This post first appeared in Anthony Bullick’s Daily Post column.
Too many businesses still bring PR and communications into the conversation after a major decision has already been made.
By that point, the strategy is set, the operational detail agreed, and the expectation is often to announce it, explain it, or make it land well.
Good communications advice should come before the message is written. It should help shape the decision itself.
PR and comms teams are the conscience of the organisation and bring an outside-in perspective to the boardroom. They understand how different audiences are likely to react. They can spot reputational risks, challenge assumptions, and identify questions that may not have been considered internally.
How will staff respond? What will customers ask? Could stakeholders feel forgotten about? Will the reasoning stand up when a journalist, regulator, or local community starts asking difficult questions?
These are not just communications questions. They are business questions.
Let’s take the example of a site opening or closing or a major restructure. If PR is only involved once everything is final, it may be too late to influence how staff are informed, whether key stakeholders have been consulted, or whether the rationale can be explained clearly and credibly.
This is where strategic counsel matters.
A strong communications adviser will sit alongside senior leaders, understand the commercial rationale, and then bring stakeholders’ wants, needs, hopes, and worries into the discussion. Not to block decisions, but to make them stronger.
Businesses are usually comfortable involving legal, finance, and operations early in the process. Communications should be viewed in the same way when a decision could affect reputation, trust, or relationships.
Strategic counsel can be difficult to measure because success often means a problem never happens.
A press release, event, or campaign is tangible. Advice that changes the timing of an announcement, avoids stakeholder backlash, or exposes a reputational risk before it becomes public is less visible, but can be far more valuable.
Give PR and comms permission to challenge, not just deliver.
Include reputation alongside financial, operational, and legal considerations, and stress-test how decisions are likely to be received before they become public.
The strongest communications teams do more than promote what a business has decided.
They help leaders understand how those decisions will be seen, questioned, and judged by the people who matter.
Good PR is not just about finding the right words for a decision.
Sometimes it is about helping make a better decision in the first place.