Might The Communication Value Circle, Finally, Get Us a Seat at the Table?

Recently, a friend and colleague, Amanda Hamilton-Atwell, D Litt et Phil, ABC, CPRP, of Business DNA in Pretoria, South Africa, forwarded an article entitled Creating business value through corporate communication: A theory-based framework and its practical application. 

Intrigued by the title, I found myself focused on the first three words – creating business value.  How do we as communication professionals measure what we do in organizations from an overarching, strategic view?  Isn’t a key differentiator of strategic communication its integrative capability as well as its alignment with business goals and objectives? Do we add and talk value in a valid business sense?

The 2011 Barcelona Principles were a good theoretical start but in-practice what is applied? Two measurement tools– the 4 O’s (output, outtake, outcome, outgrowth) and PESO (paid, earned, shared, owned) – came to mind and had me wondering.  Do the 4 O’s really measure value?  Does the PESO model actually measure the business value of a strategic communication function?  As I dove into reading the article, I realized that The Communication Value Circle may be the framework that finally measures the value of communication from a business sense and enables communication professionals to “talk the talk” of business value.  Might this framework give us our seat at the table?

This is the first in a three-part series on The Communication Value Circle framework of value measurement.  The second – A Deeper Dive into The Communication Value Circle – will be published February 15, 2018. The third – A Closer Look at Business Value Models – will be published February 22, 2018.