When Listening Improves Corporate Success
| Published date | 01 November 2015 |
| Author | Emilio Galli Zugaro |
| Date | 01 November 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12202 |
When Listening Improves Corporate Success
Emilio Galli Zugaro
Allianz SE, Germany
Corporations need to earn their license to operate every
single day. This license is given by the company’s stake-
holders. Only if they truly get what they expect from
the company will a sustainable relationship be estab-
lished, from which all parties should benefit and the
company will thrive and succeed. But how to go about
it? One of the possible avenues is to transform the con-
tribution of communications from a functional discipline
to a transversal attitude. This commentary illustrates the
case of Allianz, one of the world leaders in financial ser-
vices. The Allianz way to communicate is made of six
steps.
1. ‘Intel inside’–how corporate communications
can be embedded in corporate strategy
To integrate communications into the overall strategy of
the company is the new challenge of communications.
Let me give you an example:
In 2004, Allianz adopted five leadership values. Value 1
is ‘Align communication and strategy’and it is not only a
value, it is the first behavioral rule for all managers. As
with the other values for leaders, it is assessed on a
yearly basis in the Allianz Engagement Survey where staff
anonymously review the performance of their line man-
agers according to the leadership values. The scores can
affect the compensation managers receive and they are
transparent to their supervisors all the way up to the
level of the chief executive officer (CEO) of the company.
Together with leadership value 2 (‘Focus on your cus-
tomers’) it effectively rewards leadership behavior that
empowers and engages staff so as to allow the delivery
of superior customer service. The definition of ‘customer’
comprises all stakeholders. The ‘customer’of the Investor
Relations Department is the investor, or the regulators
and politicians if the department assessed is the one
dealing with regulators or public officers and govern-
ments.
This may not be a complete and comprehensive
approach, but it does the trick in changing an organiza-
tion into a body with a growing attention towards
engaging with stakeholders.
The result is that communications becomes an integral
part of running the company and therefore of its strat-
egy or, what we call the ‘Intel Inside’approach. As with a
microchip, a fundamental component of a computer,
communications –not the communications department
–becomes an integral part of leadership and manage-
ment practice and, ultimately, of running the company.
2. Choose the right KPIs and ensure
communication KPIs and management KPIs
are aligned
Since 2004 the CEOs of all Allianz flagship companies
receive annual targets for communications practice. The
targets refer to two areas: media relations and internal
communications.
In 2011, Allianz Group Communications engaged in a
study on the possible correlation between media work
and the Net Promoter Score (NPS), as well as internal
communication.
NPS is an assessment of corporate health and the cor-
poration’s ability to create profitable growth by an orga-
nized process of listening to its customers. People –the
only truly independent advisers –are regularly asked
whether they are willing to recommend the company to
their friends. Answers can vary from 0 (no intention to
recommend) to 10 (strong will to recommend).
Scores from 0 to 6 show detractors, people so dissatis-
fied with the company that they strongly recommend
their friend not to buy the company’s products. Only
those who rate the company’s services as a 9 or 10 are
promoters. They have witnessed an extraordinary experi-
ence and are willing to share their enthusiasm with peo-
ple they are connected with. Subtracting the percentage
of detractors from the promoters gives you a positive or
negative NPS; evidence shows that this is a very stable
assumption.
The higher the NPS score, the more likely it is that this
company will grow profitably going forward. In other
terms, this system assesses the ‘word of mouth’of the
new protagonist, the average citizen. The credibility of
this source can drive profits in a healthy way, just out of
enthusiasm for the products and services and how they
are delivered.
Our research showed a clear correlation between both
external and internal communications and NPS. Having
seen this relationship, we wanted to gain perspective on
how well the current media set serves (potential)
Global Policy (2015) 6:4 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12202 ©2015 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Global Policy Volume 6 . Issue 4 . November 2015 495
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