{"id":9982,"date":"2021-02-23T11:58:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T11:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/?p=9982"},"modified":"2021-03-17T15:59:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T15:59:53","slug":"telecoms-brand-guardian-spotlight-allison-kirkby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/insights\/telecoms-brand-guardian-spotlight-allison-kirkby","title":{"rendered":"Telecoms Brand Guardian Spotlight: Allison Kirkby"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-intro-hook\">Chief Executives today need to do more than simply grow a business and make money for their investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Good CEOs are those who nurture relations with all stakeholders, and enhance the reputation of their brands as a result. Even investors increasingly care about corporate social responsibility about environmental, social and governance issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The role of the CEO has evolved as we navigate the era of personality CEOs where public scrutiny can be equal to that of a celebrity figure. It is no longer enough to have a vision for the business\u2019s future. It is about forging an authentic public profile and reacting earnestly to reputational crises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every year, we release the ranking of the world\u2019s top brand guardians \u2013 the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/brandirectory.com\/rankings\/global\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Brand Guardianship Index<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 which includes the top 100 CEOs globally. We have researched and evaluated the brand guardianship score of over 200 CEOs this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the 2021 Brand Guardianship Index, Brand Finance commissioned a survey among a panel of 288 market analysts and journalists- two stakeholder groups who have informed and influential views on chief executives\u2019 reputation. Fieldwork was conducted in December 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Allison Kirkby, CEO, Telia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirkby-1-1800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Allisson Kirkby, CEO, Telia\" class=\"wp-image-9920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirkby-1-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirkby-1-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirkby-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirkby-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirkby-1.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" \/><figcaption>Allisson Kirkby, CEO, Telia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The only female telecoms CEO featured in the ranking is <a href=\"https:\/\/brandirectory.com\/brands\/telia-2\/\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Telia\u2019<\/strong><\/a>s <strong>Allison Kirkby<\/strong>. Another newbie to the position, but by no means a rookie, Kirkby took the helm in October 2019. Previous roles include President &amp; Group CEO of TDC Group and President &amp; Group CEO of Tele2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kirkby\u2019s visionary approach and focus on growth is clearly reflected in her third-place rank for having a strong strategy and long-term vision, with 56% of experts feeling she has a strong strategy, considerably higher than the 27% telecoms average. Kirkby is striving towards the overall vision of making Telia the leading operator in the Nordics and Baltics. As Telia puts it \u201cconnectivity has become part of the very <em>fibre <\/em>of life\u201d and therefore the brand seeks to become resilient in a both fast paced and disruptive environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1723\" height=\"972\" src=\"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirby-Graph-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9945\" srcset=\"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirby-Graph-2.jpg 1723w, https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirby-Graph-2-450x254.jpg 450w, https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirby-Graph-2-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Allison-Kirby-Graph-2-1536x867.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1723px) 100vw, 1723px\" \/><figcaption>Allison Kirby's Brand Guardian Index Scores (Brand Finance Research of 288 Equity analysts and journalists, December, 2020)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The combination of her powerful leadership, her engaging and inspiring manner, her visionary approach and her strong focus on growth are key reasons that she achieved a 91% approval rating among the specialist audiences polled. These high scores are reflected in Kirkby\u2019s high employee approval ratings where she sits in the top four among the ten telecom CEOs featured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2020, under Kirkby\u2019s leadership<strong>,<\/strong> Telia was named Sweden\u2019s strongest brand. The brand performed strongly across key metrics in Brand Finance\u2019s Global Brand Equity Monitor study including price, products, consideration, familiarity, environment, governance, and reputation. With a continued focus on its CSR initiatives, the telecoms brand prides itself on its sustainable and responsible business practices, which it cites as the prerequisite for both sustainable growth and profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cAllison\u2019s strong vision will be to Telia\u2019s benefit as the Telecom industry goes through a transformational period. It will require a Brand Guardian with a clear sense of direction to navigate the challenges of Commoditisation and the 4<sup>th<\/sup> industrial revolution.\u201d<\/p><cite>David Haigh, CEO, Brand Finance<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n<div id=\"div_block-237-631\" class=\"ct-div-block \" ><div id=\"new_columns-37-7143\" class=\"ct-new-columns\" ><div id=\"div_block-38-7143\" class=\"ct-div-block\" ><img decoding=\"async\"  id=\"image-231-631\" alt=\"Telecoms 2021\" src=\"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Cover.jpg\" class=\"ct-image\"\/><\/div><div id=\"div_block-39-7143\" class=\"ct-div-block\" ><a id=\"link-28-7143\" class=\"ct-link\" href=\"https:\/\/brandirectory.com\/rankings\/telecoms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><h5 id=\"headline-220-631\" class=\"ct-headline\">Brand Finance Telecoms&nbsp; 150 2021<\/h5><div id=\"text_block-222-631\" class=\"ct-text-block\" >Download the full report to learn more about the world's most valuable and strongest brands.<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chief Executives today need to do more than simply grow a business and make money for their investors. Good CEOs are those who nurture relations with all stakeholders, and enhance the reputation of their brands as a result. Even investors increasingly care about corporate social responsibility about environmental, social and governance issues. The role of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,135],"tags":[125],"class_list":["post-9982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","category-brand-spotlights","tag-telecoms"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandfinance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}