Greentarget

Pam Munoz

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CMOs came into their own as C-suite utility players in 2021, when the leaders of Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon did something no elected representative in Congress can do to the head of our federal government. Each imposed severe, unprecedented limits on the powers of a U.S. president.

Responding much faster than Congress to the will of the people — not as voters but as consumers — the chief executives demonstrated publicly and conclusively that they can more effectively circumscribe a government leader’s power than members of any other branch.

This led the Chief Financial Correspondent at Axios to conclude that CEOs have now become the fourth branch of government. “They have money, they have power, and they have more of the public’s trust than politicians do. And they’re using all of it in an attempt to preserve America’s system of governance.”

With this power comes a new kind of regulator, more powerful than the courts or the legislatures. Consumers can use their buying power and collective social influence to keep the “fourth branch” — let’s call it the C-branch — in check.

In such a world, the CMO becomes the CEO’s most valuable, versatile ally — a critically important conduit between the C-branch and consumers. The CMO-as-utility-player must do more than simply articulate positions, craft messages, and disseminate information internally and externally. In an era where corporate decisions can have far-reaching political and social implications, they must guide their organizations through turbulent waters. 

By learning and transmitting what’s on consumers’ minds — their predilections, pain points, and latest causes for social, economic, and political concern — CMOs can help the C-suite make decisions that protect and strengthen their position in the market. Like whether it’s time to take a stand on a contentious Supreme Court decision or how to position the company in the lead-up to a divisive election.

What it Means for CMOs to be the C-Suite’s Utility Player Today

Geopolitical and social unrest, contentious election cycles, fast-moving technological innovations, economic challenges, and far-reaching generational shifts continue to elevate the role of CMO. The C-suite faces ever-escalating pressure to communicate about everything from where their firm is heading to what role they expect it to play in an increasingly fractious society. And the CMO is the person who is best-positioned to help them do so effectively.

Recent events — the Supreme Court’s Chevron decision limiting federal agency power, the Israel-Hamas War, the widespread adoption of AI, and the backlash around DEI programs to name a few — continue to refashion the landscape in which CMOs operate. These developments have further solidified the CMO’s position as the C-suite’s indispensable utility player, bridging the gap between corporate strategy, consumer sentiment, and societal change.

Far more than just a chief marketing messenger, the CMO is now something of a CIO too — an executive who, if not working directly with information technology, must understand it well enough to take full advantage of the growing array of digital marketing tools. This includes leveraging AI to gain unprecedented insights into consumer behavior and sentiment, allowing CMOs to get closer to the ground than ever before in understanding their audience.

Additionally, the roles of the CMO and Chief Communications Officer are becoming more integrated by the day. They must be in order to achieve what Maja Pawinska Sims calls a better alignment with “brand and corporate narrative.” As honest, relevant, human storytelling becomes even more closely connected to the P&L, the C-suite’s storytellers are increasingly relied upon to develop new narratives.

It is not incorrect, then, to refer to the CMO as the C-suite’s new utility player, the executive who must know a little bit about every other position in order to help the CEO make sense of challenges and opportunities, especially in relation to the Three Rs: Revenue, Relationship, and Reputation.

Revenue & Relationships are the CMO’s Job, Too

Reputation has long been in the domain of the CMO. Marketing’s ties to revenue run deep, but the new order makes them inseparable. Relationship management, on the other hand, has traditionally resided outside the chief marketer’s purview. That’s not the case anymore.

Using a deep understanding of both customers and community, CMOs can and must actively identify and broker new kinds of relationships for their companies. Success will make them indispensable lieutenants, especially when it comes to helping CEOs influence “constituents” — as elected officials do.

A focus on revenue means CMOs need more than just hallway collegiality with the CFO; they need to develop an active, healthy relationship. They must also help persuade the finance chief that today, what’s good for customers and communities is good for the company’s bottom line.

Rather than be put off by such a prospect, chief marketers should view the present as an opportunity to, as Jann Schwarz writes, “reclaim a more strategic role” through a key relationship with the CFO.

“[The CMO’s] creativity and imagination (combined with commercial discipline and a customer lens) can drive a sustainable and competitive advantage” through such a rapprochement, writes Schwarz.

Clearly, this is not your mother’s or your father’s CMO.

