Star Trek and Chief Communications Officers
I'm looking forward to The New York Comic Con next week at the Jacob K. Javits Center, which runs from October 8 through October 10, 2010.
This highly-anticipated event got me thinking about Star Trek, created by American screenwriter, producer, and futurist Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry. Gene broke racial, gender, physical and relationship rules of his time by creating characters like Hikaru Sulu, Nyota Uhura, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, and Dr. Spock with those ears.
From my perspective as a PR professional, Gene did one more remarkable thing: He made Nyota Uhura the Chief Communications Officer aboard the USS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk in the year 2266.
I recognize that the term Chief Communications Officer on the USS Enterprise is not exactly the same as the Chief Communications Officer today. Gene was just decades ahead of his time. It has been over 35 years since the debut of Star Trek and now the position of the Chief Communications Officer is growing in popularity. The placement of an executive in the C-suite means that stakeholder communications is an integral part of the company's overall business and success.
Kathuria, a consultant in the Corporate Officers practice at Russell Reynolds Associates, wrote on their site, "Many CEOs are increasingly making corporate communications a specific, more comprehensive role, one that sits in the c-suite and is far more connected to the business and to revenue streams than typically has been the case in the past. The result is a chief communications officer (CCO) charged with centralizing, developing, leading and executing a robust and fully integrated communications plan."
In Korn Ferry's Chief Communications Officer report, a survey of Fortune 200 companies, they found that the core responsibilities of the CCO job include:
- Strategic communications and messaging
- Media relations
- Internal communications (supporting businesses)
- Employee communications
- Executive communications/speechwriting
- Issues/crisis management communications
Other responsibilities include:
- Corporate advertising and/or branding
- CSR/corporate philanthropy/foundation
- Community relations
- Marketing communications
- Events and trade shows
- Investor relations
- Government relations
Roland T. Rust, Christine Moorman, and Gaurav Bhalla published a paper, "Rethinking Marketing," in the January 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review. These authors talk about the growing importance of a different CCO position called the Chief Customer Officer, who would design and oversee customer functions.
Unlike the Chief Customer Officer, the Chief Communications Officers would oversee all stakeholder communications (internal, external) with customer relations as one of the most important stakeholder groups.
So, what are the biggest advantages to having a Chief Communications Officer on board?
Integrative thinking. Integrative results.
Last year, Valerie Simon wrote an article, "Is the role of Chief Communications Officer in Your Future" in the Examiner and interviewed Doug Serton, Senior Associate at Heyman Associates. Serton said, "What’s in demand right now are employees who can fill multiple roles. Having a specialist on staff isn’t as cost-effective."
At Kaimen, we approach our clients with the Chief Communications Officer mindset to speak about public relations, investor relations, product launches, media relations, transaction communications, social media, crisis communications, public affairs, events management, brand management etc. Sometimes these subject matters listed can be a separate foreign language. We work to integrate these programs together and then move fluidly in and out of each.
Also, I believe we can be most helpful if we learn and understand about the same issues that sit on the minds of Chief Communications Officers. This approach is forward-thinking and integrative - just like Gene's thinking.
If you don't have a Chief Communications Officer in your firm, should you bring in one? Feel free to reach out to me and I can walk you through how to evaluate your company's needs for one. Have some thoughts of your own? You are welcome to share them below.
Who has Chief Communications Officers? For starters, these companies:
- Bloomberg (looking for one right now)
- CIGNA (Maggie FitzPatrick)
- Dow Jones & Co.
- Duke Energy (Ginny Macklin)
- Goodyear
- MetLife
- Motorola
- National Insurance Crime Bureau (Joe Wehrle)
- PepsiCo
- Physicians for Human Rights
- PNC Bank NA
- Susquehanna University (looking for one right now)
- The Guardian Life Insurance
- The Jewish Theological Seminary
- U.S. Olympic Committee (Patrick Sandusky)
- UBS Financial Services
- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
- Wake County Public School
Photo credit of the New York Comic Con: New York Comic Con
Photo credit of Uhura: Paramount Pictures and/or CBS under Fair Use guidelines.