A peek at the future of the world, the world of business and the communication profession.

Show me a communicator these days who doesn't want to be strategic, and I'll show you a communicator who secretly wishes she was hanging wallpaper or picking blueberries for a living.

But for many, being strategic isn't so easy. What it involves is taking a much broader view of business - of the world - then focusing all that information into relevant trends and issues that will likely affect your organization. It's kind of like saying, "Well, just be a whole lot smarter and more well informed than you are."

Noble goals aside, if it was that easy, we'd all be smart, well informed and strategic already. But, now there is a quicker and easier way to obtain the kind of information that can help you develop a strategic approach to communication and break the influence barrier with senior management in your organization.

A recent study conducted for IABC by Coates & Jarratt, a Washington, D.C.-based futures company, distills enormous quantities of information down to what you need to know to do your communication job in a strategic manner. This study shortcuts endless hours surfing the Internet for bits and pieces of relevant information to use in creating your strategic communication plan.

This study - they call it an environmental scan - identifies trends in society and business throughout the world; and most important, it lays out the implications of these trends for business and even for communicators. The work is organized into eight sections, each dealing with a major theme that is discussed and analyzed. Then, implications for communicators are presented. A ninth section presents conclusions.

Major themes explored

Here are the themes explored in the study:

1) A much more populous world, and a growing and aging U.S. population, will determine the quality of life in the world and American societies.

2) Work and social change are leading to greater self-reliance; nevertheless, communicators will need support in dealing with life and family transactions.

3) With areas of fast and slow growth and new trade blocs, the world economy determines how well nations do.

4) Growth by region and country is occurring in three categories: most industrialized countries, those growing the fastest, and those that are the most destitute.

5) To survive and grow in a more competitive world, companies are finding new ways of doing business.

6) Information technology is accelerating change in business communication.

7) Science and technology will increasingly transform society.

8) Business communicators will revamp their professional responsibilities and career strategies as they adapt to an evolving information society.

The study truly is global in its scope. With virtually every organization today grappling with ways to effectively find their way in the global marketplace, the study helps provide context and structure for understanding trends and reasons for recommending and taking appropriate action. Some 19 countries are profiled. In addition to business conditions and markets in each country, implications for business communicators are spelled out.

Throughout the study, frequent references are made to trends and how they might affect various countries and regions around the globe; much of the focus of the work, however, is on North American trends and developments.

Research for this extensive study is based on a broad selection of global online sources, plus numerous business and information technology references and a number of publications from around the world. The sources are enumerated with complete addresses, so you may conduct deeper research by industry or geographic area should you desire. They include such resources as: The U.S. Census Bureau home page; United Nations home page; The World Fact Book, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Also, the Print and Research Initiative; Trade Compas; Information Society Institute Initiative-U.K. Department of Trade and Industry. And, publications such as the World Development Indicators. The complete listing of addresses in the appendix also permits updating of information quickly and easily with targeted research sources.

What senior managers want of communicators

IABC's Excellence study found that senior managers felt communicators' most valuable contribution to their organizations could be in identifying trends that might affect business and operations. However, most of those senior managers did not feel communicators were particularly effective in determining and managing those trends. It is much easier - and safer - for communicators to stick to the production of "deliverables" in performing the communication job in the organization. For reasons discussed already, it is tough to be smart enough, knowledgeable enough and courageous enough to get out in front of strategic issues - even if that's what senior management wants and expects of you.

This study helps nudge communicators out of their comfort zones of information. It explores subjects such as genetics, nanotechnology, superconductivity and encryption. What, you might ask, do any of those have to do with doing a good communication job? Well, the study explains:

Genetics - as we learn more about genetics, it isn't hard to envision the organization's human resources department reviewing a job applicant's genetic history in determining his or her qualifications as an employee. What diseases, for example, are they likely to inherit, and how will this affect the company's insurance plan? Communicators will want to keep a close eye on how this technology develops and how it's used within organizations.

