CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

In all organizations, communication flows as the following:

 vertically and horizontally

 internally : linking employees internally to each other, to various layers of
management.
Externally with different targets (customers, government, resource – holders
…) .
 formally and informally : which means not all communications in an
organization are work related or aiming at fulfilling organizational
objectives.

Marketing communications Mix

• Modern organizations operate through different departments charged with
community relations, government relations, customer relations, labor
relations, human resources – both at the corporate level and at the business
unit level. Also they have various stakeholders who play a role in achieving
the organizations, objectives. Do not directly aim at generating sales, but at
developing long-term relationship.

Organizations need communication to :

 Acquire resources they need in order to operate.

 Communicate with different stakeholders.

 Communication with employees to increase their loyalty.

 Influence the environment within which they operate.

 Retain their license to operate.

 Improve the image.

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  Encourage all employees to work together to support the company's
objectives.

 Develop the corporate branding.

• In this course we will focus on the formal communications that link internal
and external audiences of the organizations.

• What is Corporate Communication?

• Tools of corporate communication

 The most important practices to achieve Corporate integrated

communications are:

◦ Use of integrated marketing communications (IMC).

◦ Application of visual identity systems (house style).

◦ Depending on team works.

◦ Adoption of a centralized planning system

1- Integrated Marketing Communications

• In recent years organizations become aware of the need to produce

consistent messages (free of contradictions) and this what we can call “
Integrated marketing communication” to describe a process for building a
fully coordinated communication system inside the organization.

2- Visual identity Systems

• To produce consistent themes on products and services through the use of

common names, logos, sounds, packaging, furniture, building design and
even smells.

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 • This led to the emergence of “identity firms” that help the organization to
develop a uniform set of symbols, guidelines for employees to create a
uniform image for the organization(clothing, way of greetings….).

3-Coordinated teams work groups

4-Communication planning system (CPS)

• It is a software that can be used to

– set up and manage communication projects targeted to internal and

external audiences.

– Manage and control at a general level by providing employees with

certain information.

– Offers standard structure of reports that can be used in various

situations.

What do employees want?

• Mutual faith and confidence between employee and employer

• Clear, unambiguous communication with employee

• Perception of employees as an important asset.

• Free flow of information between departments and people

• Value addition to employee’s credentials by the company.

• Growth of the company and the future it holds for the employees.

 The corporate strategy can be translated into common starting points by

applying the PPT model as : indicate what the organization wants to
Promise to its most important internal and external stakeholders; indicate
how it expects to Prove it ; and identify what Tone of voice it wants to use to
communicate messages to those audiences.

 Make plans more specific by applying the KAB model as: specify what the
organization wants target groups to know (knowledge), to feel (attitude)and
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 to do (Behavior), both with respect to the entire company and with respect to
the individual business unit.

• Corporate Communication as mentioned earlier touches upon two broad

areas

• The CEO of an IT company admits to financial mismanagement. (int/ext)

• Major oil leakage at sea and the oil in the sea water is damaging marine life
(ext. comm. To global audience)

• A fight breaks out between two corporate biggies, who are brothers (ext)

• The cheapest car of the world has caught fire & some other technical
glitches(ext)

• An employee of a company is beaten up at an airport by security personnel

& is hospitalized. His colleagues come to know about the incident and are
pressurizing the management to file a case against the airport security
personnel. (int)

Features
• Voice of corporate identity

• Communicate with internal/external stakeholders

• Does not mean only top management

• Responsibility/onus of success/failure depends on everyone associated with

a company

• Undesirable repercussions

Focus areas - Internal Communication

Challenge 1 : Reaching out to employees

Organizational structure, policies, and working environments should be such

that they facilitate a culture of internal communication.

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Steps to enhance internal communication

 Set up Formal channels of communication

(multiple channels of communication and ensure that the feedback is well received,
internal literature, in-house journals, podcasts, blogs, bulletin boards, quarterly/half
yearly meetings, chats with senior members, open houses)

 Breed a Culture of internal communication

Open door policy, 360 degree feedback mechanism, whistle blower policy

 Prevent hierarchy model and ensure channel functioning.

(Open and free communication should be encouraged, focus should be on work

than on hierarchy, top-down approach, prevent communication gaps)

Focus areas – Internal Communication

• Internal Communication

• Challenge 2: Ensuring that intra-departmental communication are in sync

with one another.

Problems:

• Departments fight over trivial issues.

• Do not allow one another to gain prominence.

• Some significant changes – Intra-departmental comm.

• ERP – data critical for the working of every department

• HR department focuses on the unique requirements of various departments

and individuals working within different teams

• Department & employee branding (presenting thought leadership paper,

reward, promotion/compliments)

• Technology – IM, Social networking sites, blogs, bulletin boards

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 • Transparency – there are multiple ways of accessing information across
various departments.

Focus Area – External Communication

1. Reputation of the company

2. Government

3. CSR

4. Financial communication

5. Media

6. Crisis communication

1. Reputation of the company

• Reputation management of the brand and the individuals associated with the
company.

• Eg. Image of Satan(P&G), radia tape controversy, dispute between Reliance

brothers, nestle – maggi, Cadbury – Dairy milk

Attention to reputation is emphasized as result of the evolution of :

• (1) responsible media (south west airlines and Kevin Smith, Cola
Controversy, Cadbury in India)

• (2) internet era and social networking

• (3) informed stakeholder

Reputation of the company

• Impact of good reputation on different stakeholders

2. Government

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The will of the govt in most cases is the will of the people. Therefore,
organisations must take rules, restrictions and guidelines formulated by the
government very seriously and adhere to them.

