Building a brand for the new CEO

Building a brand for the new CEO

The first 100 days are critical for building the brand for your new CEO, says Kate Hogben, internal communications manager at British American Tobacco. The following ideas should help get things off on the right footing:'

Create impact: get the CEO in front of the whole company at the first opportunity. “We put our CEO on the cover of the company magazine and gave him the opportunity to address all employees at a company event and out in the field on a roadshow tour in his first month.”
Hasten the CEO’s immersion into the business by organizing monthly “buzz groups”: informal breakfast or lunch forums with the company’s key opinion leaders or connectors (i.e., the networkers). These are not necessarily senior management – they should include employees and union and staff council reps. “The idea is to help the CEO connect with employees both to surface the real issues and to use them as a sounding board for new ideas,” says Hogben. Employees in turn will create buzz about the CEO’s vision, message and personal style. To personalize the invitations to buzz groups, Hogben used a voicemail message from the CEO followed by e-mail to set expectations.

Hogben believes it’s important early on for the new CEO to be seen shaping, influencing and uniting his own top team – the board. Orchestrate opportunities for the top team to be seen to be working together such as shared activities, panel style briefings or an interactive Q&A site on the intranet.

Finally, blogs are a great way for the new CEO to share his personal opinions and give employees a sense of his personality. However, this medium works best when your CEO is willing to write and maintain the blog personally.