Where we're headed: in advance of a new Research Foundation study, IABC's panel of experts highlights the successes and the challenges for communication departments today.

Imagine this scenario: You head a communication department. One day the CEO walks into your office and tells you that the company is initiating a detailed analysis of its overhead functions, including yours. The communication department's structure, mission and effectiveness will all be under scrutiny, and you'll need to come up with some common metrics and measurements that show the department's value.

A dream, or a nightmare? You may be totally prepared, thanks to careful benchmarking, or you may have no idea where to start. No matter which camp you're in, assessing the value and potential of your department will soon be easier thanks to upcoming research from the IABC Research Foundation.

"IABC members have asked for data on structuring a communication department in order to get overall summary data and trends, and to benchmark their organizations against others in similar businesses, geographic locations and size," says Kellie Garrett, ABC, chair of the IABC Research Foundation. "They want to be sure they're directly linking the efforts of their department to their organization's goals, reinforcing vision and culture, while maximizing the staff's skills and strengths."

This year the IABC Research Foundation will begin a study of members around the world that will focus on communication department structures, functions, budget, staffing and competencies, covering centralized versus decentralized models, reporting relationships, integration with other functions, budget trends and outsourcing.

To preface the project, the IABC Research Foundation hosted roundtable discussions with industry experts to pinpoint and discuss trends, obstacles and successes in the field. The panel included senior communicators representing a diverse set of organizational responsibilities. The first meeting was held in San Francisco in September; in the months that followed, IABC members from five countries outside North America joined the discussion virtually. (See the facing page for the list of panelists.)

What follows is a synthesis of key trends and issues facing the industry today based on those discussions.

What are the mega-trends you have seen over the past five to seven years in the communication field?

1. A need for strategic communicators.

Panelists agreed that there is a growing need for strategic communicators. According to Karen Horn, companies are moving toward using strategic communicators internally while outsourcing more specialized, tactical work. As Kristen Sukalac pointed out, "Serious communicators are gaining more credence as they focus more on serving the organization's strategic interests."

Juan-Andres Rincon Gonzalez added that what he sees communicators doing well is "focusing on strategy more than ever and avoiding the fast-tactic, mainly-just-creative-solution approach."

2. An increased focus on return on investment (ROI).

Supporting the need for more strategic communicators, Paul Sanchez and Gordon Rudow cited ROI as another critical issue. Sanchez said the questions he keeps hearing from management about communication are, "What's the real payback? We've given them a budget, but are they producing results that have an impact for our shareholders?"

According to Rudow, organizations want increased measurement around communication--how it's driving business initiatives, speeding up implementation, translating behavior change and leveraging the investment of the enterprise. "It's not about the quantity of things that we produce anymore. It's about what impact we are making," he said.

"Communicators are trying to relate communication strategy and image management to reputation or real value," explained Abraham Nosnik. And Pablo Casares called "selling the true impact of communication to higher management" the No. 1 problem facing communicators today.

3. Increased credibility.

New efforts in strategy and measurement in communication are being met by growing respect and validation from other departments. "For a variety of reasons, organizations are paying much more attention to communication in this environment, because they know they can go down in flames in 30 seconds if they're not aware and trying," Sanchez said. Such crisis situations have enhanced top-level attitudes in what Rincon Gonzalez called an "evolution of the view of CEOs about the power of communicating with others."

Sukalac pointed out that the "professionalization" of communication still has a long way to go in France, but that European integration and globalization--along with recent business scandals--have been important in convincing organizations of the profession's value. "Communicators who only speak a company's official language are [now] at a disadvantage," she said. "Knowledge of local language and culture is a plus, and deployment must take into account the fragmentation of audiences."

4. Rethinking the customer experience.

Kellie Garrett noted the growing emphasis on all employees to deliver a brand and engage customers. "I think many [companies] are moving to the customer intimacy model and the differentiated customer experience," she said. "That means that their reliance on their employees to deliver the brand is more and more important, which means communication, marketing and training need to work together."

"At [Charles] Schwab, I think that focusing on the customer experience and projecting a unified company are what we're obsessed about right now--trying to look at everything through our client's eyes," said Glen Mathison. "And it raises some interesting questions. The more you start to try to differentiate yourself based on service and focus on how you treat your customers, the more important that integration and engagement at the client level comes in."

5. Technology and the democratization of communication.

The majority of the panelists mentioned technology and its profound influence on communication. Those enabled with technology--from the Internet and intranets to blogs and e-mail--become instant, proactive communicators. While the playing field in some ways has been leveled, there are still inconsistencies among target-group haves and have-nots.

"Communicators now cannot ignore international trends and perspectives," said Sue Driscoll. "Research and benchmarking are easier, as cases can be sourced easily on the Web and used even while a campaign is under way. Equally, however, scrutiny is now also international--media and action groups can monitor what is and is not being communicated."

Others mentioned the overwhelming overload that so much information has created. Marcus Ferrar named the top problem for communicators: "Spam, direct mail, etc.... It's too much to digest."

Driscoll emphasized the increasing gap between those with electronic access and those without, and how it proves an obstacle to her organization's outreach in particular.

"The unfortunate reality is that if you have regular access to Web, e-mail and mobile technology, you get faster communication as well as the ability to research your own news sources," she explained. "The disenfranchised are the poor, unhealthy and unsheltered--in many cases the same people to whom we want to communicate."

