A Teaching Note

on
Corporate Communications

Semester III

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Corporate Communication
Corporate communication at its simplest is primarily a mechanism for developing
and managing a set of relationships with public or stakeholders who could affect
the overall performance. Corporate Communication indicates a relationship
between a corporate and its public in the long run and points out the need of
corporate to build its images among the stakeholders with a look on its overall
performance. Corporate communications is the conscious and systematic
communication of an organization with its internal and external audiences in
support of policy.
Corporate Communication uses internal and external communication to distribute
corporate’s organizational policy and focuses on providing information, either
directly or through some media.
Characteristics of corporate communication:
• Simple and focused messages aiding survival or success of the company.
• Perfection in timing to deliver accurate information that is necessary to
support the economic transaction as well as the employees.
• Open communication to the right person either internal or external
stakeholders without any barriers.
• The communication is clearly defined as to who gives it and to whom it is
given. The receiver can be an identified individual either inside or outside
the organization. Any message given should have clear intent and purpose
and it should avoid multiple meaning and subtext.
The communication by the organization should be flexible to achieve certain
results and this purpose of the organization may or may not adapt changes in
messages, media as well as in the audiences.
Components of corporate communication: The model below explains the
relationship between people management, reputations, brands and performance.

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Corporations’ in all sectors of the economy have a need to differentiate
themselves to achieve long-run success, which is often measured in financial
outcomes or in the public sector, by public good. One of the most important
ways in which they can achieve this aim is to create and maintain positive
reputations for being unique, which helps build a strong corporate brand, and by
conforming to stakeholder expectations for socially responsible behavior and
good governance. Corporate vision, leadership and good governance, corporate
strategy and the design of an appropriate corporate identity are the first-level,
strategic decisions that drive this process. These first-level strategic decisions
have to be executed through second-level effective HR and communication
strategies to create and maintain high quality employment relationships among
individuals, and to have them identify and engage with the overall corporate
direction and decisions flowing from them. In turn, these individuals help create a
unique organizational identity and, in conjunction with leaders, take actions
collectively that reinforce this identity to project a positive image to customers,
clients and other stakeholders. How this image is perceived by the relevant
outside (and also by employees) will determine how successful the whole process
has been, but there is a good evidence to believe that alignment between HR
strategies, identity, action and image is critical to string reputations and corporate
brands.
The components of Corporate Communication give an overall view about the
corporate communication and its linkage with various constituents in the
organization. It is covered in detail in the Corporate Communication curriculum.
Corporate Branding and Reputation Management are covered in Chapter two and
three in detail. Corporate Strategy and employer branding are covered in-depth in
chapter fourteen. The component financial outcomes are covered in detail in
chapter fifteen. HR strategies and nature of the HR are covered later in this
chapter (stakeholders)
Stakeholders and corporate communication:
Stakeholders are groups of people who have some interest in a business
organization and they participate in the activities of the organization.
Organization interacts with two kinds of stakeholders during the day to day
operations. According to Freeman and Reeds, they can be seen either as being
external to the organization, or internal. And some may be both!
Table 1.1: Difference between internal and external stakeholders
Internal Stakeholders External Stakeholders
They consistently disseminate
They share a symbiotic relationship
information about the corporate’s
with the corporate.
brand and its core messages.
They intrinsically linked with the They are central to the future growth
existence and growth of the corporate. of the corporate
They need to have a ‘pride of They posses a ‘Value of association’ in
association’ with their corporate their perception of and interaction with
organization the corporate
Internal communications are strategic External communications have the
initiatives for the ‘inner circle’ that singular objective of establishing and
increase the involvement and maintaining a proper reputation in
motivation of the corporate immediate support of the ‘corporate’ policy. This
audiences and they reach out to a could include information about its
corporate’s constituents to promote the commercial financial and community
company’s mission and culture. polices.

