CEO Communicator: how to balance context and focus on the business

The third and final debate session on the importance of communication in companies – promoted by Aberje and the newspaper “Valor Econômico” – brought together leaders of leading companies to talk about post-pandemic communication and engagement.

Aberje and financial daily “Valor Econômico” – partners for 12 years in the publication of the special edition “Valor Setorial Comunicação Corporativa” – held the last session of the II Forum on Corporate Communication on November 4th. The series of three digital meetings aims to discuss how Corporate Communication has acted in relations with society for the necessary changes for the future.

The theme of the third meeting was “Corporate communication as a driver of innovation”. Teresa Vernaglia, CEO of BRK Ambiental; Marta Diez, president of Pfizer in Brazil; Isabella Wanderley, general manager and corporate vice president of the Novo Nordisk affiliate in Brazil; and Roberto Parucker, president of Eletronorte, discussed the topic. The meeting was mediated by journalist João Luiz Rosa, special reporter for “Valor Econômico”.

The Role of the CEO

The pandemic required speedy and radical changes in organizations, in addition to dynamic communication between everyone. In this context, what was the role of the post-Covid CEO like? The challenge of adapting to remote work has given rise to the challenge of managing the hybrid work model that is here to stay in the opinion of many. For Vernaglia, from BRK Ambiental, there is certainly a new environment in which all leaders need to adapt. “There is a new environment in which the leader and CEO need to act and ensure the sustainability of their business in this environment that will not be the same as before the pandemic,” she said.

For Pfizer’s Diez, the company’s purpose when one is not in person at the office became even more critical. “It’s important to make people understand that they are part of the company even though they are not in the office, and creating this engagement when working in the virtual world is more complicated. Now we have to learn to act in the hybrid world and to balance the needs of colleagues and work better,” she said.

In Wanderley’s opinion, Novo Nordisk is not new, but some CEO roles have intensified. “The role that has intensified the most and will now follow during this return to the offices in this hybrid world is the role of an agent of changes. In addition to this move to digital, others will come, and the CEO must be that great orchestrator of how to prepare the organization for the transformations that will come”, she said.

For Eletronorte, which works in a regulated and regional environment, the change faced at the beginning of the pandemic was immense. The company’s president, Parucker, said: “In March 2020 we had to put 70% of the company in the home office, a huge challenge and from that point on we had to be careful with people, of talking ‘to’ people and not ‘to’ people. It is a different thing. It’s about listening, understanding and adopting policies and regulations that could meet people’s needs”.

Corporate culture

How to preserve the company’s culture when people are not working in person when isolation physically separates employees, leaders, and subordinates? “Many people were hired in the pandemic, so you talk to the manager who hired you, but often you don’t know who your co-workers are,” said the panel’s mediator, Rosa.

“All companies had to reinvent themselves. As we lose physical contact, we intensify virtual contact. The corporate communication area played a key role in this. Novo has ten guiding principles for our way of being that were fundamental for us to work with all our employees”, said Wanderley. “The company hired a lot of people during the pandemic, including me,” she revealed.

 

You can watch the meeting here:

https://youtu.be/dXhtgSb9qJI