Telum Talks To… Carolyn Lim, Senior Manager, Group Corporate Communications, Musim Mas Group
Interview

Telum Talks To… Carolyn Lim, Senior Manager, Group Corporate Communications, Musim Mas Group

We caught up with Carolyn Lim who oversees Singapore headquartered palm oil firm, Musim Mas' Corporate Communication function. Carolyn shares with Telum how she manages her regional work from the Singapore office and how she overcomes the challenges of communicating sustainability in the palm oil industry.

Can you tell us more about your role at Musim Mas?
I am the Senior Manager of Musim Mas' Corporate Communications Team. As the head of Corporate Communications for the Group, I lead communications programmes to support business and sustainability objectives. I am responsible for the overall communications strategy and execution to promote the corporate brand and generate support from internal and external stakeholders.  

When I started in the Group as a single contributor 10 years ago, we didn't have a company website. Over the years, alongside the business' growth and sustainability progress, I grew the team from a single person to a regional team in Indonesia and Singapore to handle the expanding and evolving job scope.

How do you manage the regional work from your HQ in Singapore?
With a presence in 13 countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, we may be a regional team, but we have global responsibilities.

An essential truth about the global economy is that the rising tide of globalisation hasn’t submerged geographic and other distinctions.

We must communicate in very local and precise terms, targeting specific stakeholders based on their circumstances and what is most relevant. That means truly understanding the situation on the ground, country by country.

Having a team in both countries and contacts in countries where we operate allows us to get the ground intelligence to craft our key messages and outreach strategies. For us, Singapore is the headquarters where we reach out to the external stakeholders, and Indonesia holds the bulk of the operations and the bulk of our internal stakeholders.

Sustainability is part of Musim Mas’ DNA - what are some challenges your team has faced when trying to develop and communicate sustainability initiatives?
The palm oil industry is a highly controversial one. Despite being in the industry for 14 years, there is never a dull day because new campaigns are often against the crop. That dynamic coupled with growing consumer awareness and activism precipitated during the social unrest of 2020 made us very focused on the values we express. We want to make sure our brand stands behind great values, not one-off sustainability initiatives.

For example, how do we communicate that our work with small farmers is not a random initiative but tied to an aspiration to build Indonesia’s agricultural extension services from the ground up?

How do you connect the aspiration to the ambition of having no deforestation in our supply chain when the sequential logic is not apparent? How do you appeal to both the logical minds and the emotional hearts of these people?

The key is to identify segments of stakeholders who are best placed to understand the complexity of our industry and figure out ways to communicate to these folks. They may be industry experts, professionals who work for the key corporate actors in our industry or academics.

Can you share the importance of positive brand perception in the palm oil industry?
In the old world of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, the front liners of the commodity companies are peopled by salesmen and traders who aim at making friends rather than showing that their products and solutions are better than the competition – until sustainability disrupt the industry.

With the increased environmental and social demands – both regulatory and voluntary – sustainability becomes a business continuity risk, not something good to have as a differentiator.

A positive brand perception, especially a good reputation in sustainability, can increase our company’s profitability and longevity.

Over the years, I experienced the benefits of good corporate communications work that can support my colleagues. For example, we have many sustainability partnerships with big global consumer brands such as Nestle and General Mills – companies that would often only work with like-minded sustainability peers. My Dutch colleague managed to hire good people for our factory in a small city in the Netherlands by using these examples to show the scale of our business and that we are prominent in sustainability too. We are an unknown employer in Europe, and some of the targeted employee profiles types are big on sustainability. 

Finally, what advice do you have for comms professionals to help maintain and drive their company's reputation, especially in this time of economic downturn and social uncertainty?
It is okay to be unsure of the path forward. Not knowing what to do may be your most significant competitive advantage because ambiguity allows you to be more adaptable.

Over the years, our team grew in absolute numbers and a portfolio of competencies because we are constantly asking ourselves: What can we improve this year? If the old communications channels such as in-person events can’t work any more, how can we better reach out to our stakeholders and keep to our objectives? 

We learned to focus more on digital and social marketing during the pandemic. I completed an online learning course with NUS Business school in 2020 to get back to basics.

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