“What Matters in PR” shines the spotlight “What Matters in PR” shines the spotlight on PR leaders shaping the industry. We speak with Ramya Chandrasekaran, Chief Communications Officer at Qi Group. Ramya tells us how she aligns the company’s brand narratives across global markets, what she took away from Davos, and how she connects communications to decision-making in the boardroom.
How did you realise communications was the right path for you?
This started much earlier than my career. I was always a storyteller as a child, sometimes to the point of telling very elaborate tall tales. Underneath that, though, was imagination and curiosity.
As I grew older, that curiosity became more focused. I found myself wanting to understand the story behind things: people, places, companies, brands. Not just what they were, but how they came to be and how they were perceived.
When I started working, I realised there was an entire profession built around that instinct. It was more a recognition that something I had always been drawn to actually had a place in the real world.
You’re managing coherent brand narratives across different markets, functions, and business units. How do you manage all of that?
There’s a lot of context switching involved. It’s essentially a conglomerate operating across consumer industries and multiple markets.
Because of that diversity, there’s constant tension between maintaining consistency and adapting locally. Especially when you’re HQ-based, there’s always a temptation to standardise everything and create one universal version of the truth.
But I’ve learned over the years that this breaks down very quickly in diverse markets. What matters is being absolutely clear about what the organisation fundamentally stands for. That core cannot change. But the way it shows up in different markets has to adapt.
Culture isn’t just an additional layer. It shapes how people interpret everything. So rather than chasing uniformity, I focus on alignment. The intention stays the same, but the expression changes depending on the market.
How does that play out in practice?
Sustainability is actually a perfect example because different markets interpret it very differently.
In some markets, especially the United States right now, ESG has become politically charged. There’s significant pushback because of the broader political climate, so organisations are becoming cautious about how they talk about it. But in Europe, ESG remains highly relevant and actively discussed. Then in African markets, the conversation shifts again depending on the country.
So the key question becomes: what matters to this specific community? Where does trust come from in that market?
In many places, institutional trust has weakened significantly. People increasingly trust individuals, influencers, community leaders, or religious figures. In some African markets, church leaders carry enormous influence. If a pastor supports a message, communities are far more likely to engage with it.
Communications today is no longer about pushing out one global campaign and hoping it resonates everywhere. It’s about understanding local dynamics, identifying who genuinely holds influence in that community, and building partnerships accordingly.
“If there’s a disconnect between words and actions, that disconnect becomes your reputation.”
Ramya on how fragile trust in business has become
Trust in corporations, governments, and even traditional media is at historic lows. How has that fundamentally changed what good communications looks like?
We’re operating in a world where trust is no longer automatically given. It’s constantly being tested. And that changes communications completely.
It’s no longer enough to simply say the right things. People are looking for consistency between what organisations say and what they actually do. The moment there’s a gap, that gap becomes the story.
The role of communications has evolved. It’s no longer just about crafting messages. It’s about ensuring organisations can withstand scrutiny.
You operate at the board level. How different is the reputation conversation there from what’s happening inside the communications team?
If you want to understand how seriously a company takes reputation, you need to listen to how reputation is discussed in the boardroom. That’s where the language changes.
Within communications teams, we talk about narratives, positioning, and sentiment. But in the boardroom, reputation becomes a conversation about risk exposure, regulatory pressure, and long-term value.
The discussion is no longer “How are we being perceived?” It becomes “What could this cost us?”
And once reputation is understood as risk, it starts shaping decisions across the business, not just communications.
“The hardest reputation battles are no longer fought in the media. They’re fought in systems that we no longer control. And that is the shifting landscape that all comms professionals are trying to navigate right now.“
Ramya on a challenge the industry is increasingly facing
What’s an underrated idea in communications that deserves more attention?
Ironically, I think messaging itself is both overrated and underrated at the same time.
We spend enormous amounts of time refining the perfect message, but most reputational damage doesn’t come from saying the wrong thing. It comes from decisions that no amount of messaging can fix afterward.
Yet communications teams are still often brought in at the very end, when leadership asks, “How do we position this?” By then, the decision is already made and the reputational risk is already embedded.
The real opportunity is for communications to move much closer to decision-making itself. Communications needs to be the voice in the room saying: “This will not land the way you think it will.”
You attended the World Economic Forum at Davos, an event that is famous for what happens off-agenda including the corridor conversations and the private dinners. What stayed with you from this year?
The first time I attended, I was honestly intimidated. Imposter syndrome kicks in very quickly thinking I would be surrounded by brilliant and powerful leaders. But Davos is more human than its image suggests. Once I started having conversations, I realised I could absolutely hold my own.
The atmosphere this year was defined by uncertainty. Geopolitics, technology, and social expectations are all shifting simultaneously. Leaders are operating with far less clarity than before. We’re no longer simply explaining decisions. We’re helping organisations make sense of a constantly shifting environment.
And increasingly, communications professionals are being invited into broader discussions beyond communications itself. I attended a Financial Times roundtable on corporate diplomacy in a fragmented world. Around the table were people from communications, corporate affairs, compliance, and risk.
That, to me, signals that communications is finally being recognised as part of larger strategic business conversations.
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