Communications is about much more than producing content. For business leaders, it is part of decision-making, anticipating what lies ahead, managing reputation and, at times, responding quickly to critical situations. As communications professionals, we often work closely with our clients’ senior executives – both in day-to-day business and in demanding, sometimes extreme communications circumstances.

Much of our day-to-day work as a communications agency is highly practical. We produce expert articles, customer stories, reports, website copy and other marketing communications content for our clients. We also manage press communications and media relations, plan communications activities and help our clients communicate in ways that are relevant, clear and appropriate for their target audiences.

Our work often involves information about upcoming acquisitions and mergers, executive appointments, new market entries, innovations and product launches – in other words, sometimes highly sensitive corporate information that needs to be communicated with precision and at exactly the right time. At the same time, our work also includes the more routine side of corporate communications, such as regular marketing content. We work either as our clients’ communications partner or together with their in-house communications and marketing leaders.

Alongside this practical work, we advise CEOs, management teams and other key decision-makers on communications. In this role, our work often begins well before anything is actually communicated – and much of it takes place in the board room, behind the scenes.

Communications as part of decision-making

In executive communications, the most important question is not always how something should be said.

Instead, you need to first understand what is happening and what the communication should achieve. What is the situation? What should be communicated, to whom, when and in what order? What do different stakeholders need to know? What questions is the situation likely to raise? How might the message be interpreted outside the organization? And, quite often, what should not be said?

A communications perspective is most valuable when it is brought into the process while decisions are still being prepared. The role of a communications advisor to senior management is to look beyond individual messages or communications activities and consider the wider picture: the business and its objectives, stakeholders, public perception, credibility, timing, potential reactions and implications for the company’s reputation.

The value of an outside perspective

Within any company, issues are inevitably viewed from the organization’s own perspective. Senior management has access to a vast amount of information and context that people outside the company do not have. This is precisely why an external professional perspective can be valuable.

A communications professional needs to be able to look at the same situation through the eyes of an employee, customer, business partner or journalist. Something that seems perfectly clear or highly relevant inside an organization may look very different from the outside. A detail the company itself considers insignificant may be exactly what attracts the most attention externally. Conversely, something regarded internally as major news may be of little relevance to the wider public.

This becomes particularly important when an issue may affect a company’s reputation or public profile. Factual accuracy alone is not enough. You also need to consider how the situation will appear publicly, how it may be interpreted and what questions are likely to follow.

Part of the communications advisor’s role is therefore to help management clarify, sharpen and simplify not only the message, but the situation itself.

Thinking ahead

Advising senior management on communications is not simply about responding to situations that have already developed. A significant part of the work is about anticipating what may happen next.

Successful communications can often be seen in what does not happen. An opportunity or reputational risk is identified while decisions are still being made, rather than only once the issue has entered the public domain.

Anticipation does not mean constructing worst-case scenarios. It means identifying the communications implications that genuinely matter and preparing for them in proportion to the significance of the situation.

When communications becomes critical

There are also situations in business where there is little or no time to prepare. An organization may face an exceptional situation or a genuine crisis in which decisions need to be made quickly, under pressure and with limited information.

The first task in such a situation is not necessarily to issue an immediate response. Acting quickly must never be confused with acting hastily. An external communications professional can bring perspective and structure to the situation, help establish a clear overall picture and support consistent decision-making even under pressure.

In demanding situations, communications is not only about solving the immediate problem. It also means thinking several steps ahead. The greater the pressure, the more important it becomes to distinguish what matters from what does not – and to assess what the consequences of each communications decision may be.

Crisis communications is one of the most powerful tools in reputation management.

Advice that translates into action

At Vetter Communications, we believe that strategic communications advice and practical execution should go hand in hand. We work with our clients to assess how different situations should be handled – and then help put the agreed course of action into practice.

Once the communications approach has been established, we can prepare executive messages, statements, press releases, speeches and other materials for different channels; develop Q&A materials; prepare senior leaders for interviews; arrange the necessary photography and visual materials; act as a gatekeeper for press enquiries; align internal and external communications and help coordinate the communications & PR response as a whole.

This becomes particularly valuable in fast-moving and demanding situations. As a trusted communications partner, we already understand the background, business objectives and communications readiness of our clients. This allows us to act quickly when time matters most, without the need for extensive briefing.

A trusted communications advisor to senior management

Executive communications advisory is easily associated with crises and exceptional circumstances. In reality, much of the work is far more routine.

It may concern an upcoming organizational change, a new strategic direction, a senior leader’s own communications, contract negotiations or simply a situation in which a decision-maker wants a second opinion.

At its best, a communications advisor becomes one of management’s trusted experts – someone with whom a situation can be assessed confidentially before it even becomes a communications issue.

Communications is part of leadership

Ultimately, a company’s communications cannot be fully separated from its business, decision-making or leadership.

A company builds its reputation continuously: through what it does, what it says, how it explains its decisions, how it handles different situations and how consistently its words align with its actions.

Vetter Communications supports senior management both as a communications advisor and as a hands-on communications partner – in day-to-day business, in long-term reputation management and in demanding situations that require experienced judgement and the ability to act quickly.

Would you like to discuss the topic further with us? Get in touch!