Stuart Z Goldstein 178 N Masters Drive, Monroe Twp, N.J. 08831

Stuart Z Goldstein 178 N Masters Drive, Monroe Twp, N.J. 08831

609.890.1646 (h) 609.203.5220 (cell)

The Strategic Corporate Communications Leadership Challenge

I’d like you to stop for a minute—and think about how you will lead Corporate Communications in a world where the rules no longer apply? Where everything you were trained to think and the experiences you had along the way—may no longer be relevant to the leadership expected of you?

Why? Because, we are living in a period of unprecedented transformational change in the world. Changes that are so radical and revolutionary that we struggle to grasp their significance—and they are happening at breakneck speed.

Moore’s Law
I trust some of you’ve heard of Moore’s law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. Moore’s law predicted that the power and speed of computer chips would double every 18 months. What’s impressive about this accurate assessment is that he made this prediction in 1965.

Similarly, Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and futurist, in 2001 predicted the Law of Accelerating Returns. According to Kurzweil, whenever science or technology approaches some kind of a barrier, a new technology will be invented, somewhere globally, to allow us to cross that barrier. Kurzweil predicted "technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history."

[Kurzweil – optical character recognition (led to scanners), speech recognition tech (helped blind), music synthesizer (Stevie wonder).]

As Communications professionals, you are now expected to help senior management navigate in a global marketplace where radical shifts in technology will redefine the corporate landscape.

Who remembers when Kodak was a leading global brand and a standard of excellence for cameras and film? Kodak filed for bankruptcy in January of 2012.

The business mantra today is Change, Grow or Die.

For all of us, the theory and practice of Corporate Communications is changing in real time and

very little of what you’ve learned to-date will prepare you for the transformation going on in the world.

All of us are engaged in a journey, not unlike Columbus, who sailed the ocean to the end of the map. And when there was no map, he sailed beyond what was known…to what was unknown.

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You now face the most challenging part of your career—to navigate a journey of self-discovery---from where the map of the known world ends—and corporate life begins.

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Let me offer some examples of major transformations that are relevant to you. I’m using U.S. statistics to make my point, though these issues extend globally:

--Since 2008, $10.5 trillion dollars of private household investment and real estate value in the U.S. has been lost, following one of the most devastating financial crises in history. The U.S. GDP is $15.5 trillion.

-More than half of these losses have occurred in retirement accounts, just as the largest population in our history, baby boomers, is cresting the wave of retirement.

-Eight million jobs in the U.S. have been lost.

-Our economic growth is down to 1.9% in 2012, from over 5% in 2008.
-And corporate bankruptcies have shaken capital markets around the globe.

The point is—we’re seeing a major dislocation of investment capital and wealth on a global basis—and the ripple effect of this transformation will be with us for the next decade.

As leaders of the communications function, the marketplace perception of your company’s financial performance and stock price will be one of your top challenges. You had better be conversant in the trends and issues influencing financial markets, to be an effective strategist and spokesperson for your company.

Another transformation is the unimaginable breakthroughs in science, technology and medicine that we’ve seen in the past three years:

-- Neuroscientists have been working on “synthetic telepathy” that would translate the brain’s electrical activity directly into computer code. Wow, now that’s scary.

--Nanotechnology experts are pioneering computer applications that in 5 years we’ll wear in our clothing and eyeglasses.
-- The latest generation of supercomputers can now perform more than a quadrillion operations per second. We have broken through the “Petaflop” barrier, which is a computer’s processing speed and represents one thousand trillion floating-point operations per second. This power of calculation has enormous applications for discovery, whether in mapping the human genome or mapping the universe.

--We can now send 10 light beams through a single fiber optic cable simultaneously. Before this breakthrough, we were limited to one light beam at a time. Since each light beam contains large packets of data, this means the bandwidth of the information super highway just expanded by a factor of 10.

What does this mean for you as a communications professional?

