XPN Industries

It’s often been said that accounting is the universal language of business. While numbers are an important way of measuring and reporting a company’s results, it is communication that invigorates and drives the business world. It is a vital and crucial role in positioning and sustaining a company in its quest for growth and success.

Here are some of the key components in the role of communication in business:

• Inform. One of the primary functions of communication in business is to provide information. Employees, customers, stockholders, suppliers, and various others have an interest in and need to be informed of the company’s status. Whether the information concerns products, plans, or policies, the company’s need to inform a diverse audience across a wide range of subjects is one of its primary obligations.

• Educate. A company educates its employees about its processes and policies; its customers about its products and services; its suppliers about its production or logistical requirements; its stockholders of results and objectives. Education is an ongoing communication process both within and outside the company, the importance of which is ever increasing. A company who spends considerable amounts of time and capital into educating its employees at every level is a company who is serious about success.

• Clarify. Companies, like individuals, sometimes make missteps. Not all products are defect free. Not all executive decisions are spot on. Not all results are as solid as expected. Sometimes public information concerning a company is erroneous or perhaps even spurious. A company routinely communicates clarifying information to amend, rescind, or elucidate previous information that had been provided to audiences either within or outside the company, or perhaps both.

• Persuade. A key communication component is the company’s ability to persuade customers, employees, regulators, analysts, or others as to the merits of its various results, proposals, objectives, or directives. A company who is skillful at communicating persuasively has a significant competitive advantage over others not nearly as gifted. It should be noted that an ability to persuade is far more than spin control or other superficial attempts at deflection or avoidance.

• Differentiate. Companies who have the wherewithal to communicate key differences between themselves and other firms’ products or services will also gain a major advantage in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace. Companies can also differentiate themselves in other ways, to include good corporate citizenship, adherence to a strict ethical code of conduct, a passion for excellence, and friendliness to the environment, among others.

Communication is the very lifeblood of a company. Performed with skill and care, with consistency and integrity, communication processes attach a company to its employees and customers, to its industry and communities, and provides a solid base for success and perpetuation.