Poppulo CEO Ruth Fornell.
Poppulo’s new CEO Ruth Fornell discusses the importance of listening closely in a new leadership role and the various impacts AI will have on external and internal communications.
Poppulo, the enterprise communications company, scored a big win at the end of 2023 when it hired Ruth Fornell to be its new CEO.
Fornell took the role with more than 30 years of experience in various organisations, which includes a wide range of leadership positions. One of her earliest roles was as an executive assistant to the chair and CEO at NCR as it spun out of AT&T. From there, she moved onto a CMO position and eventually led NCR’s EMEA business and joined its executive team.
After NCR, Fornell became executive VP and general manager of retail payments at software company ACI Worldwide. Before taking the Poppulo role, she was president of commercial operations at Sovos, a software company operating in the tax and regulatory solutions sector.
Fornell speaks positively of her career to date, with experience in many different sectors and in different countries – saying that “you learn a lot from a journey like that”.
“Rather than single out specific career achievements, I look back at the adaptability and versatility that was required of me to achieve what I have achieved in a range of roles in varied sectors,” Fornell said. “With the relentless pace of change – which is going to become even more pronounced with AI – I believe adaptability and flexibility will become even more critical skillsets for people to progress and succeed in their careers going forward.”
Fornell has now taken on a new challenge however, as this marks her first time as the CEO of a company. Poppulo has offices in the US and in Cork, working to roll out its “employee communications and digital signage software”.
“It has been a fascinating few months since I took up the role just before Christmas,” Fornell said. “A bit of a whirlwind at times, to be honest, but tremendously exciting. We’ve got an exceptionally talented team and we’re operating in a very vibrant sector that solves critical business problems for every type of company imaginable.”
Leading a new team
While Fornell is used to leading teams and taking on new challenges, there is always a settling-in period for anyone starting a new role – a challenge that’s expanded if you’re also leading the team.
Fornell has learned some key tricks to step into a new role however. She believes in the old saying that “we are given two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak” – her key advice for anyone in a new leadership role is to listen and learn about every level of the organisation.
“Soak up as much information and sentiment as you can, and don’t rush into making significant changes at the outset,” Fornell said. “You might go into a role with some preconceived expectations based on what you’ve heard or read about, but you need to form your own opinions and make up your own mind. And that means asking questions and listening carefully before you do anything else.”
Fornell said it’s important in the early period to “take every opportunity you can to meet people where they work” and get their views on what the company can do to improve, or ways that the company can improve their job.
“If you do this, you will not only gather lots of really important information, it helps your new colleagues get a sense of who you are and what makes you tick, which is important if you’re coming in at a senior level in an organisation,” she said.
“So, my advice is to listen very carefully, ask lots of questions of as many people as possible across the business, then set out your plans for the next six months or so, and then execute. But, of course, the need to listen and ask questions never stops.”
Changing communications
Fornell’s focus in a new role is all about communication – listening and asking questions – a skill that serves her well in a communications-focused company. She agreed that technology is becoming more ingrained in areas such as customer engagement and workplaces, as “the advancement in communications technology has been phenomenal over recent years”.
But, Fornell also believes there has been an “equally important shift in mindset”, as companies are now prioritising “internal workplace communications as much as their external and customer communications”.
“This increased focus on engaging both customers and employees is particularly exciting because of the realisation that employee experience, workplace experience and customer experience are completely interlinked and interdependent – and that communication is the oil that ensures all moving parts work smoothly together,” she said. “That’s what Poppulo delivers.
“Our software enables companies with workforces from 1,000 to several hundreds of thousands of employees the ability to communicate and connect with all their people.”
Fornell said that there are challenges in her sector – there are a growing number of competitors, despite the fact internal communications is “still in the early stages of establishing itself as a sector”. But she believes Poppulo has an advantage as a “pioneering company” in the sector that makes it stand out.
“Our customers include almost half the companies in the Fortune 100, large and highly successful organisations – some of the biggest brands in the world – and they get it, but not everybody does,” Fornell said. “The penny is beginning to drop with more and more organisations that the employee experience they offer people is critical for the success of their business.”
Fornell noted that AI is showing itself as a “terrific opportunity for both sides of our business” – the internal communications aspect and its customer-facing digital signage software. She believes this software will be “revolutionised over the next few years” and provide immersive experiences that will “take customer experience to a whole new level”.
Looking ahead
Fornell – paraphrasing the song by Bachman-Turner Overdrive – believes “we ain’t seen nothing yet” when it comes to communications and believes generative AI is a “gamechanger” that will transform communication “in ways we’re beginning to see already”.
“The future of communication, and by extension all our futures, will be determined by something that’s already here and a growing problem: the ability to know what’s real from what’s fake,” Fornell said. “As AI grows more sophisticated by the day, this is clearly going to be one of the biggest challenges of our time.
“And it’s not just a global political or societal problem, it’s going be a major concern for workplace and customer communications. But it will also be a terrific opportunity for companies to build on their credibility and credentials for transparency and open, honest communications, so they are regarded as trusted partners of employees and customers alike, at a time when trust is at a premium.”
Fornell said AI is already “deeply embedded in our everyday lives” and companies like Poppulo already use non-generative AI to help organisations “create personalised content faster and more efficiently”.
But Fornell also believes that AI will never replace the “essential human touch” that can make employees feel a sense of belonging and make customers feel happy and valued – describing the term ‘artificial’ as “the Achilles’ heel of AI”.
Looking ahead, Fornell said Poppulo has some key milestones it aims to achieve in the future, while she will continue to focus on constant improvement. The best piece of career advice she ever received was that “your career is not a sprint, it’s a marathon”.
“My personal goals for the future are the same as they’ve been right through my life,” she said. “I’ve always set myself the goal of learning something new every year, and I’ve done it every year because I enjoy it. I find it a very interesting personal challenge and it’s very fulfilling.
“Of course, because we spend so much time at work, I’ve always believed in finding a role that I enjoy, and I’m loving my new life at Poppulo.
“At the end of the day, life’s too short – you’ve got to have fun along the way.”
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