations, lobbying, and public diplomacy, and is the editor of Public Relations Inquiry, an academic journal published by Sage.

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A virtuous circle Corporate reporting is becoming the basis for gaining credibility and reaching trust among stakeholders. But doing it right is not easy, especially when we are talking about sustainability affairs.The sustainability reporting strategy of Grupo MahouSan Miguel began in 2010 and seems to be yielding satisfactory results so far.

After three years of sustainability reports, the company has recently obtained the Global Reporting Initiative’s coveted A certificate. But what does corporate reporting stand for? Why do so many companies embrace it? Many experts would say that behind corporate reporting initiatives there lies the intention to window-dress. But nowadays, hard facts and evidences are essential in reporting as a communication channel. Sustainability reporting is (or it should be) just the final piece of a working-philosophy attitude. One in which executives should bear in mind that every decision is led by the aim of being substantially responsible.

In view of its clear and concise reports, Mahou-San Miguel seems to be pursuing this goal. The Group has approved its strategic corporate responsibility plan for 2013-2017, where managers’ aims move ahead in their engagement with stakeholders expectations. Reporting is a key tool, not just for disclosing information but for confirming that managers obtain valuable, the company integrates stakeholders’ demands in its strategies, and reports achievements. Without a doubt, this represents a virtuous management circle.

Elena Gutiérrez García Professor, University of Navarra Professor Elena Gutiérrez García is currently the deputy director of the master’s degree in political and corporate communication at the University of Navarra, Spain, where she also lectures and researches on public relations and corporate and financial communications.

According to Sonia Romero, director of platform publications at Inforpress, the content of the new report was structutred in a way that allows “an easier reading and to organise the information in a more efficient way.

Thus, the content is presented in several thematic units, which answer the main concerns about the company´s sustainability efforts in 2011.” These thematic units are each represented by different icons in different colours, to make them easy to identify and follow throughout the report.

NEW LOOK, NEW LIFE Apart from the design aspects, the usability and accessibility of the report have been updated – what Romero calls “a more efficient exploitation of the wide array of possibilities that the internet offers to provide a wider spread to the document”. The animated format invites readers to explore the full document, and the pdf format makes the report easy to store, save and send. The report is also translated into English, ensuring that it will find its way to an even wider audience, and perhaps be judged in the light of international developments in integrated reporting.

This report promises to set the standard for annual innovations in the way Mahou-San Miguel present their sustainability work. As Sonia Romero explains, the group recognises the importance of the report “because sustainability and corporate social responsibility are increasingly present in the structure of companies. It is a commitment that must be reported annually.” Those wanting to breath new life into this multi-faceted communications tool would be well advised to keep an eye on future editions of the MahouSan Miguel Group’s sustainability report.

Photos: Private; University of Navarra

EXPERT OPINION

PR ESSENTIALS Key aspects of corporate communication and public relations

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BOOKS EVERY COMMUNICATOR SHOULD READ From case studies to introductory handbooks, these are must-have additions to any communicator’s bookshelf

1 Advising Upwards Lynda Bourne, Gower 2011 This book examines stakeholder relationship management, an essential though all-too-rarely covered aspect of successful business communication.

2 The Business of Influence Philip Sheldrake,Wiley 2011 The ongoing technological revolution means that we need to reframe our marketing and PR strategies. This book shows you how.

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Buy-In John P. Kotter and Lorner A.Whitehead, Harvard Business Review Press 2010 Great ideas often fall by the wayside because of poor communications: learn how to save your good ideas from getting shot down and win the support of your colleagues.

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PR ESSENTIALS

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5 The Cluetrain Manifesto Christopher Locke, Rick Levine and Doc Searls, Perseus Books 2001

Communicating Risks Stig A. Nohrstedt, Nordicom 2011 Communicating risks is an increasingly complicated task in contemporary society.

This book looks at the challenge from all angles, from media and business to politics and terrorism. An essential read.

Illustrating how the internet has radically changed the laws of business, this polemic provides everything you need to know in your journey through this precarious wholly-connected landscape.