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 Exhibit: 1.1
External communication with other stakeholders

Along with customers, Vodafone has a number of other key stakeholder groups
that are important to its business success. Vodafone applies the same open and
transparent communication principle here.
Communication with such a wide variety of stakeholders is complex. Vodafone
has to adapt and direct communications which are appropriate for each
stakeholder group.
It has a programme to engage with all these groups on a range of issues. Good
communication is a two-way process. It enables Vodafone to listen to issues,
thoughts and concerns from all its stakeholders. These are reviewed and
reflected back inside the company. Vodafone can then make adjustments to its
strategy as required. In addition, it can update these groups on what it is doing
as a business.
Consultation
Consultation takes place all the time with key stakeholders. Vodafone's priority
is to develop and maintain dialogue with them. Talking to stakeholders is an
open process. Individuals or groups who might have a view or be affected by
Vodafone's actions are given a chance to have their points discussed.
Good communication is a two-way process.
The importance of feedback
The process also helps Vodafone obtain feedback. Feedback comes from
different sources. It frequently comes from focus groups where customers can
give their views and opinions. Feedback is also received through round-the-table
sessions with Non- Governmental organizations. These meetings enable
managers from Vodafone to seek the views of key stakeholders.
Open and transparent behaviour encourages mutual trust and respect for
different views and positions. It ensures that the channels of communication
remain open.

The process helps those making decisions to understand where the business is
doing well and where it needs to focus more attention. The company is then able
to consider all views and make appropriate changes or redirect its priorities.

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 It is not always possible for the company to act on the views of stakeholders.
Sometimes their requirements may not fit with Vodafone's wider business
strategy. When this happens, Vodafone will still behave in line with its business
principles and explain clearly why it is not always possible to act on a particular
view. This might be because the stakeholder’s view is too narrow or is not in
line with the Vodafone's strategy. This open and transparent behavior
encourages mutual trust and respect for different views and positions. It ensures
that the channels of communication remain open. Press releases are another way
of informing a wider audience. These provide details of Vodafone's business
activities through newspapers or magazines. Public relations (PR) help
Vodafone to create positive views about how it takes its responsibilities
seriously.
Source: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/case-study--using-business- principles-to-
support-ethical-communication--41-252-4.php.

Classification of Stakeholders

Employees:
Employees are individuals who work part time or full time under a legal contract
of employment, either oral or written, express or implied, and have recognized
rights. The legal contract of employment governs the relationship between the
employees and the organization. This contract gives certain responsibilities to the
employees. In turn, employees expect wages or salary or benefits for their
contribution. Both the employees as well as the organizations have some
responsibilities towards each other. The organization is responsible for meeting
the expectations of the employees, while it expects them to undertake activities in
line with organizational goals and values. Considering an example of i-flex
global, the main focus of company’s communication initiatives is employee
brand building or internal branding. Every i-flexian need to have a certain amount
of inculcation of brand value of the product because the association with the
customer happens all the time. So, it is important that each employee knows the
direction the company is headed. Moreover, in the IT sector, especially, internal
branding assumes greater significance because we are particularly into the
product business and there, need to have brand reinforcement. Also IT tools are
technology driven, making communication much easier.

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Responsibilities of employees towards their organization:
• Understand the work allotted to them and complete it in the stipulated time
frame. Take guidance from supervisor to master the skills required to
complete the targets
• Have a proper work schedule about their target which helps them in time
management and in reaching the deadlines.
• Be a part of the organization and need to carefully utilize the available
resources for the long run survival.
• Work in teams and actively participate towards in the group of the
organizational goals. Take initiative rather than avoiding newer tasks. This
helps them to learn new skills in reaching organization goals in a very
effective manner.
• Punctuality and regularity should be the mantra. This will help them to
achieve the targets in the given time frame.
• Keep their premises as well as their desk clean. This will help employees to
work comfortably.
Responsibilities of organizations towards their employees:
Some of the important responsibilities of organizations towards their employees
are:
• To provide adequate compensation
• To provide working conditions.
• To respect each employee’s and take care of his/her health.
• To be honest in communication with the employees and open in sharing
information.
• To listen to and, wherever possible, act on employee suggestions, ideas,
requests, and complaints.
• To engage in negotiations when conflict arises.
• To avoid discriminatory practices and guarantee equal treatment and
opportunity regardless of gender, age, race and religion.
• To protect employees from avoidable injury and illness at the workplace.
• To encourage and assist employees in developing skills and knowledge that
is required for accomplishing the task.

