The Importance of Public Affairs and Communication
New Report Highlights the Importance of Public Affairs and Communications Counsel in Romanian Business
As competition becomes stronger, companies turn towards building a strong reputation
McGuireWoods Romania, in partnership with Sfera Business, has unveiled recently a report titled – “How companies in Romania approach communication strategically”. The biggest takeaway showed that 73 percent of companies, with no regards to revenue level, would outsource strategic communications, public affairs and government relations activities in order to benefit from consultants’ expertise.
In Romania, reputation management, which is roughly understood as a company’s notoriety, is a key influencer and carries great importance. Revenues do however play a major role in terms of how companies internalize the communications, government relations and public affairs functions. Out of the companies surveyed with revenues of over EUR 100 million, 89 percent have a strategic communication department. Conversely, when dealing with companies with revenues lower than EUR 1 million, only 33 percent of those employed similar departments.
Results also showed a correlation between the size of a company and its revenues and its likelihood of having a communications department. Only 33 percent of companies with revenues between EUR 1 – 10 million have a communication strategy in place, but after reaching the EUR 50 million level, their focus on communication increases exponentially. In terms of public affairs and government relations, more than half (54 percent) of companies with revenues between EUR 10 – 100 million have a dedicated department while only 30 percent of companies with revenues under EUR 10 million have such a department.
The research also confirmed the benefits of having communications, public affairs and government relations professionals in-house or on retainer. While nearly every entity could benefit from having its communications strategy driven with the involvement of a communications specialist, only 50 percent of companies stated they utilized a communications professional and even less involved them in the strategic planning process. The results also showed that more often than not (45 percent of the time), the strategic communications department is separated from the government relations/public affairs department.
The report, “How Romanian companies communicate strategically” is based on a survey administered between February 24 and April 9, 2016. The report analyzes the responses gathered from 141 respondents to an online questionnaire with 24 questions. Of the 141 respondents, 26 percent were top executives and 34 percent were local marketing and communication professionals. Companies reflected in the research are Romanian (38%), foreign (50%), and those with both domestic and international operations (12%). Of the companies participating in the research, 35 percent have posted revenues of over EUR 100 million in 2015, 11 percent had reported revenues between EUR 50 and EUR 100 million, 12 percent fell between EUR 10 to EUR 50 million, and the remaining 24 percent fell between EUR 1 to EUR 10 million.
Source: McGuireWoods Romania
