Corporate Communications often finds itself at the mercy of the organization to sets its agenda for the year. While Communications’ efforts should certainly support company strategy, consider these 5 Communications-specific trends that will influence the function’s ability to have a real impact in 2012.

1. Stakeholders have (even more) power.

The age of individual control over what, when, and how to consume information continues in 2012.  New devices, like the Kindle Fire, new services, like Spotify, and new mobile apps, like Zite, that took off in 2011 will further enable people to act in ways natural to them. Chances are, reading/viewing/listening to dry corporate messages isn’t something most people like to do naturally! As a result, Communications’ approach to everything it creates must be stakeholder-centric, not company-centric.

Smart teams will kickoff the year by asking themselves, “Do we know where our key stakeholder groups go for information?” Determine how your stakeholders consume information with CEC’s audience listening guide, and then use that information to develop a stakeholder-centric communication plan.

2. Communicators look to build their business partnership skills.

In 2012, the Corporate Communications function grows up. Once just the PR-engine for the company, Communications is now expected to impact business results in a much different way by coaching leaders to communicate more effectively, developing internal communication systems for employees to connect with one another, and feeding stakeholder insight to business leaders, to name a few roles.

A new set of skills is required for communicators to live up to these new expectations. Clear writing and a solid understanding of channels won’t cut it, but a focus on business partnership skills such as critical thinking and negotiation will enable communicators to grow into the position of consultative business partner.

CEC members, we can help you: See how your skills stack up compared to peers; develop a plan for your skill development in 2012; and equip yourself with smart tools to build skills in the moment.

3. A global mindset pervades the function.

Communications execs are asking two things of their teams this year: 1.) partner with colleagues in remote locations and 2.) customize messages for local audiences in other countries. At the root of this global focus in the function is the simple fact that emerging markets are key for corporate growth. Communication teams that spend time in 2012 building an awareness of cultural differences of local audiences will discover new solutions to age-old collaboration challenges (e.g., Why does no one use our intranet portal to share information?) and deliver messages that are more resonant.

Visit our Global Management Topic Center to take the stress out of collaboration or download communicator’s guides to India and China to get up to speed on cultural trends that impact the function’s communication efforts.

4. Blanket trust-building to strengthen corporate reputation is called into question.

Tight budgets over the last few years have forced communicators to think hard about where they place their investments, and dollars spent tracking high-level reputation measures are being scrutinized more than ever before. One communicator sums it up nicely: “We have done reputation measurement for several years and I have not taken any radical, meaningful decisions as a result of any of the data we’ve got.”

In 2012, we expect to see leading communicators focus reputation efforts not on building an even bigger bank of goodwill through high-level reputation tracking, but instead on sharing information that influences a small set of targeted stakeholder decisions that drive business outcomes. Contribute to our 2012 research on Building an Outcome-Focused Reputation.

5. Agile workforces meet the challenges of uncertain environments through strong communication and a focus on learning.

Much remains uncertain and unsolved in 2012. And yet, the show must go on. Companies will attempt to grow. The smart ones know that employees who proactively adapt, seek to learn from peers, and feel a personal connection to the company are excited by and contribute to these fast-moving companies.

Communications, then, must support the development of an agile organization by helping leaders to share key market context that helps employees to make decisions in line with strategy, partnering with HR to connect employees to one another, and supporting a culture that empower employees.

CEC Related Resources

• 2012 Strategic Priorities for Communicators
• 2011 Communications Budget Benchmarks
• What’s in the Works from CEC in 2012

CEC Related Blog Posts

• 4 Comms Execs Priorities in 20123 Stakeholder Trends to Watch in 2012
• Top 3 Insights from Communication Gurus in 2011
• Top 5 CEC Blogs of 2011

3?  Just a measly 3?  C’mon, already. I mean, when you think of every foot that’s been unceremoniously shoved into its corresponding mouth during this entire year, how could you possibly limit the list to just 3?

But, as a communications professional, I will attempt to fulfill the mission as assigned by the stern taskmistress who runs the show here at the Insider…starting with:

#3: The Governor of Texas Can’t Count to 3
Gaffe: During a November GOP debate in Washington, DC, Rick Perry (the ever-so-momentarily leading contender to challenge President Obama) stated in no uncertain terms that when HE becomes president, his first order of business will be to eradicate three federal agencies: Commerce, Education, and…uhhhhhhh…the, uhhhh….

