Anders Bylund | Influence 100
anders-bylund-2019-influence-100

Anders Bylund

Head of Group Communications
Interogo Holdings (IKEA)
Switzerland

 

 

After many years agency-side, Anders Bylund was named head of group communications at Ikea parent Inter Ikea Group in mid-2011. In 2016, following a corporate restructuring, he took on the same role on the senior management team at Interogo Holdings, which oversees Ikea’s investment businesses, which now include its first move into clothing, as it took a stake in high-street retailer H&M last October.

Before joining the furniture and home products company, Bylund spent more than a decade with Burson-Marsteller, including as its CEO and chairman in Sweden, and as head of the EMEA crisis practice.

Can you share a moment in your career when you saw PR’s direct impact on business performance?
When a changed communication and public affairs approach enabled accelerating expansion of McDonald's in Sweden in the early 1990s.

What do you love about this industry?
Stimulating challenges.

What most frustrates you about this industry?
Difficult to measure causality.

What are the communications industry's biggest challenges and opportunities?
Handling disinformation and fake information is the biggest challenge. Strengthening integrity is the biggest opportunity.

How do you relax or change pace when you're not at work?
Play with my grandchildren.

Can you share a book/movie/TV show/podcast that teaches a valuable lesson about PR?
Big Little Lies. 

If I wasn't working in marketing/communications, I would be...
Doing scientific research into communications theory.