Dmitry Shishkin

What’s the real cost of not having a strategic communications plan? On the surface, skipping the planning stage might feel like saving time or moving faster. But the costs, both real and hidden, quickly add up: • You invite a culture of “one-offs.” Without a roadmap, every request becomes urgent and disconnected, pulling focus away from impact. • You risk being seen as a tactical executor, not a strategic driver of the business. • Your work isn’t connected to the business strategy and the C-suite, which keeps comms on the sidelines. • You lose the ability to secure the right resources and budget because you can’t prove how comms links to business goals. • You miss opportunities for proactive storytelling and instead react to events as they come. • You dilute internal alignment when leaders, teams, and channels aren’t working from the same narrative. • You increase reputational risk when gaps and inconsistencies in messaging are easier to exploit. • You undermine measurement since, without a plan (with objectives), it is nearly impossible to show ROI or demonstrate impact. A strategic communications plan is not just a nice-to-have. It is the foundation that allows comms to drive business outcomes, protect reputation, and elevate the function from “order-taker” to business partner. 👉 What other hidden costs have you seen when organizations skip planning?

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Trust, Education, Engagement and Collaboration 💡 Four critical elements that communications and public affairs professionals should take note of when navigating the complex and uncertain geopolitical and economic landscape today. These were some of the points raised on of the most engaging panels I've moderated: "Techplomacy at the crossroads: Trade, Tensions and Tomorrow's Innovations" at the #CorporateAffairsForum 2025 organized by PRCA APAC. #Trust is key across all levels when: - new technologies like AI are being deployed at an unprecedented scale in all geographies, and governments are trying to define the rules of engagement - platforms like Uber are expanding at scale but need to ensure that traditional players are not impacted and are being invited to play an active part in mobility innovations - Ensuring the utmost compliance and trust when you are at the centre of global trade and currency flows #Education and communications clarity is central to cutting above the noise. Employing new ways of communicating through owned media like blogs and podcasts ensure that the company's stance is clear. Constant #Engagement with key stakeholders can change conversations from confrontational to #collaborative. Walking the talk, zooming in on the right stakeholders and finding direct and indirect ways to build trust through activities, meetings and programs. Underpinning everything is an acute awareness of the changing landscape, the nuances of each market in Asia Pacific, how actions from other regions can impact locally and pivoting accordingly. A big thank you to Jake Wilczynski (OpenAI), Mae L. (Airwallex) and Pei Chih Marvin Ma (Uber Taiwan), for your candid views and sharing. It was fun! Ed Burleigh #Techplomacy #TheHoffmanDifference

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