Businesswomen  •  Interview  •  Members

Five questions with Anne Mazoyer-Jankowska, Founder and President of FairValue Corporate & Public Affairs

In this exclusive interview, we asked five questions to Anne Mazoyer- Jankowska, Founder and President of FairValue Corporate & Public Affairs, our new Patron Member. With over two decades of experience in the field, Anne shared insights on the evolution of her company, the impact of crises on business strategies, and her perspective on current challenges like Brexit and inflation. 

In 2005, you founded FairValue Corporate & Public Affairs with the ambition to offer your clients dedicated and responsive support. Two years later, you successfully launched the 'Initiative pour le Développement des Entreprises en Europe' in France. This initiative aimed to bring intermediate-sized companies closer to community institutions, and it had a significant impact at the political level. Is there a connection between this initiative and the establishment of your company, and what influence did it have on your career?

After the digital boom of the early 2000s, I realised that medium and large groups had very few consultancies to help them protect their interests, both nationally and in Europe. 20 years ago, only very large Lobbying and Communication consultancies were active, reducing companies' freedom of choice in terms of the cost of such support. I wanted to give these companies the opportunity to change dimensions. My commitment is not new, and at that time I noticed a loss of economic strength due to the lack of consideration that these companies had in the eyes of economic decision-makers. It was this observation and my passion for business that prompted me to act.

FairValue specialises in public affairs, corporate communication, crisis management, and the international development of businesses. Your company provides tailored support at the national, European, and international levels. What is your recipe for success when operating in such a diverse environment?

Having a team on the ground is the key to success. In addition, we are always working with the same type of organisation, and it is within this fabric that we find the mid-sized companies, or bigger groups but which are still on a human scale, and whose operating methods differ from those of the major groups. Our success is based on exploiting this common fabric, which we have been doing since the firm was founded. I have always been guided by Europe, and I want the younger generations to be able to benefit from a Europe that is strong on the international stage thanks to its economy, and not dependent on third countries.

In recent years, terms like ‘crisis’ and ‘crisis management’ have become prevalent in the business landscape. Have you observed a direct impact on your business, and has it posed any challenges to your work? Would you be willing to share a success story?

We are specialists in crisis management as this activity has developed in a systemic way at FairValue. We are known in France as one of the best firms for crisis management, particularly when it comes to restructuring. The crisis notion has become since those last years an endemic factor for all organisations and this is clearly the result of globalisation, but also of Western economies' fragilities facing third countries' development. And this will continue for years to come. The notion of crisis is obviously taking on greater importance in our cases, but crisis management has always been part of our advice to our clients to prepare for any eventuality, with regular updates of crisis management plans.

This crisis management system has been affected by the arrival of new technologies and social networks, which have become vectors of crisis and have been grafted onto our systems since the 2008 subprime crisis, but especially since the 2012 financial crisis. This, combined with the overdevelopment and emergence of social networks, means that the constant exposure and transparency of companies' activities puts them at risk, as they are forced to have a speech that is acceptable and audible to their entire audience and have less right to make mistakes.

I have worked on a wide range of corporate crises, from sexual harassment to managerial, economic and financial crises. The most complex crises, such as industrial restructuring, require a very detailed knowledge of the law and trade union organisations, which is the case in all the countries we are based in, and call for great tact with local authorities. For example, we have carried out a number of plant closures in the north of France, and this has not been easy with the French government and the Hauts-de-France region, with whom we have had to meet in order to support management and employees, and ease tensions.

Anticipation is key with permanent reflection of solutions that can help the company to survive and to reinvent itself. I applied this myself at FairValue Corporate & Public Affairs during the COVID-19 crisis. As I'm trained in politics and have extensive experience with violent situations in industry and politics, I always say that you have to plan for the worst to get the best. Crisis is a state of mind.
 

In today's rapidly evolving landscape of public affairs, what are the primary concerns of your clients?

Faced with a fragile environment in which the crisis is constant, most of our customers in the UK and France have financial constraints as a priority, particularly in the current inflationary context. We aim to give our clients all the help needed to stay in the course and to facilitate their development, and find new business paths wherever they are.
 

What is your perspective on current challenges, such as Brexit and inflation, and how do these factors impact your company?

In this context, we are very attentive to all Franco-British companies or third companies with UK connections. We remain attentive to economic decisions and to the hardening of relations between the UK and the EU. Our aim is to bring some flexibility in certain sectors to maintain the economic link between UK and the European Union and vice versa. We are committed to helping companies, with the legal means at our disposal, to get around the legislation resulting from Brexit, and to help them to develop both in Europe and internationally.

Based in Paris, Brussels, Rome, London, in Warsaw, and active in West Africa and the Maghreb region, FairValue Corporate & Public Affairs is an independent European global strategy consultancy. It specialises in public affairs, corporate communication and crisis management, as well as the international development of businesses. The firm is an expert in high-stakes issues in complex environments.