Extract

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Strategic Models for Corporate Communication Practice

This chapter explains how the goals of the enterprise are achieved through structures and functions within the organization, the history of an individual organization, and the communication needs of a particular industry. In creating a corporate strategy, executives focus on the assessment of the competitive environment and the selection of a position in the marketplace that is profitable, defensible, and achievable. They also envision their corporation in the competitor’s position. Then considering the possible moves the competitors will make, they develop corporate strategies that will move their business enterprise to sustainable profits. Strategically, the function of corporate communication serves these corporate goals: advocacy for, or the engineering of, public opinion concerning the corporation; stewardship of corporate reputation, identity, and image; counsel to the CEO and the corporation. In addition, the importance of these different corporate goals depends on several factors such as the business cycle, the policy climate in an individual country or industry, and the maturity of the communication function in an individual organization.

As part of the CCI Practices and Trends Studies 2013, chief communication officers were asked in interviews, “What is the strategic importance of corporate communication in your organization?” The CCO of a Fortune 500 corporation answered this way:

My boss would say, because I have heard him answer this questions many times, the strategic importance of corporate communications at [our corporation] is the establishment and the maintenance...