News and Insights

Communications leaders must become architects of business momentum

September 23, 2026

For years, companies treated communications as an afterthought, as the team was brought in to clean up and package a story after the real decisions were already made. Executives would finalize a strategy, lock in the plan and hand it off to PR to explain the vision to employees, investors, customers and other key stakeholders. Too often were they told to “PR this.”

That approach is deeply flawed.

Modern businesses face constant, overlapping disruptions. Whether you are integrating a transformative acquisition, shifting a business model or launching an AI initiative, a brilliant strategy means nothing if your audience doesn’t buy into it. Success relies entirely on whether your stakeholders understand your direction, trust your leadership and believe in the path forward.

Market influence isn’t awareness or media coverage. It’s the confidence that employees, customers, investors and other stakeholders place in your organization.

Moving beyond the inbound message

The most effective communications leaders don’t just sit in on strategy meetings; they actively shape them. They look past the immediate horizon to see how market forces and audience sentiment will impact the company’s bottom line.

To get there, strategic communicators must stop asking the traditional first question: “What message should we share?”

Instead, ask the questions that drive real business outcomes:

• What concrete business goal are we trying to achieve here?
• Who holds the power to block or accelerate this direction?
• What existing narratives will shape how people view our decisions?
• How do we build equity and trust before an issue arises?

The most valuable communications leaders don’t provide better answers. They ensure the organization is asking better questions before decisions are made.

Think about a major corporate transformation. A company can invest millions in operational change, technology infrastructure and top-tier talent, but the entire effort will stall if employees are confused, customers feel alienated or investors get nervous.

Look at the explosive governance crisis at OpenAI. When the board abruptly fired CEO Sam Altman, the initial internal communications were vague, brief and deeply defensive. This severe lack of transparency created an immediate narrative vacuum. Within hours, media speculation ran wild, investors panicked and over 90 percent of the workforce threatened to quit. The board had a strategy, but they failed to account for stakeholder sentiment or design a communications plan to support it. In the absence of clear communication, stakeholders created their own narrative, and once that narrative took hold, regaining control became nearly impossible.

Building influence through consistent action

Market influence isn’t a switch you can flip on whenever you want; it is earned incrementally.

The companies that maintain a strong market position do a few things consistently well. They take decisive, clear stances on industry issues and do not hide behind vague corporate platitudes. They elevate executives into genuine industry voices who add value to the conversation. And most importantly, they engage audiences early, building goodwill long before they need to ask for patience or trust during critical moments in time.

Influence isn’t built during pivotal moments. It’s revealed by them. The work happens long before the spotlight arrives.

You can see this playing out right now across highly regulated sectors like financial services, insurance and healthcare. These industries are dealing with a collision of shifting economic pressures, compliance updates and rapid AI integration.

Consider the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023. While the bank’s interest rate exposure and balance sheet challenges created the underlying vulnerability, the communications surrounding its announced capital raise accelerated a crisis of confidence. The need to raise more than $2 billion came as a surprise to many stakeholders, and without sufficient context or preparation, the announcement fueled uncertainty among investors, venture capital firms and depositors. As concerns spread rapidly through social media and private messaging networks, confidence evaporated and depositors attempted to withdraw more than $40 billion in a single day. Communications didn’t create the underlying financial risk, but it shaped how quickly confidence unraveled once that risk became public. Markets don’t move on facts alone. They move on confidence.

In environments this volatile, the ability to communicate with absolute clarity and credibility becomes a primary way to outpace the market.

The new mandate for communications leaders

As corporate environments grow more complex, the role of the Chief Communications Officer must expand. The strongest leaders are brought into the room on day one, bringing external stakeholder insights directly into the decision-making process. They help the C-suite anticipate audience friction before it turns into a communications crisis. They spot vulnerabilities in relationships before trust is actively tested.

The best communications programs don’t just broadcast a strategy. They activate it. They tie executive visibility, targeted media relations, digital channels and employee engagement into a singular cohesive program designed to impact business outcomes. The future belongs to organizations that can navigate complexity while maintaining the confidence of the stakeholders who matter most. Strategy determines where a company wants to go, but influence determines whether anyone follows. In today’s business environment, communications is no longer responsible for explaining the business. It has become one of the functions that helps build it.

This article was originally published on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 by O’Dwyer’s.