What are the biggest issues facing communicators today?

1. Breaking through silos, influencing management and other structural problems.

Panelists overwhelmingly agreed with the need to break through silos to create more effective organizational communication. Mathison noted that Charles Schwab has acknowledged that the lines between the audiences are blurred, and as a result the company's decentralized functions need to focus more on integration.

"We've dealt with the reality and tried to knit together cross-functional information sharing, virtual kind of teams," he said. "I'm assuming that the grand, centralized, all-knowing communication function that has control over all these functions is a thing of the past."

Brad Whitworth said this issue is really about getting a seat at the top management table. "You don't have the best solution unless you have all the voices coming in," he explained. "I think too often in the past people listened to only a select few, but now they're democratizing again and opening it up and recognizing that they had better include communications, and we had better be able to come up with the right answer."

2. The influence of the top communications officer.

"Size does not matter, nor budget," said Driscoll. "The overwhelming importance is recognition of the senior communicator within the organization as a person of influence and counsel. While access to the CEO, board and dominant coalition is critical, the support of these people to promote communication is absolutely paramount to effective communication, job satisfaction and ethical business practice."

Whitworth echoed that sentiment: "In so many ways the communication function reflects the personality and style of the CEO."

Which makes for a more effective department--a centralized or decentralized structure?

"If the senior communicator is part of the dominant coalition, or fully supported by this group, then centralization or decentralization is not an issue," said Driscoll, who cited problems with both models. "Decentralization means poorer coordination and control, less professional support and training, poorer strategic and industry perspective, diluted budgets, and less agreement on processes, messages and branding. In centralized models, there can be bunker mentality and approaches, entrenched behaviors, and isolation for business units."

Sukalac supported a hybrid of the two. "A certain level of centralization helps maintain consistency, but, at least for transnational organizations, execution requires a decentralized network that can adapt central messages to local conditions and feed the local experiences upward to shape messages in the first place," she said.

Rey Anthony David Jr. also argued for a blend of both. "Decentralized implementation is best, but with policy guidance and direction from the head office," he said. "In a multiple-stakeholder environment, the head office cannot be expected to be familiar with the nuances and conditions at branch level--they know their market and stakeholders better."

Core staffing competencies also have an impact on effectiveness.

"When we bring people in, they need to already know about audience advocacy, communication tool use and change-management positioning," said Ben Fox. "We assume that everyone in the department has the basic communication competencies."

"The good communicators can do the 3,000 words, can do the 30 words or can [use instant messaging], but they know when to use what approach and can do each one of them well," said Rudow.

"Still," he continued, "we have more e-mail, more information, more projects than we know how to handle. It's a tremendous issue--how to distill what's important. So, if I am a communicator, I can go through all of this and figure out what the essence of this situation is. If I am in front of the room and I'm hearing a dialogue, how do I pull the gem out of that dialogue and then mirror that back? If I'm coaching an executive and I'm listening to what he or she wants to communicate or what's important to them, and I watch their eyes light up at a particular moment, I find that gem. You can call it being a knowledge broker. That skill set is the value that the professional communicator brings to the table."

our panel of experts

Pablo Casares, president and CEO, Soluciones de Comunicacion S.C., Mexico

Rey Anthony David Jr., president, Great Wall Advertising, Philippines

Sue Driscoll, CEO, Health Communications, Australia

Marcus Ferrar, principal, Marcus Ferrar Strategic Communications, Switzerland

Ben Fox, learning and development coordinator, policy, government and public affairs, Chevron, USA

Karen Horn, senior vice president, internal communication, WaMu, USA

Glen Mathison, vice president, corporate public relations, Charles Schwab, USA

Abraham Nosnik, Ph.D., professor, Anahuac University, Mexico

Juan-Andres Rincon Gonzalez, consultant, Zimat Consultores, Mexico

Gordon Rudow, CEO, Bonfire Communications, USA

Kristen Sukalac, head of information and communication, International Fertilizer Industry Association, France

Facilitating the discussions was Brad Whitworth, ABC, IABC Fellow, past IABC chair, and senior communication manager for Cisco Systems, USA. Representing the IABC Research Foundation board were past chair Paul Sanchez, ABC, global director, employee research, Mercer HR, USA; chair Kellie Garrett, ABC, senior vice president, strategy, knowledge and reputation, Farm Credit Canada, Canada; and vice chair Jan Thibodeau, ABC, president, JT Communications, USA Special thanks to Mari Pavia, IABC Research Foundation director

learn more at the international conference

Hear further discussion of this topic during the "Corporate Communication Function Panel" session at IABC's International Conference on Tuesday, 26 June from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m.

wanted: research co-sponsor

Farm Credit Canada, one of Canada's top 50 employers, has committed to co-sponsoring the IABC Research Foundation's upcoming study on communication department structures. IABC is seeking one additional co-sponsor. If you know of an organization that may be interested in sponsoring this or other projects, please contact Mari Pavia at [e-mail].

about the authors

Karen Vahouny, ABC, is a founding partner of Qorvis Communications, one of the largest independent communication firms in the U.S. She also serves as a trustee on the board of the IABC Research Foundation.

Natasha Nicholson is executive editor of CW.