The New Corporate Narrative: Social Responsibility

In this brave new world, the CMO is the CEO’s eyes and ears, both messenger and oracle, watching how our market-society, and the people who comprise it, are moving, shifting, aligning and re-aligning.

This means that CMOs can no longer compartmentalize company narratives, social responsibility and profitable growth. As the last Business Roundtable made eminently clear, these are now intertwined and interdependent considerations. That’s especially true given the rise of Gen Z and the expectations these emerging stakeholders bring to the business world. 

CMOs who are paying attention and playing the long game know that social responsibility is a key narrative and that terms such as “social impact” and “sustainability” are something more than fleeting hashtags to be expressed merely through a sprinkling of green on the logo. It will remain the narrative until norms have changed so dramatically that it becomes an unspoken expectation.

Perhaps the CMO’s greatest value, then, will be in perceiving what is moving the market. Or more accurately who is moving it: consumers and clients who are not data points, who are not math problems, but real, live people, governed by ever-shifting social norms and fickle human nature.

And who can vote any time, from anywhere, for unelected leaders in that fourth branch of government using something that may soon be more powerful than the ballot: their credit cards and their voices on social media.

About the Executive Positioning Practice

Exemplifying Greentarget’s commitment to being a trusted advisor to clients, Greentarget’s Executive Positioning team provides c-suite executives (managing partners, CEOs, executive committees, and boards) with insights to anticipate, understand, and respond to important global and social developments, analyzing key issues that can impact reputation and compel leaders to communicate. 

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Long before the deal is finalized, embargoes are lifted, and the press release hits the wires, communications teams need to plan for — and internally message — what a merger means on LinkedIn.

With more than 1 billion users across 200 countries and nearly 65 million decision-makers, LinkedIn cannot be ignored. But the No. 1 platform for B2B lead generation isn’t always as business friendly as one may think. Case in point: merging LinkedIn company pages.

While M&A activity is common in business, there is no clear process for combining two (or more) company pages and keeping all of their associated followers and employees. Worse, the options that are available can conflict with agreed-upon merger messaging.

Knowing in advance what is and isn’t possible will spare you any last minute surprises and help you set appropriate expectations internally. Done correctly, LinkedIn should be one of your most powerful tools for messaging a merger to clients, competitors, peers, prospects and employees, all in one place.

Use LinkedIn to Build Trust, Not Break It

Much like the countless other logistical, operational, and internal and external communications tasks associated with combining companies, there is no single step-by-step process to merge company pages on LinkedIn.

At least LinkedIn gives it to us straight: “It’s not possible to migrate followers from the Page of an acquired organization to the acquiring organization’s Page.” It is possible to merge duplicate pages, provided those pages genuinely do represent the same entity. But LinkedIn is quick to point out that this does not apply in the case of M&A.

In the platform’s telling, it’s about trust. Users, both followers and employees, choose to engage with a particular company’s page for a reason. Moving their allegiance to another organization without their buy-in is a violation of that trust—a social media version of bait-and-switch.

While it will take time to engage followers and inspire them to manually make the move to a new page, it’s also an opportunity to preserve, and maybe even deepen, their trust.

So, what options do organizations have to manage their LinkedIn M&As?

Acquired & Affiliated: What You Can Do to Combine LinkedIn Company Pages

While LinkedIn doesn’t have a system to manage a true merger, it does make some accommodations for acquisitions.

For companies directly acquiring and subsuming another brand, this is fairly straightforward. Once the acquisition goes through, message LinkedIn support and request that the acquired page be listed as an acquisition. This adds a banner at the top of the LinkedIn page to direct visitors to the parent company. It also connects the two pages as affiliated via a widget in the page sidebar.

Acquiring a LinkedIn page won’t transfer followers, content or employees. But administrators can request:

  • Open job listings transfer to the new page.
  • That the employee count of acquired pages be reflected in the total number of employees on the parent company’s page.

The acquisition won’t deactivate the page. People searching for it on Google or LinkedIn will still be able to find and follow the acquired page, though the banner will hopefully dissuade them from doing so.

How to Merge LinkedIn Company Pages When Acquisition Isn’t an Option

When this is not an option—say, in a merger of equals, where one company cannot be perceived as acquiring the other—the options are more limited. In these instances, LinkedIn recommends:

  • Creating a new page for the new entity and building a new audience from scratch.
  • Submitting a request to affiliate any prior company pages with the new entity. This will connect the pages via the affiliate sidebar widget but won’t do anything to redirect new visitors or mark the old pages as defunct.