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Corporate Branding: Purpose/People/Process Majken Schultz,Yuni Mi Antorini and Fabian F. Csaba, Copenhagen Business School Press 2005 This book postulates a “second wave” of corporate branding, arguing that branding has become more cross-disciplinary and strategically driven.

8 Corporate Communications Paul Argentini, Mcgraw Hill 2002 One of the first texts to tackle corporate communications as a subject in its own right, this remains one of the most comprehensive books in its field to this day.

The Handbook of Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility Oyvind Ihlen, Jennifer Bartlett and Steve May,Wiley-Blackwell 2011 This book lives up to its promise of delivering the “definitive research collection for CSR communication”. Among the book’s many chapters, the particular paradox of corporate social responsibility – public distrust of corporate do-gooders – is acknowledged, there is a valuable review of literature around stakeholder theory, and directions for future research are suggested. The publication of a handbook represents both the crystallisation of research into a subject as well as serving as a platform for future studies, and this comprehensive title thoroughly serves both purposes.

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10 Corporate Reputation – Why Does it Matter?

Riccarda Dümke,Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller 2007

Cosmopolitan Communications Pippa Norris, Cambridge University Press 2009

Detailing corporate reputation management strategies, this text contains powerful advice for industry professionals.

This book sheds light on the importance of understanding and communicating cultural diversity in rapidly expanding global markets.

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STRATEGIC THINKER The corporate and academic stand on communication

A POSITIVE NARRATIVE Recognising the business case for sustainability, the European Commission is asking companies to increase transparency in their sustainability reporting.

By Connie Hedegaard

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he message that businesses need to take sustainability seriously to ensure their long-term survival is at last getting through. The president of PricewaterhouseCoopers is quoted as blaming the financial crisis on short term and unsustainable business models. Finding ways to combine sustainability with profitability is the way forward and this is raising new communications challenges and opportunities.

But why this focus on sustainability? Because it is the only rational answer to the mounting pressure we are

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putting on the world’s natural resources. By 2050 the global population is forecast to be over nine billion, yet even today nearly two-thirds of the ecosystems underpinning our vital resources are in decline. By 2030, there will be three billion more middle-class consumers. This is good news. But the challenge is that the UN’s high-level panel on global sustainability, which I had the privilege of serving on, con-

STRATEGIC THINKER

cluded in its report to the Rio +20 summit last year that by 2030 the world will need at least 30 per cent more water, 45 per cent more energy and 50 per cent more food. And this when some 870 million people don’t get enough to eat today.

Photo: Startoucher | Dreamstime.com

COMMUNICATING SUSTAINABILITY The era of abundant and

cheap resources is over. Businesses are facing rising costs for essential raw materials. Sources of minerals, metals, energy, stocks of fish, timber, water, fertile soils, clean air, biomass and biological diversity are all under pressure. On top of this, greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are heating the planet and putting the stability of the global climate system at risk.

Achieving sustainability requires fundamental changes in the way our societies produce and consume. We have to ditch our 20th century resource-intensive growth model for a smarter 21st century one that is resource-efficient. This is no secret, yet many actors are doing little to help get this message across. They need to communicate more. But whether they communicate it or not, leading companies are grasping in increasing numbers that sustainability is a necessity rather than an option.

In a 2012 Accenture survey of 250 senior executives from businesses in major developed and developing economies, more than nine out of 10 said sustainability was of significant importance to their business.

The European Commission is promoting the shift towards sustainability through the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Under this umbrella we have set out roadmaps for decoupling resource use from economic growth by the middle of

the century and for building a competitive low-carbon economy over the same timescale. We have underpinned both roadmaps with Europe-wide communications campaigns to raise public awareness.

For our communications campaign on building a lowcarbon economy, we have chosen the slogan “A world you like. With a climate you like.” Centred on a dedicated website complemented by a Facebook page and Twitter feed, and with events in a number of countries, the campaign accentuates the opportunities created by the low-carbon transition rather than trying to frighten people into action with more doom and gloom about climate change. It aims in particular to showcase existing and encourage new cost-efficient solutions for achieving the EU’s objective of an 80-95 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. It shows what actions people can take and how they can improve their own quality of life by doing the right thing for our climate.