• Role of Policy maker (tax, SEZ, STP)

• Role of a watchdog (e.g. Satyam)

3. Media
• Internet

• Social Media

• Television

• Radio

• Print

• Others (billboards, sms, mobile advertisements etc)

4. Corporate Social Responsibility & Corporate

Responsiveness
CSR explained

Socially responsible business

Responsible entrepreneurship

Corporate citizenship

Corporate sustainability

a. ‘Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by

business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development
while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families
as well as of the local community and society at large’.

b. World Business Council For Sustainable Development

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CSR dimensions
 To acknowledge that companies are publicly accountable not only for
their financial performance but also for their environmental and social
record
 Promote human rights, democracy, community improvement,
sustainable development objectives, workers rights and welfare,
market relations, corporate governance, environmental concerns,
socio-economic development

Benefits of CSR
 Important social issues are addressed
 Generates awareness about the products in the public
 Improvement in brand reputation and overall image
 Provides distinct competitive advantages
 Brings employees together
 Helps make better use of resources
 Increased employee loyalty and retention
 Increased quality of products and services
 Increased customer loyalty
 Less volatile stock value
 Distinct company advantage (ii) brand building (ii) bring employees
together
 Social issues are addressed (iv) brand reputation and overall image
of the corporation concerned improves
 Products and services find better acceptability

CSR and the Organization

CSR done at two levels

(1) Corporate level

(2) Branch /individual level

Corporate level –

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 • Direction is set to the social responsibility issues that are taken up

• A separate unit/department – volunteer employees- goal setting – tackle

issues

• CSR and the Organization

• Individual/branch/unit level

 Employees are encouraged to take up CSR activities

 Carried out by a set of people that operates out of a particular unit.

 Awards are generated for the CSR consciousness and this helps employees
keep up the motivation level.

 Sabbatical – for developing social consciousness – break from the routine

work

5. Financial Communication
 Financial information indicates to investors whether to invest in a
company or not.
 SOX – Sabarney Oxley Act
 GAAP – Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
 SEBI –Security and Exchanges Board of India (financial
advertisements, listing on stock exchange, declaration of financial
statement.
 Reserve Bank of India – Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR)

6. Financial Communication
 The following are some of the media used to maintain investor
relations
 Annual reports and press releases
 Advertisements given by companies
 Interviews with representatives of companies
 Every company must have its own investor-relations team to maintain
communication with various stakeholders. However, investor relations
have to be guided from the top; otherwise they are bound to fail.

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 7. Ethical and Legal issues in Communication
Ethical Dimension...

 behaviors and activities that are expected or prohibited by

organizational members, the community, and society (not codified
into law)
 standards, norms, or expectations that reflect the concern of major
stakeholders

Organizational factors
 If organization allows deviation from the standard path, the behaviour
of the employees will b governed by these organizational work
patterns.
 Environmental factors - Local environment (internal working
environment)
 Various departments work differently from what their organization
mandates or expects.
 External working environment(corruption, bribery, misrepresentation)
 Individual factor - Upbringing

Guidelines for ethical communication

Personal messages generated by individuals & Messages for external
stakeholders

 Do not hide important information

 What is ethical for one may not be ethical for the other

 Give the right information

 Do not misrepresent facts

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  Do not play with figures/ statistics

 Maintain a good rapport with your audience

 Follow guidelines on what can be spoken about and what cannot

 Practice of presenting gifts

Legal Dimension...
• refers to obeying governmental laws and regulations

• civil law: rights & duties of individuals and organizations

• criminal law: prohibits specific actions and imposes fines and/or

imprisonment as punishment for breaking the law

Legal aspects
 Plagiarism (taking and copying ideas from other sources and claiming that
these ideas were developed using your own efforts and resources constitute
plagiarism and copyright violation)

 Copyright violation(picking up material without referring to the original

source)

 Misrepresentation & frauds

(misrepresentation – presenting facts that the sender of the message believed to be

true)

(fraud – is a situation when the sender knew that the information was false but still
went ahead to communicate it)

Legal aspects
 Discrimination (on basis of race, gender, nationality etc)

 Harassment (anti-harassment laws, sexual harassment)

 Invasion of privacy – employers should give personal freedom at the

workplace to their employees and not invade into their personal lives,
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 employers selling their employee database to other companies, divulge
information that is confidential, keep record of employee conversations or
records of email communication etc.)

 Intellectual property rights (trade secrets, patents,

ttrademarks)discrimination

• Exhibits : Intellectual property violation

• Oracle Vs SAP

Two technology giants, Oracle and SAP, entered into a legal battle in March 2007,
with Oracle accusing SAP’s subsidiary ,TomorrowNow, of intellectual property
theft. Oracle president Safra Catz commented: “for more than three years, SAP
stole thousands of copies of Oracle software and then resold that software and
related services to Oracle’s own customers. The matter went to court , which ruled
in Oracle’s favour. SAP was asked to pay 1.3.billion dollar to Oracle for software
theft, and it was one of the largest payouts for copyright infringement ever.

Exhibit : invasion of privacy

• Google street view trespass case

Google offers street-view images , which were taken from a vehicle equipped with
cameras. A couple filed a case against Google in 2008 for displaying the images of
their house in its street view facility. Aaron and Christine Boring (Boring Vs
Google Inc) filed the case in the US District Court, Pennsylvania, stating that this
service of Google invaded their privacy and trespassed on the property that
included a private road. They sought compensatory and punitive damages.
However the case was dismissed by the judge who awarded compensation of 1
dollar to the couple.

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