Where possible, we advise our clients to avoid this approach. Building an audience around a company page on LinkedIn is slow, extensive and expensive work, and starting from zero is a tough value proposition to sell to senior leadership. Rather than benefiting from the combination of two audiences, you lose followers on both sides of the transaction.

Instead, consider rebranding an existing page. If the name of one merger partner remains substantively similar, it may be possible to rebrand that page to represent the new entity. That will allow you to keep at least one set of followers and employees before affiliating or acquiring the pages of any additional merger partners.

Marketing the Merger: Inspire Followers and Employees to Join Your Journey

Regardless of the path companies choose, marketers and communicators must encourage people to engage with the new entity. As soon as there is a page to follow, put it to work.

Build brand equity by:

  • Providing merger updates that tag the new page and feature an explicit call-to-action message to follow it for future updates.
  • Updating all company page descriptions to let each audience know where the account is moving and direct them accordingly.
  • Posting regular moving announcements to keep the news top of mind for connections.
  • Post-merger, sharing a series of posts solely to remind followers to switch to the new page for continued updates. The frequency and duration of these posts should reflect the quantity and value of followers on the now-defunct page.
  • Sending direct messages announcing the merger and/or invites to follow the new page to particularly high-value followers. Both will require a personal page already connected with the target follower to do the outreach and must follow LinkedIn limits on the number of direct messages and invites that can be sent during certain time periods. 

Once the merger is complete, any merging pages should be updated to point people to the new brand page, regardless of whether they’re getting the acquisition banner. The cover image, tagline and about section can all be used to direct followers to the new company page.

While people can still follow these pages, all content should clarify that new updates won’t be forthcoming.

Tapping Your Best Brand Advocates: Engage Employee Ambassadors

Employee content receives about eight times more engagement than brand channel content. Encouraging your workforce to spread the news can drive real impact, so building an employee advocacy and engagement program should be part of a broader M&A communications plan.

Done right, updating LinkedIn won’t just be another technical step in the merger process, but something employees are excited to share with their networks. Components can include:

  • Dedicated LinkedIn training. A merger is a great opportunity for employees to grow their networks and learn new skills specific to LinkedIn.
  • Comprehensive instructions on how to update personal pages. If employees are intimidated by LinkedIn, offering detailed information on what profile sections to update and how to tag their new employer will be welcome.
  • Bespoke headers. Leverage branding materials to create new LinkedIn headers for employees to use.
  • A library of assets. As with a product launch or traditional campaign, companies want to share key messages and updates about the transition. Make it easy for employees to join the chorus by providing a slate of content to post that they can tailor for themselves.
  • An incentive program. Stoke employee excitement and show the company values employee advocacy by rewarding great posts — whether that’s by picking a post of the week or simply having key leaders periodically comment on employee content.
  • Executive thought leadership platforms. A merger or acquisition provides the perfect timing for senior leaders to grow their authority on LinkedIn.

Effective M&A communication strategies make the most of LinkedIn’s wide reach and potential to build brand equity. By proactively including it as a pillar in your communications plan—equal to press releases and internal announcements—you’ll set yourself up for success and returns on the world’s most trafficked business platform.

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No matter how hard your firm tries to keep M&A talks under the radar, it’s inevitable that employees and other stakeholders will notice and start speculating about a potential changeover. And when rumors and leaks attract unwanted media attention, it’s only natural to focus on controlling the public narrative.

But it’s a mistake to de-emphasize internal communications in the process. While employees are your strongest brand stewards, they are the likeliest source of leaks. By proactively discussing a potential merger or acquisition with them at the right time, senior leadership may be able to stop (or at least significantly reduce) the spread of unhelpful rumors or misinformation around your upcoming deal. 

Even better, with a thoughtful internal comms strategy, you can empower employees to become advocates and champions of your message which, in turn, prepares your organization for a smoother post-M&A integration process. Or if a deal happens to fall through, it’s important to communicate internally why it was abandoned. 

Either way, there’s no upshot to avoiding an internal dialogue with your senior leadership, who have a line of communication to employees. It’s important to provide them with the tools to communicate to their teams about prospective deals—whether or not they close.