A CALL TO ACTION With the European Union’s econ-

omy growing more slowly than those of its major competitors, its leaders must take a more far-sighted approach to restoring – and preserving – its members’ growth potential. They must begin by identifying not only what is undermining Europe’s competitiveness today, but also those factors that are putting its long-term prospects at risk.

Analysts often point to Europe’s costly social-welfare systems, high labour costs, and increasing tax rates as a drag on competitiveness. But other, less widely discussed factors must be considered – particularly the costs of delayed action on climate change. For example, Unilever chief executive Paul Polman reported that extreme weather cost his company between 250 and 300 million dollars in 2012. Once considered an issue for the future, action on

Many actors are doing little to help get this message across. They need to communicate more. climate change has become increasingly urgent as the outlays required to mitigate its negative effects have grown.

Global leaders are finally beginning to understand that, beyond the global economic crisis, the world is experiencing a social and employment crisis, as well as a climate and resource crisis. And none can be resolved without addressing the others. World Bank president Jim Yong Kim calls climate change a fundamental threat to economic development. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the 03/2013

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STRATEGIC THINKER

COMMUNICATIVE ASSETS The European Communication Monitor 2013 discloses the importance of CEO positioning and international communication, the new gatekeepers on the social web, and how communicators are equipped to deal with them.

By Dejan Verčič, Ángeles Moreno and Ansgar Zerfass

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STRATEGIC THINKER

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ffective communication is essential for organisational success.

The communicative assets and reputations of chief executive officers and other top leaders are important for organisations managing relations with internal and external stakeholders. With social media gaining power, employees – followed by customers, bloggers and online community managers – become the most important digital gatekeepers.

These are just some findings of the seventh consecutive annual survey of public relations professionals in Europe: the 2013 European Communication Monitor.

Eight out of 10 practitioners working in communication departments communicate internationally on a regular basis. More than half of them with more than five countries, and nearly a quarter with more than 20 countries. Professional communication is becoming international in its very essence.

But there is a schism in the communication profession in Europe paralleling divisions in the broader economic and political environment.

While practitioners in northern Europe report increasing influence and status with good prospects for their development, their counterparts in southern Europe lag behind.

THE SURVEY The European Communication Monitor is a longitudinal transnational survey in strategic communication. It is the most comprehensive study in its field and has been conducted annually since 2007. Responses were received from 2,710 professional communicators in 43 European countries. The study is conducted by a core group of five

university professors, led by Professor Ansgar Zerfass from the University of Leipzig in Germany, and supported by a wider professional advisory board totalling 11 renowned universities across Europe. It is organised by the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA), the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD), Communication Director magazine, and supported by Ketchum, Europe’s leading public relations agency.

Respondents are based in western Europe (35.3 per cent: countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and France), northern Europe (26.2 per cent: countries such as Norway, Sweden and the UK), southern Europe (24.5 per cent: countries such as Italy, Spain and Croatia), and eastern Europe (14.1 per cent: countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania). The average age of respondents is 41 years. There were more female than male respondents (58 to 42 per cent), more than half (58.3 per cent) work in communication for more than 10 years and a further quarter (25.5 per cent) between six to 10 years.

Heads of communication in their organisations or agency chief executives make up 43.2 per cent of respondents, and a further 28.4 per cent are responsible for single communication discipline or are unit leaders.

CEO’S COMMUNICATIVE ASSETS Successful organisational leaders need to be good communicators: according to the study, they must be able to deal with the media and large audiences, they must have interpersonal and small group communication skills, they must have positive personal reputation and – to a lesser extent – knowledge of

The reputation of the chief executive officer is a capital that must be properly managed. strategic communication. The reputation of the chief executive officer is a capital that must be properly managed.

The majority of professional communicators pursue programmes to position their chief executive officer and other executives, develop specific communication strategies and instruments for them. All of this is stronger in business than in government and non-profit organisations.

There is also a remarkable difference among the practice in various European countries. CEO positioning is most commonly found in the UK, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Denmark, whereas it is less relevant in Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Serbia and Croatia. Obviously 03/2013

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TEAM PLAYER

AVOIDING THE BREAKING POINT Discussing mental health at work can be difficult, but the benefits of stress relief are too important to ignore.

