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.
