Mastering Business for Strategic Communicators

Matthew W. Ragas, Ron Culp, Matthew W. Ragas, Ron Culp

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781787149526
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Business

The most successful communication professionals are no longer just communication experts—they are masters of business. To serve as trusted advisors to the C-suite and to collaborate across the enterprise means it is necessary to have a strong grounding in business acumen.
Mastering Business provides strategic communications and public relations students and professionals with expert insights and advice into the various major business functions and departments. From an assemblage of top strategic communication leaders comes this collection of more than 20 essays from current and former Chief Communications Officers (CCOs). The authors show the business areas that communicators help convene, integrate, and translate across their enterprises and to external stakeholders. Each chapter features a Career Spotlight by the CCO and a C-suite View response from a business leader, including CEOs, presidents, and CFOs from household names like GE, GM, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and SAP.
This collection provides readers with a rare view of the leadership roles played by top strategic communicators inside some of today's most well-known brands and organizations.

PART I

INTRODUCTION

1

ADVISING “THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS”: THE BUSINESS CASE FOR BUSINESS ACUMEN

Matthew W. Ragas and Ron Culp

DePaul University

I wanna be in the room where it happens.

Before this was a line from a hit song in the smash Broadway musical “Hamilton,” strategic communications professionals had argued that — for them to do their jobs most effectively — they needed a “seat at the table” or access to this table (Bowen, 2008, 2009; Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier, 2002; Harrison & Mühlberg, 2015; Turk, 1989). Research shows that, over the past decade, the chief communications officer (CCO) increasingly is part of an organization’s leadership team (Marshall, Fowler, & Olson, 2015a, 2015b; Swerling et al., 2014), or at least advises members of the C-suite (APCO Worldwide, 2016), including sitting on executive-level committees (Neill, 2015). In a more transparent world, in which companies must earn and keep the trust of their stakeholders, and corporate reputations and brands can provide competitive advantage (Doorley & Garcia, 2015; Goodman & Hirsch, 2015), the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of the CCO and strategic communicators have been elevated (Sahel, 2017).

With this elevation of communications within corporations, the knowledge, skills, and capabilities required of not just the CCO, but of the in-house and agency professionals that support the communications function, is transforming. Both professionals and academics alike (e.g., Feldman, 2016; Marron, 2014; Neill & Schauster, 2015; Ragas, Uysal, & Culp, 2015; Roush, 2006) have discussed the evolving skillset required for communication professionals to truly be strategic assets to their organizations in advancing corporate character, purpose, goals, objectives, and strategies (Berger & Meng, 2014; Dolphin & Fan, 2000; Laskin, 2011).

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND CAPABILITIES FOR FUTURE LEADERS

Generally, professionals and educators agree (Duhé, 2013; Feldman, 2016; Kolberg, 2014; PRNews Pro, 2016a, 2016b; Spangler, 2014) that a strong grounding in the fundamentals of the major areas of business, such as management, finance, accounting, marketing, sales, human resources, information technology and data science, supply chain, innovation and transformation, is an important knowledge base for communicators (Claussen, 2008; DiStaso, Stacks, & Botan, 2009; Ragas, 2016; Wright, 1995, 2011). This essential general and industry-specific business knowledge is often referred to by professionals as business acumen (Charan, 2001; Cope, 2012; Ragas & Culp, 2013, 2014a, 2014b, 2015). While learning about the business of business has long been espoused by some educators as critical to training future strategic communications professionals (e.g., Turk, 1989; Wright, 1995), this perspective has gained broader acceptance in recent years (see Commission on Public Relations Education, 2012, 2015).

For example, Dennis Wilcox and Glen Cameron outline six essential career skills in Public Relations: Strategies and Tactics (2012), one of the most widely used textbooks in public relations classrooms. These skills are: (1) effective writing, (2) research ability, (3) planning expertise, (4) problem-solving ability, (5) business/economics competence, and (6) expertise in social media. Wilcox and Cameron (2012) write that “the increasing emphasis on public relations as a management function calls for public relations students to learn the ‘nuts and bolts’ of business and economics” (p. 25). An important argument can be made that professionals sharpen some of these essential skills, such as problem-solving ability, through having a stronger and deeper understanding of business, thereby better understanding possible solutions to problems.

Of course, it is important to emphasize that business acumen is not a “be all, end all” in itself for strategic communication success or the advancement of the profession. Some studies show a greater importance (Neill & Schauster, 2015; Ragas et al., 2015) placed on business acumen by practitioners than others (Sievert, Rademacher, & Weber, 2016). For example, the 2017 Global Communication Report from the USC Center for Public Relations found that, when given a list of important skills for future growth, professionals rated business literacy (64% rated as important) in the middle of the pack with strategic planning (89%) at the top and media buying (18%) at the bottom. Of course, to gain a “big picture” view so as to make meaningful contributions to strategic planning, a professional needs a strong grounding in general business acumen, as well as the specifics of an industry and organization.