By Christian Gravert

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rom an evolutionary point of view, mankind has been conceived as a hunter for short-term stress situations that have a stimulating effect on him. When faced with high levels of stress – be it a sporting contest or a presentation before a client – we tend to be particularly productive. However, if we are permanently or too frequently subjected to strain, this will ultimately be to the detriment of our energy, creativity and health. The hormonal, neurological and circulatory systems are incapable of regenerating sufficiently from imposed stress – permanent long-term stress paves the way for many serious diseases and physical ailments such as tinnitus, back problems as well as gastrointestinal and cardio-vascular problems.

Professions in the transport industry have always been associated with a high level of psychological pressure.

The majority of DB (Deutsche Bahn)’s employees work in jobs which entail a great deal of pressure and strain due to shift-work, responsibility for security, working alone and frequent unpredictable operational incidents. They have every right to expect that their employer will strive 03/2013 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR

to optimise their workplace from a psychological perspective and free it of avoidable stress factors.

However, one has to consider that pressures are not found solely in the work environment, but that mental problems are a widespread phenomenon in today’s society. In fact, work in itself has many health-promoting qualities. Work structures our life, thereby making leisure and relationships easy to schedule, leads to social recognition and integration and contributes substantially to the meaningfulness of life. People without a job suffer far more often from mental disorders than people who are gainfully employed. Indeed, mental disorders are widespread in

TEAM PLAYER

society and are just as much part of everyday life as physical conditions.

The prevalence of mental disorders – that is, the statistical probability within a given year of suffering from a mental disorder – is 30 per cent. Almost one out of every three persons will suffer from substance abuse, anxiety, chronic fatigue, psychosis or depression within the next 12 months. These disorders often go hand in hand with a large number of sick leave days and thereby put a strain on the whole working team.

Mental health in the workplace can be promoted by the employer in a threefold way: strengthening re-

sources for mental health; providing psycho-social support for stressed out and mentally ill employees; and identifying avoidable psychological pressure at work and reducing it in due course.

Photo: dreamstime.com

STRENGTHEN MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES Resources

are the means and possibilities at our disposal that help us cope with our duties and the daily grind. From our personal resources, we derive the energy to perform our work and fulfill requirements. The ability to set personal boundaries and a healthy dose of self-confidence are predominantly developed in early childhood but are skills that can be partially acquired at a later stage.

Maintaining and improving personal physical and mental health includes stress management courses, regular physical exercise and a healthy, balanced diet. A very strong resource is support and re-

spect among the team as well as from the manager or team leader. Pleasure through work provides stability against illness – good education and a comprehensive understanding of the framework of a job are also important safeguards against psychological strain.

At DB, employees have access to health training (because of shiftwork and people working alone, this training

is usually offered by telephone or via the internet rather than face-to-face), corporate sports programmes and modern in-house canteens. To strengthen executives’ personal resilience against stress and other psychological pressure, they are taught via e-learning how to protect their employees from too much pressure and to stay healthy themselves. DB’s e-learning programme for managers raises awareness about the perception of stress signals and delivers incentives for a different approach towards dealing with one’s own stress. Employees and executives wanting a more in-depth focus on the topic have the possibility of reflecting on their own health behaviour and improve their stress management skills, either through health coaching by phone or in seminars that last up to several days.

PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT Finding the right approach towards employees who suffer from severe mental strain, or have been on a prolonged sick leave due to mental health problems, poses a difficult task for executives. Indeed, an adequate approach towards employees under mental strain 03/2013 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR

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THE STORY OF PR Looking back at landmark communications

PICTURES WITH A POINT The political cartoon is a venerable form of communication, as relevant today as ever before – and still with the power to bite.

By Richard Scully

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form of communication dating back centuries, the political cartoon is just as relevant today as ever before. Cartoons evolved from religiously inspired, hand-drawn sketches during the Renaissance (c.1400s-1500s), then into wood-block prints during the Reformation (1500s1650s), before becoming truly secular and political in the early Enlightenment (1650s-1800). In that form, they were highly entertaining though complex stand-alone prints that conveyed political ideas in a form accessible to the masses.