Human Resource Communication

Effective human resource communications are necessary for smooth functioning
of the organization. From recruitment through retirement, success not only
depends on just notifying the employees of the procedure, benefits and changes
but also need to engage, educate and motivate them throughout their career in the
organization. In order to manage organizational change, they need to enable
employees to tap into and leverage each other much more effectively – to
leverage each others’ knowledge and expertise, to follow each others’ best
practices, to re-use each others’ work, and to tap into a collective corporate
memory on important topics. They need to encourage ongoing conversation with
employees that encourage engagement, feedback and collaboration.
Human Resource Communications and Corporate Communications are more or
less one and same. Both, as well plan and develop written communication
strategies for the better understanding of the employees. Business
communications will transmits the messages that notify, influence and collaborate
by speaking the language of the company and HR communication creates a
unified culture, integrate acquisitions and helps in sharing the information
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company wide. Both will work at the highest levels of the organizations,
integrated with senior management and the board.
HR communications and linkage with the communication chain:
Most of the successful HR professionals are consummate communicators who
effectively communicate to all the constituents in the organization and their
leadership styles transmit the traditions and values of the company. Human
Resource Communication is the subset of corporate culture which in turn
determines the communication styles. Human Resource Professionals play a
major role at both the start point and finishing point of the communication chain.
The downward communication styles help employees to perform their jobs,
upward communication is related to senior management and board levels. New
hire orientation and policy and procedure manual are mostly intended to help the
employees to perform their jobs to the maximum levels and it represents
downward communication. On the other hand, employee opinion polls, employee
focus groups and exit interviews helps to provide information upward which is
intended to solve problems and helps in making sound decisions. Employee
newsletters help work team to coordinate between units or locations.
Role of Human Resource Communication Consultants in information
exchange in the company:
Every HR manager need to take initiative in order to improve communication
within the organization. The role of human resource communication consultants
includes managing and directing the planning, creation and executions of
communication strategies for the understanding of HR policies, procedures,
programs or initiatives which includes, conceptualizing, researching, writing,
edition and design/production of material. Even the print or electronics, projects
such as webpage and e-newsletters helps them to pass the information. HTML
experience and other graphic programs help the HR communication consultant to
a larger extent to up-date the day today information.
Skills required for a Human Resource Communication Consultant:
The following are the skills required for a Human Resource Communication
Consultant:
• Good writing and project management skills.
• Need to display a record of accomplishment of interpersonal and project
management competencies.
• Need to solve multiple assignments with strong problem solving abilities.
• Need to have high confidence in an environment of highly confidential
matters.
Role of Human Resource Professional in employee engagement:
In today’s cut-throat business environment, company needs to focus on the
customer service which helps the company to survive. In order to bring customer
focus, company needs to focus on their employees because it’s the employees
who are directly meeting the customer and doing business with them. Hence
satisfying the employee has become the primary responsibility of the company.
Considering an example of Waltham Mass Hotel, where a guest ripped a suit that
the local dry cleaner couldn't repair overnight, Juan Gallego, a member of the bell
staff, took the suit home with him and his mother repaired it and he delivered it in
time for the executive to wear to a meeting the next morning. This example tells
us the importance of employee motivation and commitments. To bring employee
engagement, the HR professionals plays an active role to make employee

