As part of our The Corporate Affairs Q&A series, the team at Grayling recently sat down with Darktrace\u2019s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Carolyn Esser. We talked about Carolyn\u2019s experiences building the Corporate Affairs division at Darktrace, how her team is navigating the complex external landscape and Carolyn\u2019s advice to fellow Corporate Affairs professionals. We hope you enjoy reading the interview.<\/p>\n
What attracted you to join Darktrace as their Chief Corporate Affairs Officer? What does your role at Darktrace look like today? Tell us about some of the challenges you\u2019ve faced building this Corporate Affairs team. There are two parts to this. The first is that, when we have a big project, we need people who will turn their hand to something that is perhaps outside of their traditional \u2018swim lane\u2019 in order to help the business deliver. The second is creating a culture where individuals are connecting the dots between different areas of work in our team and beyond into the teams with partner with to deliver impact.<\/p>\n To give an example, when we look to drive a particular set of policy outcomes, we very much don\u2019t see that as just the responsibility of the colleagues looking after public affairs and policy. We want to think about how media relations or digital communications or owned content can play a role in accelerating impact.<\/p>\n Are there events in the wider external landscape that you are particularly focused on when developing Darktrace\u2019s Corporate Affairs strategy? 2024 is a year of huge elections \u2013 the US, the UK, the EU and many more. How does that impact Darktrace and your broader Corporate Affairs plans? I also think it\u2019s crucial for any successful Public Affairs plan that you are really interrogating whether engagements are delivering a business outcome. It\u2019s all well and good building a wide range of contacts but this shouldn\u2019t happen just for the sake of it \u2013 it needs to be aligned to business goals.<\/p>\n What advice would you give to someone starting out in a career in Corporate Affairs today? I think the other thing that’s hard about Corporate Affairs is that so much of it leans on your experience and judgement. If you’re an accountant, there’s broadly a right answer. You go through an audit process, there’s broadly a set of things that you need to check, there’s a set of fixed outcomes. Corporate Affairs is not like that – so much of the work at a senior level is making calls on what the right thing to do it with little empirical evidence and a lot rests on how you judge the response from the people you are trying to influence . I think a big thing is, right from early in your career, exposing yourself to situations and to people where you\u2019ll be able to gain experience on how to make the right judgement.<\/p>\n Finally, I\u2019d say you mostly learn by doing. You\u2019ll make mistakes along the way but if you learn from those and surround yourself with thoughtful people who can be great advisors then you\u2019ll find that this pushes you along the road to success.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>It was a unique opportunity to both build a Corporate Affairs function from scratch and join an innovative company at a very interesting time in its development. It was a pivotal moment for the business \u2013 Darktrace had just IPO\u2019d in the year before I joined and this was a chance to join the company as it embarked on its next phase of growth and maturing journey. I inherited a small team that was primarily focused on technology PR which had been embedded in the Marketing team and there was an exciting remit to build on this and create a fully-fledged integrated Corporate Affairs team.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I\u2019d describe the last 18 months as building the plane while flying it, but we\u2019ve now got to a place where we have a strong team across the different Corporate Affairs disciplines that is aligned with the business\u2019 needs. Our team now spans technology communications, corporate communications, digital channels, owned content, public affairs and policy, employee engagement, ESG and DEI. My role is very much focused on ensuring that all of those areas are working in harmony \u2013 with each other and into other parts of the business – to support the company from a trust and reputation building perspective as it continues to grow globally.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I wouldn\u2019t frame it as a challenge per se but what I\u2019ve been very focused on is driving visibility across the team. I want team members to absolutely be experts in their areas of specialism, but I also want team members who are passionate about working cross-function.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The last few years have seen a large number of exogenous shocks \u2013 whether that\u2019s the Covid pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war or global inflation and interest rates rising to levels not seen for decades. My hope for 2024 is we\u2019ll see a slightly more settled period with fewer of these types of events. In more settled times, there is the opportunity for businesses to go on the front foot and that\u2019s what we are focused on in our own Corporate Affairs strategy for Darktrace this year.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I think a year with so many elections really focuses your mind on how you can engage with stakeholders in the most effective way for your business through a period of significant transition. Point one is obviously that elections bring varying degrees of change (depending on their outcome) and you need to prepare for that. But when looking at Public Affairs, I would also distinguish between the political stakeholders (who may change) and the non-political policymakers and influencers (e.g. civil servants, industry bodies) who are likely to stay the same \u2013 so perhaps this is a time when you give extra attention to the stakeholders who you know will remain key regardless of electoral outcomes.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Our business is all about stakeholder relationships and building trust so you can support your organisation\u2019s license to operate. I remember early in my career there was a big focus on taking journalists out to build relationships, and ultimately the principles behind that are correct. I would encourage anyone starting their career to ask themselves the question: \u201cWhat is my unique approach to stakeholder engagement?\u2019. We all build relationships, and build trust, in slightly different ways. Early in your career you should take the opportunity to observe how others around you are doing this and what pieces of this might work for you, then you will have a strong foundation for success.<\/p>\n