The sixth edition of the "Proa Communication Observatory" took place on Monday 19 November. On this occasion it was attended by Juan CardonaOperations Director of Corporate Excellence-Centre for Reputation Leadership. Cardona is a member of the State Council for Corporate Social Responsibility (CERSE) and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Inserta Responsable Forum. He was previously director of the Corporate Reputation Forum and head of the Corporate Responsibility and Reputation Department at Ferrovial.
The speaker began his talk by highlighting the importance of the emergence of the internet and new technologies. All of this, Cardona pointed out, is a revolution that has brought about a greater flow of information, greater connectivity and increased possibilities when it comes to sharing information between people. In his own words, "we have returned to person-to-person communication".
The influence scheme has changed, the speaker explained, above all due to the crisis of confidence in all areas of society. In his opinion, corporate communication is worthless in terms of credibility, and in order to regain this trust, it is necessary to find the people who generate it, such as the company's own employees and ordinary people.
At this point, Juan Cardona wanted to stress the importance of the employee as a spokesperson for the company's situation. In the event that one speaks badly, the company's reputation and credibility could sink instantly. This example would explain the rise of social networks and the crisis of the traditional media, which no longer convince or influence as they did before. In his opinion, communication has been simplified and now has to be done in 140 characters, which makes it much more complicated to argue.
All these changes imply a new model of content generation, where it is worth highlighting the rise of the storytellingstorytelling, a communication technique in which the aim is to tell stories. The generation of these stories brings more credibility and generates a greater recall in people.
According to Cardona, he did not want to leave aside why companies do not take risks and reject all these changes, as in his opinion they are internally anchored in immobility, where each department deals with its own business, without generating an interconnection with the others. To understand this better, the executive gave the example of how the Dircom should not focus exclusively on the relationship with the media, but should have contact with all the departments in order to have as much knowledge as possible of what is happening within the company and to avoid future problems.
In line with this idea, Cardona gave as an example of good management the case of Mercadona. In his opinion, he has generated a viral communication system in which he has included his employees, which has been successful in creating a relationship of trust between the company and the customer, and has even been studied by Harvard University.