Well, we’re moving from a period of “Data Gathers” to “Data Integrators.”

Since the mid-1980s, major companies could gather information about their customer’s preferences and purchasing behavior, but the firms were limited to their own data. Until now…..companies did not have the computer brain processing power to integrate data from multiple data gathering sources and begin to develop more detailed and targeted profiles of consumers.

Supercomputers and expanded bandwidth will transform advertising over the next 20 years, from Mass Marketing to Advertising On-Demand. We will move past the use of “pop ups” and Internet advertising, which are less than effective methodologies. On-Demand Advertising will allow consumers to drive the process.

Eventually, you’ll simply talk to your computer screen and ask for “suits”; color, “blue”. The computer will have a complete profile of your personal interests, brand buying behavior and preferences. The computer will project a 3D Hologram image of you dressed in the Armani, Brooks Brothers or Boss suit. You’ll say buy…and the charge will be deducted from your bank account.

What does this mean for a Strategic Leader in Communications?

Well, you’ll have to be thinking ahead of the curve of change. How can I use this same technology to develop tailored messages based on a predetermined profile of your various constituencies (e.g., customers, shareholders.)

Consolidation in the media
Now, Technology and telecomm are also transforming how news is gathered, delivered—and even the definition of news.

First, the good news.

-We now have e-readers, like the Kindle, the Nook, the Apple Ipad, which are revolutionizing book sales and the entire value chain of publishing. Almost anyone can now write a book and reach millions of readers around the world.

-Advanced Smartphones, are quickly becoming a laptop in your pocket.

-YouTube has 4 billion videos streaming each day, with 1 trillion page views per month;

-Facebook is expected to reach 1 billion users by the end of 2012,

-Twitter’s target is 250 million members by year end, and

-LinkedIn is looking for 100 million users (with 56 million outside the U.S.)

Some will look at these trends and say that’s good. Technology has democratized the media or the ability to communicate messages globally. Others will counter that we are quickly losing the ability of the 4th Estate, journalists, to act as arbiters of truth and fact checking. Folks will argue we are losing the institutional role of the press to carry out investigative journalism.

As Communicators, the question is—How will we develop Media Relations strategy in a world where all the rules have changed—or, essentially, where there are no rules?

The bad News trends.

-The Consolidation of media ownership of newspapers and broadcast in the U.S. is eliminating competition and standardizing the news and opinion we receive.

-According to the Free Press – Nearly 90% of both Print and Broadcast news in the U.S. is owned by six media companies.

-Consolidation is eliminating publications--More than 293 newspapers and over 1,100 magazines have disappeared since 2009.

-Twenty-seven thousand journalists have lost their jobs. (Example—Cuts at FT, WSJ – now DJ newswire writers are bylining stories)

- According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Center -The hardest hit areas of the newsroom are reporters who conduct investigative journalism.

The Internet has created a huge diversification of media reflected in millions of web sites, forums, blogs and wikis. However, what’s often labeled citizen journalism or citizen media, makes it possible for practically anybody to be a media creator, owner and actor, instead of a passive user.

But blog reporters are not held to the same standards of journalists, with fact checking and editorial review.

For communications practitioners, the challenge is how do you manage a message, if anyone can say anything….anywhere….and who is the ultimate arbiter of truth. Journalists are not my friends, but I value the role they play in distinguishing fact and fiction.

I do want to point out that while Europe and North America newspaper circulation is down 10% and 20% respectively, the rest of the world is actually experiencing a newspaper boom (e.g. Asia, Africa and Latin America). I also want to acknowledge that Sweden, Norway and Iceland are among the most avid newspaper markets, joining Japan and Switzerland.

However, as access to the Internet grows, news will increasingly move online. You will be increasingly faced with stories online that don’t have the burden of verifying sources and fact checking standards used by journalists.

