This post was created in partnership with Burson 

Ask a chief communications officer what their job is today, and the answer looks nothing like it did a decade ago. 

At an ADWEEK House Cannes Lions Communications Vanguard roundtable co-hosted with Burson, chief communications officers from some of the world’s leading brands made the case that their perspective has grown into something the C-suite can’t afford to sideline: a critical vantage point on business decisions before they ever reach the public. 

Reputation is everyone’s responsibility now 

Damon Jones, chief communications officer at P&G, laid out the stakes simply. Trust is the precondition for everything a company wants to do. 

“People are not going to buy your brands unless they trust you. They’re not going to come work for you unless they trust you. They’re not going to invest in you unless they trust you. Your reputation is the fuel for that,” Jones explained. 

Not long ago, communication was valued most for what it could do in a crisis: get ahead of the story, manage the press, and be ready for what could happen next. Craig Buchholz, CEO, U.S., at Burson, sees the role at a different inflection point. 

“I think we’re seeing the second significant evolution of what this chief communications officer role is. It went from leading communications as a function to being a trusted counselor to the C-suite and the CEO. Now, it is really the deep strategic advisor and enterprise leader looking across the organization,” Buchholz said. 

Part of what drives that evolution is that audiences no longer stay in tidy lanes. Gigi Ganatra, chief communications officer at eBay, said companies that still think in silos are already behind. 

“In today’s world, we don’t have separate audiences anymore. We don’t have an investor team that only speaks to analysts or a marketing team that only speaks to customers. Everybody reads everything. It’s all one audience,” Ganatra said. 

This reality demands more from the company narrative. Every message needs to feel consistent, credible, and connected to where the organization is actually headed. 

Bringing the outside view inside 

So, where does the chief communications officer fit in all of this? They’re closer to the beginning of the decision than most people realize. Communications leaders track connections across functions. They see how a product move, policy stance, or leadership change can ripple across employees, press, investors, regulators, and customers, often before anyone else in the room has thought to ask. 

Adam Collins, chief communications officer at Reddit, called it a structural advantage. 

“There is no other place in an organization where all the different points of the business come together outside of communications,” Collins said. 

This perspective positions communications leaders to challenge assumptions while strategy is still being shaped. 

For Jason Schlossberg, chief communications officer at SharkNinja, the role carries real weight on the growth side of the ledger. 

“There’s this idea that it’s all about risk management, which, of course, is important, but you also have to know how to push forward,” Schlossberg noted. “You need to know how to make change and experiment if you’re going to grow.”  

Reputation doesn’t begin with a press release. It takes shape far earlier, in the decisions that precede one. The chief communications officers on this panel made clear that the sooner they’re in the room, the better the outcome.