What Happened
The business press is waking up to something communication professionals have argued for years: that communications belongs at the executive table, not in a support role buried under marketing or legal. A recent analysis out of Puerto Rico's business media landscape makes the case that C-Suite leaders who treat communications as a core function outperform those who treat it as cleanup crew. The argument is gaining traction, and it should.
The Communication Angle
Let's compare two types of companies facing the same crisis: a product recall, a layoff announcement, a regulatory fine. Company A has a Chief Communications Officer who sits in on strategy meetings before decisions are made. Company B calls their PR director after the decision is locked and says, "Figure out how to say this." You already know which company handles it better. The difference is not talent. It is timing and access.
Company A's CCO shapes the message while the decision is still being formed. That means the language used internally to justify the decision becomes the same language used externally to explain it. There is no gap between what leadership believes and what the public hears, because the story was built alongside the strategy, not bolted on afterward. That coherence is felt by employees, customers, and journalists. People can tell when a message was engineered versus when it was earned.
Company B's PR director is handed a decision and told to make it palatable. So they do what communicators in that position always do: they soften the edges, add some corporate warmth, and hope nobody digs too deep. The result is a statement that sounds managed. And managed sounds guilty. Audiences in 2024 are sophisticated. They know the difference between a leader speaking and a lawyer approving.
The deeper issue is positional authority. A communications expert without a seat at the table has no power to push back when a decision will land badly. They can advise, but they cannot redirect. The best communication strategy in the world cannot save a bad decision communicated late. What it can do, if brought in early, is sometimes prevent the bad decision from being made at all, because someone finally asked: "How will this sound to the people we need to trust us?"
This is not about spin. This is about organizations telling the truth clearly, before they are forced to. Companies that treat communications as a core function do not just manage crises better. They create fewer of them.
This is exactly the kind of scenario I break down in Say It Right Every Time. The chapter on speaking to multiple audiences simultaneously gives you a framework for building a single core message that holds up across different listeners without sounding calculated or hollow. When your CCO and your CEO are using the same language for different rooms, that is not an accident. That is structure. The chapter shows you how to build it.
Never Be Lost
for Words Again
Get word‑for‑word scripts for the conversations that shape your life, from job interviews and negotiations to difficult talks with family and partners, so you always know exactly what to say and how to say it.
Never Be Lost
for Words Again
Get word‑for‑word scripts for the conversations that shape your life, from job interviews and negotiations to difficult talks with family and partners, so you always know exactly what to say and how to say it.
Key Takeaway
Before your next major business decision is finalized, schedule a 30-minute review with your communications lead where their only job is to tell you how this decision will sound to three audiences: your employees, your customers, and a skeptical journalist. Do this before the decision is announced. Not after. The gap between those two timings is where most reputational damage lives.
