Mastering Business for Strategic Communicators
Insights and Advice from the C-suite of Leading Brands
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- Description
- Contents
- Reviews
- About
The most successful communication professionals are no longer just communication experts—they are masters of business. To serve as trusted advisors to the C-suite and to collaborate across the enterprise means it is necessary to have a strong grounding in business acumen.
Mastering Business provides strategic communications and public relations students and professionals with expert insights and advice into the various major business functions and departments. From an assemblage of top strategic communication leaders comes this collection of more than 20 essays from current and former Chief Communications Officers (CCOs). The authors show the business areas that communicators help convene, integrate, and translate across their enterprises and to external stakeholders. Each chapter features a Career Spotlight by the CCO and a C-suite View response from a business leader, including CEOs, presidents, and CFOs from household names like GE, GM, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and SAP.
This collection provides readers with a rare view of the leadership roles played by top strategic communicators inside some of today’s most well-known brands and organizations.
Foreword by Roger Bolton, president, Arthur W. Page Society
- PART I. Introduction
- 1. Advising "the room where it happens": the business case for business acumen; Matthew W. Ragas, Ph.D. and Ron Culp;
- PART II. Communications, Business Acumen and the C-suite;
- 2. The communicator as integrator; Gary Sheffer & Weber Shandwick;
- 3. Why business acumen matters more than ever; Peter Marino
- 4. From farm to pharm: business and life lessons learned in the barnyard;;Jeffrey A. Winton & Astellas Pharma
- PART III. Finance and Investor Relations
- 5. Taking the numb out of numbers: working with the office of the CFO;;Kathryn Beiser
- 6. The partnership between corporate communications and investor relations;;Carole Casto
- PART IV. Human Resources and Employee Engagement;
- 7. Mastering business means first understanding your people;;Corey duBrowa
- 8. Employees as drivers of corporate brand and reputation;;Paul Gerrard and Angela Roberts
- 9. Have a seat at the table - not on the fringes;;Anne C. Toulouse
- PART V. Corporate Strategy, Innovation and Legal;
- 10. Collaborating with strategy and innovation: taking on the challenge to "communicate the amoeba";;Linda Rutherford;
- 11. Telling the story of value creation; Clarkson Hine
- 12. Lessons from my father: bringing the "greener rules" to corporate strategy and planning; Chuck Greener,
- 13. Understanding the corporate legal department;Mark Bain & Baker McKenzie PART VI. Marketing, Brand and Data Analytics;
- 14. Driving to the right place: aligning communications with business goals and objectives;;Joe Jacuzzi and Tony Cervone
- 15. Peas in a pod: communications and the chief marketing officer;Richard Kylberg
- 16. Learn the language of business and keep what you earn;B. J. Talley
- PART VII. Social Responsibility and Transparency;
- 17. Truth, trust and transparency: why hard facts and corporate honesty matter;Matt Peacock
- 18. How communicators can help corporations make a difference;Stacy Sharpe
- 19. Communications for social good;Andrew Solomon
- PART VIII. Communication and Corporate Transformations;
- 20. Building communications' influence during corporate transformation; Kelly McGinnis;
- 21. Accentuate the positive: the communicator's catalytic effect;Jon Harris
- 22. Communications leadership that strong leaders expect;Nick Tzitzon
- PART IX. Summing Up
- 23. Observations and conclusions from "Masters of Business";Matthew W. Ragas, Ph.D and Ron Culp
Mastering Business for Strategic Communicators is a gem and a must-read for anyone aspiring to lead communications for any organization. It makes clear that to be a top communicator today you have to be a business leader first, mine data and relationships, and find ways to transform strategy into relationships and results.
“Wow! What an outstanding read! Featuring stories and insights from the best of the best in the industry, Mastering Business For Strategic Communicators must be required reading for students and practitioners alike in any area of business, communication, and public relations.”
“Backstopping every C-suite are their strategic communications leaders, counseling businesses on how to increase shareholder value, maintain trust in a crisis, and enhance reputation. Mastering Business provides a front row seat as to how diverse companies navigate the communications land mines populating our ever changing media landscape.”
“Mastering Business is a succinct, readable and compelling work. It does a wonderful job capturing the way the profession has evolved and how it might look in the future. The insights here from Jeff Winton, Chuck Greener, Tony Cervone, Kathy Beiser and many other true giants in the field present a blueprint for those who want to be trusted advisors with a seat at the table where business decisions are made. It is an essential read for anyone pursuing a career in communications.”
“Matt and Ron are on a mission: To make sure PR’s next generation is schooled in the foundations of business and thus regularly asked into the 'room where it happens.' Through chapters contributed by many of today’s most successful communicators, along with observations by leading C-suite executives, their newest book will go a long way towards helping students - as well as those building careers – easily and more fully understand business at the intersection of strategic communications. I used their first book in my classroom at Boston University. I will use their new one, too.”
Building deeper competencies in business helps strategic communicators gain traction with the many silos of the typical corporate C-suite. Mastering Business for Strategic Communicators makes the case that these competencies empower communicators to counsel and serve as integrators of many strategic priorities beyond communication...
The overall tone of the book is invitational to new practitioners, as well as to those who would seek more responsibility. Many practitioners discuss their mistakes, their influences, and their own learning through trial and error. In sum, these authors' views of the power of communication should both inspire and instruct.