Monday, May 12, 2008
After the fifth call we received this year asking about 'best practices' for structuring corporate communications functions, I knew something was up. It appears that chief communications officers across the globe are experiencing somewhat of a 'perfect storm' at the moment as they attempt to navigate the following three forces: increasing demand for communications support in the face of the digital revolution, more empowered stakeholders, and heightened public scrutiny of corporate actions; resource constraints as a result of recessionary indicators, credit market upheaval, and earnings pressures; and renewed focus on accountability from the executive suite, still in search of evidence that the communications function is generating true business value, not just communications outputs.
Any of these three factors would otherwise be manageable on their own, but taken together they can present a seemingly insurmountable challenge for today's CCOs. It's no surprise, then, that CCOs are increasingly asking themselves, 'How will I ever get it all done?' This hints at the real question that CCOs want answered: 'Is my communications function optimized for maximum performance?'
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