The Dangers of Neglecting Internal Comms During Deal Making

Employees expect transparency and vulnerability from employers now more than ever. And because they can easily amplify their own voices on platforms like Fishbowl and Reddit, you have a vested interest in helping them internalize positive, believable and strategic messages about the inevitable organizational change your M&A deal will usher in if a deal is completed. 

In particular, employees need to understand:

  • The business strategy that’s driving the merger or acquisition. Communicating the “why” of organizational evolution is a vital part of gaining buy-in and support.
  • Where your firm is headed. Paint a picture of the new work you’ll be able to take on thanks to the deal. Give employees a reason to be enthusiastic about the next stage. 
  • How the deal will affect their jobs. Even if you can’t give specific information outlining forthcoming changes to positions, roles, and responsibilities, address the elephant in the room and let employees know when they can expect to hear more, and from whom. 

Failing to communicate can result in:

  • Leaks. Whether accidentally or intentionally, employees who feel anxious and reticent are more likely to let sensitive information slip.
  • Misinformation. If you don’t provide employees with a narrative regarding your M&A transaction, they may receive and spread false details, or fill in knowledge gaps themselves. 
  • A culture of mistrust. Although every organization will always have its skeptics and cynics, you don’t want your internal culture to be defined by suspicion. A lack of trust can erode morale and impede your organization’s forward momentum.
  • Employee attrition. M&A deals can threaten employees’ sense of job security–which means they might start looking for another position, rather than risk sticking it out only to lose their job later on. 

To ensure a successful post-merger or post-acquisition integration, you need key talent to stay on board. Here’s how to communicate effectively and win their trust.

Seven Stages of Communicating About M&A Internally

As important as it is to regularly communicate with internal stakeholders, the fact remains that there’s a right and a wrong way to do it. Legally, there will be details you can’t disclose until the contract is signed. 

There are basic stages of communicating an M&A deal externally. In what follows, we’ll explain how to align your internal communications plan with those steps, assuming a deal has closed, or will soon. Some stages can even be applied to deals that have fallen through.

1. Rumors and Speculation

You may not be able to provide much detail about preliminary M&A negotiations as rumors swirl–but even a simple acknowledgment of the situation can quell employee anxiety. This is also the time to solidify your comms plan, so you can roll it out once you’re able to share more details. 

Meet with your senior executives and managers to explain the situation at a high level and arm them with talking points. Instead of a knee-jerk response to rumors, employees will appreciate information from a trusted source (e.g., a direct manager) and are more likely to wait for more information than fan the flames of speculation.

Identify your internal audience segments and think through the questions they’re most likely to ask. Then empower regional leaders, practice leaders and front-line supervisors to cascade your message to the employees within their purview. This can be done a number of ways, depending on existing internal communications protocols and cadence. Tools range from a simple statement to an FAQ to an agenda item for a regular staff meeting with talking points.

2. Confirmed M&A Talks 

As soon as you’re able to publicly confirm you’re in talks regarding a merger or acquisition, let employees know, too. Provide the initial rationale for exploring this move and share how it could advance your firm’s overall growth strategy. 

Be careful about the optics as you proceed. If one firm is doing the acquiring and another is being acquired, don’t categorize the move as a merger of equals. Rather, make sure both firms are communicating a unified message that articulates how the deal is a force multiplier for all involved.

Consider how you’ll address concerns about redundancies as well. If you can truthfully tell employees that you don’t expect any reductions in your workforce, say that. If layoffs will be part of the deal, give employees as much assurance as you can without providing false hope.

3. Speculation on Business Case 

Once you’ve confirmed your firm is in talks regarding an M&A transaction, people may begin to dig deeper into your business case. Anticipate that your employees may have questions (or even doubts) about your stated reasons behind exploring the deal. 

To manage this stage effectively: 

  • Leverage the pre-established communications cascade to counter incorrect narratives.
  • Clarify the rationale and restate the business case to reinforce prior messaging.
  • Communicate clearly and transparently about the organizational changes you foresee occurring as a result of the deal.

If you begin to encounter concerns and objections you didn’t see coming, use this moment as a gut check. It’s never too late to make sure your stated business case aligns with your firm’s overarching mission and values.

4. Progress Updates

As talks continue, internal stakeholders will gradually become accustomed to the impending change. They may ask fewer questions and speculate less about what’s coming. Even so, it’s important for you to stay ahead of the narrative and continue communicating regularly. 

