Personal Branding v/s Corporate Branding: How can emerging leaders balance the two

In today’s digital world, a CEO’s personal brand is intrinsically linked to the company’s reputation. At the 6th edition of PR & Corp Comm 40 under 40 Summit 2024, industry leaders came together to discuss the topic Personal Branding v/s Corporate Branding: How can emerging leaders balance dual responsibilities. The panel includes Nidhi Gulati, Country Communications Director, Springer Nature, Amrit Anand, Head of Communications, Zupee, and Nishant Shukla, General Manager, Marketing and Communications, SunSource Energy, moderated by Pradeep Wadhwa, Founder, Kritical Edge Consulting Pvt Ltd.

“The question now is not whether a CEO should be a brand, but to what degree. After all, who wouldn’t want to work for a charismatic leader? Who wouldn’t want to partner with companies whose CEOs are well known and respected,” Pradeep stated, setting the context of the discussion.

Wadhwa asked all the panellists to share some stories or experiences they have witnesses where there was an issue between the CEO or the founder’s personal brand and the company’s reputation and how did they manage it.

Amrit stated, “There are a number of examples when a corporate leader or a founder CEO has taken up a cause and has spoken about it in public, and that has created a negative media cycle for the corporate brand. In that scenario, I have had a word as a corporate communications professional with the CEO, and we have tried to have a media sensitization program.”

He also informed professionals to stay aware of the topics they choose to speak about in public forums. “Everything that a CEO does in public whether it's on a social media platform or through any other public speaking engagements, he has to be very cautious about whatever he's saying and how it impacts the overall corporate branding,” Anand further adds.

Nishant shared his personal experience and narrated that he has seen such scenarios in young companies where founders are expected to go out and speak more about themselves, because in younger companies, the founder's brand is the company's brand. However, he asserted that this is the real problem because most of the founders are not trained to properly speak to the external world and this is where a gap in alignment comes in.

Nidhi narrated, “Recently, there was a case involving a corporate leader, someone who was the face of their company in the U.S. I won’t name the organization or the individual, but the issue arose when, following Trump’s election, this leader publicly vented on Twitter from their personal account. While their statements were largely accurate, it was not something they were expected to do. As a corporate brand ambassador, certain responsibilities come with the role, and publicly expressing personal political opinions can have unintended consequences.”

Moving forward, all the panellists shared real life scenarios of young and established CEOs and founders where their personal brand helped to build the corporate brand. “I have also worked very closely with one of the Maverick founders in India. When the company was going through a really rough phase—dealing with regulators, government authorities, and others, the moment we convinced him to stand up and speak on stage and to the public at large, the entire media narrative changed. There was a strong perception around him that he is someone who doesn’t lie to people. As a result, there was a belief that the company would come out of this fiasco, and the narrative changed after that,” Amrit elaborated, sharing a founder’s story.

Gulati stressed on the importance of media training, social media training, social media briefings and the strategies founders should learn to create a balance between personal branding and corporate branding. 

Anand shared his views on how to manage your CEO when they don't want to be active on social media. He advised, “To convince him, we finally had to tell him that his responsibility includes not only running the company successfully but also building a positive image of it to the outside world. As a CEO, whether he likes it or not, he is an extension of the company’s brand and image. Whenever he speaks on stage, meets people publicly, talks to the media, or even addresses internal employees, he is representing the company he founded. So, it is better that he adapts to the changing requirements. He needs to adapt to the new generation, adapt to social media, and learn how to use it.”

He highlighted that for CEOs, with social media, if they’re in it, they need to learn to play the game and have to play it to win it, because there’s no other way.

Shukla emphasized that in creating a well-built personal brand of a corporate leader it takes a lot of effort. He stated that the comms team takes care of the social media handles of leaders, and before doing that, there's a lot of research, study, Q&A, and understanding of the personality, building of the persona happens. 

Throughout the discussion, all the panellists led the conversation very enthusiastically and engaging and explored several aspects of personal branding and corporate branding for the emerging leaders. 

Lastly, Gulati concluded by mentioning that it depends on the leader to decide whether or not they want to grow their individual brand. But at the same time, there are certain brands that are too large and overpowering to have a person take over and become the brand CEO unless and until the person is really, really charismatic.