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engaged and motivated. Satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers.
Employee satisfaction can be focused on three ways
• Employee empowerment,
• Training and career development and
• Employee input
Employee Empowerment:
It has become mandatory for the HR Managers to empower employees in order to
deliver quality service to the customer. All the employees need to take action
independently in order to satisfy their customer. Employees need to be given
power and responsibility to deliver customer service on the spot. This helps the
employees to increase his/her confidence and will lead to loyalty in the
organization.
Training and career development
The next foremost way to increase employee initiative is through training and
career development. Employees need to be trained to learn how to satisfy
customers, how to empower them and remove the “not my job” syndrome and
helps in enhancing their creativity and initiative. Companies can initiate more
specialized training like training in English as it helps the employee to
communicate in a better way with the customers. Companies can also provide
subsidized college course tuition for employees interested in managerial position.
Companies also need to focus on career path-planning program to develop high-
potential managers for both line staff as well as managerial positions within the
organization. Employee empowerment helps the employees to set their own
career goals and objectives.
Employee input.
Every company needs to think, employees as the valuable asset. Employees will
provide valuable suggestion for improvement. Hence organization through survey
needs to ask the employee regarding any suggestion to improve upon the quality
as well as service to enhance the ability to meet the needs of the guest.
So the above initiatives help the companies to improve employee satisfaction and
increase productivity. When the employees stay longer in the organization, it
means higher productivity and lower hiring costs. Hence companies need to
measure the level of employee satisfaction through an annual anonymous survey
Shareholders:
A mutual shareholder or stakeholder is an individual or a company (including a
corporation) that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock
company. A company's shareholders collectively own that company. Thus, the
typical goal of such companies is to enhance shareholder value. To achieve this,
organizations lay more emphasis on the meaning of ownership. Ownership
implies shareholders rights and responsibilities with respect to a specific property.
Generally, shareholders are considered ‘members’ of the company who help in
achieving company’s goal and they are entitled to certain share in the profits of
the company. This share of profit is given to the shareholders in return for their
investments in the form of shares.
Shareholders have certain rights. These rights include:
The right to vote on matters such as elections to the Board of Directors
• The right to propose shareholder resolutions.
• The right to share in distributions of the company's income.
• The right to purchase new shares issued by the company.
• The right to a company's assets during a liquidation process of the company.
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 Exhibit: 1.2
Cognizant efforts for ensuring stakeholders rights
Audit Committee: Cognizant maintains an Audit Committee whose purpose,
among other things, is to assist the Board in fulfilling its oversight
responsibilities by reviewing the financial information which will be provided
to the shareholders and others; reviewing the systems of internal controls
which management and the Board have established, appointing, retaining and
overseeing the work and performance of the independent registered public
accounting firm; and overseeing Cognizant’s accounting and financial
reporting processes and the audits of our annual and quarterly financial
statements and related disclosures. Furthermore, each of the members of our
Audit Committee is an “independent” director, and one of the members is an
“audit committee financial expert.”
Black-out / Insider Trading Policy: Cognizant has a very stringent Insider
Trading policy which was designed to prevent the occurrence or even the
appearance of improper trading in Cognizant stock by Associates and
Directors. This policy provides assurance to our shareholders, analysts and
others that the market for Cognizant stock is a fair one and not improperly
influenced by those that may be in possession of non-public information.
Whistle-blower Hotline: Cognizant maintains a whistle-blower hotline
through which Associates, Customers, Vendors and others can anonymously
communicate concerns about ethical behavior directly to Executive
Management and the Board of Directors. The hotline has been in place since
2004 and reflects management’s commitment to the highest standards of
ethical behavior.
Code of Ethics: Earlier this year, we updated our Code of Ethics to reaffirm
Cognizant’s Core Values and emphasize the standards of conduct that we
expect from Associates. The Code is important because it instills trust and
confidence in the minds of our clients, shareholders, partners and Associates
and supports our empowered, “client-first” culture. The Code is an invaluable
resource in assisting Associates and Managers with decision-making to ensure
that Cognizant’s business is conducted with integrity and honesty.
Professional Guidance: Cognizant retains both outside legal counsel and
independent accountants to ensure that good governance practices and
regulations are followed. Examples of such practices include Board approval
of acquisitions of related- party transactions, complete and accurate disclosures
in public filings such as our annual report and the performance of annual audits
of our financial statements.
Dedicated Internal Compliance Resources: Cognizant employees a General
Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Security Officer. These
individuals and their staff serve to ensure that management and Associates are
in compliance with all the internal polices and external laws and regulations.
Source: http://www.cognizant.com

