Communicators must take a seat at the strategy table
MARYLAND — In today’s speed-crazy, high-tech, multi-dimensional business milieu, captains of enterprise battle it out to get their messages on top of stakeholders’ heads, most of whom, if not all, receive information from a great variety of sources, and often through technology-based channels. In the good old days, business communication got through a lot of pitching armed with well-written and edited news releases sent either through snail mail or e-mail, or personally delivered to publications or broadcast networks by savvy media relations people.
Undoubtedly, the rapid rise of social media and difficult economic times have had a profound influence on the way businesses communicate, and how the CEO must connect with his or her publics. Under such a scenario, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) saw fit to have a direct dialogue with CEOs to find out what they think, how they look at the communication function and what they need from their communication team to be successful given the current pressures from their respective businesses and competitions. The IABC Research Foundation study, called “Conversations with CEOs,” included in-depth telephone interviews with 20 senior executives from large companies around the world including the Philippines, and the findings have implications for CEOs and corporate communications professionals. With some help from Barbara Gibson, former IABC chair and Communication World, here are some highlights derived from the research:
1. The responsibility of CEOs is to be able to communicate at every level. Indeed, communication is now a required leadership competency. The CEOs interviewed point to communication as one of their biggest challenges and demonstrated that their own role includes that of chief communicator. They believe that their success depends on their ability to communicate with all their audiences — the factory floor workers, engineers, finance people, and HR personnel, among others. It’s practically interfacing with every group or individual in the organization. Externally, CEOs need to constantly and consistently communicate to customers. As such, they need a clear and comprehensive understanding of their products and services, and with the acquired knowledge, are able to describe what they do to non-technical people, or boil it down for prospective investors to realize why they should invest in the company.
2. CEO communication is a two-way process, and listening is a critical part of the role. It can’t be a one-way street, and it’s the responsibility of the CEO to make sure that all the stakeholders feel that they are listened to, and that they understand the key messages. Mark Price, managing director of supermarket giant Waitrose, UK, said, “Whether you’re in politics, business or in NGO work, the channels through which you can communicate have become more ubiquitous. So whether it be traditional or social media, through the written or spoken word, there are more demands on you to set out your position. There’s an audience that’s now hungry 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to question and to probe. You have to listen, and be prepared to respond to that. The demands have never been greater in terms of expectations for you to deliver a message and an answer.”
3. Company heads have to be increasingly open and transparent. They can no longer get away with a bunker mentality, issuing officially written statements and keeping a low profile until bad news hits and demands their close attention. This thinking is a thing of the past and should be altered. The IABC study found that executives understand that the rules have morphed, and that companies must communicate on the audiences’ terms — authentically, meaningfully and responsibly. “Communication has changed dramatically. I think that as we’ve changed with technology, people are a lot more informed about what is happening and have formed their own perceptions and ideas. You’ve got to be visible, you’ve got to be there,” Philip Barton, CEO of mining operation De Beers South Africa, opined.
The study emphasized that it’s important to understand that while these changes may have been driven by technology, the amendments in audience demands and expectations have spread through every aspect of corporate communication, and that the demand for authenticity — an outgrowth of social media culture — means that the highly spirited CEO of the past is outdated and lacks credibility. Mahendra Gursahani, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Philippines, averred, “What has changed is that people both inside and outside the company are looking for a new sense of integrity and honesty in conversations.”
Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn and USA Today president and publisher David Hunke echoed Gursahani’s view. Dunn proclaimed, “It’s got to be authentic. It’s got to be something that I would actually say. The strength is that I believe so deeply in what it is I’m talking about. I have to be authentic. I think in this day and age of transparency, if it’s not real, it gets thrown on the junk pile really fast.” Hunke, on the other hand, declared, “I think that as much as possible, communication needs to be unscripted and as real as possible.”
4. The role of communication professionals must shift from “wordsmith and editor” to “coach and facilitator.” This realization is a dramatic shift from just a few years ago, and it may be a difficult one for many communication professionals to accept given the past emphasis on perfectly crafted key messages. For George Barrett, chairman and CEO of healthcare organization Cardinal Health, USA, “The more I use a script, the less genuine I feel. So I prefer to work from a basic outline or maybe a few notes. There are times where it is quite appropriate to use a script, but I will labor over that script to ensure it sounds genuine and conversational.” Ignacio Bustamante, CEO of mining corporation Hochschild, Peru, shared, “What I find very useful is to have a paper aid and use that as a guide, but keep it in a conversational manner rather than reading. I put myself in their seat, and if I listen to somebody speak from a script, I get the feeling that it’s something that is not natural.” William Swanson, chairman and CEO of defense establishment Raytheon, concurred, “People know it’s unscripted, which has another benefit, because they know somebody hasn’t prepped me for some answer to a question.”
5. Company leaders need to keep up with communication trends. They should be interested in social media because their audiences are using them. Communicators must take the lead and not cede the responsibility to others, since as the study revealed, CEOs, while still somewhat nervous about social media, understand its importance and want guidance as they move into this new territory. Greg Stewart, president and CEO of Farm Credit Canada, said, “Social media is here to stay, for sure. It’s amazing, the impact that it’s had. And as an organization, we’re really just in the midst of trying to figure out how to position ourselves with social media. We do some monitoring, and we certainly have an internal policy on its use. But we do need some work on how to leverage it for the benefit of our customers, and certainly our stakeholders, and make sure that it’s timely.” The sentiment of CEOs on social media was affirmed by a 2011 survey conducted by the global management consulting firm Booz & Co., which found that “social media is on the CEO’s agenda” in 38 percent of the companies surveyed, suggesting that they have moved beyond being a fad for many of these companies, and are viewed more as high-potential business tools.
6. Globalization adds complexity to the communication skills needed by company heads. Today, more companies of every size are doing business around the world and CEOs in the IABC study sensed that communication is a unique challenge as they start thinking about being an increasingly global enterprise. Barrett, one of the respondents asked, “How do you message your purpose? Does that have different nuances in different markets? How do you build alignment across disparate markets? How do you create value and transfer expertise from one place in the world to another? How do you duplicate best practices and educate others on those best practices?”
7. CEOs want communicators to take a seat at the strategy table. The challenge for some will be what to do once they get there. “You’ve got to make sure that when you’re at the table you’re contributing like others at the table as well,” one CEO noted. That means being an expert not only in communication but also on the business and the industry. The CEO-respondents also voiced a desire for proactive counsel, coaching and feedback that tells them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
The topline data from the IABC study support the critical importance of communication in business. This writer hopes that the research can be replicated locally with 20 or so Filipino CEOs. The resulting information, for sure, will be both revealing and interesting. And as has been said in an earlier column, “Communicate, communicate, communicate strategically” should be the mantra of CEOs and corporate communicators alike. They have to be bold and audience-centric, and should view their roles, as the research disclosed, as a “communication facilitator, guide and coach.”
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Email bongosorio@yahoo.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.
