Marketing & Communications Briefs

Tricky Topics and Possible Actions for Communicators Today

March 11, 2025

Notes from Round Tables at The Corporate Communications Conference, March 7th, 2025

At our Corporate Communications Conference: Driving the Business Forward, nine roundtables consisting of 10-15 attendees debated one of the prepared topics below. The attendees were all practitioners in the realm of communications. The debrief of the discussions took the form of a ninety-second pitch of the three key action points arising from the debate. These are captured below.

For more in-depth discussion on these topics, please reach out to Ivan or Denise at the Marketing & Communications Center at The Conference Board.

How should you prepare for the possibility of your company becoming a target of government hearings or investigations?

• Keep your aperture broad and absorb all signals and commentary on latest policy shifts and actions
• Understand the current vernacular and cross-reference it with your own internal and external communications lexicon
• Beware of falling into a performative stance where internal policies, words and actions are not aligned

What if your brand is targeted by activists from the left and right at the same time?

• Always put your business first
• Control the narrative whichever side attacks you
• Stay true, transparent and aligned with your own company purpose
• Have the playbook – and be willing to update it after any new learnings

How can you best use stakeholder data to build reputation and earn trust?

• Reputation has real capital value that can be built over time and lost in an instant
• Reputation is driven by stakeholders and each stakeholder group needs to see the same thing but see how it is special in meeting their needs
• Consistent brand building with tailored stakeholder engagement is the key

What if "reputation" is meaningless in an age of polarization? What should you be tracking?

• Reputation is the outcome that results from the combined perceptions of all stakeholder groups
• Define the relative importance of each of your stakeholder groups and track the perceptions of all groups but weigh actions based on the groups that matter most to you
• Accept you cannot keep all the stakeholder groups happy

How should you be using CommsTech to boost efficiency and agility?

• Everyone uses different tools – the challenge is to use them most efficiently and effectively
  • Personalize the tools, ensure everyone is trained, integrate the toolbox, align with legal teams, and learn from each other’s use cases

How do we manage the volatility being created by the speed of the new administration’s policy roll out?

• Stick to your values and stay true to the purpose of your company
• Draw on the trust that you have built with your key stakeholder groups
• Rely on the strength of your brand but respond to the legal changes and strategic implications of new policies

What if a trade war breaks out between countries where you operate?

• This is not new. Disruption and trade challenges are normal
• Focus on your core audiences and develop preemptive strategies to continue to serve their needs as supply chains are impacted and pricing changes
• Pick the right tools to communicate impact (i.e. town halls, team calls etc.)

How are you communicating about GenAI to increase adoption and decrease fear?

• No fear, just lack of faith
• Get people to use the tools personally and then transpose those skills to the workplace
• Answer what people will do when AI does more of the stuff they do not currently like to do. (More time doing the harder stuff? More time doing the cooler stuff?)
• Consider deploying ‘Mindful AI’ as a strategy

How are you communicating about changing or unchanging DEI policies?

• Language is changing but commitment is not
• Maintain transparency about your policies, practices and impact on the people
• Note that your solution to changing federal and governmental policies is nuanced and will vary by region, sector, and company

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These bullet points might not all be self-explanatory – especially if you were not in the room at the time to hear them.

Should you want to dive deeper into any one of these topics, please reach out to Ivan or Denise for a debriefing.