Page 106 - Corporate Communication

Cornelissen-04.qxd 10/9/2004 9:04 AM Page 95

Chapter 4
Communications Strategy: Theory and

Practice

Central themes

Strategy is essentially concerned with general manoeuvres taken by managers for managing
the interaction between an organization and its external environment.

Corporate communications operates at the interface between the organization and its
environment, to help gather, relay and interpret information from the environment as well
as representing the organization to the outside world.

Corporate communications strategy needs to be linked to the general corporate and
market strategies of the organization, to which it must contribute if it is to be seen to have
a genuine strategic role.

The process of strategy making in corporate communications can be seen to consist of a
number of stages: strategic analysis, strategic intent, strategic action and evaluation.

There are a number of challenges for corporate communications strategy if it is to have a
genuine involvement in managerial decision making and the overall strategic management
of the organization.

4.1 Introduction

In the first three chapters of the book the strategic management perspective on
corporate communications was introduced, as were the key concepts that define this
area of practice: stakeholder, identity and reputation. These concepts combine to
create a model (Figure 3.3), the purpose of which is to help readers think about
strategic problems in corporate communications and formulate strategies for it. It is
important to understand, however, that this model does not really describe how
corporate communications strategies actually come about.The present chapter elaborates
on this point and provides an account of communications strategies in practice.The
chapter has three parts.
The first part introduces different schools of thought on the subject of strategy in
general and corporate communications strategy in particular.The second and main
part of the chapter discusses the process and practice of strategy making in corporate
communications, taking the reader through the strategic analysis, strategic intent,