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Charles Darwin famously claimed that “it is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change”. In a rapidly changing global environment, constant change and disruption of the status quo is the new normal. And change is invariably both unpredictable and variable.
In the communications sphere, the chief communications officer is being challenged to navigate market disruptions and transformations. Meanwhile, the role is expanding in both scope and influence, which means that expectations of the function have also grown. The span of responsibilities that fall under the new norm ranges from managing stakeholder perceptions to being a cultural influencer. Tactically managing and integrating the complex flow of information in the era of disruptive and challenging social media is also a major role expectation. The communications officer needs to be insightful and have the ability to be all of three critical things: creative, strategic and analytic.
Communication as a critical C-suite function must now drive new thinking. The complexity of multiple touch points and activations will help promote higher levels of engagement; to enable this, communicators will have to be agile and nimble, authentic and credible, and manage multiple new communication, technologies and media. And above all, they have to be well informed and on the ball.