Most Europeans were illiterate, but while they could not read extensive political treatises, they could easily understand the message of a cartoon. It helped that they could often laugh at the image presented to them, although not all cartoons were meant to be funny.

Cartoons and corporate crises have been close companions from almost the very beginning. In what is generally regarded as the first modern political cartoon – Emblematical Print on the South Sea Scheme (1721) – William Hogarth (1697-1764) attacked the culture that had surrounded the South Sea joint-stock company. Founded in

Cartoons and corporate crises have been close companions from almost the very beginning.

42 1711 as a means of servicing Britain’s national debt, the company’s shares had been a focus for public speculation in early 1720. In August that year, the share price began to fall, and then promptly crashed in spectacular fashion.

Massive fraud was alleged amongst many of the highest-ranking ministers, and the reactions to the crisis con03/2013

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tributed to the rise of constitutional government (Robert Walpole was able to assert his authority as First Lord of the Treasury, a position which then evolved into Britain’s prime minister).

THE

PERFECT

PLATFORM

By publicising technical issues in a cheap, easily-digestible, visual form, Hogarth was able to raise public awareness of incompetent, corrupt and unethical practices among the great and powerful. He helped establish a tradition that reached a peak of effectiveness under James Gillray (1756-1815), who dared to attack the monarchy and aristocracy of Britain, making them appear ridiculous and obnoxious to a public sector that was taking increased notice of how their taxes were spent. In Monstrous Craws at a new Coalition Feast (1787), the royal family appeared as gigantic beasts devouring spoonful after spoonful of gold coins; while A Voluptuary under the Horrors of Digestion (1792) showed the Prince of Wales having gorged himself on the food his poor countrymen so desperately needed.

These prints worked well because they not only hammered home a po-

THE STORY OF PR

Picture: James Gillray / Wikipedia

The plumb-pudding in danger: or state epicures taking un petit souper by James Gillray (1805)

litical point, but because they also appealed to the ‘low’ humour of the masses: Gillray filled his caricatures with references to sex, illness, obesity and various bodily functions.

The prints demolished the carefullyconstructed public images of kings, lords, businessmen and politicians, weakening their authority. But they weren’t a pure form of anti-establishment satire: Gillray had several political and financial patrons and often drew with their sensibilities in mind. He received a pension from the Tory government in order that he might attack their opponents, and it was only when the Tories fell that he began to attack certain topics and personalities that had been previously off-limits.

Directed internally, Gillray’s attacks could spur demands for change within the body politic. Directed externally, they could generate sup-

port for national defence against encroaching tyranny.

At the high-point of Gillray’s career, Europe was indeed threatened with a tyranny that might have halted moves toward liberal and enlightened reform: the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte. In The Plumb-Pudding in Danger (1805), Gillray showed Napoleon and the British prime minister William Pitt carving up the globe in greedy fashion (Bonaparte taking Europe for himself). Gillray wasn’t fooled by careful and considered attempts by the selfanointed ‘Emperor of the French’ to present himself as a popular hero and champion of liberty. Nor was Gillray convinced by Napoleon’s image as a political and military colossus. In fact, it is due to Gillray’s persistence that the myth of Napoleon as a man of small stature endures to this day: Napoleon was actually of average height, but in Gillray’s cartoons he always appeared as a midget.

A RADICAL STING Gillray died just before the final

defeat of his old enemy at Waterloo in 1815, but the radical and subversive tradition he had championed had by then inspired many imitators. Francisco Goya (1746-1828) had attempted to caricature Spanish politics and society in his Los Caprichos (1797-1798). But the authoritarian state was able to have these withdrawn from public sale very 03/2013

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THE STORY OF PR

A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS Recent events in Turkey are a reminder of the uneasy relationship between the media, government and business, and their influence on the growth of Turkish public relations.