THE NEW CCO

The Arthur W. Page Society, a professional association comprised of senior strategic communications professionals, agency heads, and distinguished academics from around the world, has done perhaps the most detailed multi-year research and thought leadership work examining the future knowledge, skills, and capabilities required of CCOs and professionals working in corporate communication. This mixed-methods research program conducted by the Arthur W. Page Society (2016, 2017a) concludes that the CCO and communications function of tomorrow will serve the following roles in activating corporate character (Arthur W. Page Society, 2013a, 2013b) and building authentic advocacy (Arthur W. Page Society, 2007):

• (1) The foundational CCO: The CCO will be expected to serve as a strategic business leader and counselor, a steward of enterprise reputation and an effective communicator.
• (2) The CCO as integrator: The CCO will be expected to drive cross-functional collaboration and integration on strategic priorities across the enterprise. As such, the CEO should have a direct working relationship with the CEO and C-suite colleagues.
• (3) The CCO as builder of digital engagement systems: The CCO will be expected to leverage data to understand individuals; create channels and platforms to connect with those individuals directly; and engage with individuals to shape opinion and influence behavior.

In assessing the changing organizational landscape, Bob Feldman, co-founder and principal of PulsePoint Group and co-chair of the Arthur W. Page Society’s skills and capabilities committee, has argued that “basic business skills are still required” and “the need for general leadership skills is stronger than ever” (Feldman, 2016, para. 1). Based on feedback from Page Society members and members of Page Up, a sister organization, the following capabilities were identified as being the most critical for professionals:

• Strategic business thinking
• Dealing with ambiguity and complexity
• Offering courageous counsel
• Problem solving
• Business acumen

Feldman sees the lack of greater levels of business acumen across the PR and corporate communication fields as inhibiting how the function is perceived by business leaders:

The rise of the entire function in the eyes of the C-suite depends on the stature, business acumen and performance of the individuals in the organization. Strong business acumen is not perceived to exist now in the function, meaning it will often be viewed as a tactical, non-strategic weapon. (2016, para. 9)

These remarks generally align with the discussions among Page Society and Page Up members during a multi-day, global online brainstorm, called a Page Jam, held in fall 2014 about the future of the CCO and corporate communications. John Onoda, a senior consultant at FleishmanHillard and previously a senior communications executive for brands such as Charles Schwab, General Motors, Visa USA, and Levi Strauss, offered the following perspective based on his decades of leadership experience: “When I think about my relationship with the different CEOs and chairmen I’ve worked with, it was probably my business acumen more than my communication skills that most strengthened the bond between us.”

On a related note, in this same Page Jam, James S. O’Rourke, professor of management and former director of the Fanning Center for Business Communication at the University of Notre Dame, argued that having business acumen simply makes for better informed and more effective strategic communications professionals. According to O’Rourke, “Unless we each understand how our companies make money, how they grow or gain market share, and how they compete directly in the marketspace, our story-telling is likely to come off as superficial or shallow.”

Arthur W. Page Society (2017a) research has also interviewed more than 20 CEOs of large corporations to gain their opinions on the roles and expectations they have today of CCOs and the communications function as a whole. This research concludes that total business knowledge by the CCO is now “table stakes.” More specifically, this CEO research finds that:

In years past, CEOs have expressed hope that their CCO would know all about their enterprise’s business in order to more strategically apply communications to advance its goals. Now, many CEOs require their CCO to be knowledgeable about the business — from strategy to operations — so they are able to provide strategic input on issues that span business functions.

Such a statement indicates that the communications staff and external partners supporting CCOs will be better positioned to do so by sharpening their business knowledge and skills.

THE CCO’S EXPANDING LEADERSHIP ROLE

Complementing the Page Society research on the new CCO and the future of the communications function, the Korn Ferry Institute, the research and analytics arm of Korn Ferry, the world’s largest executive search, leadership and talent development firm, has also has conducted research with CCOs on this subject (Marshall et al. 2015a, 2015b). As with the Page Society, the Korn Ferry research finds that CCOs of FORTUNE 500 companies believe they are generally taking on a more prominent leadership role within their organizations. Further, they feel that having a “strategic mind-set” is their most important leadership characteristic. More specifically, according to the survey results, “The CCO, as with other C-suite roles, is expected to contribute in shaping enterprise strategy” (Marshall et al., 2015a, p. 2).

Continuing with this theme, the Korn Ferry Institute research recommends:

The more adept Fortune 500 CCOs become in strategic roles — even to the point of becoming elite corporate affairs strategist-advisors — the more they will be recognized not only for their expertise in developing integrated and aligned communications strategies but also for their ability to help develop organizational strategies involving a wide variety of constituents and stakeholders. (Marshall et al., 2015a, p. 3)

The survey results (Marshall et al., 2015a, p. 5) indicate that — beyond managing the traditional communications function — CCOs and their teams are being asked to demonstrate leadership on:

• Reputation, values, and culture across the enterprise
• Design systems, such as those that support an enterprise-wide social media strategy
• Define and activate corporate character
• Develop and publish content for external stakeholders
• Analyze data to understand how stakeholders view the enterprise

The study authors (Marshall et al., 2015a) recommend that CCOs gain broader experiences and develop deeper financial and business acumen so as to be better prep...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Part I Introduction
• Part II Communications, Business Acumen, and the C-Suite
• Part III Finance and Investor Relations
• Part IV Human Resources and Employee Engagement
• Part V Corporate Strategy, Innovation, and Legal
• Part VI Marketing, Brand, and Data Analytics
• Part VII Social Responsibility and Transparency
• Part VIII Communication and Corporate Transformations
• Part IX Summing Up
• About the Authors
• Resources on Business Acumen
• Glossary
• Index