This book tackles the top question I hear from communicators all over the world. What is the one x-factor that gives communications leaders the guts to speak up and shape critical C-suite affairs? If you're in business, there are few things more important than understanding how businesses really work. Stepping up your business acumen is always time well invested. -- Stacey M. Tank, Chief Transformation & Corporate Affairs Officer, Heineken N.V.
Business Acumen for Strategic Communication is an important read for anyone building a career in public relations. The book provides a compelling view into how business I.Q. makes communicators better at their craft, and how it lays the groundwork necessary to bring an informed, powerful voice to corporate decision-making. It is thought-provoking while also providing important, practical advice. -- Andy Polansky, Chairman & CEO, IPG DXTRA & Executive Chairman, Weber Shandwick
Understanding and explaining how business works is one of the most important tools that a strategic communicator can have. This book gives those looking to enter strategic communications, and those already in the field, great tools and skills to advance their careers. If you want to take a leading role in your organization, this is the book for you. -- Chris Roush, Quinnipiac University
Matt Ragas and Ron Culp have provided communicators with a trifecta of business knowledge. Their first book provided the what, their second book explained the why, and now
Business Acumen for Strategic Communicators: A Primer gives us the how of developing business acumen in our field. Once again, Ragas and Culp have made the language of business accessible to educators, students, and professionals alike. -- Sandra Duhe, MBA, Ph.D., Southern Methodist University, USA
For a number of years, I have told anyone who would listen that the principal shortcoming among professional communicators - and the chief threat to their careers - is not a lack of skill or experience in communication. The vast majority of PR and Corp Comm pros can write and speak well enough. The problem is their lack of understanding about the basics of business. Matt Ragas and Ron Culp, noted authors in this space for some time, have answered the call. This is the book you've been looking for because it's written with professional, strategic communicators in mind. Leave your highlighter in the drawer - it's all valuable. If you want a career in Public Relations or Corporate Communication,
this is the book. -- James Scofield O'Rourke, IV, Ph.D., Professor of Management, University of Notre Dame
This book arrives at a pivotal junction for the strategic communication industry, when business literacy and performance will clearly separate effective from ineffective practices in a time of constant disruption and change. The publication includes expert insights from diverse voices and highlights the need to balance societal values with financial necessities. -- Juan-Carlos Molleda, Ph.D., Edwin L. Artzt Dean and Professor, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication
This book is a must-read for every communication professional aspiring to middle- and upper-management communication positions. The authors leverage their several decades of corporate communication experience and lessons learned into to bring us this book that provides a clear-cut presentation of the business enterprise and knowledge communication professionals need to work effectively to help their organizations actualize their missions and visions and achieve their short- and long-term goals. -- Damion Waymer, Professor and Chair, Department of Advertising & Public Relations, The University of Alabama
Business Acumen for Strategic Communicators: A Primer proves business acumen is a critical capability for communication practitioners and essential to accelerate business priorities, drive innovation, and produce results. This book is a great reference for today's communicator to broaden their knowledge on the impact of sharpening their business acumen to gain greater credibility with executive leadership, increase their productivity and enhance their careers. -- Yanique Woodall, Adjunct Faculty, George Washington University and Hofstra University
It is important that the Chief Communication Officer has a 'seat at the table' when business decisions are being made. One of the main handicaps for CCO's has been the relative lack of business and operational experience to give them equal credibility with their C-suite peers. Authors Ron Culp and Matt Regas are addressing this issue by providing business basics for communication professionals. It is a must read for those in the communications profession who know that being a member of their organization's management team requires a wholistic understanding of business operations. -- Jerry Giaquinta, J.D., Ph.D., University of Southern California, Academic Director, World Bachelor in Business Program, Professor, Clinical Dept. of Business Communication, Marshall School of Business
I highly recommend Business Acumen for Strategic Communications be required reading for all public relations and strategic communication principles, campaigns, and management courses. It is a welcome addition to understand the business side of public relations practice - well-organized, very readable, and focused on the important concepts such as business leadership, finance, and budgeting; with key terms, and insightful discussion questions. -- Elizabeth L. Toth, Ph.D., Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
This new edition of
Business Acumen ought to be required reading by every student seeking a career in PR or strategic communications, regardless of whether the student plans on going into entertainment PR, healthcare or consumer products. The book provides a highly relevant, practical and readable primer explaining not only
what today's comms student needs to know about business but
why the student needs to know it. One of the most valuable features of this book are the personal essays written by some of today's top industry leaders. As varied as their career journeys are, a single thread runs through them all: that they would not have risen to the positions they have today had it not been for their commitment to achieving a high level of business acumen. -- Shelley J. Spector, Founder/Director, Museum of Public Relations
Excellent read, and a valuable resource for anyone in communications, from students to proven executives! It is no longer sufficient to simply support business goals from a communications standpoint, and the content of
Business Acumen for Strategic Communicators outlines the quintessential skills that communications leaders require to succeed in a modern organization. Supported by perspectives from top-tier executives who have lived through the rapid evolution of strategic communications,
Business Acumen goes deeper than finance and corporate skills, and includes valuable content around board and c-suite management, stakeholder engagement, and integrating DE&I and purpose into transformative strategies. -- Peter W. McDermott, Senior Client Partner, Corporate Affairs and IR, Korn Ferry
Ragas and Culp's new tome could not be timelier. It offers students and professionals alike the keys to understand communication's connection to today's business demands in an accessible and engaging synthesis of information essentials, industry data, and business cases and testimonials. It's a must for any course in PR or strategic communication management. -- Maria E. Len-Rios, Ph.D., Associate Dean and Professor, Advertising & Public Relations Department, The University of Georgia
With its mix of background information and practical advice, Ragas and Culp's Business Acumen is a worthy read for both future communications professionals still enrolled in undergraduate programs and those who have already begun their strategic communications careers. It is accessible enough to be included as required reading within an undergraduate course or to be read independently for professional development.
The book's greatest strength is perhaps its championing of strategic communications as an integral part of business operations-and the practical roadmap it offers the strategic communications professional to claim a rightful seat at the board table.
-- Heidi E. Huntington, Independent Scholar
Ragas and Culp have done well presenting business knowledge that PR students need for launching successful careers. In doing so, Business Acumen for Strategic Communicators, A Primer also could work in a variety of JMC courses. Across journalism, public relations, advertising, marketing, social media, broadcasting, and digital media content decisions must be weighed against business goals.
-- Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA
Ragas and Culp have written the material in this text so that it is easily understood by those with little or no understanding of investor relations and/or business practices. While the writing is accessible to all, practitioners will find the breadth of the material helpful to build on their current knowledge.
After reviewing the information in this book, public relations students should have an easier time passing a business and finance knowledge quiz (Vahouny, 2021), have an easier time successfully transitioning into the field, and find success in their professional practice.
-- Charles A. Lubbers, University of South Dakota
