Post #11

May 31st, 2018 

 Today was one of my favorite days so far. Instead of predominantly following Sheila in HR, I got to follow around Steve in Corporate communications. I sat on a lot of meetings with him, and we also got the chance to chat a lot about what he does. Steve is in charge of all of the corporate communications for First Solar, so he obviously has one of the best perspectives one could have on corporate communications. A big responsibility of corporate communications is to design the core messages and values of the company. In every room I've gone into so far, there's been a sign outlining First Solar's core value and mission. It's cool now to talk to the people that actually made the decisions that went behind those messages. In addition to that, one of the main responsibilities behind what they do is managing internal communications. Getting messages out from one part of the company to another part of the company is essential, and they're the ones who manage it. For example, the internal safety department has the responsibility of designing safety protocol and management, but corporate communication is the group that actually gets those messages out. I actually sat in on a meeting between internal safety and corporate communication, and it's clear that corporate communication also helps out with every department as well. They're not simply their to communicate but refine what's being communicated. Another big responsibility Steve talked about is setting up meetings with the press. For example, recently there's been news that First Solar is opening up a new manufacturing site in Perrysburg. It was Steve's group's duty to contact news outlets and publications, so they could set up meetings with the CEO and CFO. So basically what I extrapolated from this all is as follows: corporate communication manages and runs all internal communication but also prepares all external communication. This group is very important and requires a lot of people's skills. Some of the stuff seemed kind of like busy work and straightforward, but most of it seemed pretty interesting. Behind all the science and technology, someone needs to keep communication going, and it seems like Steve and the team are doing a great job. I'm excited for my last day tomorrow. Part of me is sad that it's almost over, but I think I have gotten a ton out of this experience so far.

Comments

  1. Brian OliverJune 1, 2018 at 10:35 AM

    Thanks- reads well. Starts thinking about what artifacts you want to highlight in your presentation.
    Travel safe

    ReplyDelete

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