20 November 2007
Vodafone CEO recognised as most effective spokesperson for a FTSE 100 company in 2007.
The Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) and Cision today announced that the winner of the Business Communication of the Year Award 2007 is Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone.
Sarin beat off competition from the likes of Michael Grade, Terry Leahy and Stuart Rose to be crowned Business Communicator of the Year. The judges were impressed by the way that Sarin used communication to clearly outline a dual strategy of chasing emerging market growth whilst at the same time competing on content in mature markets. Using measured and consistent communication, Sarin has succeeded in winning the market's support.
The Business Communicator of the Year Award recognises the CEO of a FTSE 100 company who has used public relations most effectively for the benefit of their organisation during 2007. Previous winners of this prestigious award have included Stuart Rose of Marks & Spencer and Stelios Haji-Ioannou of easyGroup.
The shortlist for the Business Communicator of the Year was created by leading media intelligence company Cision. Cision used its industry leading Impact Score and Net Effect methodology to rank the national media profile of each FTSE 100 CEO. A panel of judges made up of Alex Sandberg chairman of College Hill (chairman of the judges); Simon Vincent, CEO of Hilton UK and Eire; Giselle Bodie, Cision Consultancy Services Director; Anthony Hilton, business journalist; and Colin Farrington, director general of the CIPR, then discussed the top 10 performing CEOs before deciding on the winner.
Arun Sarin from Vodafone said: “"It is an honour to be chosen as Business Communicator of the Year. Throughout my career I have always given a high priority to effective communications, particularly in ensuring alignment of messages across internal and external stakeholders. I am pleased that this has been recognised by the judging panel".
Francis Ingham, director general of the PRCA, said: “For a FTSE 100 CEO to be effective they must clearly communicate their strategy to shareholders, suppliers, customers and employees. When the press wanted to focus on other issues relating to Vodafone, Arun Sarin succeeded in ensuring the messages that he wanted to communicate reached their audience. That is why he is the PRCA and Cision’s Business Communicator of the Year.”
Giselle Bodie, Cision Consultancy Services Director, said: “The CEO is the custodian of their organisation’s most precious asset, its reputation. Reputation is made up essentially of what people see, hear, experience and believe about the organisation. Therefore, the role the CEO plays in communicating through the media is critical in protecting and growing that most valuable of assets and Arun Sarin was viewed as having used a very distinct, clear and consistent communication to the obvious benefit of his business.”
The Business Communicator of the Year Award was presented on 20 November at the PRCA Award ceremony in Central London
For more information:
Helen Snoerwang
Corporate Communications Manager
Cision UK
020 7251 7226 / helen.snoerwang@cision.com
About Cision:
Cision improves clients’ performance through integrated services and software solutions for reputation and campaign management, media monitoring and research of media contacts. Cision AB is quoted on the OMC Nordic Exchange and has approx. 20,000 shareholders. The company has around 2,700 employees, serves over 50,000 clients worldwide and has a turnover of SEK 1.9 billion or £138million (2006). Cision operates in Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, the UK and USA. www.cision.com
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