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In light of the Jan. 6 violence at the U.S. Capitol and the social, racial and economic unrest of 2020, we asked Cristina Alesci, Chobani’s first chief corporate affairs officer, how CEOs are thinking about promises many companies made last year, as well as what a veteran journalist brings to a corporate setting.

We talked to PRNEWS Top Women in PR honorees about the advancements of women in the workforce, the importance of mentorship and how the industry can help tackle the challenges of working women.

Many agencies and practitioners already have attempted to predict what corporate responsibility and purpose look like for brands in 2021, but the time for pontification is over.

Now, we must be unapologetic in our expectation for companies to step in when governments fall short. This tenant of corporate responsibility was brought to the forefront with Twitter and Facebook announcing they’d banned former president Trump–permanently and indefinitely, respectively–from their platforms.

Societal unrest during the summer of 2020 led many businesses to take a hard look at what they represented to their audiences in terms of diversity and inclusion. Since then we’ve seen many organizations make statements and promises to practice greater inclusivity on everything from hiring to campaign content and representation. Whether or not these promises resulted in real change remains to be seen.

As the world continues to rock and reel through concurrent stressors, companies need to reset and reevaluate their employee experience. In the wake of change and uncertainty, employee engagement programs are failing to meet employee needs.

For some in financial services the late-January phenomena of GameStop represented an existential threat. For others, it was a chance to take a position. In response, courageous executives acted. This was not possible without prior planning and consideration.

With emergency approval of vaccines, the need to communicate the importance of prompt vaccination seems obvious: Without 75-80 percent of Americans vaccinated, herd immunity, leading to a return to normalcy, will not be reached. And now, with the discovery of an additional, more contagious virus strain, getting Americans vaccinated promptly seems even more critical.

In years past, launching product was a boon for publicists. It was fairly easy. In 2020 and beyond, not so much.

In addition to breaking through the noise of COVID-related news, brands with product launches were forced last year to compete with stories about social justice and the election. Combine that with shrinking newsrooms and an inability to host live events and the appetite for product launches was just not the same.

To succeed in 2021, we recommend “the Landscape Analysis” as the best way to catalog, evaluate and improve your situation. Even if you think you know the answers, the current atmosphere indicates a need to reassess the communication environment.

It seems safe for communicators to assume live events won’t return, at best, before late summer or Q4. That leaves some eight to nine months for companies to continue to stage virtual activities, including trade shows, press conferences, media interviews and other events.