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CEO as Chief Communicator

Current economic challenges have lead to intense scrutiny of executive decision making, corporate culture, compensation, risk management and due diligence in business. 

This close examination by Government and the media of corporate largesse has highlighted a vast chasm between senior executives and the general workforce leading to unprecedented levels of mistrust towards the business sector.  It has highlighted the urgent need for cultural change within the corporate sector in the developed world. 

 A January 2009 survey by a rival PR firm – Edelman – found that 38 percent of American respondents between the ages of 35 and 64 said they trust business.  This is the lowest rating in the survey’s 10-year history.  The corporate sector must act quickly and decisively to address deteriorating levels of trust between itself and the pool from which it must draw its customers and employees.

The question is: whose responsibility is it?

The buck must surely stop with the CEO.  Research conducted by Burson-Marsteller in 2005 found that perceptions of the CEO represent 65 percent of a corporate reputation. 

The role of the company CEO is to set the company vision, values and direction.  They then must develop the plan of actions.  The critical step lies in the effective communication of the strategy, and the consistent demonstration and reinforcement of the stated values. 

The rise of digital media has had a major impact on corporate communications since 2005.  It has provided the opportunity for corporations to establish an ‘authentic voice’.  This singular, human voice enables corporations to engage in meaningful two way conversation with individuals in the media, customer base, bloggersphere and so on. 

Interestingly, that authentic voice is rarely if ever the voice of the CEO.  A 2008 research project by Burson-Marsteller found that just 18% of CEOs have used social media to communicate with stakeholder groups.

There are exceptions, most notably in the technology sector, but typically the engineer, product strategist, technician or designer is perceived as the authentic voice. 

CEOs are overlooked for a wide variety of reasons; they don’t have time; they are not close enough to the detail; they are generalists; they don’t see the value in mass-communication; they are constrained by corporate disclosure guidelines.

This must change.

Businesses find themselves less trusted than ever before.  This fact is a critical business issue and will be a major inhibitor for many companies in the years to come, more pressing in some industries than others.  One time, one directional communications will not re-build trust.  Businesses need to engage in a continuous dialogue. 

The good news is that CEOs today have a wide variety of communications tools at their disposal and these tools will be second nature to the next generation of CEOs.  These individuals assisted by corporate communications experts will recognise the need to  communicate their vision and values for the company as well as encouraging and facilitating transparency across all operations.  

There will continue to be a place for the ‘at the coal face’ bloggers within organisations – those individuals that discuss their daily challenges, share insights and generate ideas with likeminded people.  In doing so, they generate goodwill, enhance reputations and engage various audience groups.

The organisations that recognise the need to re-instate and re-equip the CEO as the Chief Communicator will be the first to begin the process of re-building trust.  Those businesses that deploy a strategy and the tools that enable continuous CEO communications will invigorate their reputation and establish refreshed relationships based on trust.