What will be of Zilingo’s brand image as PR chief suspended amidst top shuffle?

Zilingo has suspended its director, global PR and communications, Naushaba Salahuddin (pictured left) after she questioned the board about a media statement made by a "Zilingo representative". This comes shortly after co-founder and CEO Ankiti Bose (pictured right) was suspended for financial irregularities at the company.

According to an email sent on 28 April seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, the board had suspended Salahuddin's email access after she questioned why the board was "sending out half-truth and false statements on behalf of a 'Zilingo spokesperson' to the media" without her knowledge.

Media outlets including Business Today India previously said that Bose had submitted several sexual harassment complaints against colleagues, alleging that co-founder and CTO, Dhruv Kapoor, and COO, Aadi Vaidya did not extend their help when they were told. Thereafter, Business Today India and other media outlets including Financial Express quoted a Zilingo board spokesperson saying that no harassment complaints were made against investments or their nominees and that the board is committed to following due process to investigate all relevant events from the past which have been brought to their attention.

The media reports also quoted a "Zilingo spokesperson" saying that the company's major investors gave the green light for the board to place Bose on suspension pending an investigation of the issues raised. "The media statement maligns the company and its founder and senior officials while stating something that many employees of Zilingo know to be a lie," Salahuddin said in the email.

Salahuddin added that she will "not jeopardise [her] integrity or [her] reputation" by letting someone spread false information about the company or Bose or the harassment allegations, "making it look like it came from me or from Zilingo employees". "I refused to corroborate lies," Salahuddin said. It is understood that the statements were provided by PR agency Mutant on behalf of Zilingo. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Zilingo and Mutant for comment.

Zilingo reportedly suspended Bose after investors including Temasek Holdings and Sequoia Capital opened an investigation into Zilingo's financial practices under Bose's leadership, according to a Bloomberg article on 12 April. The alleged financial irregularities were discovered amidst Zilingo's efforts to raise US$150 to US$200 million in new funds. Shortly after, Bose sent a legal notice to the company's board for charges of harassment and abuse, Business Today India said. According to the Economic Times, Bose also reportedly called this a "witch hunt" that resulted from the harassment complaints she raised.

Last week, the company appointed Deloitte to investigate the harassment claims, the Economic Times said, and co-founder and CTO Dhruv Kapoor also spoke up yesterday in a note to employees, explaining that Zilingo does not tolerate sexual and workplace harassment or bullying. Quoting Kapoor, the Economic Times reported that Zilingo has also "always followed due process and taken strict action" in "rare cases" when such issues were raised, Kapoor said. He added the company is "trouble to see" individuals in the team "act against" the company's interests, at times in a way that "hurts Zilingo's reputation".

A vacuum created at the top

As the founder and face of the company, Bose is synonymous with the Zilingo brand. She founded Zilingo in 2015 and has since brought on board investors including Temasek, Sequoia, EDBI, Burda Principal Investments, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Sofina. Last year, Bose also spoke at the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit - Trade for Tomorrow session where she shared how tech innovation and digitisation have paved the way towards building a sustainable world. She was even recognised as one of the most influential young individuals in business, having been listed on the Fortune 40 Under 40 in 2019 and Forbes 30 under 30 Asia in 2018. She was also listed on The Bloomberg 50 in 2019.

Meanwhile, Salahuddin joined the team in 2018 to lead PR, internal communications and social media. She works closely with Zilingo's co-founders and the C-Suite on strategic and crisis communications alongside building their personal profiles. In times like this, PR and communications professionals are usually the go-to individuals tasked with handling the media crisis. Zilingo, however, no longer has the expertise of its in-house communications chief and is also missing the leadership of its CEO. With the company in the eye of the storm, this raises the question of who should be in charge of managing external communications.

Lars Voedisch, principal consultant and MD at PRecious Communications, told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the company needs to rethink its whole leadership and communications approach as there seems to be "a vacuum at the top". He explained that losing the CEO and head of communications creates "a vacuum that cannot be filled by hiring consultants alone", because most importantly the organisation needs clear direction and guidance not only externally but especially for its own staff that might be divided into different camps.

"It is a crucial situation for the company and its survival where all brand owners and advocates inside the organisation have to be aligned on what's best for the company versus personal loyalties and have clear decision and direction setting structures," he explained, adding:

In crisis situations like this, it matters more than ever to have one voice, show one front and exert confidence in the future of the organisation.

Voedisch also raised the issue of the personality cult, calling it "highly risky" for companies that employ thousands of employees and collect hundreds of millions of funding. "We've seen similar situations in other startups that grew fast and were too closely dependent on the personal brand of the leader, such as uber and WeWork," he added.

Meanwhile, independent PR consultant Asiya Bakht said Zilingo's current communications head seems to be personally loyal to the CEO and seems to have suffered the consequences. In times like this, having a strong communications team is critical for the company. Be it an internal team or an external agency, Bakht said having the right communications advice can help the company manage employee and public perception in a professional manner. 

“To my mind, the current crisis at Zilingo is less of a communications issue but more of a corporate one. There are serious allegations that have been raised against Bose and she has also raised concerning issues against the company. This crisis can only be resolved by fair investigation and finding the truth," she explained.

Getting rid of comms 'a careless thing'

On the other hand, a B2C PR industry professional told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE on the condition of anonymity that it is "a very careless thing" to get rid of the communications person. "If you have a hard-handed approach from a business perspective, first suspending the CEO and now the communications person, it reflects poorly on Zilingo's management," the industry player said.

She added that Zilingo "doesn't care about PR at this point in time" and that the company has "not understood the ramifications of reputational damage". "It's a short term approach. If Zilingo intends to bounce back, how do you engage, take control, and build trust? How do you find small pockets of whatever goodwill there is? Another issue is business decisions which play a bigger role in any company. Zilingo's business decision isn't clear and with that reputational risk, there is going to be a huge business challenge," the industry player said, adding:

Reputational risk is a very integral part of this issue and the PR person is usually the one managing it. But in this case, Zilingo's whole strategy is warped.

For Zilingo to come back stronger and build confidence, it will need to reevaluate the whole business and have a strategy in place, the anonymous industry player said. This includes putting out a statement reassuring everyone that Zilingo will return strong, that it has a good business model and that it will make sure it is in a position to respond, especially to the sexual harassment allegations.

"The business isn't in a good shape. Zilingo needs to have a better grasp on the situation and relook at the reputational risk internally and gain stakeholders' trust so that when it relaunches, it can return with all the stakeholders' backing," the industry player explained. 

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