Communications has a a place at the board table

1. Stepping Up: The challenge for
communications professionals

2. Increasing Communications’ Visibility
& Influence Within the Organisation
• A Deloitte research study - 95% of the CEOs surveyed
rated effective internal communication as a key
ingredient for success
• Only 22% said that the delivery of internal
communication was effective.

3. The Challenges
• Helping all to understand
the value of internal &
external communications
• Helping people understand
how communications has
changed
• Competing priorities
• Crisis situations preventing
strategic thinking
• Making comms effective

4. Moving From Doing to Advising
• Leaders—getting access, building trust and
gaining commitment to action
• Resources— finding time to provide counsel
• Value—ensuring that leaders receive value from
the counsel
• Fulfilling commitments—making sure that
advisors follow through
• Personal skills—having the skill set to serve as an
effective strategic advisor

5. Getting Communications a Seat at the
Board Table
A starting point is to meet and ask these three
questions:
• Will you get the business results you need this year
if everyone (internal and external) keeps doing the
same thing?

6. Getting Communications a Seat at the
Board Table
• If the answer to number 1 is “no,” what audiences most
need to change behavior, and do we know how to
connect with and
influence those
audiences?

7. Getting Communications a Seat
at the Board Table
• Do we understand the root causes of
poor performance and the role that
more effective communications and
stakeholder engagement could play in
addressing those root causes?

8. Getting Communications a Seat at the
Board Table
Should Comms have a seat in the executive
committee?
• Trending tweets can instantly impact share price
as seen with Quantas:
“ALAN JOYCE: We first knew it was a problem when our share
price started to collapse. And that was because these reports
coming out of Twitter that were reported by one mainstream
media outlet on the basis of the Twitter reports that the aircraft
had crashed in Indonesia started obviously causing a problem
with the share price.”

9. Getting Communications a Seat at the
Board Table
“When we found out immediately that that wasn't an issue, the
aircraft was still in the air, we went out there and immediately
wrote a press release making it very clear that the aircraft was
still flying.
What also I think is important is that the major media outlets
don't pick up on Twitter commentary and report it as fact,
which is what happened in this case. And I think that was a bit
disappointing. But it needs us to be very proactive to ensure
that doesn't happen in the future.”

10. Making Reputation a Board Priority
Credit - PR Week

11. Credit - PR Week

12. Making Reputation a Board Priority
• Reputation: the emotional connection that
stakeholders have with a company
• Research (UK RepTrakTM 2012) shows that 69% of
people’s willingness to say something positive
about an organisation is influenced by their
perception of the company, and just 31% by what
they think of the company’s products and services.

13. Making Reputation a Board Priority
• “Whether reputation is being managed by
communications or another department, it has to
be central to the organisation.” - Jane Wilson, CEO
of Chartered Institute of Public Relations

14. Making Reputation a Board Priority
“In order for reputation management to make a
difference in your organisation, you need to get a
seat at the boardroom table. To do this you need to
get the financial numbers which are the proof points
of interest to senior executives. Once you have their
attention you can then explain why reputation really
matters.” - Richard Ellis, Director of Corporate Social
Responsibility, Alliance Boots

15. Thank-You