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Management: Management in all business and human organization activity is
simply the act of getting people together to accomplish of desired goals.
Management comprises of planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing,
and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or
striving for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. The primary function of the
management is to satisfy the range of shareholders. The functions include,
making profit for their shareholders, creating a quality product for the customers
at the reasonable cost and providing good employment opportunities and
rewarding them adequately for the employees. Generally, in most of the models
of management or governance, shareholders will select the Board of Directors
and the board then hires senior management.
Customers: A customer is the entity that receives or consumes products (goods
or services) and has the ability to choose between different products and
suppliers. The customers are the core of any corporate existence. Customer
loyalty leads to success of the organization. For Corporate communication,
Integrated Marketing Communication is the key tool for building the brand
loyalty of the customer.
"Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service
wins the game." Tony Alessandra
Responsibilities of an organization towards its customers:
• The goods must match to the description given in the product
• The goods must be of satisfactory quality
• The goods must fit to the purposes specified
• Providing adequate services to the consumers
• Treating customers fairly in all aspects of business transactions
• Ensuring the health and safety of the customers
For a successful functioning, organization must need to satisfy the wants and
needs of the customers. Customer satisfaction has a positive effect on the
organizational performance. Customer satisfaction is essential for the success of a
corporate. Customers increase the sales of a product by spreading positive ‘word-
of mouth’ about the company, product or a brand. Owing to the active role
played by consumers, they are looked at from different angels. From one angle,
consumers are understood as demanding and liked to be avoided. On the other
hand, consumer is considered as a kind and consumer’s delight has become a
credo for many organizations. For example in Virgin Atlantics Airways, the
journey from customer delight to ‘customer-nirvana’ is a memorable one. They
have given much comfort to their customers like access to private bedrooms,
showers, exercise rooms and bars and other little perks like manicures and
massages. The stakeholder ‘customers’ are covered in detail in chapter seven
which discusses about various customer communication.

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 Exhibit: 1.3
Tata Motors Customer Care
Dear Customer
As a valued Tata Motors' Customer, you are entitled to get the following
support from this workshop:
Quality servicing / repairs of your car!
• Free repair of the complaint that reappears within 3000 kms or 1 month
(whichever is earlier) after being attended at this set-up.
Quality washing of your car!
• If you are not satisfied with the washing quality of your car, we will clean
it again to your satisfaction!
On-time delivery!
• If you do not get your car back on the promised day*; we will waive off
10% on the labour bill of your car!
*In case of increase in job content / parts not available. Service Advisor
will intimate you the revised delivery date & time in advance
Follow-up call after service!
• This workshop will contact you on the 4th day after the delivery of the
vehicle, to ensure your satisfaction with the service. Hence, we request you
to provide us your latest phone number.
Source:http://www.customercare.tatamotors.com/customercontact/custRight.asp

Investors
An investor is any party that makes an investment. The term has taken on a
specific meaning in finance to describe the particular types of people and
companies that regularly purchase equity or debt securities for financial gain in
exchange for funding an expanding company. Any company either a public
corporation with institutional and marketing investors or an investment monetary
fund with individual shareholders need to talk with the companies regarding their
conditions. Hence maintaining a good relationship with the shareholders is
necessary for economic steadiness and corporate progress. Companies need to
plan for investor relations program which concentrates on the tools and
procedures available to maintain a vital relationship with shareholders. The
program analyzes the diverse financial metrics which can be utilized as a
barometer of success and offers a helpful glossary of key terms and method. In
addition, it instructs the company on how to conduct a careful review of your
investors’ communication preferences before establishing or enhancing the IR
program. Due to many accounting fake cases in recent times, investors have
repeatedly demanded companies to offer more transparent and seasonal
information. Due to this, larger public corporations have set up investor relation
departments to act as a communication boundary between themselves and
investors. Through a right communication, a broker needs to avoid those
circumstances which place them in a situation where their task to their customer
is at chances with their individual interests. This takes account of being in a
situation of disagreement among different customers. This leads the broker to be
responsible of advising customer and act on their behalf in the purchase and sale
of shares. Even the brokers must be responsible to tell a customer of any
information that might propose the deal and which is not in their safety. Activities
in the investor relations value chain, link up principally to four chief value areas:
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ƒ Investor relations policy
ƒ Investor relations device
ƒ The content of communications
ƒ Practical schemes and tools
Investor Relations Policy
One of the main functions of the investor relations department is to support and
protect the relationships among the company and its investors. Hence, fulfilling
the needs of investors must be the highest guiding principle behind every work
and action. An investor relations plan should contain a representative system. In
addition, it must have a negative information management model, an investor
view or feedback handling device, linkages and communication with the board of
directors, and techniques for revealing economic and non-financial information.
Companies need to investigate the composition of ones investors and need to
classify them accordingly. This leads to better understanding of investors’
requirements and improvements can be made in investor relationships. After
examining and understanding the composition and categorization of investors, the
company can decide suitable modes of communication to fulfill the desires of
different kinds of investors.
Investor Relations Devices
Practical Measures
Once the companies have decided to conduct investor relations related activities,
then they can go on establishing virtual procedures. With a lot of fine-tuning,
these procedures can be codified as the firm’s normal operating procedures.
When certain activities are going on, companies can start looking up to the
operating procedures of the company and certain completion of activity, any
apparent deficiencies in the operating procedures can be corrected.
Roles and Duties of Investor Relations Department Colleagues
When companies are starting up investor relations department, they should also
plan for the roles and responsibilities of the members of the department. The
companies also need to nominate individuals for each investor relations activity
who are held responsible for the success or failure of each movement and
appropriate performance measurement tools should be established to measure
their performance.
The Content of Communications
The traditional economic statement model only stresses disclosure of economical
figures and it cannot give a full picture of company’s value. This is particularly
in the present knowledge economy period, where a company’s intangible assets
are likely to be of better value than its tangible assets and for this reason, as well
as financial numbers companies need to report their non-financial functioning to
investors.
Practical Schemes and Tools
Company Website
For many organizations, company website has become an effective medium for
external communication. Many large enterprises plan special investor relation
sections in their sites for a constantly improved communication with their
investors.
Web Casting With Video/Audio

