An Expanded View from the Corner Office: Further Discussions and Research on the Global Navigation of International Corporate Communications

Abstract

In 2006, one of the authors of this paper presented a paper entitled "A View beyond the Corner Office,' where it was discussed that International Corporate Communications was not as easy as to pinpoint and label as it might seem. This paper looks to use the same skeleton as the previous discursive essay but with indepth and concise further research on the subject, present new ideas and angles on a complex global issue. The authors have entered into open discussion and feedback loops with leading PR professionals across the globe, in order to present their discussion from as broad as possible a point of view.

The significance of international corporate communications is growing rapidly, and the complexity associated with it is increasing almost exponentially. But systematic understanding of international corporate communications (ICC), even in the corner offices of the PR industry's top management, is not well developed.

There is no comprehensive interlinking of PR knowledge with relevant expertise derived from other disciplines. Anyone who wants to position specific content through specific institutions by means of specific people in specific media in a specific country has one overriding need: specificity and expertise on all those levels.

This manuscript will illustrate the status quo in this area through current and detailed examples and propose a heuristic analytical grid, along with its interdisciplinary application using the example of Media Relations. Finally, it will conclude with a few basic considerations about the future of cross-border corporate communications and a resolution of the scenarios depicted in the introduction.

Winning paper IPR BledCom Special Prize 2009 for best new research on the cultural variable in public relations practice.

Keywords: international, corporate communications, media, PR, intercultural