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.
