The competition between WorldCom and GTE Corp. to acquire MCI Corp. is only the latest in a series of massive takeovers or mergers transforming companies around the world. Not only does "global competition" drive corporate change, but governments around the world are slashing costs and restructuring in a massive effort to cut costs. With all of this change, how can PR practitioners -whether on staff or as outside consultants - "add value" to the bottom line? More and more are realizing that they have to take a more strategic view of the communications challenges facing the organization today.
A shift from day-to-day operational tactics to a higher-level strategic approach is not only required but is absolutely essential if PR professionals are going to get their advice respected by senior decision-makers in the organization. Here are some key questions to ask as you explore the communications challenges facing your client organization:
1. Are the key stakeholders in the organization fully aware of the changes underway? Do they know the rationale for the changes and the potential impact on them? These stakeholders include: customers, employees, shareholders, regulators, distribution channels.
2. Who owns the communications function in the organization? In
other words, are managers held accountable for the quality of their communications, or is that strictly the responsibility of the corporate communications team?
If managers and decisionmakers aren't responsible for their communications internally and externally, then there is no ownership of the products produced, including brochures, newsletters, videos and other "communications collateral."
Corporate communications professionals have the functional responsibility for advising their clients and executing the decision. But the client must take ownership of the go-ahead decision. Otherwise, if things go wrong, we all know who will get the blame, right?
3. Is there coherence among all communications activities and messages throughout the organization? The HR Division, for example, often plays a key role in employee communications. Are the messages synchronized with the customer communications messages emerging from marketing? The public affairs messages emanating from corporate communications? Shareholder messages coming from investor relations? Or the messages coming from the government or congressional relations unit? If not, it is almost impossible to have coherence or consistency in messages, tactics and timing.
4. Is the corporation able to react quickly when something goes wrong? Is there a crisis communications strategy with a team authorized to act immediately? The most critical time to act is in the first few hours of crisis. Absent a well-thought strategy, the organization will often be found in a catatonic silence as unfolding events make them appear confused at best or guilty at worst.
5. Are there communications "silos" within each operational unit? These stand-alone silos prevent the sharing of timely information. The best strategies in the world will collapse from lack of knowledge. In other words, does one arm really know what the other is doing?
6. Are most of the information products and channels one-way? Is the customer's or employee's voice really present at the decision-making table? The challenge is to turn one-way vehicles into two-way opportunities for dialogue and to encourage authentic communications upward, downwards, outwards and inwards.
Does communications come as an afterthought - or is it an integral part of the key decision-making process? So many have experienced the command, "Here, go off and make this turkey fly." Maybe if the corporate communications advisor had been brought in at the outset it would not have been a turkey in the first place. A PR pro can advise on the potential impact of key decisions on employees, the media, and on public and political reaction.
These are vital factors when decision-makers weigh the pros and cons of decisions affecting products, services, employees, clients and customers. Communications must move up the food chain in any organization and the key to that is to demonstrate strategic thinking about the organization's core issues. Remember, strategic communications can't help poor products, policies and practices. However, being strategic can help to prevent disastrous decisions in the first place and can soften or shape the impact in far more effective ways than if they are restricted to being tactical order-takers.
In the end, communicating strategically can:
1. Create a sense of urgency;
2. Offer inspiration and motivation, and
3. Promote and foster ownership of change.
In the next column, I will explore the key steps to build a strategic communications capability in organizations. P.S. Thanks to the many who e-mailed me with their welcoming reactions to my inaugural column last month on Buckingham Palace and the communications debacle surrounding the funeral of Princess Diana.
Barry J. McLoughlin, president of Barry McLoughlin Associates Inc., a communications training and publishing firm in Washington D.C., Princeton, N.J. and Ottawa, Canada, can be reached at [email protected]., 800/663-3899