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Communications consultancy Cocomms carried out an international survey which found that the future professionals of corporate communications will be business-oriented strategists who understand different cultures and global challenges. They also know how to measure the impact of their work. The results of the survey will be presented today at 11:00 at the ProCom Day, organized by the Finnish Association of Communications Professionals at the Finlandia House in Helsinki.

Cocomms carried out the survey in May among international PR agencies. The survey focused on the kind of characteristics that are needed for a successful career as a communications professional and insights on who will be doing communications in the future. Social media was seen as the most important trend affecting the field of corporate communications, followed by the digitalization of the world and the increased importance of corporate responsibility.

According to the respondents of the survey, communications professionals currently perform best in media relations, communications planning and strategic communications consulting. Most improvement is needed in strategic business understanding, ability to integrate different competence areas, and understanding about the Web. When these performance levels are compared with the estimated importance of the different competence areas, the most critical competence gaps are in the strategic business understanding and in the ability to integrate different competence areas of communications.

”Similar competencies that business leaders and management consultants possess at the moment will be required also from communications professionals in the future. Communications education should therefore increasingly focus on business understanding and cultural intelligence, because it has traditionally concentrated very strongly on media, organizational communications and the use of different communications tools,” says Kaija Langenskiöld, Managing Partner of Cocomms.

Credibility, honesty, enthusiasm, emotional intelligence and analytical mind were considered the most important personal characteristics for a communications professional. According to the respondents, a perfect communications professional would be “an analytical mind who is able to coach and counsel high-ranking managers, create ideal communications plans and realize them”, and also “a smart, intellectually curious news junkie with the ability to synthesize information quickly to provide common sense advice in clear and straightforward language”.

Nine out of ten respondents agreed that there are differences in the required competencies when working in a PR agency compared to the communications department of an organization. The respondents indicated that consultants must have more sales orientation and multitasking abilities, whereas in-house communications professionals need to have a deeper understanding of their industry as well as a grasp of the internal influencing possibilities and the political landscape of the organization.

Additional information:

Kaija Langenskiöld, Managing Partner, Cocomms Ltd.

Tel. +358 400 502 183, kaija.langenskiold (at) cocomms.com