The more you can share about the deal’s progression, the more you can turn employees into advocates who advance your message and correct misinformation within their sphere of influence. 

5. Quiet Period Around Closing the Deal

The most precarious point of any merger or acquisition is when it’s time to seal the deal. During this stage, you really do need to go dark and stop communicating externally and internally while the parties involved iron out the final details.

But if you’ve adhered to a proactive internal comms strategy, you’ve laid the groundwork and have made your business case with stakeholders. That means you can afford to hold the line and maintain silence for a short period of time until you can make an official announcement.

6. Official M&A Deal Announcement

When it’s time to announce your merger or acquisition, do your internal audience the 

courtesy of sharing the news with them first. 

For your employees and stakeholders to truly embrace and champion this change, they need to know:

  • Specific details regarding how the deal will be structured, especially if there will be changes to how employees should talk about and deliver your firm’s brand promise.
  • The best way to respond to client inquiries and concerns.
  • Any immediate changes to the way roles and responsibilities are structured — as well as an overview of changes that will be rolled out over time.

Although the news of the deal should come from the top first, use the communications plan you’ve already established to further socialize the message and anticipated merger integration activities and roles across the organization.

7. Post-Announcement Integration

In this final and ongoing stage, it’s time to turn your organization’s collective eye to the future. What will your firm achieve in the coming week and months? How do you plan to bring your separate entities together? What efficiencies and synergies do you expect to achieve as a result? And who can employees turn to when they have questions and concerns along the way? 

It’s wise to ramp up face-to-face communication strategies during this transitional period. Use group meetings, forums, and town halls to underscore the shared values that will guide your continued integration efforts.

Keep Internal Stakeholders Engaged During Your Merger or Acquisition

Partners and employees are the lifeblood of your firm. And in order to advance your M&A-driven growth strategy, you need these key advocates to be properly informed and on your side. A deal is an opportunity to reiterate firm strategy and get your people excited about the future.

That’s why you can’t afford to go silent when a merger or acquisition is on the horizon. It’s imperative to get ahead of the rumor mill, address speculation head-on, and give employees the “why” behind the business strategy you’re advancing. 

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Video is making inroads with the business crowd — including buyers of professional services — as a medium best known for cat videos and TikTok dance trends extends its reach into B2B marketing. With online video increasingly influencing purchase decisions, including it in your marketing plan can reap big dividends, boosting user engagement and providing an opportunity to resurface and spotlight existing content.

After two-plus years on Zoom, in-house counsel and other executive decision makers are warming up to the benefits of visual content, from online meetings and webinars to video clips they can watch quickly and then share to their networks.

And while B2B audiences don’t necessarily prefer videos over other content types, almost half of marketers say interviews with subject matter experts and influencers produce the best video results.  Videos performed better than other types of B2B content assets such as in-person events and long articles or posts over the past 12 months, according to the Content Marketing Institute.

Law firms and professional services organizations are sitting on a trove of written content that can be efficiently transferred into video soundbites to re-ignite conversations and interest in key topics and issues. Video can underscore your firm’s distinct positions of authority and even help you win the war for talent by showcasing your organization’s culture, vision, and values in a way that feels personal and welcoming.

The good news is that video is much easier to do than you might think, and the expectation for quality isn’t high. Clips ranging in length from a few seconds to two minutes don’t cost much to produce, and have a high engagement rate on social media, according to Gartner.

Here’s what you stand to gain by incorporating video into your firm’s communication strategy. 

Videos Help Authorities Build Trust and Establish Credibility

Today’s smart conversations are increasingly shared, promoted, and consumed through video. If you want to position your firm’s authorities as relevant, savvy experts in a digital-first world, video is an important element in your communications toolbox. 

Video mimics the look and feel of in-person communication, offering another way to build trust with your audience. It can also humanize your spokespeople and allow their personalities and style to shine through.

Of course, communicating effectively in any medium requires practice and preparation. For video, your authorities must learn how to:

  • Distill complex topics into 30, 60, or 90 second soundbites
  • Maintain eye contact with the camera to make the audience feel they are being spoken to directly
  • Speak clearly without verbal fillers like “um,” “like,” and “uh”
  • Convey enthusiasm and warmth without sounding overly excitable
  • Reinforce key points using presentation slides or other demo tools

Video Guides Your Audience to Your Thought Leadership Content

Search algorithms tend to favor web pages with video content, so embedding video can also help you attract more visitors to your site via organic search.  Consider video a value-add to your existing content and editorial strategy. It should pull from — and point to — the wealth of useful, authoritative content you’ve amassed. 

