Leading Through Disorder: How Senior Communicators Are Navigating 2025's Perfect Storm

As senior communicators face unprecedented challenges—from economic uncertainty to societal polarization—how are they adapting? In this episode of The New CCO: Brief, Mara Hedgecoth (APCO) and Bill Walsh (AARP) discuss the evolving role of CCOs, their growing influence in risk management, and how they are shaping strategy in an increasingly complex world.

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Transcript

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[00:00:01] Eliot Mizrachi: Welcome to the new CCO Brief. I'm Eliot Mizrachi. A recent study by Page and the Harris Poll of over 11, 000 respondents across more than 10 global markets revealed what's keeping communication leaders up at night. economic instability, societal polarization, and eroding trust in institutions top the list of concerns.

Meanwhile, CCOs identified the growing backlash against corporate ESG and DEI initiatives As their number one business risk for 2025 today on this edition of the new CCO brief, we're joined by Mara Hedgecoth, the chief communications and marketing officer at APCO and Bill Walsh, senior vice president of integrated communications at the AARP to explore how senior communicators are adapting to these unprecedented challenges.

I'm Eliot Mizrachi, and this is the new CCO Brief

[00:00:51] Eliot Mizrachi: Mara, I want to start with you.

we're seeing this convergence of global challenges, from technological disruption to resource pressures. What I want to understand is, how is this changing what CEOs expect from communication leaders?

[00:01:04] Mara Hedgecoth: Well, first of all, Eliot, thanks for having me You know, I believe the landscape is shifting rapidly companies need to be even more nimble and adaptable.

CEOs are looking to their communication leaders to be strategic advisors. Who can navigate complex, multi stakeholder environments, and champion transformation and change within their organizations.

communication leaders are becoming integral partners. to the CEO and other members of the C suite They expect CCOs to provide insights on societal and business trends, manage reputational risks, drive authentic engagement and help them

[00:01:41] Mara Hedgecoth: shape and execute the overall business strategy.

[00:01:45] Eliot Mizrachi: So it sounds like a job that's expanding and under increasing pressures, and many times I hear CCOs as they're describing this, this new role, they're increasingly involved as risk managers, and not just reputational risk, but real business risk and stakeholder risk as well.

[00:02:02] Mara Hedgecoth: well, I think the risk environment's really interesting because there's so much shifting and changing and CCOs really need to be adaptable. To that change and to really be helping their companies see ahead, but also act in the moment.

[00:02:17] Bill Walsh: So Bill, let's turn to you. You are a CCO for the AARP. I wonder, how do you react to what Mara is describing? does that resonate with the challenges in the world that you're facing?Yeah, it's spot on. you know, the, the many and diverse risks that we're seeing in the world today, intersect communications and communication strategy at At so many different points because communications is really threaded through all the global challenges that you mentioned,And really the stakes have never been higher. whether it's cyber threats or tariffs or political shifts at home, how you're going to position your company or your CEO is really critical. What will you say, you know, how will you say it, who will do the speaking? Or should you say anything at all? You know, these are the daily calculations that we're making as communications leaders across industries. And we've seen lots of missteps by companies trying to play in spaces where arguably they don't belong and they've been assailed by the public or the media.

And Having a clear view on how you want to position your company in the face of any of these given situations is really at the heart of strategic communications.

[00:03:35] Eliot Mizrachi: But for us, AARP represents people over the age of 50 in the United States, and there are more than 110 million of them. They're a highly diverse group, and so don't think about them as a monolith, and we certainly don't. We think of them representing the diversity of the entire country. And we have to keep that in mind at all times because we're actively advocating on Capitol Hill and in the state legislatures, and our membership is roughly, you know, a third conservative, a third progressive and a third, right in the middle. So we have to be highly sensitive to how all different groups are perceiving various policy proposals or news items that come up.

[00:04:20] Bill Walsh: But what's important is to stay true to core principles. You know, we're about representing the interest of older Americans being their voice in the corridors of power, fighting to protect Programs that are important to them, like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, fighting age discrimination. These things are not going to stop. These are constants for us. And in a time of turmoil, that's what we have to do is double down on the core principles and stay true to who we are.

[00:04:58] Mara Hedgecoth: I think Bill makes a really good point. And I think organizations must be really careful to consider the implications of their words and actions in the current environment. And they're often pressured to respond or take a stand by different stakeholder groups. And sometimes those groups have conflicting objectives.

So staying true to the organization's mission and values is paramount during this complexity and really can serve as a guidepost in how organizations approach stakeholder communications. This helps foster stronger relationships, and resilience during uncertain times.

[00:05:33] Eliot Mizrachi: can you talk about this risk environment that we're in this, this.

chaotic, disruptive phase that we're in

[00:05:40] Mara Hedgecoth: So communication leaders are increasingly acting as liaisons by anticipating what might lie ahead, by following what's happening in Washington and other major capitals around the world, predicting how stakeholders may react.

We need to be relationship builders who effectively leverage our networks to help shape the environment and advocate for our organization's interests while maintaining a balanced and ethical approach. And I do think it's really important because the CCO often also tends to be a little bit of the, ethics and ethos balance for CEOs many times and bringing up the multiple perspectives and the implications of certain actions or statements and whether or not they have implications that may be unforeseen, and so I do think that's a really important role as well for the communicators and kind of how they can think about Washington global markets, policy, diplomacy and business all at the same time.

[00:06:38] Eliot Mizrachi: Bill, I want to get your thought there because it sounds like what Mara is describing is back on this, this complex, complicated environment with different pressures and forces and disruption and change, and you mentioned a moment ago, these kind of enduring principles. That that keep us more to reality.

And in particular, I think your story is interesting. Bill, you came from journalism. It's not an unusual path from journalism to communications, but you made that shift. Are there enduring principles and communications and journalism that you think apply to the challenges that CCOs are facing today?

[00:07:13] Bill Walsh: Yeah, absolutely. You know, both journalism and communications require this clear eyed commitment to getting to the relevant, facts, analyzing them and drawing conclusions. when there's so many different parties out there claiming to have the real facts and of course the abundance of misinformation and disinformation, but that makes it more important than ever to stay true to those guiding principles.

Well, I think that's a really great place to leave it. Mara and Bill, I want to thank you for your time. It was really, really great getting to talk to you a little bit. And I look forward to seeing you and our other members in DC for what I know will be a really valuable spring seminar.

[00:07:57] Bill Walsh: All right, Eliot. Thank you.

[00:07:59] Mara Hedgecoth: Thank you.

[00:08:02] Eliot Mizrachi: If you found this conversation valuable, subscribe to the new CCO so you don't miss upcoming episodes.

This has been the new CCO Brief. I'm Eliot Mizrachi we'll see you next time.