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Many investors are unable to attend stakeholders conference and investor
meetings. Corporations can use direct Internet broadcasting to permit all investors
to get information from shareholders meetings and investor group discussions.
Synergistic Interface
As some reports like annual reports, can be extremely big, many companies have
transformed the records of such documents by providing them synergistic
interfaces. This saves the investors’ download timing and quickens up searches
for the required information.
Internet and Email
Companies can save time and money by acquiring advantage of the Internets
current reach. Sending the information via email not only saves much time and
money spent on paperwork, but also saves a fair number of trees as well.

Investor communication is covered in chapter fifteen of the corporate

communication curriculum in detail.

Exhibit: 1.4
Aptech Investor Communication Policy
Aptech Limited is committed to a fair disclosure of information to their
investors, the financial community and the public. The Policy has been
established to ensure proper disclosure of material nonpublic information and to
aid our investors, our employees, the financial community, the media and the
general public in appraising the Company and its business outlook.
Full disclosure of Material, Nonpublic Information
It is our policy to disclose material, nonpublic information only in a manner that
ensures full and complete disclosure through:
1) Issuing a press release
2) Communication to the Stock exchanges on which the equity shares of the
Company are listed.
3) Posting the information on the Company’s website, www.aptech-
worldwide.com
4) Posting to each shareholders house, a detailed Annual Report detailing the
performance of the Company, financial or otherwise, as also its
subsidiaries.
5) Apprising the shareholders of business strategies and detailed business
outlook at the shareholders meeting at least once in a year, i.e. the Annual
General Meeting.
6) Using any combination of above or any other methods so designed as to
provide full public information.
Authorised Company Spokespersons
Only the Chairman, Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer, Company
Secretary, Head – Investor Relations and Senior Vice President / Vice President
– Corporate Communications are authorised to communicate with investors,
financial analysts or securities market professionals on behalf of Aptech
Limited. In certain circumstances, the authorised spokespersons listed above
may authorise, in advance, other officers, employees or representatives to
communicate with the investors, financial analysts or securities market
professionals on behalf of Aptech Limited.
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Corporate Communications
In general, media interviews are exempt from this policy and the same will be
coordinated through the Corporate Communications department.
Source: www.aptech-worldwide.com

