Profit is the Point: Why Internal Comms Needs to Get It

Ed Davis:

For years, the internal / corporate communications profession has told itself a comforting story: that by “speaking the language of business” and championing “value creation beyond profit,” practitioners can finally secure a seat at the leadership table. 

It’s an appealing narrative—humanistic, idealistic, even noble. 

But it’s also flawed. 

Unless the discipline confronts this uncomfortable truth, it will continue to be treated as a discretionary service rather than a strategic necessity.

Strip away the glossy values statements and ESG reports and every organisation—corporate, public, or nonprofit—runs on the same logic: risk versus reward. 

For corporations, reward is profit. For nonprofits, it’s mission. But mission still depends on money. A charity that doesn’t generate positive cash flow cannot advance its cause, no matter how noble the intent. Romanticise it if you like, but without cash in, and more cash staying in than going out, the lights go off.

That’s the truth internal comms professionals too often shy away from. Businesses do not operate on aspiration. They operate on survival and growth.

How many times have you heard communicators insist they need to “speak the language of business” to be credible? 

Here’s the problem: businesses at their core don’t speak a “language”. They speak numbers. The grammar of business is financial statements, margins, and cash flow. 

Words about culture, values, or purpose matter enormously, but more so when tied to economic performance. A culture programme that retains talent saves millions. Purpose-driven messaging that attracts customers protects revenue. Values matter, but they matteronly because they impact the numbers.

Yet internal comms too often confuses parroting leadership buzzwords with genuine fluency in business. Practitioners talk in abstractions when leaders want evidence. 

Engagement scores, clicks on the CEO newsletter, “likes” on the intranet—none of it stacks up against the cost of attrition, the risk of compliance failure, or the drag of operational misalignment. 

That’s why, when the pressure is on, internal comms is among the first cut. Not because words don’t matter, but because the function hasn’t proven its words protect cash flow or mitigate risk.

Internal comms will never move beyond the back bench until it reframes itself as a lever in the only equation leadership cares about: reducing risk and increasing reward. That means shifting from activity metrics to impact metrics.

A compliance campaign isn’t “raising awareness”—it’s lowering the likelihood of a regulatory fine. 

A culture programme isn’t “creating belonging”—it’s reducing attrition costs by millions. 

A safety briefing isn’t “engagement”—it’s preventing lawsuits and insurance spikes. 

Unless internal comms makes these links explicitly, and proves them with numbers, it will stay on the outside looking in.

This is where the profession has been seduced. The mantra of “value beyond profit” is attractive, but misleading. 

Because the truth is that all so-called “beyond profit” initiatives are still bound up in risk and reward. ESG reduces reputational and regulatory risk. Purpose-driven narratives help retain talent and lower hiring costs. Community programmes buy goodwill and protect market share. These aren’t altruistic extras; they’re instruments for protecting profitability and sustaining cash flow. Pretending otherwise weakens the profession’s credibility.

So what’s required?

First, financial literacy. If you can’t read a balance sheet or cash flow statement, you can’t credibly argue the value of your work. 

Second? Proof! Platitudes about “storytelling” won’t cut it. Evidence of cost savings, accelerated change adoption, or reduced risk exposure will. 

And third, a mindset shift. Stop begging for a seat at the table. Seats are not given to those who ask politely. They’re reserved for those who move the numbers and make things happen.

The profession now has a choice: keep flattering itself with narratives about purpose and language…or face reality, embrace the brutal logic of business, and prove its economic impact. 

The moment internal comms drops the illusions and demonstrates that it reduces risks, grows rewards, and protects cash flow, it stops being a service. It becomes strategy. And that’s the only language that counts.

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Ed Davis is Managing Partner, BBN | Agency X

Written by: Editor