According to New Study

Three percent of communication directors are on the Main Board and 23% are on the Executive Committees of FTSE 100 companies, according to a UK-wide survey.

Presented this weekend (11 June) at Richmond Events Communications Directors' Forum, the survey by leading reputation analysts Echo Research found that "having communications represented at Board level helped to protect the brand by ensuring that business strategy takes proper account of stakeholder wishes and media outcomes."

Not being represented at senior levels, respondents claimed, exposed their organisations to greater risks to reputation and damage: "we make fundamental mistakes in the handling of major announcements", said one respondent to Echo's study "Maximising Strategic Impact - A Route Map To The Top". Virgin Mobile's Head of Corporate Affairs Steven Day said, "I think the idea of not having a communications expert on the management team is ridiculous if you've got shareholders' money in your hands."

"If we combine both main Board and Executive Board representation, only a quarter of FTSE 350 have PR represented on their Boards, so there is a still long way to go," according to Echo Research Director, Peter Christopherson. "That's also reflected in our survey which found that only a third of communications professionals consider that the Board understands the business case for PR at the top 'very' well."

Women are poorly represented on main Boards - only one in six communication professionals who are on the Main Board of the FTSE 350 are women, although the FTSE 250 is more egalitarian on their Executive Boards.

Echo's research highlighted the need for PR practitioners to broaden their career beyond just communications so that they are better able to understand and shape business strategy, and be robust on ethics around the Boardroom table when needs be. "Guardians of reputation" and "Keepers of the brand" were definitions commonly used by those who had made it to the top level, along with "Corporate Conscience" and "Looking at the world through others' eyes". Diageo's Corporate Relations Director, Ian Wright, said: "Chief Executives in full sail can be the most terrifying people in the world. Our job is to stand up to them."

Echo interviewed 118 communications professionals in the UK for the study, 70% of whom considered that a corporate culture which values communications was a prerequisite in ensuring that PR was represented at a senior strategic level. Christopherson said: "It would be easy, but wrong, to believe that the few PR professionals who have made it to Board level have done so through the sheer force of their personality and individual talents. The truth is that it is the CEO and management team's influence on the wider culture of the organisation as a whole which will dictate whether PR is represented at the top or not. So the moral for a would-be PR Board Director is pick your CEO and organisation carefully if you are to succeed in your career."

All in the study agreed that measuring the impact of their efforts in line with business objectives was important, although 51% believe that the benefits of PR were long term and thus potentially difficult to fully quantify. Scottish Power's Group Director of Corporate Communications Dominic Fry said: "Everything we do gets measured and my bonus and remuneration is tied to my performance. I don't think you can justify your seat at the top table unless you are accountable, and you can demonstrate that you are contributing to the business."

Methodology

Desk research and telephone survey of Board composition among 371 UK companies: FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and Britain's Most Admired Companies (2004)

Online survey among 1200 UK communication professionals, 93 responded, just over half (56%) were on the Board or Executive Board of their organisations

15 in-depth telephone and face to face interviews with some of the most senior Communication Directors in the UK

Background
Echo Research Group, global specialist in reputation analysis and communications research, working to help organisations measure how they are seen among different stakeholder groups. With 165 analysts, Echo has offices in London, Brussels, Paris, Stockholm and New York and its world-class clients include a quarter of the FTSE and Fortune 100. Echo works across a number of industry sectors, with particular expertise in Consumer, Financial Services, Health, IT, Telecommunications, Media, Professional Services, Public Sector and NGOs.