In contemporary society, corporate communications are becoming an increasingly important and significant component of management. This field includes not only building an external and internal image of a company but also interacting with stakeholders and achieving business aims. This research aims to define the potential and features of company’s top officials (owners, CEOs, presidents, and other top managers) involvement in corporate communications and representing a business. It is based on the content analysis of corporate websites of the first 100 international companies from the Forbes list. The study demonstrated that most (62%) world successful firms involve their owners, CEOs, and top managers in corporate communications as speakers. At the same time, business owners appear on corporate websites less often (only 2%). CEOs engage in such communications in 47% of cases. Most often, other authorized representatives are speakers of companies (51%). A descriptive analysis of topics helped to distinguish the most common types of texts: formal ideological speeches, corporate news, corporate blog texts, and personalized corporate storytelling. Most texts are posted on corporate websites in the News chapter (28%). This suggests that news as a genre may be the most appropriate form of communication on behalf of management. Thus, some recommendations are proposed regarding the participation of top officials as speakers. From a practical point of view, companies can be guided by the outcomes of this research when deciding to engage their leaders in corporate communications.
The role of company’s top officials in corporate communications