Communications can be seen as a sort of litmus test for companies. If you cannot clearly communicate a decision to your stakeholders, you might need to revisit it. One of the key roles of communications is to understand various stakeholders and their expectations – to look from the outside in. A communicator must also be able to interpret from engineering to plain English or translate financial figures into stories.

I am currently responsible for Fortum's financial communications. In practice this means stock exchange communications and annual reporting. We also support investor relations and finance in the quarterly interim reporting. Crises communications and issues management are part of my job description, as well. My team consists of four communications professionals, and we work closely with Corporate Relations, Sustainability, Strategy and M&A functions.

By May, my busiest time of the year is over: the annual report and the first quarter interim report have been published, and the Annual General Meeting has been held. At the moment, for example, I am working with Fortum Energy Review, which this time focuses on hydropower, the communications plan for tax issues, renewal of the release and the blog process, communications risk assessment and a change in the communications plan.