Comb through your existing content library and create videos that highlight key points from high-performing assets. Email videos to your audience and promote them via social media channels to drive traffic back to these pieces.

Repurposing key pieces of content using video will spark fresh conversations around salient issues and lead your audience to dive deeper into topics that are pertinent to them. 

Video Elevates Your PR Communications

Video can also be an effective way to make your internal and external communications more engaging. For example, employees and stakeholders, including busy executives who don’t have time to read an in-depth report or whitepaper or engage with a lengthy presentation, can benefit from watching a short video outlining the key takeaways.

Here are some ideas to help you think through video’s PR possibilities.

  • Annual Reports and updates. Have your organization’s leadership share highlights from your annual report and provide regular updates, perhaps on a quarterly or bi-annual basis. 
  • Recruiting. Give prospective employees a sense of your firm’s culture by interviewing members of your team or showcasing unique aspects of your work environment.
  • Partner/new hire introductions. Send clients a short video introducing new members of your team and let them know of any opportunities to meet the team in person.
  • Mergers and acquisitions. Entering into an M&A deal requires thoughtful communication, especially for professional services firms that may have hundreds of partners, shareholders or principals spread across multiple locations. Filming leaders from each firm together can be a powerful way to show a sense of unity and shared vision. 
  • Emotionally charged situations. In difficult situations such as a reputational crisis or a tragic event, consider using video to convey your CEO or firm leader’s authenticity and vulnerability. This can help your audience understand and process your message more readily.
  • Leadership transitions. These scenarios present an “all eyes on you” moment. You’ll need to craft a compelling organizational narrative to communicate effectively with stakeholders and the public during a change of this magnitude. Video can be a powerful way to do so.

 A word to the wise: make sure PR videos are tightly scripted and well-contextualized so there’s no risk of viewers misinterpreting your message now or down the road.

You Don’t Need a Film Crew to Reach Your Audience Through Video

To reach your audience, it’s crucial to communicate with them in the channels and methods they’re most comfortable with. Fortunately, the barrier to entry for creating video has gotten much lower.

Professional services firms often hesitate to add video to their communication strategy because they lack professional equipment. But in today’s world, it’s common for videographers to shoot beautiful, crisp videos using an iPhone, a ring light, and a free video editing app. Modern technology has made it possible for anyone to create engaging, high-quality videos from anywhere. 

So don’t delay. Use video to establish and strengthen your firm’s authority. Repurpose high-value evergreen content. And communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders about the issues that matter to your firm. 

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To enhance their company’s reputation in a complicated social landscape — and to ensure long-term profitability — elevated CMOs must design smart, authentic ways for executives to communicate about public responsibility.  

“Agua!” That one simple word sent Coca-Cola’s stock plummeting by $5 billion when elite soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo moved two bottles of Coke out of view and asked for water during a press conference. No matter that the soft drink giant was the UEFA European Championship’s sponsor. The meaning of Ronaldo’s gesture was clear: As a health-conscious athlete, I drink water, not Coke. 

And just like that, Coca-Cola experienced the economic impact of dragging their feet. How long have they known that their signature product increases the risk of insulin resistance, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure? And how long have they sidestepped using their power to positively influence health and wellness in a meaningful way?

It’s not an option for companies and their leaders to avoid entering into the fray of complex social challenges anymore. You might not be selling beverages that have the potential to damage people’s health. But your stakeholders still expect you to hold your professional services firm accountable for the ways in which you do impact your community. 

As the C-suite’s new utility players, forward-thinking CMOs will help executive leaders skillfully participate in challenging, important conversations across a spectrum of social concerns. Use the following questions as a starting point to help your CEO enter into — and influence — the dialogues that matter in our world today.

How Do We Communicate Effectively in an Era of Reform?

As the keeper of your company’s narrative and steward of its expressed written mission, you are the best-placed, most-equipped person to serve as the company’s sextant. In this capacity, you’re required to measure the angles between controversial social issues to help your brand navigate uncharted territory.

In The Square and the Tower, Niall Fergusson offers a warning to CEOs who seek to maintain control using outdated, top-down methods. He says, “Hierarchical institutions have been challenged by novel networks, their impact magnified by technology…We should probably expect continued network-driven disruption of hierarchies that cannot reform themselves.”

