Corporate Affairs and Strategic Communication

Objectives:

• To set Corporate Affairs in a strategic, anticipatory, and effective context
• To develop an understanding of stakeholder programmes for regular, focused communication
• Examine the development of Corporate Affairs tools
• Understand the development of strategy, plans, and tactics, and how to coordinate these
• Evaluate and understand the use of research

Content:

Introduction and Welcome: The Power of Communication

• Introduction and welcome
• Course programme, design, and options
• Opening exercise: goal setting
• Corporate Affairs and Public Affairs approaches
• Corporate identity and image
• Corporate communications overview and strategy
• External reputation management
• Communication as a change agent
• Communication as a goal for all managers

From the Inside Out: Crafting Consistent Messages

• Internal communications
• Family and friends as stakeholders
• Measuring emotional capital
• Communications channels mapping and monitoring
• Setting internal communications goals
• New media for rapid interaction
• Champions, opinion formers, and incentivisation
• The place of the company magazine/newsletter
• The multinational internal communications programme
• Commitment from internal decision makers

Risks and Threats: Their Identification and Management

• Single-issue politics
• Special interest groups
• Whistleblowers and the rules of disclosure
• External opinion formers
• Cause-related PR and core values
• Campaigns: their design and planning
• A crisis management toolkit
• Stakeholder interest inventories
• Opinion former networks

Corporate Affairs/PR in the Corporate Mix

• PR in the communications mix
• PR in the marketing mix
• Direct response PR
• Financial PR
• PR and strategy
• Brand PR
• Persuasion measurement techniques
• Integrating PR/Communications and marketing plans
• The art of leveraging
• Corporate affairs and customer relations

Powerful and Persuasive Action Planning

• Measurement of performance: bottom-line impact
• Translating strategy into tactics
• Horizons for PR and corporate affairs development
• Tools and techniques summary: a tactical inventory
• Recruiting allies: a networking approach
• Justifying the plan and convincing top management
• Making the most of other disciplines to maximise results
• Individual and group consultancy
• Further sources of help and information