Valio CEO Annikka Hurme: Trust is built through dialogue
Valio has been ranked among Finland’s ten most reputable companies ten times—that is, in every Reputation&Trust of the general public conducted annually by T-Media. Our Development Director, Riku Ruokolahti, interviewed Valio’s CEO, Annikka Hurmet, about reputation management and explored how a Finnish institution is built.
Every Finn is familiar with Valio and its products. This is also reflected in T-Media’s best-known survey, Reputation&Trust, which celebrated its tenth anniversary last year. Valio has consistently ranked among Finland’s ten most reputable companies throughout the survey’s ten-year history.
But how has Valio managed to do this?
Annikka Hurme, who has long worked in reputation management, recommends starting reputation work with values: what the product, service, and company stand for. She emphasizes that the company must first have a clear understanding of its values before it can communicate them to others.
Hurme says that outsiders’ perceptions of Valio as a company do not necessarily always align with one’s own internal experience.
“Reputation can be based on a perception or on what people have heard from others. Valio is a brand-driven company, and brand and reputation go hand in hand. Reputation is extremely important.”
At Valio, we live up to our reputation every single day – we are open about our failures
Hurme, who holds a Master’s degree in Food Science, has worked at Valio since 1989 and has served as CEO since 2014.
Valio has a strong history and is well-known for its products. According to Hurme, Valio’s position means, in practice, that it must live up to its reputation every single day and with every single product. The challenge in doing so is that no one can perform perfectly every day, and mistakes do happen.
So how are failures and mistakes handled?
“Openly. You can’t sweep things under the rug. For example, if there’s a problem in the quality chain, it needs to be made public as quickly as possible and a recall issued. Our customers help us: if there’s a defect in a product, we’ll hear about it from our customers through customer service.”
“It’s never fun to admit when you’ve failed. But it has to be done,” Hurme says.
Listen to and accept opposing views
Reputation&Trust T-Media’s Reputation&Trust, an organization’s overall reputation is calculated as the average of eight different areas. Thus, reputation is influenced by an organization’s governance, finances, leadership, innovation, products and services, workplace, corporate responsibility, and engagement.
Riku Ruokolahti has observed that the biggest challenge for many companies when it comes to reputation is communication—that is, ensuring that the organization listens to and understands its stakeholders. Ruokolahti has also noted that the larger the organization, the more difficult dialogue becomes. Large companies often become harder to approach.
Annikka Hurme has also emphasized the importance of dialogue and has identified it as the most important principle of reputation management. According to her, dialogue enhances comprehension of what is heard.
“At one point, I thought it was enough just to be open about things. But was I really listening to what our customers wanted to say? We need to listen, ask more questions, and try to understand,” says Hurme.
According to Hurme, dialogue does not mean that a company must cater to the needs of everyone who disagrees. Similarly, there is no need to try to change opposing views, but differing opinions must be understood.
“We must accept differing opinions. Not everyone has to agree on the health benefits of milk. But if we don’t understand the motivations behind opposing views, it becomes harder to engage in dialogue.”
“You have to understand, know, and build your core and product portfolio in line with your own values—while paying attention to how the world is changing.”
Video: Vesa Koivunen