Lesson: (eesh, where to start?) If you’re gonna be specific, you’d better be…well…specific. If you’re gonna make inflammatory, controversial statements, you’d better be able to back them up. If you’re gonna prove that you’re smart enough to be the next President of the United States, you’d better be able to count past two. Read More »

One of the key activities for communicators in terms of reputation building is stakeholder engagement. Members tell us that they focus heavily on stakeholder engagement activities and are trying to be smarter about it – prioritizing key, influential stakeholders and keeping a pulse on what they are saying about the company. These activities involve not only monitoring for risks and potential issues, but also take the shape of more proactive engagement through thought leadership events, engaging and meeting with industry leaders, and promoting good corporate citizenship efforts.

Currently, most stakeholder engagement is focused around reputation risk management and justifying or positively reinforcing existing reputation activities. Some of the ways in which communicators manage reputation with stakeholders include:

• Stakeholder mapping and monitoring: this involves keeping a pulse on what stakeholders are saying about you, so that you may identify and preempt potential risks. Think of this one as good “housekeeping” to prevent issues or crises from rising. For example, Monsanto utilizes stakeholder-centric monitoring to prioritize issues for specific stakeholder groups. Other companies identify and prioritize reputation risks by mapping “degree of sensitivity to issue” against “strength of company position.”
• Stakeholder conversations and thought leadership: more proactively, communicators identify influencers and discuss issues of concern with them to establish the company as a thought leader in the industry. This is in addition to other thought leadership and executive communications programs. Chevron for example, holds thought leadership stakeholder discussions on important issues to the company.

These tactics are great if you, the Communications team, were the only ones engaging with stakeholders! But more and more it is your business partners and employees who have more frequent interactions with stakeholders.  Adding additional pressure is the fact that the external environment is becoming increasingly complex as stakeholders become more resourceful about how they access information and form perceptions about you.

The problem is that business partners and employees don’t necessarily know all the risks to reputation as they are having conversations with stakeholders, and won’t think through those interactions as strategically as communicators do. Read More »

Are you in Media Relations? Do you write news releases on behalf of your company? Recently, we spoke to your peers to discuss two major changes to the external environment in which we operate, and what those changes mean for how we write the traditional news release:

1. Traditional media (journalists/reporters) are busier than ever before. Their teams are smaller, their jobs are broader, and they have less time to recraft corporate stories.
2. The visibility of news means that journalists are no longer the sole audience for our releases.

Although I highly doubt that these facts will be news to many people, based on my conversations, it seems that very few media relations folks have substantially changed how they write news releases, or adapted them to reflect these changes.

Doesn’t this seem strange to you? Read More »

Managing stakeholder perceptions has always been challenging, but given the growing complexity of the current communications environment, it can often feel like an insurmountable task.  Think about it — as our companies’ business operations continue to change, our customers, employees, and external partners are all becoming far more diverse than ever before.  At the same time, the channels and sources that these stakeholder groups use to consume information continues to evolve.  It’s no wonder that a recent CEC poll Heads of Communications revealed that proactive reputation management was the 2^nd overall priority for 2012, only two percentage points behind employee engagement efforts.

Given the need to address this important topic, the CEC recently launched its next major research initiative —Building an Outcomes-Focused Reputation.  As part of the study we’ve already spoken with communications executives at several dozen leading organizations to better understand the challenges that they are facing in managing stakeholder perceptions as well as the tactics they use to measure, monitor, and improve and their corporate reputations. (Take our 2 minute Quick Poll and tell us what you’re doing to manage your reputation!)

Current Approach:

Faced with increased stakeholder scrutiny and fickle audiences, most companies are focusing on building their company’s reputation by turning up the volume on positive messages related to their organization.  Read More »

Most crisis communications plans that I see are robust when it comes to controlling the things that companies can control.  For example, most plans comprehensively outline escalation rules, crisis team org charts, calling chains, initial holding statements, etc.  These are the resources whose applicability can be predicted with relative certainty, regardless of the crisis.

But after your Communications team has gathered the facts, called together the crisis team, and issued the initial response, what do you do next?  The short answer is – “a lot.” And while I’ll admit that it’s difficult to plan in advance for every crisis permutation, there are several things that you can do to better prepare yourself for managing the ensuing stakeholder debate and impact on reputation.  Here are four strategic activities that I think will help your organization:

(1) Listen to how stakeholder conversations are taking shape.  We all know that the world of communications has become increasingly complex in recent years.  Gone are the days when organizations had significant control over when news would be released to the masses and how the subsequent conversation would evolve.  Now, information flows to stakeholders through their own complex web of influencers.

