Welcome to my first monthly founder’s note.
When I started Strategic in 2020, my ambition was to create a platform to advocate for the communication profession – and, more than five years later, that ambition still stands today.
I recently had a conversation with one of our columnists, and we spoke about communication as a strategic management function. This brought me back to our mission “to foster the right collaboration and optimize business relationships, reputations and growth”. The “right collaboration” is the communication function as part of the C-suite; “optimize business relationships” is working with stakeholders, and relevant C-suite colleagues as equals; optimize “reputations” is at the heart of what our profession does; and optimize “growth” links it all to measurement, evaluation and return on investment (ROI). The latter is particularly interesting right now as I’m hearing from consultancy owners who are considering outcome-based fees rather than charging hourly rates based on timesheets. Is this the change we need to better demonstrate the value of communication to organizations?
I am proud that Strategic is the media partner for the annual flagship PRCA PR & PA UK Conference taking place in London on 17 September 2025. PRCA was one of the first organizations I engaged with when I started Strategic, and one of the first organizations to support my vision. The organization and team are an important part of our network, and I’m excited to collaborate with them for the conference.
Next month, I‘ll be attending the Communication Leadership Summit in Brussels. Our editor-in-chief Mike Klein is one of the organizers, and it will be an excellent opportunity to connect in-person with partners and members of our community. If you are also going to the Summit, I’ll see you there.
Whether you are a columnist, contributor, partner, reader, or another stakeholder of Strategic’s, I hope our mission and my own ambition resonates with you.
If you haven’t already registered (for free) to Strategic, you can do so at: www.strategic.global/register
—- Orla Clancy, founder, Strategic
