There were times in the communications industry when external communications consisted mainly of press work and internal communications was rather neglected. This has changed dramatically.
Successful communications managers think in terms of topics. They create up-to-date processes and structures to distribute the stakeholder-oriented content. For example, but not necessarily, through a newsroom model. They literally get PR, internal communications, HR, marketing and brand management, sustainability, IT and representatives from the business around one table. Some communications decision-maker has had good experience with a consistent agilisation of his/her department – and has, for example, established so-called “topic planners”. Their job is to find and distribute topics like a spider in the web.
As in marketing, technology is becoming increasingly important in corporate communications, i.e., with ComTech. Curated data is a rich source for good storytelling. It also enables communicators to play out content in a more targeted way and to control the effectiveness of measures based on kpi. In the future, artificial intelligence will relieve communicators of a lot of work and ensure that communicators (must) constantly evolve to justify their role.
Gradually, corporate communications will merge further with other disciplines, not least public affairs. More and more often, the job holder’s title will then read “Corporate Affairs”. Sometimes the title will include Marketing, sometimes Investor Relations. Communications professionals will increasingly be responsible for Sustainability communications and, in some cases, the entire sustainability management.
But not every company will have a Corporate Affairs Director instead of a Corporate Communicator. Not every company needs, can or wants to participate in political discourse, especially not on a global level. Smaller, locally active companies will therefore continue to succeed well with a Head of Communications.
If you decide to recruit through PRCC, you will notice that you get much more than just recruitment for corporate affairs. Our services go far beyond active sourcing.
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