Communicating
Strategically
In the first chapter, we examined the changing environment for business over the last half century. In this chapter, we explore how these changes have affected corporate communication and why it has become imperative for modern companies to communicate strategically.
Strategic communication can be defined as “communication aligned with the company’s overall strategy, [intended] to enhance its strategic positioning.”1 An effective strategy should encourage a company to send messages that are “clear and understandable, true and, communicated with passion, strategically repetitive and repeated, [and] consistent (across constituencies).”
We begin this chapter with a summary of the basic theory behind all communication, whether individual or organizational in nature. We will also briefly discuss influential models in modern communication theory. Although many communication experts have adapted these theories to help leaders communicate in writing and speaking, few have looked at how these same basic theories apply in the corporate communication context—that is, the way organizations communicate with various groups of people.
Communication, more than any other subject in business, has implications for everyone within an organization—from the newest administrative assistant to the
CEO. Thanks in part to important strategy work by academics such as Michael
Porter, Gary Hamel, and C. K. Prahalad, most managers have learned to think strategically about their business overall, but few think strategically about what they spend most of their time doing—communicating.
This chapter discusses what it means to develop a cohesive communication plan within an organization, emphasizing the critical link between corporate communication and the firm’s overall corporate strategy.

Communication Theory
Most modern theories associated