The reputation of no company or its employees is ever completely safe. We don’t need data to tell us how real that statement is. A simple indicator of this is the hyper growth in regulatory oversight. It is the duty of senior corporate leaders to devise ways that ensure business resilience and create strategies that protect the future. Restoring reputations and customer or stakeholder confidence is like trying to capture a horse after it has bolted the stables. It can be time-consuming, frustrating, expensive and with no guarantee of success. Who is that person on whose shoulder the responsibility of managing an organisation’s reputation can rest? Large organisations that are aware of their vulnerability to reputational damage are turning to their chief communications officer (CCO) to manage the responsibility.
The emerging and growing role of the CCO is complex. This is true in a world where economic uncertainty is the new normal, where there is widespread unemployment, stakeholders are getting globalised, regulatory requirements are compounding business complexity and massive technological transformation is recasting the way organisations interact with their constituencies.
There is a demand from markets, employees, customers, partners and regulators for information on a daily and real-time basis. This demand needs a strategic approach. Backing this must be access to business intelligence, corporate knowledge, relevant infrastructure, technology, talent, skills and networks. Taking a holistic view of these needs is the task of the CCO, who views all corporate needs through the exclusive lens of communications.
However, a CCO has a deeper functional responsibility—to ensure that the entire organisation is aware of the need for quick, clear and consistent communication. Communications must become central to corporate cultures in different ways in a world where employees are networked with people and public entities beyond an organisational chart. These developments of openness and interaction with the external world can be viewed—and often are—as being hazardous for the goals of a corporate entity. But this is an archaic and defunct view. With the assistance of a CCO, these can be turned into assets for a corporate entity by aligning the organisation to speak in a single, powerful and convincing voice, making it a competitive advantage.
The risk of not having a CCO is substantial. Firms can run into a situation where multiple messaging (and its proliferations over a variety of networks) can confuse employees, customers, partners and markets. Global firms cannot work at only securing their bottom lines—their reputation requires as much protection.
The role of a CCO is important in a dynamic and hyper-competitive environment of constant disruption. Using this scenario, Korn Ferry did a survey on the role of the CCO across Fortune 500 companies in 2012. It found that communication officers are being given new responsibilities. In fact, 84% said they are giving more attention to providing leadership on reputation, values and culture in their companies; and 42% said they added social media to their mandate. Amongst the most telling findings of the survey was the fact that the role of the CCO was becoming critical because established rules of engagement simply did not exist any longer.
Traditional ways and methodologies are crumbling; what worked once cannot be relied upon any longer. This calls for a change—and the challenge of that change is being taken over by CCOs everywhere.
The author is director, Corporate Communications & Social Media, India & SAARC Region, BlackBerry