The world economy and communications

The world we live in today is far more unpredictable than the ones which we grew up in. However, if you look closer, every generation is presented with a challenge and VUCA, an acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity came into prominence in the 70s during the cold war era. It has since become popular in the western world and business and organisations to help strategise on sectors, business environments as well as forecast plans.

If you look at economies around the world, there is a pall of gloom, and yet markets are doing well. America still leads from the front with inflation in check, jobs are created easily, and corporates are doing exceedingly well. China, despite a slowdown and trade tussle with the US, is also still doing well. Closer home, in India, things are a bit wobbly.

There is growth but in pockets, there are businesses which are doing well but there are others which are somehow not so surefooted. Investments are far between and hunger for jobs is greater than the ones that are created.

What is the role of the communicator in all the grand scheme of things?

Observe: It is important to watch for trends and introspect on how the markets are moving in actual. In my earlier role, while preparing charts for quarterly results, we gathered intelligence on certain market trends which are being missed out. The economy was not moving at a brisk pace, and yet there were certain exceptions.

Capitalise: The data we capture plays a pivotal role in crafting communication. Don’t ignore the 5% emerging business volume generated by a certain business- there is a story there.

Amplify: Crafting creative communication around stakeholder groups also helps. While going external might not be the first step, it would be prudent to work on the messaging and refine along with internal stakeholders. Some of the key insights you gain are extremely useful. Once the trend has been confirmed as a norm, makes sense to showcase green shoots in business to the world.

So, what is the point am making here? While we as communicators cannot change in an increasingly dynamic world, we do have an opportunity to make sane observations and untangle some of the information we receive, given the world has too much data floating around, our job is to simplify, demystify and amplify them- in our corporate roles and perhaps even in our lives.

Sanaj Natarajan

Sanaj Natarajan is a Corporate Communications Leader with experience in Capital Goods and Technology industry. In a career spanning over 14 years as a communicator, he has worked on campaigns around External Communications, Investor relations and Greenfield and Brownfield sites.
Sanaj loves to read on current affairs, technology magazines and travel to different places and absorb cultures and relish various cuisines. In his free time, he dabbles in video production, film making and running marathons.