The Internal Comms Podcast

For this special bonus episode of The IC Podcast, Katie interviewed Paolo Peretti, Managing Retail Director of Patisserie Valerie, in front of a live audience at AB Thinks Live, our biannual internal comms event.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Paolo discussed his regime of daily blogging, the ins-and-outs of cake display competitions and, of course, the topic on everyone’s minds: the crisis at the heart of Patisserie Valerie’s finances.

In October 2018, it was reported that Patisserie Valerie had a £94m black hole in its accounts. The firm subsequently went into administration, sparking the closure of 70 of its almost-200 stores and concessions, and the loss of 900 jobs.

How do you regain trust in such circumstances? And how do you begin to take on the difficult task of steering the store back into clearer waters?

Paolo explains all in this episode.

For the final episode of season one, Katie Macaulay travels to Bath for IoIC Live and interviews two of the conference’s speakers, Martin Fitzpatrick and Matt Batten.

Both Martin and Matt are in-house practitioners working at the sharp end of IC. Martin is internal communications and engagement business partner at B&Q, and, at the time of recording, Matt was about to leave his position at the Royal College of Nursing to become director of communications and engagement at the Church in Wales.

In the Internal Comms Podcast’s first three-way conversation, ‘complete and utter comms nerd’ Matt shares the inside track on his IoIC Live presentation on health and wellbeing and equipping line managers to have more meaningful conversations about mental health.

Martin meanwhile speaks about the tranche of our workforce we all need to start thinking about more strategically – older workers. As he explains, his work at B&Q to attract, remain and motivate older workers is not merely a reaction to demographic shifts – this retail chain can prove a very direct correlation between employing and supporting older workers and bottom-line profit.

Social influencer marketing is a new and rapidly growing means of getting your message out to your audience. It’s changed the face of advertising and has everyone from up-to-the-minute ad agencies to age-old regulatory bodies desperately trying to catch up.

So, what is it exactly? What’s its significance on the media landscape? And what can internal comms learn from it?

In episode nine, Katie meets Harry Hugo, co-founder of social influencer marketing agency The Goat Agency, to find out.

In just three years Goat has grown to an agency of 120 employees in four offices around the world. They work on seven-figure influencer deals with clients such as Lidl, Adidas, New Look, and KFC. And it’s a young team – Harry is just 24; he founded his first company when he was 16.

Katie had Harry discuss the role of advertising today, the importance of telling authentic stories to build meaningful connections with an audience, criticisms and concerns – especially in regard to mental health, and why Harry thinks IC teams should be creating their own internal social influencers.

Katie’s guest this week is an extremely versatile communicator. In his day job as European Vice President of Twitter, Bruce Daisley has overseen the development of one of the world’s most popular social media platforms across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

His extensive career also includes spells at Google, YouTube and Comic Relief.

However, since 2017 Bruce has revealed skills far beyond those normally found in the office or boardroom as the creator and host of the hit podcast, Eat Sleep Work Repeat. And this year, he published his first book, The Joy of Work, which quickly climbed into the top ten business bestsellers.

Little wonder then that Campaign magazine has called him ‘one of the most talented people in media’, while the Evening Standard listed him among the 1,000 most influential Londoners for four consecutive years.

In their hour-long conversation, Katie saw first-hand Bruce’s genuine passion for making work more enjoyable and fulfilling.

He’s not just about the theory: he’s full of practical, everyday ideas we can all try out immediately. Find out why you need to have a purge on meetings, send fewer emails and why finding the purpose in our work is actually not enough.

They talk about the importance of psychological safety at work, the shortcomings of the employee engagement industry, the limitations leaders have on building the right culture and how, as communicators, we need to address ‘the empathy gap’.

Running the UK’s largest retail and financial services network with more branches than all of the UK’s banks and building societies put together, the Post Office is at the heart of many communities. Above all, it’s a commercial business with a social purpose.

In episode seven, Katie speaks to Mark Davies, who heads up communications for this 370-year-old institution. With a background in local newspaper journalism, Mark became a special adviser in government before joining the Post Office seven years ago. Since then, he’s delivered some of the biggest change communications in the company’s history – transforming the Post Office so it remains relevant in a rapidly changing world.

Katie and Mark discuss what it means to be a special adviser, why more organisations are trying to find their purpose, the power of collaboration, the integration of internal and external comms and how to better support senior leaders as a communicator.

In episode six, Katie travels beyond the boundaries of internal comms to find out how to write more engagingly, tell better stories and use humour to deliver your message. And who better to advise her on this than the hugely successful poet, comedian, writer and producer Henry Normal.

Henry co-founded production company Baby Cow with comedian and actor Steve Coogan in 1999, going on to create more than 400 television programmes and 20 films. The company is responsible for some of the most memorable and popular British shows of recent years, including Alan Partridge, The Royle Family, The Mighty Boosh and Gavin & Stacey.

Katie and Henry discuss the walls of humour, the increasing danger of losing context and analysis from today’s news, why Twitter is like shouting in the street, and what being the parent of an autistic son has taught him about communications and the real meaning of love.

In episode five, Katie aims to find out what internal communications can learn from external communications. So she sits down with ‘mister public relations’, Stephen Waddington.

UK managing director of the digital marketing agency Metia, ‘@wadds’ is a hugely prominent voice in the comms world. A former president of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations with 22k followers on Twitter, he writes an award-winning blog and has written eight books on marketing and PR.

Katie and Stephen discuss online echo chambers, the impact of artificial intelligence, and The Cluetrain Manifesto, a lesser-known but prophetic book examining the impact of the internet on communication long before the invention of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC) is the voice of the IC profession – dedicated to strengthening confidence, credibility and community. And on 12 March, the IoIC celebrates its 70th year.

In episode four, Katie speaks with the person leading the IoIC today – chief executive, Jennifer Sproul.

Jennifer first joined the IoIC in 2015 as Head of Commercial and became CEO a year later. New to the world of IC, she’d spent her career until that point in market research. But during her short time at the IoIC, membership is up, participation in events and training has increased, and members now have The Voice – a new channel dedicated to IC news and insights both in print and online.

Katie and Jennifer discuss the history of the IoIC, the relevance of bodies associations in the social media age and what it means to be the voice of the IC industry.

Episode three lands as Gatehouse’s latest State of the Sector report is published. Katie invites Jenni Field, a tireless, high-profile personality of the IC landscape, to discuss its findings and the recently released – Edelman Trust Barometer, which found people put more trust in ‘my employer’ than NGOs, business, or the media.

Jenni is president-elect of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, the cofounder of the IC Crowd and runs a consultancy – Redefining Communications. She’s worked in the public sector, defence, advertising and retail, and is a critical thinker who isn’t afraid to speak her mind.

Recorded at Jenni’s home in Hampshire, Katie and Jenni unpick the reports to find out what they mean for IC.

Even if you’re only vaguely familiar with internal communications, Katie’s guest in episode two will no doubt be a name you recognise.

In a career spanning 30 years, Russell Grossman has worked as head of internal communications at the BBC, director of communications at Royal Mail and is currently director for communications at the Office of Rail and Road and head of profession for internal communications practice right across UK Government.

Katie and Russell met in early December and discussed how IC pros can improve their chance of having a successful career in communications, the importance of bringing remote workers together, and the International Association of Business Communicators, Engage for Success and Chartered Institute of Public Relations, which he’s been actively involved in.

Thanks for listening!