Nanotechnology - the miniaturization of computing and communications systems will expand opportunities for monitoring, tracking and remote sensing. Such surveillance methods will cross paths with organizational communication and privacy policies before long.

Encryption - while new encryption products will protect access to corporate files and networks, they will likely lead to policies and procedures that will complicate communicators' lives by restricting access to information. Communicators also will need to be able to convince employees and clients that their confidential information is secure.

As the study explores the many areas of trend and issue development, it zeroes in on areas of arcane knowledge and pulls them down to earth, then explains implications for business and communicators, thus answering that all important question - what does it mean to me and my organization?

Among literally hundreds of topics, the study also discusses the areas of telecommuting and work. Both of these include trends that will likely have a dramatic impact on most organizations in the years ahead. They need to be evaluated in an organization's strategic communication plan with possible communication ramifications discussed. Here are just a few highlights of what the study says:

About Telecommuting - "In the U.S. about 11 million people telecommute nationwide, up from about 8.5 million in 1995. Only about 31 percent of them use the Internet. They are paid, on average, $51,000, and their average age is just over 40. About 67 percent are married, and 46 percent have children at home."

About Work - "By the first two decades of the next century we will be able to meet all our domestic and export needs with 70 percent of the work force. Paying people to stay out of the work force might prove politically difficult. The Dutch have struggled with such a problem in the last decade."

In addition to providing information on the world and its major trends, plus what's ahead for business, the study zeroes in on implications for communicators themselves. What's to become of the profession? Where is it headed?

What's ahead for Communicators?

Communicators face a dramatic transformation - from a role which essentially involved controlling what was known and said about an organization, to a role where that control is absent because of networks that allow everyone to talk freely with everyone else without the communicator as an intermediary.

Trend analysis shows that businesses are linking marketing, public relations and advertising functions for unified, consistent messages. This integration points to greater responsibilities for communicators, perhaps as part of a cross-functional team. For a communicator to specialize in one area of this overall communication effort - such as public relations - it requires a core knowledge of marketing as well as the organization's specific marketing strategy.

In a 1996 survey, 90 percent of senior executives agreed their responsibility was to serve a greater number of stakeholders - including employees, customers and communities. If they carry this out, it will heighten the need for a strong corporate identity and communicators' responsibilities consequently will expand.

Communicators face the challenge of keeping pace with extraordinary changes in communication technology. They will be able to reach publics on a closer, more interactive level - particularly through the Internet and similar network technologies - if they can master IT.

Communicators will continue to be needed for their intercultural expertise as organizations continue to expand globally. The role of the communicator may become a cross-cultural one. Opportunities will continue to expand for communicators as entrepreneurs and consultants, especially those with IT expertise.

Emerging opportunities include roles as information brokers, especially to engineers and other professionals who are overwhelmed with information. A communicator could offer services in organizing, digesting and prioritizing this information.

Conclusion

As organizations reshape themselves with electronic technologies, communicators must restructure their practices to fit the new design. This they can do by:

* Acquiring new skills

* Partnering with those inside or outside the organization who can add value to communication through electronic media

* Learn to manage the higher expectations for real-time response to issues, crises and requests for information and services.

In the future, more information about an organization will be gathered outside its walls rather than within - about technologies, new markets, non-customers, products and services not currently provided. Communicators will be called upon to become their organization's resource specialists, to gather as well as deliver information.

In the future, communicators may find themselves essential links in the more loosely constructed virtual corporation. Skills and knowledge that they can develop today in networking, in handling electronic communications, in expanding their reach globally, will add to the intellectual database of the profession.

Future opportunities for communicators look bright, but only if they help contribute to achieving the corporate strategy. That will require continual learning and teaming with other strategic players in the organization. Being strategic won't be an option, but chances are good that strategic communicators will be rewarded with their place on the senior management team.

Cliff McGoon is a business writer with offices in Palm Springs and San Francisco, Calif.