By A. Banu Bıçakçı

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I

t is not easy to focus on the past when you are an eye-witness to modern history in the making. As I was preparing to write this article on the history of Turkish public relations, the most vibrant civil society movement in the nation’s history began in İstanbul. Although the title of this section indicates the story of public relations and corporate communication, I feel the need to comment on the role of Turkey’s media conglomerates in subverting the freedom of the press and to point out the media’s impact on the development of public relations.

At the end of May 2013, young people at Taksim Gezi Park, just at the heart of İstanbul, began a small protest when the government planned to cut down the trees and convert the park into a shopping mall designed to look 03/2013

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like an Ottoman-era army barrack.

About a hundred young people occupied the park; their demonstrations were first focused on the environmental impact, until riot police attacked the peaceful crowd with water cannons and tear gas. As a consequence of the mismanaged crisis, a peaceful environmental protest soon transformed into an antigovernment movement, a so-called “resistance” which in turn spread all over the country.

During the clashes, Turkish mainstream media – some of which have

THE STORY OF PR

franchise agreements with international channels such as the BBC and CNN – were broadcasting sitcoms and documentaries about penguins.

Most channels censored themselves, because, to quote journalist and academic Haluk Şahin, media bosses and tycoons have decided that doing business with the government is more profitable than doing their job, which is informing the people about what is going on. Consequently, within this period people could either be informed via a couple of small, independent television channels such as Halk TV, Ulusal Kanal, Cem TV and +1 channel, or through social networks.

Photo: Uygar Ozel

ATATÜRK’S NEWS AGENCY Media has always been an important weapon for those seeking the power to reach and affect their audiences; on the other hand, a strong media can encourage the growth of a democratic society. Examining the history of public relations, one can observe that media systems are one of the most important factors that affect the development of the public relations profession. Thus, Turkey’s public relations history began with the establishment of the first news agency, Anatolia Agency (Anadolu Ajansı, AA) in 1920 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. In the environment of a single party and statist structure, a professional approach to public relations was impossible to develop; however, together with the General Directorate of Press and Information (Matbuat ve Istihbarat Umum Müdürlügü), the Anatolia Agency facilitated the launching and propagation of systematic and planned reforms led by Atatürk, and communicated these revolutions with the public.

It has been observed that the Republican government has continued using one-way and government-dominated propaganda for a long time. The foundation of the Anatolia Agency was an important step towards the accountability of the government to the public. Although the freedom of the press did not exist in that period, this was a crucial attempt in the evolution of communication freedom in Turkey. This period can also be described as an image-building era, since the new Turkish republic was trying to build a modern, secular and democratic image in the world at large via media relations.

The term ‘public relations’ was first mentioned in Turkey in Celal Bayar’s Democratic Party government programme in 1946, with its provision on the public relations of the police. The years between 1946 and 1960 saw a transition from a single-party to a multi-party state. Even though Turkey lacked a model of a modern political public relations profession, the leading Democratic Party officers investigated examples from the west (particularly from the US) and tried to apply those examples domestically. In

Turkey’s public relations history begins with the establishment of the first news agency, Anatolia Agency. this multi-party phase, communication efforts were still mainly propagandistic with the objective of maintaining power and manipulating public opinion in favour of the ideas, values and policies of the politicians. Considering the relatively old history of public relations in the Turkish police department, it is ironic to see the mismanaged relationship between the public and the police in 2013.

Having a long history does not always, it seems, lead to excellence.

TAKING PR SERIOUSLY Since the military coup d’état of May 27 1960 and the constitution of 1961, plans for financial, social and cultural growth in Turkey have been bound by laws. To fulfill these goals, the State Planning Organisation was founded. During the foundation of the organisation, Professor Jan Tinbergen, a development expert on planned development, emphasised that development policies had to be presented to the public, and that this had to be done via a long-term public relations plan.

He stated that public relations studies should be taken as seriously as any other subject in planned development. His colleague, Alaeddin Asna (one of the first public relations experts in Turkey) established the first public relations de03/2013

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THE BIG INTERVIEW Key communicators under the spotlight

STEPHEN ELOP President and Chief Executive Officer, Nokia Corporation Interview: Dafydd Phillips

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It is often mentioned that you are the first non-Finn to be named chief executive officer of Nokia. Have you had to adjust to a particular way of thinking or working?

