The role of the corporate communications officer is changing. CCOs are assuming more prominent leadership roles and wielding greater influence within major U.S. corporations, a recent survey shows.
The shift is most noticeable among elite corporate affairs executives. “These best-in-class corporate affairs officers shoulder a broadening scope of responsibilities and an increasing mandate to act as high-level strategic advisors to CEOs, and they frequently serve as members of the senior leadership team,” states the report from Korn Ferry Global Corporate Affairs Practice.
Broader Responsibilities
The survey detailed the areas where CCOs are taking on new and greater responsibilities.
Most of the Fortune 500 CCOs now handle media relations, executive communications, issues/crisis management, internal communications, and corporate reputation, in addition to corporate communications.
Over half oversee corporate social responsibility, community relations, and corporate philanthropy. Many now also oversee social media. Fortune 500 CCOs are assuming greater responsibility for their organization’s brand and reputation, which they view as a top priority. Most respondents (83%) say reputational threats/risks is now their most critical challenge.
As the CCO role evolves, courage and strategic leadership have become valuable traits. Leadership attributes such as courage, innovation, managing through ambiguity, developing talent, and contributing to strategy are more important than ever in for these increasingly influential executives, says the report.
Most CCOs surveyed (67%) said being a strategic leader or “anticipating and seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies” is the most important trait in their position. About half said courage, defined as “stepping up to address difficult issues, saying what needs to be said” is extremely important.
Overcoming Measurement Challenges
Although responsibilities and influence of top CCOs have increased, corporate communications is traditionally viewed as a C-suite stepchild. That’s partly due to the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of corporate communications, which is seen as a “soft” skill, notes PR expert Wendy Marx, President of Marx Communications, in an article for Fast Company.
“While it’s still tough to measure the efficacy of corporate communications, new tools in sentiment analysis, reputation analysis, and brand assessment are adding more rigor to the field,” Marx states.
Communications can be difference between success and failure in today’s environment. It’s time for corporations to recognize the importance of communications, Marx adds. That’s happening to an extent, she says, noting that the PRSA is working with business schools to educate emerging leaders about reputation management and strategic communications.
CEOs should place a greater priority on communications, writes communications expert Walter G. Montgomery for Knowledge@Wharton. More than a few companies have failed or nearly failed due to poor CEO public relations decisions. However, communications personnel are partly to at fault for being slow to adopt analytical tools, such as neuroscience, behavioral economics and statistics. Such tools can help make the field more sophisticated and valuable.
Bottom Line: Growing responsibility and influence of Fortune 500 corporate communications officers and new analytical tools can provide communications professionals greater respect and authority in the corporate world. PR professionals wanting to gain more influence within the organization should better recognize the importance of “anticipating and seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies.”
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
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