Governments and regulatory bodies

In today’s business world, every corporate is responsible to the law of the land.
In many businesses, the Government and its allied agencies form the most
powerful regulators and of appointing several industry bodies to oversee the
conduct of business in the various sectors. While interaction with a single
government itself can prove to be a multifaceted task, the issue magnifies in case
of the multinationals based in different countries. Either which way, a corporate
must plan on a strategy to establish a two-way communication process with every
category of government organization that it will come in contact with, in the
course of its day-to-day business, Today, corporate communicators take on the
delicate challenge of addressing the Government and its regulatory bodies in a
targeted and specific way.
Suppliers
Every organization needs to maintain a good relationship with their suppliers
because the raw material they supply will determine the final product’s quality
and price. Now-a-days organizations are experiencing severe competition, due to
which controlling the cost is much profitable than increasing the sales. Hence to
control the cost, organization need to maintain a healthy relationship with their
suppliers.
When dealing with the suppliers, organizations must
• Seek fairness and truthfulness in all activities, including pricing and
licensing.
• Ensure that business activities are free from coercion and unnecessary
litigations.
• Foster long-term stability in the supplier relationship in return for value,
quality, competitiveness and reliability.
• Share information with suppliers and integrate them in the planning
processes.
• Pay the suppliers on time and in accordance with the agreed terms of trade;
and
• Seek, encourage and prefer suppliers and subcontractors whose employment
practices respect human dignity.
Creditors
A creditor is a party (e.g. person, organization, company, or government) that has
a claim to the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom
money is owed. Creditors play an important role for the success of the
organization. Many organizations buy goods on credit basis from the suppliers. If
the organization is unable to pay the due amount, suppliers may cease the orders.
Organizations often delay in repaying the credit to the creditors. The late
payment of creditors has become a common problem all over the world. It is the
responsibility of the organization to make timely payments for goods that have
already been delivered.

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Competitors
Business entities are equally obliged to other business firms as they are towards
stakeholders. In the era of global competition, firms compete with each other to
grab a major share in all possible fronts. In this connection, the competitive
practices adopted by firms can sometimes be questionable. Fair economic
competition is one of the basic requirements for increasing the wealth of nations.
Therefore, the responsibilities of the organization towards the competitors are:
• Foster open markets for trade and investment.
• Promote competitive behavior that is socially and environmentally beneficial
and demonstrates mutual respect among competitors.
• Refrain from either seeking or participating in questionable payments or
favors to secure competitive advantage.
• Respect both tangible and intellectually property rights.
• Refuse to acquire commercial information by dishonest or unethical means
such as industrial espionage
Community
Companies need to have a good relationship with the community because they
give the business the right to build or rent facilities, benefit from the revenues
raised in the form of local services, infrastructure etc. The responsibilities of an
organization towards their community are
• Respecting human rights and democratic institutions
• Supporting public policies and practices that promote human development
through harmonious relationships between business and other segments of
society,
• Collaborating with such activities that aim at improving these standards of
health, education, workplace safety and economic well-being
• Promoting and stimulating sustainable development and playing a leading
role in preserving and enhancing the physical environment and conserving
the earth’s resources
• Supporting peace, security, diversity and social integration, respecting the
integrity of local cultures
• Encouraging charitable donations educational and cultural contribution and
employee participation in community and civic affairs
Roles of Corporate Communication
Corporate communication plays three time-specific roles. They are
• Create the identity
• Build the Brand
• Manage its Reputation
Create the identity
Brand creation begins with a corporate identity programme which includes
creation of logo, corporate stationery, style guides, internal communication
manual and templates for presentation, annual general meetings and
environmental branding. Environmental branding is, branding the corporate
environment through some innovative ways.

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Build the Brand
The brand building process begins through corporate identity programme. The
corporate communicator now starts to focus on building the corporate brand and
through the effort of marketing department; they manage the growth of the
product and service brands.
Manage its Reputation
Once the brand is built, the corporate vision and the goals are to reach the target
audiences. Now the company needs to manage the reputation for sustaining the
brand in the long run.

Conclusion:
Corporate communication is the art of communicating to the internal and external
stakeholders of the business. This involves good internal communication to the
employees and the HR policies of the company should permit the transparent and
free communication. The internal communication should correlate and
synchronize with the communication made to external stakeholders especially
customers and investors. A proper study of corporate communication will need
to understanding the interrelationships between various stakeholders and the
communication challenges of managing the expectations and relationships with
the internal and external stakeholders.

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