What is the future of corporate affairs?

In a world where wider society is increasingly invested in corporate behaviours, effectively communicating with multiple stakeholders is invaluable. It gives corporate affairs leaders greater influence. Business critical areas, including corporate reputation, corporate social responsibility, reputational risk, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, are increasingly dominant in their evolving role.

The needs of its operations mould the corporate affairs role within every organisation. It encompasses stakeholder management, reputational risk reduction, and promoting a single, authentic message.

Functions of corporate affairs

The original model of corporate affairs strategy was a single, one-way channel to the external world. This model was in force when the business wanted to advertise its activities and refute negative reporting. Communications were controlled, and messages were spun to achieve short-term goals.

However, today, it includes internal and external communications, covering every aspect of the business. Corporate communications are directed to all stakeholders, including the board, employees, investors, suppliers, the wider community, customers, and the media. Its tangible tasks include PR, investor, government, community, and customer relations.

Future of corporate affairs

Corporate affairs directors play a more holistic role in bringing different perspectives to internal teams and a more detailed view of the business to external stakeholders. Future blueprints for these functions will most likely include:

• New settings

Locating within customer, supplier, or investor organisations and even potentially media outlets gives greater access to the issues emerging among external stakeholders. Working and interacting with local communities to understand their priorities is necessary for growth.

• Global perspectives

In the post-pandemic world, talent could lie anywhere. The communications function needs to be tailored to cultural backgrounds. Campaign messaging is one of the most important ways to reach target audiences globally. Social media’s impact on political campaigning is profound and far-reaching, especially among younger generations. No longer a one-way street of broadcasted messages, these platforms have ushered in an era of two-way conversations between candidates and voters.

For political campaigns, this means an opportunity to share their messages and listen, respond, and adapt based on real-time feedback from the electorate. It is a dynamic space where a tweet or post can spark a movement, or a live stream can rally the masses.

• Managing stakeholder intelligence

The corporate affairs director will also use technology solutions to capture, analyse, and sort vast quantities of data from numerous sources in multiple languages. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will provide sentiment analysis. The leader will feed the intelligence sourced into board-level decision-making.

Employing stakeholder intelligence will allow the communications function to surface and deflect some reputation-damaging events beforehand and react strategically to unavoidable ones.

Parting words

The corporate affairs team of the future needs to be hybridised and work within all departments rather than function as an independent group.

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