Have you ever wondered how communicators at companies with strong, positive reputations built these positions and usually managed to keep them at the top? Wonder no more. Because you only need to look inside the company at the corporate comms team. How are they positioned? Do they have a seat at the table? How have they managed expectations? How do they collaborate with the c-suite, marketing, HR colleagues and other peers? What about their agency relationships?
I discussed this with Flovie Martins, head of Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility for Sanofi Consumer Healthcare India Limited. Flovie brings a wealth of experience to her role, having led corporate comms in fast-paced corporate environments in regulated industries. Additionally, she spent her early years in public relations firms and as a consultant, giving her an empathetic and understanding perspective from both sides of the desk. She has also observed and experienced the evolution of the corporate comms community in India that she describes as close-knit and keen to exchange ideas and knowledge.
Growing a strong and respected corporate comms function takes persistence and time. While there is nothing like success to form positive opinion, it is best when the wins are steady and evolve from research, strategy, approach, tactics, and leadership. Following are five best practices for corporate comms teams to consider for building from the inside:
Take every opportunity to educate, show the value of communications: Comms leaders don’t need to wait for a scheduled meeting or presentation to showcase their knowledge and contributions. Instead, take opportunities from a variety of sources inside and outside the company. The news and the experiences of companies in yours and other industries, for example, can open the door for showcasing the role and value of communications. Share well-handled media interviews and those that are poorly handled. Add to that your perspective and recommendations. Use the media monitoring and listening analytics you have in place to identify trends or early warning signs of issues that need attention. By taking these opportunities, Flovie built allies at the companies she’s worked for as well as a reputation for being an informed, thoughtful counselor who can be relied on.
Set expectations: There is still some mystery around comms—what it is, what it’s not, what comms can do, what it can’t. A still typical example of this is when comms practitioners are asked to get the company in or ‘on the cover’ of X, Y or Z (top tier) media outlet. Or generate earned media coverage about a topic that is more suitable to a company social post or website. Corporate comms is best served by explaining, as Flovie says, ‘there is no magic wand.’ But that we can, instead, work with the team to identify and shape an opinion, point of view, or new perspective that would be attractive to the media.
Grow trust: To create a trusted corporate reputation, comms counsel to internal stakeholders should be rooted in transparency, authenticity, and company values. Putting her foot down has led to some of the most positive and meaningful times during Flovie’s career, during which she brought much needed perspective to potentially volatile situations, and much more. In articulating and demonstrating the appropriate language and action the companies needed to take during those times, she also revealed to internal stakeholders the critical role of comms to the company and its reputation.
Partner with your consultancies: Having been on the consultancy side, Flovie understands how to be a good client. Open lines of communication are critical as are clear direction, timely responses, good information and fair budgets. She values strong, strategic thinking and counsel as well as ‘arms and legs’ support. Flovie strives for the right balance in consultancy relationships –senior and junior support, counsel and execution, pushback when appropriate and follow-through always. A reputation as a desirable consultancy partner attracts innovative thinkers and talented consultancy teams who want to do great work.
Keep growing yourself: Being ‘battle tested’ is good. Learn from every difficult journalist interaction. Every impossible ask. The everyday issues as well as the intense crises. Flovie looks at every challenge and opportunity she encounters in her corporate comms role as a new chance ‘to open up.’ She has found and honed her own voice through experiences –positive ones as well as those that have been more difficult– with colleagues, consultancies, CEOs, and journalists, and encourages those she works with to do the same. During those times when she has had to say no to a certain ask or task, she found strength in her own values. Moreover, staying true to these values has grown hers and her corporate comms’ teams’ reputation among peers and internal stakeholders as trusted, honest and respected, which also extends to the company externally.
Flovie fell ‘in love’ with healthcare communications, recognising the different feeling she has when the work she does every day helps people in India and the world learn about important advances that are changing the way diseases are treated and directly impact the lives of patients and their families. I share this feeling, working in the consumer and Rx industry myself for more than 30+ years.
Trust, empathy, strength, community and heart are industry-agnostic. Building a world-class reputation is hard work. And it begins with a world-class communications team.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
Sandra Stahl has created and led communications solutions for many of the world’s leading pharma, biotech, diagnostic, device and consumer healthcare brands over a 30+ year career. Her skills as a strategist and developer of compelling narratives have enabled organizational-and market- readiness, powered investment, enhanced profiles, amplified landmark data, built reputations and influenced opinion. She is a recognized thought leader regularly published in industry, national and international media, and author of the award-winning book, The Art & Craft of PR (LID 2018). Additionally, Sandra is founding faculty in the PR track in the Branding + Integrated Communications master’s degree program at The City College of New York, now in its 10th year, has delivered lectures at university communications programs around the world including Columbia University in New York and Xavier Institute of Communications in Mumbai, India.
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