CorpComms Magazine

As global director of corporate communications at the world's largest paints and coatings company, AkzoNobel, it might be expected that John McLaren would have a glossy view of his chosen profession. But no. 'Some people will hate this interview because they have spent their whole careers trying to turn the communications role into something scientific,' he warns. 'I've attended too many conferences about the importance of the function; it's all bullshit. And this idea of crafting a message is nonsense.'

His thesis is simple. Most of us are blessed with an in-built 'bullshit detector' and reputation is essentially boiled down to 'gut feeling'. McLaren adds: 'Humans are the most imprecise crazy machines. This job is essentially about winning trust and telling people what they want to know.'

And don't get him started on the 'bogus methodologies' communication professionals use to measure success. 'I've heard one comms person say they were paid by the number of press releases they send, which is ridiculous because the first thing I do when I join a company is to cut the number of press releases 60 per cent,' he says.

The Dutch approach

Today, McLaren is visiting London from Amsterdam where the Dulux to Cuprinol multinational is headquartered. Does the Kent-born communicator miss the UK? 'I miss Starbucks, big chains don't have the dominance in Holland that they do here,' he says. 'But the corporate culture in Amsterdam is funky.'

The Dutch, it seems, do things differently and the straight talking McLaren approves. Despite having a population no larger than that of Belgium, the Netherlands is home to some of the world's largest companies, including Heineken, DAF Trucks and electronics giant Philips. McLaren thinks the nation's success is attributable to lessons learned after the Second World War. 'They went for the modern egalitarian approach, whereas Britain is still quite hierarchical. No Dutchman would ever say Where did you go to school? but they will ask How much do you earn?'

McLaren was hired by AzkoNobel in 2004 to 'fix' the incumbent communications department. 'I inherited a demotivated bunch and my task was to create a better awareness of the brand and fix it ready for the transformation,' he says, citing change management as one of his specialities. 'In my experience if you give people the chance to do something they like doing and you give them space, they rarely let you down. I've only had to fire three people in the last five years.'

And it has certainly been a transformative period. Since McLaren arrived, AkzoNobel has completed acquisitions worth $25 billion, including the £8 billion takeover of ICI, once the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, four years ago. It now has operations in more than 80 countries, employs 55,000 people and annual revenues in excess of €14 billion (£12 billion).

McLaren's team is large. Each of the top ten markets around the world has a national head of communications, and he is responsible for 50 employees outside the Netherlands and 30 at the headquarters.

Honest approach

He advises his national heads to network thoroughly within their operations. 'If you have a reputation for honesty, people will come to you and that makes you valuable. It's not only think local but act local. I don't think there is such a thing as global in communications. There are always corporate messages we need to get out there but they will be different in each market,' he explains. 'In the UK, we speak to the financial community and we want to attract good employees. The messages we push out are about our financials, innovations or sustainability. By contrast, we wouldn't talk about financial markets in Brazil.'

AkzoNobel is the biggest paint maker in Brazil, and has run a successful campaign called 'Bringing Color to Brazil' since 2009. More than 25,000 litres of paint have been used to restore communities within cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The initiative, which has involved 730 employees and volunteers, also trains local people to become painters and educates residents about social awareness. This year 42 houses in the historic city of Ladeira da Efigênia, which dates back to the 1700s, were painted.

'It's amazing what you can do. Paint is the most basic substance but if you paint something it looks 200 per cent better and in some areas of the world crime went down, just from painting houses,' says McLaren. 'In Brazil it was especially successful.'

Despite the global outlook, it's hard to fight the tendency to become HQ-centric. 'Inevitably, Dutch media and Dutch concerns will dominate,' he says. 'Our management will say we are a global business, which we are, but when the chief executive has his breakfast he'll be reading Het Financieele Dagblad [the Dutch equivalent of the Financial Times]. We naturally veer towards the Dutch media.'

But McLaren also notes a tendency in international media to align AzkoNobel's fortunes with those of other Dutch  companies. 'We are the biggest paint company in the world, we employ a huge number of people all over Asia and in Brazil yet in quarter two, when Philips were going through some fun stuff, the Financial Times lumped us with them,' he moans.

Future challenges

Next year Hans Wijers, chief executive of AkzoNobel, will step down after nine years in the role. He will be succeeded by 45 year old Ton Büchner, the Dutch born chief executive of Swiss pump manufacturer Sulzer. Will McLaren be sorry to see his old boss go? 'Well it will be the first boss I've had who is younger than me,' he says. 'I've been with my boss seven years and he's very demanding but he says he likes my honesty.'

So what are the challenges for the head of communications under a new chief executive? 'I hope I still fit here but it is true that there is often widow burning in this role,' he concedes. But if he remains, McLaren is adamant that he will not change his title to the 'increasingly modish title of chief reputation officer; I think it's a bit w***y to be honest'.

'Your boss will always say you are important when you announce takeovers and redundancies but, beyond those moments, you are a cost centre,' he adds. 'The real change will  be that it will become harder and harder for people to get away without telling the truth.' Just as well McLaren is an honest kind of guy then.

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