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Strategic Communication Planning
Improving Organizational Performance and Confidence
Robert Flaherty, senior partner at Ketchum, on developing or refining your strategic communications plan
How do you elevate the corporate communication function to a higher level of value within an organization?
Ketchum Senior Partner Robert Flaherty proposes a new corporate "response ability" — fresh new relationship-building skills. He anticipates that great companies in the near future will be highly skilled in forging networks of relationships rather than maintaining relationships merely to transact business. Indeed, he foresees relationships becoming a balance-sheet asset.
He believes companies will require "response ability" to handle corporate challenges, achieve a competitive advantage and focus on core strengths. The response, he added, will require the building of interdependent relationships, consistency and alignment among stakeholders.
Ketchum is so serious about the importance of interrelationships that it has coined the term "echo system" to describe the interdependent relationship between a company's stakeholders. Because opinions and perceptions of a brand or company ricochet between employees, customers, activists, government officials and the media in this echo system companies must communicate consistently with all of these players. Ketchum is even creating a measurement tool — the alignment and dissonance index to determine gaps and inconsistencies between stakeholders' perceptions of a company or brand.
Donna Coletti, communications director for broadband at Texas Instruments, on transforming your organization
Texas Instruments' communications director for broadband believes strongly that strategic communications planning serves as the foundation for achieving results. She advises to do your homework, write clear objectives and evaluate your results for continuous improvements.
Texas Instruments weighs 16 attributes to determine how well it serves its customers. And it uses Delahaye Medialink to measure its media coverage — which it does quarterly, by region, by product, with each group of the company and against its competition. "If we're showing our results and not our competitors, we're measuring in a vacuum," Donna contends. Building TI's broadband business, she found that one competitor finished ahead of it in media coverage. She did additional research to find out where the company needed to do additional work.
A quantitative/qualitative editorial-performance map helps Donna and her staff determine if they are meeting their communications priorities. The latest measure suggests TI is gaining on and staying ahead of its various rivals in the media battle. She also measures TI's online strategy, using DoubleClick technology.
Donna says gaining an understanding of your stakeholders and competitors doesn't have to be expensive. Online surveys are reasonably priced, and it's relatively easy to obtain reader research from publications. "You have to think like a business manager, with a communications hat," she says.
James Spangler, vice president of global communications at Tenneco Automotive, on influencing attitudes and behaviors
Strategic communications planning has been critical to Tenneco Automotive, where Jim is vice president of global communications. The company spun off in November 1999 from Tenneco's packaging business and was $1.7 billion in debt with a $400 million market cap at the time. Jim determined that the five-person communications department had to add value to the corporate business plan and had to help the company achieve success with its key stakeholders.
A solid strategic-planning process, Jim maintains, helps a communications staff realize what must be done before executing tactics. In the research phase, his staff learns the business plans and objectives of the company's eight business units and then analyzes their marketplaces to determine who comprises their key stakeholders. Jim's staff hones messaging themes with the businesses so they can better measure audience analysis.
The key: Continuity of message to ensure consistency of message. Last year, Tenneco Automotive's CEO wanted second-half results to mirror strong first-half results, something that hadn't occurred in 2002. So Jim and his team planned and employed a major communications program to get company employees to pare discretionary spending. Among other things, the program highlighted best practices, awarded prizes to teams with the best spending performance, and repeatedly communicated the CEO's desire to turn a good year into a great year by watching discretionary spending. The effort galvanized the company and it reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded third-quarter results.
Other advice from Jim: Provide consistent and candid counsel. Execute with discipline. And, in today's lean workplace, communicators must be not only good strategists but very good implementers.