Gandhi once famously said that your words become your actions, then your habits, values, and finally your destiny. What we say has as much, and sometimes more, impact than what we do, especially when it dictates our available courses of action. Today’s businesses are placing increasing emphasis on reputation, brand, and community engagement, but that emphasis has yet to fully permeate the heart of corporate strategy: the boardroom where C-suite decisions are made.

We have CFOs and CIOs, but the CCO – or Chief Communications Officer – only

exists in a handful of organizations like IBM, Citibank, and most recently Comcast. They’re a minority, but they shouldn’t be. Professional communicators need a voice and a vote on the board if companies want their words to have the most desirable impact on their destiny.

We need CCOs as business leaders, now more than ever

Why? The world has changed, for businesses and consumers alike. The sweeping influence of digital technology has made our societies not only more global, but more networked and interconnected than ever before. Transfers of data which once took days now take seconds – and that’s at their slowest.

As a result of this sheer explosion in the speed and volume of digital communications, we’ve come to expect different things from social institutions like businesses and governments. We expect them to be transparent in every aspect of their conduct. We expect them to be forthcoming with the information which we require, when we require it. In short, we want to trust these institutions – and we get understandably displeased when they misuse or break that trust.

But we’re also their strongest advocates when they get things right, building their social capital with our praise, recommendation and brand loyalty. The collective impact of this advocacy – through everything from social media to viral videos to flash-mobs – amounts to the greatest market force which businesses can harness to their benefit. Today, effective communications matter more than ever. They don’t exist within a “black box” isolated from other corporate functions, but instead have very real and very immediate impacts on the goals, processes and bottom line of the business.

It’s the CCO’s role to bring together all aspects of the company’s communications. The CCO has to, amongst other things, co-ordinate how the company presents itself through its brand; what sort of tone it adopts when addressing different audiences or stakeholders; where it seeks to cultivate advocacy, and from whom. Just like any other corporate function, this task requires overarching vision from someone who intimately understands the field and how to play it. Jon Iwata (IBM’s senior VP of Marketing and Communications) is a good example of a CCO who’s managed to draw together numerous strands of communications (in this case, from all across the world’s largest computer company) into a unified approach which seeks to leverage all of the company’s reputational, brand and relationship assets

Rather than taking an aggressive attitude to the communications portfolio, Iwata’s strategy has sought to enhance on IBM’s pedigree as one of the world’s most well-respected companies, building its profile as a tech giant with the clout and intention to take on problems none of its competitors can. It’s a move which reflects not only Iwata’s strategic nous in the communications field, but his influence on the rest of IBM’s top leadership – something which is uniquely afforded by the position of CCO. The more recent appointment of D’Arcy Rudnay as Comcast’s CCO points to growing recognition that intangible assets like “brand” and “reputation” and “community” are in fact very valuable ones, and need the sort of leadership or stewardship which the finances, technology and HR of companies are already afforded.

And companies that think they don’t need this sort of leadership are in for some rough surprises ahead. Qantas’ handling of industrial disputes last year, BP’s stubborn silence over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and News Corp’s ongoing phone-hacking scandal all have one thing in common: the leadership in charge didn’t understand how the health of communications impacts the health of the entire business. Sometimes crises are necessary to spark change, but in this case we don’t have to wait.

In a few years’ time, we’ll probably look back on pre-CCO days with a bit of bemusement, wondering why we made such a fuss about such a commonsensical decision. It’s not at all unlikely that the CCO will stand on equal footing with a company’s chief legal counsel – both of whom often deal with the same issues around public trust and reputation just with somewhat different tools. Professional communicators know how to protect business reputations, enhance their brands, and harness powerful community advocacy in a society more networked than any other in history. Why shouldn’t they have a place at the board?

Authored by Anne Costello, Regional Director,  South Asia, Text 100

Please note: A version of this article recently appeared in Australia’s PR Report.

The author’s original post (on Hypertext) can be accessed here ­­—–> http://bit.ly/LblxkJ

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