An Overview of the Corporate Communication Function

A growing number of companies recognize the value of corporate communication and are adapting their budgets and internal structures accordingly.Public relations (PR), the predecessor to the corporate communication (Corr Comm) function, grew out of necessity. Although corporations had no specific strategy for communications, they often had to respond to external constituencies whether they wanted to or not. As new laws forced companies to communicate many situations they had’t previously confronted, the constant need for response meant that dedicated resources were required to manage the flow of communications.

The First Spin Doctors In addition to the internal PR staff, outside agencies often helped companies that either couldn't’t afford a full-time person or needed an extra pair of hands in a crisis. The legends of the public relations field – such as Ivy Lee, Edward Bernays, David Finn, Harold Burson, and more recently, Howard Rubenstein and John Graham – helped the public relations function develop from its journalistic roots into a more refined and respected profession.By the 1970s, the business environment required more than the simple internal PR function supplemented by the outside consultant. Mobil Oil developed one of the most sophisticated public relations departments of its time. Mobil’s Herb Schmertz revolutionized the field by solving communications problems with strategies that no one had thought of before.

To Centralize or Decentralize Communications?

One of the first problems organizations confronted in structuring their communication efforts was whether to keep all communications focused by centralizing the activity under one senior officer at headquarters or decentralizing the activities and allowing individual business units to handle communications. The more centralized model provided an easier way for companies to achieve consistency in and control over all communication activities. The decentralized model, however, gave individual business units more flexibility in adapting the function to their own needs.

Where Should the Function Report?

CEO generally devote their time to communicating their company’s strategic plan, mission, operating initiatives, and community involvement both internally and externally. In many cases CEO themselves are an embodiment of the corporate brand. As such, their behavior and commentary can easily and markedly affect a company’s financial performance. All of these imply that the CEO should be the person most involved with both developing the overall strategy for communications and delivering consistent messages to constituencies. Ideally, the corporate communication function will have a direct line to the CEO. The company’s head of communications reports directly to the CEO, president or chairman.The Functions within the Function