In the run up to Christmas, three wise men* have arrived bearing gifts. It’s not quite a Terry’s chocolate orange, but in recent weeks, Ithaca Partners, Spencer Stewart and Taylor Birchwood have each produced reports on corporate affairs, which I grudgingly admit are better for the waistline.

While Ithaca focuses its benchmark analysis on 51 of the FTSE100, including 17 of the FTSE20, Spencer Stewart chats to a selection of corporate affairs directors from the FTSE350 and Taylor Birchwood takes a more global approach, with its overseas partners, surveying more than 200 professionals online.

Subsequently, some results are not directly comparable, more gold, frankincense and myrrh, as it were, but several commonalities do emerge.

The good news is that all three confirm that corporate affairs has achieved strategic importance. In fact, a majority in each survey report directly to the chief executive and, in the main, enjoy daily interactions or, in some cases, unfettered access.

The top priority for 2026 is for corporate affairs to drive company strategy and performance, according to Ithaca Partners’ research, which means understanding the language of business rather than talking about seeing around corners which, while still important, is less tangible.

As Ithaca’s founder Alex Gordon-Shute said at this year’s Corporate Affairs Summit: ‘If you want to be on the ExCo, you have got to be able to be part of the conversation on running the whole business. You can't just be talking about your little black box of specialist corporate affairs magic.’

Similarly, Nick Bishop, co-author of Ithaca’s survey, expressed his delight at the number of interviewees who cited examples where their work contributed millions of pounds to the bottom line – and how they could prove that.

While a similar number of respondents (56% versus 54%) to Taylor Birchwood’s survey cited company strategy as a priority, it comes second to building and protecting corporate reputation. Their third priority is navigating the geopolitical and economic environment, which perhaps reflects the international nature of the survey, as it is not mentioned as a priority by the UK-based respondents to Ithaca’s survey.

Instead, their second priority for 2026 is political policy, and indeed 74% now have public affairs within the corporate affairs function. In the course of his analysis, Bishop found that additional resource is being invested into this area, specifically regulatory affairs, which is increasingly blended into the corporate affairs function.

In financial services, in particular, there has been increased investment in public policy, which working with public affairs, can potentially help drive regulatory or legislative change - providing potential ‘wins’ for corporate affairs.

The picture around sustainability is interesting. While increasingly coming under the remit of corporate affairs, and indeed many directors assuming responsibility for sustainability, there is a sense that there is little to be gained by promoting, or evangelising, these initiatives. Indeed, only 2% of respondents to Taylor Birchwood’s survey cite advancing sustainability initiatives as a priority.

In part, this is a result of some over-ambitious goals without a clear roadmap on how to achieve them, and the backlash against these. In part, it reflects the political environment across the Atlantic. But sustainability work continues, particularly for those companies who have signed up to science-based targets, even if the pace may have slowed. It also remains a boardroom priority.

Across the Atlantic, Korn Ferry has also just concluded a survey of chief communications officers, eliciting responses from 78 of the Fortune 500, and also points to a growing recognition of the function’s strategic importance, with ‘a growing proximity to the CEO’ plus rising salaries.

The median base salary for a CCO in a Fortune company ranges between $400,000 and $450,000, with median total compensation of $900,000 to $1m, which compares nicely with Spencer Stuart’s finding that its interviewees’ base salaries average £418,000, which is in line with other function heads.

But nearly half of Fortune CCOs make seven figures every year, while one in seven take home more than $2m – which I am not sure is the case in the UK. The ‘top’ talent commands ‘premium compensation’, says the report, and provides ‘clear evidence that top companies are recognising the strategic value of the function’.

*Other genders are available, but I have never heard of the three wise non-binary people (although I am sure they exist).

Some other findings

🫨 As brand increasingly comes under the remit of corporate affairs, a blurring of lines between consumer and corporate is being seen.

📈 29% of respondents to Taylor Birchwood expect more investment in the function in 2026, while 22% expect headcount to grow.

🫅🏼 ExCo members typically lead teams of about 200, while non ExCo members manage around 16.

🗣️​ ExCo members always report directly to the CEO

🗓️ 32% of respondents to Ithaca Partners now include planning and operations, and report positively on how this has impacted their ability to deliver. Expect this trend to grow.

📢​ 12% of respondents to Ithaca Partners have marketing within their remit.

🛒 51% of respondents to Taylor Birchwood say customers are their CEO’s most important stakeholder, while just 11% cite employees. So much for ‘our employees are our greatest asset’ blurb in the annual report.

SUCCESS IN ACTION

No longer a typo

My name is very simple. Occasionally, people assume the ‘e’ is not silent, making me rhyme with the toilet facilities on I’m a Celebrity, and once it baffled my Irish cousins. Brought up in Hillingdon, they thought I was simply repeating my name when they asked where I lived.

So I never get that irritating wobbly red line when I type my name out, unlike apparently 41% of names given to UK children, which are deemed ‘wrong’ by the technology we use every day.

Many of these names are African or Asian in origin, but the Celts also suffer… just not Helen Dunne from Hillingdon. Led by Stuart Lambert, founder of agency Blurred, who first identified the issue when typing invitations to his daughter’s birthday party, a coalition of supporters launched I Am Not A Typo last year.

Ironically, many names that do not attract a squiggle are losing popularity. There were 2,328 young girls named squiggle-generator Esmae in the five years to 2021, but only 36 boys named typo-free Nigel.

Targeted at Big Tech, an open letter, signed by more than 2,000 petitioners, invited them to update their name dictionaries, pointing out that those who suffer feel negatively about autocorrect, while one in ten feel it is racist.

And last week, Microsoft responded. Using Office for National Statistics baby name data as a guide, it has updated its dictionary to ensure it better reflects the names of people living in modern, multicultural Britain. Not bad for a campaign that was a labour of love for those involved.

I am aware that this newsletter has been rather erratic in the last quarter, for various personal reasons that are just boring to repeat. It will return on 7 January in a new Wednesday time slot (I was told that it can just get lost on a Sunday, which I realised can be taken two ways!). Have a very merry Christmas, and here’s to a prosperous 2026.