ALL YOU NEED IS
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS
Everything you need to know about Corporate Governance, Corporate Reputation and Corporate Communication
SALİM M. KADIBESEGIL
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 5
Prologue 6
Introduction 8
Chapter 1
A Trip to the Scope of Public Relations…
- The history of Public Relations 15
- The milestones of Public Relations in Turkey and in the World 22
- The Education of Communication hasn’t got its share of change! 45
Chapter 2
Managing Communication in the Age of ınformatıon
- 1980’s and the beginning of the ‘Age of Information’ 58
- Intangibles drive business 67
Chapter 3
A New Agenda: Social Susceptibility!
- Sustainability 81
- How much is your carbon footprint? 85
- Doing business for Profit is ‘Out’ 89
- New actors 91
- How resistant is your company against boycotts? 113
Chapter 4
corporate Reputation and corporate Management
- Who Manages Your Reputation 126
Chapter 5
corporate Communication
- The coverage area of Corporate Communication 149
- Marketing Communication and Corporate Communication (s.d)
Chapter 6
corporate Communication in fıve Steps
- Is there a ‘recipe’ for Corporate Communication (s.d)
- First step: Having a clear identity
- Second Step: Define your stakeholders
- Third Step: Manage your reputation
- Fourth Step: Express yourself
- Fifth Step: Create a sustainable, trusted brand
- A profile for Corporate Communication Executives
Chapter 7
PROCESSES for corporate Communication
- How to prepare a plan for Corporate Communication (s.d)
Epilogue (s.d)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
At first we were surprised that my book Reputation Management reached three editions within a year. Later, we started believing that with the business world making such concepts more comprehensible there was an agenda that had been forming. In fact, the preparations for this book and Reputation Management were being completed in parallel time. Bibliography materials and related references were in two folders neighboring each other on my desktop.
Reputation Management took first place and I think that this has proven to be a good thing because the secrecy around the subject of Reputation Management has brought clear explanations to concepts regarding corporate reputation and strategic communication. Hence, I have had more time for these concepts to be discussed and questioned.
PROLOGUE
As time goes by quickly, society’s judgment of values starts to change. Preferences and choices become real under the effect of this new understanding.
Nowadays, the first thing that is questioned is the existence of values. The importance of moral values, the hegemony of the feeling of justice and the principles of accountability come before reaching business goals and profitability on the assessment criteria.
It is obvious that success is directly related to susceptibility in the area of social responsibility and expansions that can lead and provide examples to society. It is now clearly understood that creating a bond of trust with all sections of society is based on these principles.
We need this understanding plenteous both for our companies’ success in the business world and for social peace and development that will accrue in all areas of societal life.
Nowadays, with borders that are drawn in thinner lines and societies that are focused on global developments, universal values gain importance just as much as local values.
Turkish companies must be equipped with competencies that will allow them to compete with the leading multi-national companies of the world and to create new business models.
In the age of information, one of the preconditions of global competition is managing communication. Companies can only increase their market value and secure their future by communicating the values they have within their realm.
This book that you are holding in your hands has a structure that holds all the information one needs in order to structure strategic corporate communication and furthermore considers the preferential concept of ‘reputation’ from all aspects.
I believe that managers of all levels should read, apply and keep this book in their scope.
Tuncay Özilhan
President to Board of Directors
Anadolu Group
INTRODUCTION
This publication is not a book that gives us the opportunity to renew ourselves in the subject area of Public Relations. It is also not a support that we can hold onto to create our outlook on one of the ascending values, that of social responsibility. It is also void of content that would enable us to question our definitions of ethical understanding, transparency, honesty and/or accountability. Neither does it present a recipe with which we can test our competence regarding the management of corporate reputation.
*Just as in the other five books published in Turkish prior to this publication; (The Basic Principles of Public Relations (1985), The Recipe for Public Relations (1990), Where to Start Public Relations (1997), Here Comes Crisis (2002) and Reputation Management (2006)) it is an observational scope trip between the ‘corrects and wrongs’ under the management of communication and relationships in the business world. We will be very pleased, if the published version of this scope trip can help form a new vision in communication.
*Just as the other five books published in Turkish prior to this work (The Basic Principles of Public Relations (1985), The Recipe for Public Relations (1990), Where to Start Public Relations (1997), Here Comes Crisis (2002) and Reputation Management (2006)); this is an observational trip through the spheres of ‘correct’ and ‘wrong’ regarding the management of communication and also, relationships in the business world.
Certain concepts based on theoretical knowledge that only find their meaning in business life through the richness of application sit side by side in this book. What was and what is public relations? Why is corporate communication trying to remove public relations from its place? What does corporate communication have to do with concepts such as social responsibility, corporate reputation, ethical understanding and corporate governance? Where are the links or in fact, the ‘knots’ between company vision, logo, the performance of CEOs and corporate communication? Where is the business world looking for its competition? Is sustainability, that is now a part of our lives, just based on an apprehension for marketing? Are we seeking to create a competitive edge by painting our products “green”?
