The other day, an acquaintance compared corporate communications to the unruly cousin who gets invited to the party just because he’s family.

“Corporate communications – what’s that about?” he asked, dismissively. I tasked myself with explaining it to him for the next few minutes and the importance of the function for any company of any size, but he just shrugged it off before adding that his department increased sales by 17% compared to the previous quarter.

“Beat that,” he stated as he walked off. I must admit that I was annoyed and would have removed him from my Christmas card list if I had one.

This encounter made me think – it is, indeed, very hard for corporate comms to show why it is such a critical component of any corporate structure. CEB (now Gartner) describe this as Measurement Envy, and the picture shows exactly what this is.

Measurement in corporate communications is extremely important, and it’s also very hard to do, as highlighted in this great must-read article by Wendy Marx on Fast Company.

Ms Marx also highlights the dangers of underestimate corporate comms, highlighting that “we’re already familiar with the damage an out-of-place tweet by a CEO can do in the age of social media”.

Big companies excluded, many corporate communication teams are really one-(wo)man bands, or have it added on to somebody’s title as an after-thought. Looking through vacancies nowadays, it seems that (corporate) communications is always preceded by an ampersand.

That’s a pity because it’s such an important function – and here’s why.

Corporate comms is both an internal and external function. Internally, corporate comms builds a story for staff, and helps breaks down the ivory towers that higher management sometimes (inadvertently) build.

We reach out to colleagues and give them the opportunity to speak to their top management and, maybe even more importantly, to each other by providing them with the right tools. Intranet is the best example, but there are also internal social media platforms, bulletin boards, widgets and apps, and the often-overrated face-to-face discussions.

In my current role, we introduced Yammer and it has been hugely successful with virtually the entire company joining and more than half actively contributing (this is something we can measure, and it’s growing).

Communicating the company mission, vision, and strategy gives staff direction and support. It also helps quell any company’s nightmare – rumors. Often, they are untrue or grossly exaggerate a truth, and this often results in the uninformed taking ill-advised decisions.

Externally, corporate communications has many functions, be it building reputation, issuing press releases, upholding corporate identity, thought leadership, supporting the c-suite in public appearances, public relations aimed at supporting company products, publicizing the company’s mission, vision, strategy, and values, and providing communication expertise in a crisis situation, which includes telling executives when they should speak and what they should say, and when it’s better to not say anything.

And the list for both internal and external comms is far from exhaustive.

The result is that corporate communications contributes to everything a company does, maybe in a more indirect manner. The function gives the company that added value, that edge over competitors.

I’m still not sure how I can convince my acquaintance of its value, though. I guess he’ll find out the day his company decides that they don’t really need corporate comms, although by then it may be too late.