Reform is hard. So is dismantling age-old expectations and norms associated with positions of power. But we can’t afford to bury our heads in the sand as social issues increasingly become business issues. Nor can we rely on authoritative communication styles of yesteryear. Rather, we must communicate with vulnerability and demonstrate a willingness to listen. If we don’t reform ourselves, we will be left behind.

But in order to help your CEO traverse this new terrain, your organization needs to grapple with a foundational question. What do we stand for? 

What Issues Should Our Professional Services Firm Speak Out About?

The CMO-as-sextant role requires you to articulate how your company’s brand promise plays out in a charged social and political environment. To do it well, you must be truthful and authentic while simultaneously remaining accountable. This is necessary even if — or especially when — your best efforts to do better are met with criticism. 

For example, remember when Dove tried to make bottles that reflected body diversity or when Target introduced transgender lavatories? Some sang these companies’ praises. Others decried them. But despite backlash, both companies boldly sparked conversations that were necessary and valuable — and that were in line with their own stated values.

In the professional services landscape, many firms are making a concerted effort to include Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting in their mantle of accountability. Lawyers, accountants, investors, and engineers measure ESG to answer to stakeholders and governments. But the thoughtful CMO should be thinking about how executives can communicate ESG-related issues to all audiences. 

Furthermore, CMOs can and should measure audience sentiment and response to these efforts. In this way, CMOs can connect the dots for executives and show how speaking out on societal issues can impact brand reputation.

ESG is just one example. You may be focused on going beyond the performative in how your firm responds to issues of racial injustice. Or you might want to combat misinformation and speak out against fake news. Whatever the issue, it all comes down to this. What are your firm’s values? What issues matter to you? And in what way do you hope to leave your corner of your industry better than you found it?

Is it Time to Communicate a Broader View of Profitability?

Part of charting a course toward a different, reformed future is opening an authentic conversation about what it means to be profitable. That’s because stakeholders now demand that the pursuit of profit be tempered by a concern for doing what’s right. It’s not enough to make money. Organizations also need to consider the planet, marginalized groups, future generations, and society as a whole. 

Weigh what it might mean for your CEO and your firm to embrace a more holistic view of profitability. How would that allow you to communicate a meaningful brand promise to your stakeholders and audience? What stories can you tell about the ways your firm is integrating business needs with social needs? And how might this evolved approach to financial governance actually lead to greater loyalty and commitment from stakeholders, employees, and clients?   

Revenue is important. But if we want to create a more just, healthy, and sustainable world, it just might begin by expanding our definition of profitability.

CMOs Must Continue to Equip Executives to Communicate About Social Concerns

If your CEO doesn’t take a stand on an issue or concern that resonates with your market, somebody else will. And if that ‘somebody’ happens to have the power and influence of Cristiano Ronaldo in the Digital Age, watch out. 

Your stakeholders expect vulnerability, authenticity, accountability, and a willingness to listen. So in order to augment your organization’s reputation and remain profitable in this new era, you need to prepare your CEO to engage in challenging conversations. All of that starts by asking the right questions.

If you’d like some help directing conversations that matter at your firm, connect with us. We’d love to hear from you.

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Toyota recently made headlines when social justice watchdogs called them out for making $55,000 in donations to 37 politicians who objected to certifying the 2020 election. The backlash was fast and fierce. Consumers called for boycotts and it wasn’t long before the hashtag #ToyotaHatesDemocracy began trending on Twitter. 

As it so often happens, Toyota’s official response only made things worse. Their statement was vague and included familiar corporate PR speak, saying, “Toyota supports candidates based on their position on issues that are important to the auto industry and the company.” This led many in the Twitterverse to retort that democracy must not have been one of the “issues” factored in. Though Toyota has since tried to walk back and amend its response, the general consensus is too little, too late.

If you think that because you’re not in a consumer-facing industry this kind of blowback can’t happen to you, think again. Professional services firms are increasingly expected to treat social issues as business issues. Whether it’s answering for how diverse your firm is (or isn’t) or explaining why you’ve chosen to do business with a controversial figure, there will come a time when you’re forced to respond to criticism.

What should you say if you have no idea what to say? Or if, like Toyota, the answer you do have isn’t good enough?