These principles remain true in a crisis situation, making it critical that companies closely monitor how conversations are taking shape.  CEC members can take check out our profile of different Social Media Listening options to see how to improve non-traditional media monitoring. Read More »

Earlier this week, I was reading through PR Week, and by sheer coincidence happened to come across one of the CEC’s very own members, Ray Jordan, Corporate Vice President of Public Affairs and Corporate Communications of Johnson & Johnson (J&J). As someone who hosted the ‘Guru’ meeting in February of this year, I certainly recognized Ray’s name, and I found myself personally engulfed in this story where he speaks of some of the recent organizational changes and reputational threats being experienced at J&J right now, notably ‘recalls and FDA, Department of Justice, and SEC investigations, in addition to the recent announcement of an acquisition with Swiss device make Synthes.’ Ray went on to speak about the effects this is having on Communications at J&J and his thoughts and approaches.

Jordan helped internationalize J&J’s Communications function and we at the CEC have been privileged to work on a few things with J&J, notably our competencies work. Although I was unhappy to hear that Jordan was going through these challenges, what was heartening to hear was that it sounded very much in line with what we’ve been hearing from the global membership. CEC research clearly suggests that many organizations are experiencing some sort of significant change within their organizations right now, (and many of these changes happening at the same time!). Ray’s story for me certainly highlighted that change REALLY does seem to be new norm. Read More »

By Laura Newman

I must admit I am quite proud. It is nearly one month into 2011 and I seem to have upheld at least one of my many New Year’s resolutions – allowing myself more quality time to read. (I suspect the fact that I recently moved neighborhoods and consequently replaced the luxury of walking to work with a hectic Tube journey certainly helped to provide the time to disconnect from my blackberry and hide behind my book.)

I most recently devoured Dan Ariely’s “Predictably Irrational.” (No, I haven’t gotten to his new best seller “The Upside of Irrationality” yet and no I didn’t only enjoy the book because of the connection to my alma mater, Duke University!). This delightful read presented a great balance of amusing anecdotes and thoughtful guidance.  From the lens of behavioral economics, Professor Ariely examines the way we make daily decisions – anything from ordering a meal at a restaurant to deciding how much money to save – and argues that we constantly make mistakes and act irrationally, but that we do so in a consistent and predictable way.

Read More »

I was flying back from a trip to the Europe when I encountered, for the second time in recent months, a newspaper article talking about a rising interest among large companies in insurance against losses caused by misdeeds of celebrities they’ve paid to endorse their brands.  While the whole idea sounds a bit strange, the ongoing litany of celebrity sex scandals (the last year has revealed some real doozies – Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch, and Tiger Woods, to name a few) certainly helps the business case for buying it.  And “death, disability, and disgrace” clauses have in fact been available for decades.

I’m especially curious, however, to hear from folks on the front lines of public relations and reputation management.  After all, an insurer may well pay up under these policies, but damage to a company’s image can take years to repair, and it is very tough to put a price tag on that damage (not to mention the sleep you lose trying to clean up a PR disaster). Read More »

First of all, a very happy new year to you all!  It’s that time when you make yourself all sorts of promises and resolutions.  You look forward to a fresh start and lay out all the things you will do differently this year compared to last.  Any chance your list includes a resolution to invest more in the corporate brand?

The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing a time of unprecedented challenge.  Patent expiries, regulatory issues, and increased pressures from healthcare providers have combined to create an environment where the sector is associated with lower growth and higher risk.  Clearly focusing on reputation should be everything for you right now? Or should it?

In an industry subject to a lot of scrutiny, we hear the term ‘Corporate reputation’ used a lot.  It is often used alongside ‘corporate brand,’ perhaps even in the same sentence to mean the same thing.  The CEC’s quantitative research from ‘Building Stakeholder Preference through the Corporate Brand’,  however, confirms that reputation and brand are two means to two very different ends.  The end goal for reputation is stakeholder acceptance (i.e., “would I consider doing business with you?”), and the end goal for corporate brand management is stakeholder preference (i.e., “would I as a health care professional choose to prescribe your drug in preference to your competitor’s?”) Read More »