A biologist, G.F. Gause of
Moscow University, who experimented with two microorganisms, birthed the
concept of strategy. By putting the two microorganisms in a controlled
environment and introducing food, they were left to feed or die. His hypothesis
was that for both of the two microorganisms to survive, one must belong to a
different species. Otherwise, they would die. This illuminated the idea that,
at the heart of every strategy is competition. That for any organism to survive
through the competition, it must be different. This is true in business as
well.
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| Flickr| Sean McEntee |
Today, every member of the C-suite
wants a strategy. The CEO wants a business strategy that will ensure his
company not only survives during tough times, but also remains profitable. The
CMO wants a marketing strategy to conquer the new markets. In all meetings all
that matters is strategy. In addition, why is this; competition is closer than
most corporates thought possible.
When Andrew Carnegie had conquered
the Steel industry, he knew he was unstoppable. Not until John D., Rockefeller
aimed at his industry. Rockefeller devised a scheme to take over Carnegie’s
steel industry by producing iron ores-raw material needed for steel manufacturing.
Despite Carnegie’s attempt not to consider Rockefeller a worthy competitor in
the steel business, he was reminded of whom he was dealing with. Rockefeller
wanted to penetrate the steel business. Carnegie wanted to continue monopolizing
the steel business. A strategy was born. In order to keep his monopoly, Carnegie
offered to buy the entire mine. Rockefeller agreed. It was a win-win. Clever
strategy, I must say.
So what is strategy? According
to Bruce D. Henderson, a strategy is the deliberate search of a plan of action
that will develop a business’s competitive advantage and compound it. It is a
plan that makes a corporation more competitive. Each department needs to
embrace the whole concept of strategy and with it curve out a plan that
promises to make the corporation better.
Those of us in the
communications space need to apply this concept as well. Understanding and
creating a communication strategy is one of the key functions of anyone
dreaming of having a career in communications. Better yet, to those already in
the profession it is a must have skill. Over the years, communications has become a strategic management
function charged with counselling senior management, and guiding and managing
the reputations and relationships with important stakeholder groups that may influence
the organization’s operations.
Guy Murphy is his book,
Communications Strategy, defines a
communications strategy as a holistic planning approach, to engaging a brands
audience to ensure greater effectiveness. These are tactics that the
corporation will employ to ensure they keep their target audience talking and
at the same time, drive the corporate vision and mission.
In its purest essence, our job has always
been communication, shaping and moulding information to be consumed, passed on. What happens when you are called upon to yarn
words into a communication strategy? Before you write that communications
strategy, this are the phases that you need to think about. They are strategic analysis, strategic intent,
strategic action, and evaluation.
Strategic
Analysis
When conducting this analysis
consider your organizational environment, market and competitors and
stakeholders. This is about understanding what is going on outside and within a
corporation. Most importantly, how they will affect the corporation.
What resources does the
company have? What service or product is the corporation offering that is of
superior value than all in the market? Understanding the stakeholders, where
they want to go-their aspirations, and how this special interest group can
affect the progress of the corporation. Taking a great deal of care to scan
these sections, results in a solid understanding of the status of the
corporation.
Strategic
Intent
Once you have a clear
understanding of the status of the corporation, it is time to proceed to the
second phase. Strategic intent proceeds
from this analysis and involves the formulation of a strategic vision, around
which possible courses of action are formulated, evaluated, and eventually
chosen. To imply that it is time to chart a way forward. During this phase, a
clear direction is set and married with objectives with the execution of this
communication strategy.
Strategic
Action
Time to act. Translating intent to action takes
place during this phase. In the course of writing your communication strategy,
figuring out what to do is key. At the end of the day, the strategy is written
to meet certain objectives. Through diligent execution. Joep Cornelissen says, ‘various strategic
programmes will emanate from the strategic intent, but the focus here is only
on the sort of steps that are important in planning communications strategy
implementation.’
Tracking
and Evaluation
It was the age of big oil and big tobacco.
Time is coming for big data to take over. When everything has to be quantified.
By religiously monitoring and evaluating the progress, during the execution is
not only necessary but also beneficial. It is my knowing if a communications
programme is meeting the intended need or not, and if so why? As Joep
Cornelissen put it: ‘Here it is important to identify suitable impact measures
(i.e. changes in awareness, attitude and
reputation, or behaviour) rather than relying on interim measures of
communications effects such as media coverage or simple exposure, and to
evaluate the effects achieved against the target or benchmark set with the
initial objectives of the communications programme.’
Writing a communication strategy is a task that
can make or break a corporation. Everything tat happens in corporations borders
on communication. Having a solid understanding of the tenets that make up a
communication strategy will equip you with a strong foundation for which to
write your communication strategy. Happy writing!
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