Learn from the Best in PR

Mainz/Hamburg, January 16, 2018 — Corporate communications executives should finally have a permanent seat at the boardroom table and show courage in their own right. This is because decisions regarding products, personnel, and investments almost always require explanation but cannot always be publicly justified. Executive board decisions must therefore be evaluated to determine whether they will garner sufficient public support in today’s media-driven society or trigger costly opposition. This is the key finding of the nationwide study “Excellence in Corporate Communications 2018/19,” which was conducted under the direction of Prof. Dr. Lothar Rolke (Mainz University of Applied Sciences) in cooperation with the Hamburg-based agency Faktenkontor and the dpa subsidiary news aktuell. The survey polled 220 specialists and executives from the communications departments of well-known medium-sized companies and corporations, which show significant differences in quality and success regardless of company size. For example, two-thirds of communications leaders who perform excellently state that their departments should assume greater corporate responsibility. In contrast, PR experts whose performance is only average—three-quarters of them—lament the lack of a professional understanding of communications among the board of directors or executive management.

Greater Openness Toward Society

To identify the pattern of excellent communication, the study’s authors compared the average PR professionals with the communications elite and looked for statistically significant differences. The findings revealed that the best communicators address all stakeholder groups fairly evenly—not just customers and employees, but also, for example, journalists, bloggers, and politicians as representatives of the public interest. “By opening up to society’s demands,” says study director Lothar Rolke, “companies succeed in creating more sustainable business models and service offerings.” Companies driven purely by marketing often ignore the legitimate demands of consumer organizations, environmental groups, or fair-trade advocates. Also striking is the high importance placed on corporate reputation among the top performers in communication. It is regarded as a key metric and is considered just as important for long-term success as profit generation in the short term. Consequently, according to Jörg Forthmann of Faktenkontor, companies with excellent communication practices also regularly measure their reputation. In addition, they have the content in traditional media and comments on social media platforms analyzed. In this context, it is interesting to note that major insurance companies such as Allianz and Munich Re insure corporate reputations. This makes a rapid course correction—at least financially—possible in the event of a crisis.

Less Hierarchy, More Networking

The study also shows that excellence can be demonstrated within companies. Companies with the best communications departments are characterized by a networked, digitally supported, and less hierarchical communication culture. Forty percent of them have already established agile work structures within which every department can collaborate with almost any other. The foundation for this is a personalized and internally open intranet. While traditional top-down communication will lose a great deal of its importance in the future—according to the overwhelming consensus of all communication experts surveyed—open communication networks are expected to become increasingly prevalent within companies. Contact: Prof. Dr. Lothar Rolke teaches business administration and corporate communications at Mainz University of Applied Sciences.
Contact: lothar.rolke@hs-mainz.de - Tel.: 069/526066 Jörg Forthmann is Managing Partner of Faktenkontor GmbH, Hamburg. Contact: joerg.forthmann (at) faktenkontor.de - Tel.: 040-253185-111