Technology is increasing the Quantity, Quality and Speed of communication. It is also increasing the impact of Audio and Visual media in shaping public opinion. Lastly, technology is increasing competition for reaching and influencing your key constituencies.

So as the world of media and journalism is transformed, where should you focus?

There are two concepts I’d like to offer you today. They represent a way of thinking about strategy. One is called Information Preparedness and the other concept is Prescriptive Intelligence.

If we can no longer depend on the rules of engagement that existed between news organizations and public companies—if anyone can say anything on the Internet—how do we create the ability to influence the outcome?

Information Preparedness is thinking broadly about the, if P then Q scenarios, that you and your company may face and strategizing on how you will use technology to reach a state of readiness to respond in a crisis.

If you know the world has changed and anyone can be a citizen journalist, how do you use technology to create your own direct channel of communication? Example--Why not create your own Newswire?

Why not create the capability to distribute your own news and information. And if you’re a credible source of information, the traditional aggregators of news (e.g., CBS Marketwatch) will carry your information. The idea here is to create the vehicle long before you may need it to rebut an organized online attack.

Every company can benefit from an active Video library and the technology capacity to deliver short segments as B-roll for TV news or to upload YouTube videos. This is pretty straightforward, but you have to have the infrastructure and content ready long before you need to use it. In today’s media environment, you need to respond to a crisis in real-time. The speed at which you act will determine if you can shape events. But if you don’t have the tools in place before the crisis, you’ll never have the time to execute successfully.

Information preparedness is a thought process that must be woven into the fabric of you how demonstrate communications leadership. For example, in designing the corporate Web site at DTCC, I wanted the flexibility so that our front page could be changed in minutes to address a crisis. If a blogger or online source attacked the company, the entire front-page real estate could be transformed to respond with facts, messaging, video, quotes from experts and regulators, etc.

Few in senior management understood the Web strategy I put in place at DTCC. But they valued that we had the strategy, when the Dodd Frank bill was before Congress.

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A Strategic Leader of Communications today has to think like a political campaign. You have an intangible asset to sell (i.e., corporate reputation), you have a finite time to achieve your objective and you must ensure your messages are communicated clearly, consistently and constantly.

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The second concept, Prescriptive Intelligence, is also related to shaping outcomes. In a senior management meeting during a crisis, the best question you can ask is “how do we know what we know?”

It’s a great question, because in most cases senior management is acting on their intuition or hunch about what to do or say.

Prescriptive Intelligence recognizes that the window of opportunity to influence outcomes and marketplace perceptions is very narrow. You need to know how you’re actions will be viewed, before you act. The timing and choice of words for corporate positioning can be misperceived or taken out of context. In a crisis, you should use Quantitative and Qualitative research to reality check the company’s decision—and their messaging.

Companies are increasingly embracing polling and focus groups to pre-test and post-test messaging—and to provide the critical baseline of information for deciding strategy and evaluating the effectiveness of that strategy once it is executed.

Keep in mind that outside interest groups today are better organized and more sophisticated than ever before. They, too, have access to a growing arsenal of technology and telecommunications tools to help them communicate and influence diverse audiences.

Conclusion:

I’d like to underscore that to provide Strategic Communications Leadership, we will need to understand the larger trends shaping and transforming our world. We’ll need to understand the trends in our industry sector, as well as the innovations and influences of other sectors (like technology and telecomm) that are redefining how we communicate.

The point today is not only understanding how much is changing around us, but recognizing how fast these changes will continue to occur going forward.

At the end of the day, our value to the CEO will depend on whether we can help navigate the unchartered and unpredictable business environment that lies ahead of us.

By definition, becoming a Strategic Leader requires each of us to develop our own “Conceptual Framework” on how you see the future. It requires intellectual curiosity, a rigorous commitment to learning and the drive and determination to succeed. In the profession of Corporate Communications, you must be seen as a Futurist. And to your CEOs, you must be seen as an integral part of the senior management team—and a Catalyst for Change.