Our advice? Get real. Lead with vulnerability and humility. Listen and learn from the people around you in order to develop authentic communications that demonstrate a positive commitment to change. 

Throughout this piece, we’ll look at the benefits of vulnerable communication as it relates to an emerging, salient example. Many businesses have recently added Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) metrics to their RFPs in an effort to hire firms who align with their values. The challenge? Most professional services firms are not diverse. So you will need to do some hard work to demonstrate you are truly committed to meaningful change and improvement.

With Vulnerability, Communications Can Be A Tool –Not a Shield

Transparency was the leadership theme throughout the 2010s. But today’s expectation goes even further. Leadership now requires a new level of vulnerability, openness, and skilled participation. Hiding behind your marketing messages or simple lip service is easier than ever to recognize. Your stakeholders, employees, and the public will see right through it.

With vulnerability, your communications can be a tool – not a shield. Vulnerability strengthens your position, increases your likelihood of winning over your prospective clients, and engages your employees in living up to your organizational values.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Many organizations use corporate speak not because they think it’s the best way to go, but to mitigate legal risk. There’s a balance here, though. You can still admit your firm isn’t perfect or that you don’t have all the answers to sensitive social issues without making statements that could pose legal risk. In the meantime, doing so will reduce skepticism and buy goodwill while you develop the meaningful messages and actions you ultimately want to deliver.  

In the DE&I context, responding vulnerably and authentically to this kind of scrutiny might mean owning up to the fact that your firm has a long way to go. If your workforce is not diverse, don’t pretend it is. Instead, be sincere and admit you need to make improvements, and then, when you’re ready, lay out your plan to do just that. 

Vulnerability Opens the Door to Collaborative Communication

Let’s be honest about this — if your leadership team lacks diversity, you shouldn’t be working on solving your DE&I shortcomings in a vacuum. Ask for help from people who have insights you don’t. Invite employees, stakeholders, clients, and even community members to weigh in on how to make measurable changes that will move your firm forward. 

To go beyond the performative and gather strategic input that will help you make authentic improvements, you might need to take a hard look at your current state. Ask questions about what your workplace is like right now for members of underrepresented groups. Really listen to their experiences. For instance, question:

  • Is your firm’s culture accessible and inclusive for women, Black, Latinx, AAPI, indigenous, disabled, LGBTQ+ and other marginalized groups? 
  • Do underrepresented groups have access to high value projects, clients and other work that affords them advancement opportunities?
  • Are all members of underrepresented groups safe from harassment? Do they receive equal pay for equal work?
  • What will it take to fill more seats at your leadership tables with people who represent a broad spectrum of diversity?

Resist the urge to ignore these uncomfortable or sensitive issues. Explore, debate, research, question, and reflect on these important topics with the people around you. Then, work together to formulate communications that convey the tangible improvements you plan to make. 

Vulnerability Invites Greater Accountability to Your Values

Your organizational values should act as your guardrails and guiding principles in all the areas you strive for change. So when you’ve developed the communications about how your organization is working toward improving your DE&I metrics, you also need to be vulnerable enough to invite your employees and stakeholders to call you out if you don’t follow through on your good intentions. 

Your employees, clients, and stakeholders may have better insight into your firm’s shortcomings than you do. Accountability gives them the freedom to speak up and tell you if they feel you aren’t making the positive changes you committed to. The best way to ensure they feel comfortable holding you accountable is to give them direct access to you and other leaders who have authority and power. Vulnerability and accessibility lead to accountability.

Need Help Harnessing the Power of Vulnerable Communications?

Responding to a DE&I metric on an RFP is just one example of how professional services firms are wrestling with how to communicate when they don’t know what to say. It can be challenging to drop the protective cloak of marketing language in favor of vulnerable communications — especially in conversations that make us uncomfortable or when legal risk is involved. But doing so will enable you to build stronger relationships with the employees, stakeholders, and clients whose buy-in and trust are essential in allowing you to reach your business objectives.

Whatever you do, don’t rely on tone-deaf marketing statements like Toyota did. Using communication as a tool instead of a shield — whether it’s responding to an RFP or releasing a public statement about a hot-button issue — shows empathy and will help you attract new clients and talented employees who are just as committed to social concerns as you are. 

If you realize you need help harnessing the power of vulnerability in your communications strategies, just reach out. We’d love to hear from you.

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