For decades, the Corporate Affairs and Communications models worked incredibly well. We managed relationships and reputation in support of licence to operate through increasingly sophisticated specialist functions.

But that model was built for a world that no longer exists.

End of the old operating environment

For more than 30 years, the West benefited from the so-called peace dividend. Globalisation accelerated. Markets liberalised. Supply chains were optimised for efficiency over resilience. Boardroom debate was no longer dominated by geopolitics.

Today, as great power competition intensifies, economic and national security are increasingly intertwined. Governments are again intervening directly in markets. Control of critical technologies, energy systems, infrastructure, supply chains and the strategic resources that underpin them are determinants of national and global power. Almost universally, governments are recapitalising defence and rebuilding sovereign industrial capacity, like shipbuilding.

At the same time, artificial intelligence is recasting how information is created, discovered and consumed. Social media has permanently altered the relationship between organisations and stakeholders. Trust in institutions is at best fragile, while expectations of business have never been higher.

If traditional boundaries between business, government, society and technology have dissolved, why are we still organising our profession as though nothing has changed?

Every leader is a Corporate Affairs leader

Indeed, the assumption that a single specialist function can secure reputation, manage key relationships and sustain licence to operate on behalf of an organisation is obsolete. These are enterprise-wide responsibilities.

Today, trust, credibility and influence are increasingly generated – or destroyed – by the collective. Every leader builds trust. Every decision shapes reputation. Every action impacts licence to operate.

The term VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) was coined by the U.S. military in the late 1980s. The world it described looks comparatively manageable compared with 2026.

Politics, economics, technology and society constantly collide and amplify each other. A supply chain breakdown becomes geopolitical. A technology advance creates a public policy crisis. A local stakeholder issue impacts international reputational.

And the velocity of change is breathtaking.

This is our profession's pacing threat. If we continue to operate for a bygone age, we will become peripheral to the decisions that drive organisational success.

If we pivot (quickly, decisively), we become central to them.

The capabilities we have spent decades developing – stakeholder insight, trust building, narrative ownership, data-driven intelligence, institutional navigation and strategic alignment – have never been of higher value.

But they can no longer reside within a single engagement function. Increasingly, our role will be to ensure stakeholder considerations shape every aspect of how the organisation functions.

Many elite relationships are already owned outside Corporate Affairs. Ministers want CEOs. Investors want CFOs. Regulators trust technical experts.

We need to lean into this and help the whole organisation engage more effectively. We are catalysts, advisors and architects of strategic alignment, injecting stakeholder awareness and engagement directly into the organisation’s DNA.

We transition from managing stakeholders on behalf of the enterprise to embedding stakeholder awareness throughout it. From managing reputation to shaping the conditions for strategic success. From communicating decisions to ensuring they succeed in an increasingly chaotic world.

The rise of Business Statecraft

This evolution is what I call “Business Statecraft”.

Statecraft is the art of advancing national interests through influence, relationships, intelligence and alignment.

As traditional boundaries between business, government and society blur, organisations must become equally adept at advancing their interests in highly complex environments.

Business Statecraft applies the best of diplomacy and statecraft to the modern enterprise.

I have spent my entire career working at the intersection of business, government and public opinion.

This has taken me from international media to global life sciences, agriculture and now Arctic shipbuilding. I have worked in some of the world’s largest publicly traded corporations, including Novartis, as well as high-growth entrepreneur-led businesses such as my current employer, Inocea.

The contexts were often radically different. Key lessons were remarkably consistent.

The organisations that consistently outperformed were those that creatively aligned business objectives, stakeholder interests, public priorities, innovation and operational excellence.

In an increasingly complex world, this is not a nice-to-have. It is a distinct competitive advantage.

Beyond reputation

For decades, reputation has been a foundation principle of our profession. Strong reputations create value.

But reputation was never the destination.

No organisation wins solely because it has a favourable reputation score. No company secures transformation because of positive social media sentiment.

We create value when trust is converted into outcomes. When governments, regulators, communities, investors, employees and partners are aligned behind achievable objectives.

This is the gap Business Statecraft aims to close.

At its core, Business Statecraft combines stakeholder engagement, narrative, relationships and institutional understanding with operational discipline and execution.

Its purpose is not simply to build trust. Its purpose is to build best outcomes.

The future Corporate Affairs leader is not simply a communicator or reputation manager. They lead enterprise-wide influence.

Their role is to ensure stakeholder awareness, trust building and strategic engagement are embedded in how the organisation thinks, acts and wins.

The objective is not to make our profession responsible for every stakeholder interaction. It is to make stakeholder considerations part of every important action and decision.

This is a fundamentally different mandate.

I believe we are already in the era of Business Statecraft. The key question is whether our profession will lead it or have change forced upon us.