Excellence in corporate communications

Whether a global corporation or a successful medium-sized company – in the fast-moving and networked media society, professional corporate communications have proven to be indispensable. At the same time, this itself is subject to permanent change. Especially because the number of communication channels (especially in the area of social media) has increased by leaps and bounds, while at the same time the classic communication media in the areas of print and moving images are also changing without disappearing, however, leap innovations such as text robots or new monitoring systems based on broad-based digitization, require rapid adaptation again and again, social demands (such as the demand for a driving ban on diesel vehicles, the abolition of single-use plastic products, or criticism of sugar and meat) are at the same time becoming more emphatic and professional in their enforcement, and the company’s own organization must be constantly repositioned and realigned as a result of changing business models.

The good news is that the resulting compulsion to change is always coupled with the opportunity to reshape. However, the multitude of actual opportunities only becomes visible when the drivers of change are perceived as good opportunities and realistically exploited. That’s why we hear more and more frequently the question of what communications professionals should be guided by if they don’t just want to react reflexively to the changes.

The study presented here shows how the best, referred to here as the communications elite, differ from the basic PR experts, as the more average professionals are called. The present results make their competence advantage as well as the resulting advantages in action visible. The differences are neither random in nature nor normatively asserted. They were determined empirically and tested for significance by statistical tests.

13 recognized communications experts have commented on the results of the study from the perspective of experienced practitioners: Christof Ehrhart (Deutsche Post DHL), Bernd Engelien (Zurich Group Germany), Martin Frommhold (Otto Group), Christian Garrels (ADAC), Judith von Gordon-Weichelt (Boehringer Ingelheim), Nils Haupt (Hapag-Lloyd), Jörg Howe (Daimler), Ingo Koch (Schufa), Uwe Kohrs (impact Agentur für Kommunikation), Jürgen Kornmann (Deutsche Bahn), Richard Lips (Commerzbank), Jan Runau (Adidas), Alexander Zell(Fraport).