It has been a great transition. As a Canadian, I have found the cultures of Finland and Canada to be remarkably similar. We also share a mutual love of ice hockey.

One of the things that immediately impressed me about the Finns was their strong will to succeed. Finns share this unique tenacity, this ferocity to fight even through the toughest times. In the Finnish language, this will is known simply as, “sisu,” and people possess it in abundance. Finns are also very welcoming of outside cultures and ideas. To capture that spirit, at Mobile World Congress, one of our industry’s biggest events, Nokia hung banners around the conference floor inviting people to 03/2013 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR

our booth to spend time with us and our products. The banners read, “At heart, we are all Finns.” I think that sums it up nicely.

What were your immediate thoughts when you were first approached by Nokia to take over from Olli-Pekka Kallasuvo?

Nokia is a company with a remarkable history going back 148 years.

We started out as a paper mill and at one time made rubber boots. By a combination of industriousness and good timing, we moved into the

THE BIG INTERVIEW

telecommunications industry in the early 1980s and by the mid-90s led a revolution in mobile phones. We have connected more than a billion people over the years. We have given people access to information, helped change economies and brought communities closer together. My first phone was a Nokia. So when I got the call about becoming Nokia’s chief executive officer, I was incredibly excited. I knew the challenges ahead, I knew Nokia faced a difficult transition, but we had on our side incredibly talented engineers

Cultural change requires you to fundamentally change the way the company thinks and works.

Photo: Ian Jones

and employees with a huge drive to succeed. Accepting the job was one of the easiest decisions I have ever made.

When you started at Nokia, you began a renewal of the company. How does the communications function help you to achieve this?

The first rule in being a good communicator is to first be a good listener. This could not be truer during a major strategy change. When I arrived at Nokia, before I made any changes, I spent a lot of time listening – listening to our partners, shareholders, consumers, and our own employees. My first day on the job, I asked employees three questions.

Using our internal social network, I asked: what should I change, what should stay the same, and what will I not understand? I received more than 2,000 responses; I responded to each one. In many ways, that conversation thread became my first communications briefing at Nokia.

How do you communicate this kind of renewal without alienating your existing customers and other stakeholders?

When you’re making bold changes, it is important to spend just as much energy on changing your culture as you do your strategy. There’s a saying that “culture eats strategy for lunch,” and if you don’t have your culture behind you, you will not be successful in accomplishing a change in strategy. We spent a lot of time renewing our culture and communicating key behaviours that would contribute to our success. And I think our work has really inspired our stakeholders, and they are also benefiting from the change. To communicate effectively with our customers, we have had to be incredibly clear and consistent about why we needed to make the changes that were made.

While we are respectful of our past, we knew we had to communicate and execute against a new strategy.

In your speech at this year’s European Communication Summit, you said that when you started at Nokia you had to “challenge mindsets” and create cultural change. Could you describe this process to me?

Cultural change is the hardest part of a transformation. It requires you to fundamentally change the way the company thinks and works. Through a series of exercises, we identified some core elements that came to form what we call “the challenger mindset.” Seeing ourselves as challengers required us to accept that Nokia was no longer the dominant player in our industry, and to be successful again, we needed to start thinking more like a startup.

We embraced urgency, and today it takes us six to eight months to bring a new product to market instead of the 22 months it used to take before I joined Nokia. We embraced accountability to drive results. And we embraced empathy, which is corporate-speak for “don’t be arrogant.” At the end of the day, we don’t control the market, our consumers do, and we need to listen and hear what they have to say.

You also mentioned the importance of articulating a clear path and inspiring others. How difficult has it been to formulate and stick to your plan?

Every step of the way, we have to ask ourselves: is this important to our strategy? If so, we do more of it. If not, we need to either slow it down or stop doing it. That helps us stay on track. We spend a great deal of time communicating our strategy and our progress to various stakeholders: consumers, shareholders, partners, application developers, employees, and so on. That process of communicating what is working and what is maybe not working helps keep us very focused. Equally important is the feedback 03/2013 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR

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