Sunday 24 June, 2007

Strategic Communications

"The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright and essayist

I have often come across many situations where the supervisor fumes over the employee about a mistake that the employee has made. The supervisor claims that the employee did not follow his/her directions. But the truth is that almost all conflicts involve communication problem.

Rapid changes in business environment have affected the corporate communication strategy. Effective communication strategy has become a key strategic issue in corporate decision making. Whether an organization is trying to advertise its new product/services, to communicate its employees, stakeholders or to the clients, using an effective communication strategy is very crucial.

There are three basic elements of effective communication: setting an effective organization strategy, analyzing constituencies, and delivering messages appropriately.

The first step for an effective corporate communication strategy is to setting strategy such as determining objective, available resources, organization’s reputation in the society. Communication strategy differs depending on the objective. According to the objective organization must allocate resources such as money, human resources, time etc. Next step is to analyze constituencies to find out the target audiences, organization’s position in the target audience’s mind, and their attitude towards the subject of the communication. For example, if the company wants to advertise new product then it must select target audiences. Indian audiences prefer advertisements with song and dances rather than intellectual advertisements. The final step is to deliver the message. To do so the organization must select the appropriate communication channel (mass media, voice, written etc) structure the message carefully. Delivering message accurately is very important. If the message that is to be delivered is not properly conveyed than the result could be devastating. For example, Pesico India in an advertisement used Health and Family Welfare Minister of India for which the company had to apologize. Pepsico India Holdings Ltd. at that time had said the company meant no offence through the advertisement and had issued a statement stating

"we meant no offence with our advertisement. The directions of the Health Ministry are being complied with."

But major problem faced by organizations is in internal communication, mostly within employees leading to communication crisis. According to Perspective (a Sibson consulting publication): gaps in communication deliberate or not, are frequently a root cause of stagnant or poor performance. Three main challenges exist for companies seeking to resolve a communication crisis and boost performance:

1. To communicate effectively about company strategy below the top executive level.

2. To demonstrate the link between employee action and company performance.

3. To disseminate critical information consistently to all employee groups.

Implementing these fundamental communication strategies will help executives to mobilize their employees to achieve greater company performance.

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