Building a communications function from scratch
One of the exciting parts of my work is to help companies build a new function from scratch. My organisational design background, and more than 15 years in communications executive search, have shown me what leads to exceptional performance as well as what happens when it goes wrong.
In a perfect world, team design happens before people are hired, and the following questions are answered before any structural decisions are made:
- What is this function for? Protecting reputation, engaging government and regulators, building trust in the brand, preparing for an IPO, driving commercial growth – maybe even all of the above.
- What activities sit in this team and what stays elsewhere? The lines of communications activity can blur when it comes to marketing, IR and legal.
- How should we use our agency support and what should we move in-house? Considering what they are best used for both now and in the future.
When you know the answers to these questions, the next phases are much easier to work through.
Organisational Design
A mapping activity that seeks to design for the capability the organisation needs. In the GCC, this typically involves creating a bilingual team who are used to working in a complex multi-stakeholder environment where regulators, government and shareholders sit much more closely than they do elsewhere.
Capability Frameworks
Define what good looks like at each level and for each role before you start interviewing, this allows you a framework to develop talent and measure performance.
Assessment and succession
It is common to see teams end up with a single point of failure and relying on one person with whom all of the relationships and institutional memory sit. When designing from scratch, you can build a bench of talent that shares this, reducing people risk and futureproofing for growth.
It is also worth considering how to deploy partners or interim support, communications teams rarely start with hiring a Chief Communications Officer on day one but often require the insight of senior practitioners to avoid getting it wrong.
If you’re building or creating a new corporate communications team, get in touch for an initial conversation.
Lauren Tarbit is a Partner at Taylor Birchwood and leads our Middle East business, covering the UAE and wider region from Dubai. Lauren advises organisations across the GCC on corporate affairs organisational design, capability assessment and senior hiring, and holds a post-graduate qualification in organisational design and strategic transformation from Cranfield University.