5 things I never learnt about communications in college

Had I known in college that ‘creativity’ was the least important thing in being successful at corporate and marketing communications, well……maybe I would have reconsidered. Or…..maybe (not being the most creative type) I would have felt more confident I could do it. Here’s what only 10 years in communications can tell you.  

1.       Learn MS Excel

The way corp com is funded in most places…well. It’s not. There are people and their salaries, and in most places, teams are well….. They’re not. They’re single individuals or sparse teams in single digits. So how it’s funded is by the business unit within the organization that has a communications need. And all decisions are taken by the budget proposal. So while the communications plan is sound, the concept and design is cracking, it all comes down to the question – how much is this going to cost me? So you very soon must learn to crack the numbers, put it into an excel sheet, cost each element of the campaign. Then prioritize elements – what will give maximum impact, what could be optional in case I need to rework the budget and not compromise the campaign? Excel is also more than a budget companion – it’s a savior come performance evaluation time, or ‘productivity tracking’ time. The end is what people see, and many times, no, I will say every time, no one understands the four days of research, interviews, writing, reviewing, calls and rewriting that is behind a simple intranet story. Excel to the rescue! I’ve been told I’m a bit extreme, but I track every request, type of deliverable, business, the person I’m in touch with. There’s a column in there for the number of man hours as well. I also have PR trackers, vendor bill trackers, PO trackers. I know, I know. It’s a bit neurotic. But, when an ‘internal change program’ hits me and my team (and they crop up oh so often), I know I can justify every one of their hours.  Or when I need to hire someone because the workload is too much. Or when it’s appraisal time, and in a minute I can spew metrics about the number of requests I’ve had, the number of businesses I’ve supported, how many of each collateral I’ve created….anything you like.

2.       People need to like you

I remember a time when I was idealistic and swore never to be a hypocrite. Never would I ever say something I didn’t mean. Life’s a lot in the grey area, and has much to do with how you influence people. The ultimate aim of communications is to influence people. The corp com professional will never influence with work or campaigns, if she cannot first influence key stakeholders who fund, and support the bigger picture. Influencing key stakeholders is so much easier if they like you. I’ve struck a balance. While I don’t suck up, I talk shop, ask about their business, talk about what are their priorities, sometimes enquire about family. And I smile a lot. It helps me connect with the individual businesses within the company, and it helps me put together the pieces, create stories that span the entire company. Which in turn helps me seem clever (yes, seem….). Once people like you, they trust your judgment. Let’s face it, everyone’s an expert at communications – colour, word choice, positioning…… my job as the corp com professional is to make them all feel heard, and then skillfully negotiate to what I know is best. All I’m saying is …when people like you and trust you, these tiring negotiations become very few, and you can go ahead and do what you’re good at.

3.       You’ll spend a LOT of patience on procurement and bill processing

This part I could honestly do without. I’ve hated it. Tried to work without it. Was not successful. It is painful when you are a single person, or a tiny team, and every brochure or poster you print needs three quotes carved in actual stone in triplicate. And then of course you want to go with the vendor whose quote is higher, because, how can you explain that you can pay the same for two designers, but the end design will be the difference between a gorilla’s artwork and MF Husain? It’s a very difficult discussion, and if you’re lucky you will see point number 2, and the procurement head will like you, and so understand your point, and help you put in place rate contracts for standard stuff. And also support you when the CEO throws an entire office rebrand at you to complete in 2 days because of an important visit, and you have just no time to get the three quotes, so you give them a heads up and they collaborate.             

4.       Vendors are your team

Treat vendors like your customers. In tiny teams, you’re often doing 8 different events and 4 pieces of collateral, and also managing a PR interview for the CEO at the same time. Obviously, you cannot be in 13 places. Even if you have the maximum allowed single digit number of nine (wow!) people in your team. Loyal vendors have saved me many many many times. You need to cultivate loyal vendors, who will do more than supply. They also like you, and value your business. You need to make them responsible for the guidelines, and turn them into spies in case anything goes directly to them, and not through you. Then they will tell the errant business to please get corp com approval on this before printing. You make them responsible for the annoyingly small yet first to get noticed by management things, like why is this corner of the poster (at the back of the wall where no one will see it) got a smidgeon of a fingerprint on it when I squint my eyes?  

5.       It’s a 10-year career

I spent a few minutes thinking about whether this is really the fifth point I wanted to talk about, and then decided to go with it. The sad truth about communications is the fight to raise it to the boardroom is still on. Which means as far as a support function goes, it will always only stay at one place. While you start off with talent and creativity, you move on to processes and business impact, and then there’s a lull on how much more value you can add. Added to this, freshers also start off with the same talent and creativity, so after ten years, sometimes the actual ‘work’ you are doing can just as easily be done by a younger, less cost-to-company resource led with a single manager. So what happens to senior communications professionals? Who by nature are in the job for the learning and exposure of working with so many different people, the crazy rush of managing too much with too little time, of living for the great idea and the need to create change through communications? I’ve spoken with senior HR professionals a decade older than me, who moved from coms after ten years. Or moved to marketing. Or started their own companies. So apparently this is not new, it’s just that I’m here now. So in the things I wish someone had told me, this is one. Maybe I would have started thinking about this mid-career life crises earlier. 

Had I known these things before I started, would I have changed my mind about communications? Never.