PwC's J.C. Lapierre on Transparency, Trust, DEI, Modern Comms Teams, Optimism and Much More
View my Legends & Leaders' conversation with PwC's J.C. Lapierre above. This past June, PwC announced The New Equation, its new, trust-based strategy and structure, accompanied with a massive brand campaign. Along with the firm's once-in-a-generation strategy change, PwC also launched the Trust Leadership Institute, a $300 million commitment to embed these trust-based principles into the core of today's and tomorrow's businesses. It also represented an affirmation of a redesigned role of chief communicators to be more a strategist to the C-suite and the connector to the multitude of stakeholders that exist for a company. In my Legends & Leaders conversation with PwC U.S. Chief Strategy and Communications Officer J.C. Lapierre, one of the architects of The New Equation and the reorg of its 55,000+ employees in less than 100 days, she shares insights and recommendations relevant to every C-Suite officer and especially chief communications officers.
Our conversation covers the evolving role of the CCO into more of a strategy role; managing communications in a multi-stakeholder environment; why building trust is more important than ever to the C-suite; the rising role of employee communications; diversity and inclusion; and much more. Here's a small sampling of J.C.'s compelling and important counsel to the MediaVillage community.
J.C. Lapierre on Transparency: "Transparency is at a level that none of us have ever seen before, and again I think it comes back to the vast set of stakeholders that everybody has and understanding what their needs are. What I would say is that every organization, no matter what industry you're in, has to bring your stakeholders along on a journey and you have to include them and who you are, who you aspire to be, and then you have to prove it, not just with words but with actions and consistency."
J.C. Lapierre on Trust: "There isn't one definition of trust. And what we say is that trust is doing what you say you're going to do, and in the times when the outcomes are not what you expected them to be, taking ownership and accountability for that."
J.C. Lapierre on Diversity and Inclusion: "Most organizations that we spend time with are incredibly focused on [diversity and inclusion]. It's not something that you can say, 'I want to do this' and then tomorrow it happens. It is through fundamentally rewiring all of the parts of your business, so that you drive those outcomes."
J.C. Lapierre on the Modern Communications Team: "One of my goals for as long as I get to sit in this privileged role is to help transform the comms team into a very different modern communications team, whereby we actually drive the strategy of the firm. We are not just telling the story of the strategy; we create, we shape, we accelerate it."
J.C. Lapierre on Optimism: "I have really never been more optimistic. I have the pleasure of talking to a lot of clients every week and there is this absolute recognition that now is the time to lean in, and to do this hard work, and so I feel really encouraged and we're just really proud of being a small part of those that will lean in to do it. It is really about enlisting all of the people who are in a position to make a difference to step up."
View my complete Legends & Leaders conversation with PwC's J.C. Lapierre here.
Jack Myers
With over five decades of experience in corporate leadership, B2B research, management insights, and technological trends, Jack Myers is a visionary leader and a trusted source for guidance and preparation as generative AI and machine intelligence dominates …