The developments that were lead by the United States of America’s capitalist system will be questioned fundamentally and the month which will be written as “Dark September” (2008) in years to come has brought the bankruptcy of large financial establishments one after another into today’s agenda. Another example of this is when in 1989 with the collapse of the Berlin Wall; a system that had stamped 20th century on the head was buried in history. Now, it’s competitor is “dying in agony…”. Who would think that the Wall Street would collapse and be one with the ground?
So, where’s the world headed? What happened to those systems that were constructed to be separate from each other in the 1950’s stating, “my order excels yours”? Essentially the Cold War years were based on the idea that both parties involved believed their system to be better than the other’s. Have the shelf lives of corporate players of the system such as IMF, United Nations and the World Bank reached their expiry dates?
In the book you will find a statement by the President of Global Reporting Initiative Mervyn E. King: “The world’s going towards social capitalism!”. Could this statement be truer?
Which foundations will companies build their basis on while managing their relationships with the public when the developments all around the world are focusing on the description of a more ideal world and its system. Which data will CEO’s use to make strategic decisions? Which values will arise over competition? Moreover, how will sustainable profitability be secured? According to what basic principles will communication and relationships be managed in the applications that are focused on these goals?
As well as shedding light on the corporate communications assessments of top-level managers; the book especially brings, with itself, an expansion that can help aid the deposition and observations of permanent staff who are responsible for managing communication. Perhaps this expansion will negate many of the ‘corrects’ from which we learned how to strategically manage communication and relationships.
It is very natural that this is so because the environment created by 9/11 and Enron’s tsunami waves have become the indicators that ‘nothing would ever be the same again’.
From now on there is a new world and consequently; this new world has a new
order. The ensuing change in rules resulting from the new order perhaps points
to the idea that it is time to recycle all we had held as true.
There is however one fact that will never undergo change: companies will always need the trust of society, and vice versa… As you can see, corporate communication is both the discipline and concept and can therefore be retraced to the former statement thereby meeting the needs of companies’ expectations.
Business and roles are changing. In fact, they have to change. Company managers no longer want to pay the heavy dues in return for the unethical business they do. They exclaim, ‘we wish someone had warned us in time!’
Nowadays, executives of corporate communications in companies are professionals who are supposed to fulfill the responsibilities of an ombudsman rather than act as employees pinned into hierarchical structures. They need to be the people who get involved in all areas of business and have an active role that can change the direction of strategic decisions in the name of protecting and overseeing the interests of the public.
The rise of corporate communication executives with such competences and the way they get involved in all areas may not be many peoples’ cup of tea. They will be seen as people who ignore company interests and may even be perceived as traitors. Corporate structures which resist change will have this viewpoint on the developments that will take place.
However, this new expansion of corporate communication will lead to being identified as a product of efforts to form a ‘respected, trusted and creditable’ corporation. With this, corporate communicators will have identities that reflect thoughts on company interest in the intermediate and long term rather than being seen as people who only seek profit.
Changes of this magnitude inevitably create the need for ‘a new vision’ in company management. The fact that public relations forgot about ‘relations’, turned its attention to communication and then hoped for help from ‘media communications’ led this profession to go through an identity erosion in the past. Its substantive role of ‘relations’ was the difficult part of the business! Who could take the responsibility of setting these relations toward a strategic goal and waste time? Being visible in the media was a shortcut and unfortunately public relations chose this path. Ironically, it prefers being focused on communication when it’s considering ‘corporate communications’, but in fact it’s actually concentrated upon ‘stakeholder engagement’. This is to say, that the management of relationships which constitute the accurate identification of all of of the company’s stakeholders’ expectations, while simultaneously carrying the company strategy’s shared ethos and values in co-operation with stakeholders, to the areas of communication. As a result of this, many multi-national companies’ organisational structures today bear within themselves departments of ‘corporate communication’. From investor relations to local public integration; the aim is to manage these relationships in an active and corporate manner. It is underlined at all times that these relationships should not be unclaimed.
It looks like this chaos in communication and relationship management will continue for a longer period of time. Nothing’s set in stone yet. In the 1980’s ‘investor relations’ had come to be a separate profession to public relations. Lobbyists had strayed away by stating that their roles were already different. Next up will be those managers who work on the internal communications of corporations . It will not be long before they represent their separate professions through their autonomy. Corporate communicators will shoulder public relations to create their own space and those who run corporate relations will claim to be undertaking a different role; painting their chairs a different colour in the lounge of communications.
How will leading corporations such as Nike, Shell, Coca-Cola, General Electric and British Telecom bring their corporations to be classified as ‘sustainability directorates’?
The moral of the story is that we have a long way to go. We will be living with many other concepts. We will have definitions consistent with corporate ethos and expectations. We will see that what we thought to be accurate until yesterday is no longer so. However one thing will never change; companies having the responsibility of managing relationships and communication at a corporate level. Hence, these too will have an owner!
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