There is much for corporate affairs professionals to celebrate in a new report Corporate Affairs 2026: From influence to clarity from the Global Communications Search Partnership, a new global alliance which includes UK-based Taylor Birchwood, but it also reveals that there is work still to be done.

First, the good news. The survey of more than 200 in-house comms professionals reveals that, finally, the function is getting into the rooms where it matters. The majority – 56 per cent – now report directly to the CEO. As the report says: the function has ‘secured influence, access and a seat at the table’. Cue champagne corks popping. Fireworks lighting the sky. Job done!

Er, no. Ever heard the phrase ‘read the room’? Well, somebody enlighten the function because the report reveals a disparity between the priorities of business leaders and those of corporate affairs.

For example, 92 per cent of corporate affairs leaders now say that their leadership teams understand the importance of reputation, while 85 per cent say managing reputation is now a boardroom priority. But – here’s the kicker – almost four in ten corporate affairs directors (37 per cent) do not include reputation in their top three priorities.

As the report puts it: this ‘points to a gap between what is understood at a conceptual level and what is being prioritised in practice’. It tries to rationalise this disconnect by saying it may be the result of expanded remits, bringing extra responsibilities; competing issues, such as geopolitical risks or digital transformation; and an outdated view of reputation as an outcome rather than the objective of the function.

The problem is that, once reputation is not the focus or anchoring the organising principle, activities can become operational and task-based.

But it is not just in this area that the priorities of the corporate affairs function are at odds with those of the C-Suite. More than three quarters of business leaders (77 per cent) cite the global geopolitical situation as their greatest challenge, but it is only third on the priority list for corporate affairs practitioners. Why? The report suggests that it may be due to uncertainty as to how to tackle such issues.

And here’s another oddity. Just 56 per cent of respondents claim they align their communications strategy to that of the business. So, how do the remaining 44 per cent prove their value to their boards, if their work does not support the strategic priorities of said boards?

Similarly, talent attraction (48 per cent) and talent retention (35 per cent) are among the top five priorities for business leaders, but scant attention appears to be paid to these issues by corporate affairs. The report suggests that as the function has moved closer to the C-Suite, its attention has increasingly focused on outward-facing activities, which, while a natural move, increases risk.

Why? Well, if your people do not understand or believe in the business strategy, how do they perform to the best of their abilities? And what does that mean for employee engagement levels? Reputation is built from within, as the report puts it.

While much is spoken about AI, the report indicates that just 11 per cent of respondents have integrated it into their operations but there is an acceptance that this situation needs to change. More than nine in ten corporate affairs directors recognise that AI will have a profound or moderate impact on their role, while a similar amount expect to increase their rate of AI adoption in the coming year.

As so many have warned: it is not AI that will take the jobs. It is those who do not embrace AI who will lose their jobs. But AI only creates value when it is clearly linked to decision-making and priorities, according to the report, rather than working as standalone capabilities.

The report makes clear that, despite the increased complexity of the function, there has not been any upturn in either budgets or headcount. And none is forecast. Just over half of the respondents expect the status quo to endure, with 16 per cent expecting their budgets to be cut. It’s also bad news for agencies: one in three corporate affairs directors expect to cut spending on external agencies.

The report concludes that corporate affairs directors must learn how to prioritise, to recognise the activities that need to be de-prioritised and to organise their teams accordingly. With flat budgets and rising expectations, corporate affairs should not be adding without subtracting - there needs to be a careful assessment of what is activity rather than impact. If you were forced to stop something, what would it be? Please do not say: reading this newsletter!

Cyber: it keeps the CEO awake at night

Here is a fact.

Crises never happen when you expect them.

Several years ago, I held a crisis conference at which, one by one, each speaker spoke about their incident which had ‘happened on a Friday’, ‘happened when I was basting the turkey for Christmas lunch’ or ‘when I was en route to the airport’. Yet while selling tickets to the event, a common refrain was ‘we’ve already had a crisis this year’ or ‘I’m not expecting a crisis’, as if somehow these events work to a planned schedule.

Indeed, the board of Marks & Spencer heard about their cyber-attack over the Easter weekend, by which time the alleged hackers, Scattered Spiders, had already been all over the retailer’s systems.

At the Corporate Affairs Summit in Dublin last week (more of which in coming newsletters!), our keynote speaker, Simon Baugh CBE, former chief executive of UK Government Communications, noted that the best responses he had ever witnessed to crises were from organisations or individuals who had prepared and rehearsed scenarios in advance.

So what are the first steps to take in the aftermath of a cyber-attack? What are the legal requirements? What can you say? That is part of the focus of one of the sessions at tomorrow’s Cyber Unpacked event, run by Kerry Parkin, founder of The Remarkables. Would you be taken in by a deep fake of your boss?

There is also a ‘live’ simulation, run by our friends at Polpeo, which takes delegates through an ‘attack’, in which a purported hacker has used social engineering to impersonate an employee and trick an outsourced tech support team member into resetting their credentials, allowing the hackers to bypass security and gain access to the employee portal. It’s an all too familiar scenario, accounting for an estimated 90 per cent

Sadly, the biggest cyber risk is human error. That’s why two of our sessions are dedicated to employees, from educating staff on how to identify cyber risks, using the real-life example from Anglian Water, to using behavioural insights to ‘train’ them, presented by Radley Yeldar’s Kate Napoli.

And finally, we are scanning the horizons when Jenny Pirault, manager, Sodali & Co, chats to Inderjit Birak, vice president at security advisory LevelBlue, explore the emerging cyber risk landscape through a forward-looking lens examining imminent threats, shifting attacker tactics, and the new wave of communication challenges leaders will face when responding to incidents under pressure.

And we’ll also tackle our own crisis – the imminent tube strike – with aplomb. Places still available. www.cyberunpacked.co.uk