Comms: an integral part of decision-making and strategic planning for business

Kicked off by the pandemic, 2020-2021 presented some of the greatest challenges to businesses this century. As 2022 brings additional topics and issues to contend with, comms leaders are at the heart of an important phase.

At this year’s Corporate Communications Conference, comms leaders from brands including Virgin Media O2, Shell, Kellogg’s and BT provided insight and advice on key short and long-term issues and reflected on how the past 24 months rapidly altered roles and strategies.

The importance of comms in business decisions

Many organisations with executive teams that included comms leaders, departments and data as part of their strategic decision making from the start of the pandemic, saw reputation levels remain steady (even increasing in some cases) and operations continue to function well. The importance of insights that comms can bring, notably the perceptions of the organisation from the media, industry influencers, political sphere, customers and the wider public is high, yet utilising this information to shape key corporate decisions hasn’t always been accepted practice.

Naturally, many executive leadership teams consulted their finance and legal departments early into the pandemic, but including comms in the process allowed businesses to understand the reality of the human impact of the situation and provide a greater level of authenticity in their messaging. As the industry continues to evolve it will be interesting to see how the dynamic between exec teams and comms leaders will develop, as we move away from pandemic-oriented strategies and into prioritising ESG-centred comms.

Sustainability comms and the role of businesses in future

In an era of heightened change in social activism, political change and environmental issues, comms from an ESG perspective needs to be part of every businesses’ strategy. In ESG comms, the wider public are as much a part of the debate as internal stakeholders, including investors and shareholders, as well as staff. Actions versus communications was a key message from the conference, highlighting the real challenge businesses face to ensure what they are talking about doing in relation to sustainability aligns with the reality of their actions.

With ESG comms, businesses have a chance to boost reputation and distribute key business values, particularly as the purpose of business in society changes. There is a growing need for corporations to consider how they position themselves on social issues as well as topics that can be seen to sit outside of their direct business interests.

What does this mean for comms leaders?

As we look ahead in this decade, one of the real challenges for Comms departments will be determining the role of their organisations in society and working with executive teams to balance the voices of their staff and stakeholders with the wider demands in an ever-changing social, economic and political climate”

Find out more about the trends to plan for in 2022 in PR and communications in our round-up of insight from industry thought leaders.

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