Communicating Strategically

Most managers have learned to think strategically about their business overall, but few think strategically about what they spend most of their time doing – communicating.

Communication Theory

The root of modern communication theory goes back to Aristotle’s major work – “The Art of Rhetoric”. This theory talks about three parts of every speech: the speaker, the subject and the hearer. Based on this theory the modern strategy has: organization, messages, and the constituency.

Developing Corporate Communication Strategies

The three subsets of an organization strategy include:

Determining the objectives for a particular communication – what does the organization want each constituency to do as a result of the communication?

Deciding what resources are available for achieving those objectives.

Money
Human Resources
Time

Diagnosing the organization’s reputation – reputation is based on the constituency’s perception of the organization rather than the reality of the organization itself.

Analyzing Constituencies

In this analysis following facts are determined:
Who your organization’s constituencies are
What each thinks about the organization, and
What each knows about the communication in question?

Delivering Messages Appropriately

It involves a two-step analysis for companies. A company must decide how it wants to deliver the message (choose a communication channel) and what approach to take in structuring the message itself.

Constituency Response

It has to satisfy two questions- did each constituency respond in the way the corporate wished? And should the corporation revise the message in light of the constituency responses?

Conclusion

By creating a coherent communication strategy based on the time-tested theories presented here, an organization is well on its way to reinventing how it handles communication.

Reference:

1. Corporate Communication by Paul A. Argenti (pg. 1-12)

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

The Changing Environment for Business

The business world today is different than what it was 50 years ago. A person who is now into a senior position in a firm must have taken birth during one of the most flourishing and buoyant periods in the American history. But today, along with other changes, business is being relentlessly scrutinized by the public and it has become severe in the last decade. In the subsequent part of the pack I will be discussing these issues.

The American Business’s Demography

It’s true that you can’t gratify each and everyone with whatever you do. Same has been the case with the American business. On one hand, in the 1860s, the working conditions of the steelworkers and the railroad builders were quiet terrifying. The Industrial Revolution which took place after that only intensified this situation. The exploitation of young women and children working in factories only added up to the negative perceptions of business. Whereas, the other side of the game is that the patriarchs of the big business were making big money. Although they had a negative perception in the public but it was the same public which envied their material wealth and the lifestyle and wanted to be one of them.
While all this was happening the stock market kept rising along with the rising discrepancy between the poor and the rich. But then there was this Great Depression in 1929 in which the stock market “bubble” finally explode. It was a dark time for both the businesses and the individuals.
And then came the World War II in the mid-1940s, which even though killed thousands of people but saved the American business and gave way to the prosperity of the 1950s and 60s.
In the early 2000s there was the “dot.com bubble” burst and the exposure of corporate fraud at large companies such as World Com, Adelphia, Tyco and Enron which led to the American perception that business can only deceive them.

The Powerful Channels: Media and the Internet

Through the years, the television news media have played a major role in conveying, filtering, and obstructing messages from corporations as well as government and activist groups. By the late 1990s, the internet also began to shape attitudes towards business. Today, environmental activists, animal rights groups and shareholder rights proponents can now propagate their views instantaneously through the world. As long as business has a negative public image, movies and television will continue to dramatize real life tales of corporate wrongdoing.

An Interwoven world

Technology has strengthened communication channel around the globe. Today, companies tend to specialize in their core competencies and outsource the other less-skilled jobs. Anticorporate activism also have benefited from technological advances. The 1999 antiglobalization protests at the world trade organization annual meeting in Seattle were largely coordinated by extensive online planning. Continuous technological advances also have made it difficult for companies to prevent both positive and negative news about them from reaching individuals in virtually all corners of the world.

Tools to Face These Challenges

First, managers need to recognize that the business environment is constantly evolving.
Second, companies must adapt to the changing environment without changing what they stand for or compromising their principle.
Third, assume things will only get worse and you will be better off in today’s complex and rigid environment.
Fourth, corporate communication must be closely linked to a company’s overall vision and strategy.

Conclusion

The way organizations adapt and modify their behaviour, as manifested through their communications, will determine the success of American business in the 21st century.

Reference:

1. Corporate Communication by Paul A. Argenti (pg. 1-12)