What ‘taking stock’ actually means looks different for everyone. We remember to renew car licences. We make sure to add FILE TAXES TODAY to our calendars. We finally book that doctor’s appointment. And, for most of us in the corporate world, we sit in planning meetings.
It’s the familiar cycle: December Christmas parties are all 'thank you for your hard work', jarringly followed by the Annual Yearly Planning Meeting — 'and here is all your hard work.'
This isn’t a knock on planning meetings. As someone who files every single email in my inbox, you’d better believe how much I enjoy mapping out the year, setting the goalposts and breaking them down into neat action points so everything gets done. But planning is pointless if it isn’t strategic.
Planning for the sake of planning is the early year meeting we all dread. What should come before the to-do list is the why. Why are we planning? What are our goals? Where are we going? And, more importantly, where are we right now — which, really, is the starting point for most things in life.
Corporates are generally very good at planning. What they’re not very good at is reflecting. At properly taking stock. Too often, they leap straight into action without the annual check-up and it usually comes back to bite.
One area that almost never gets that reflection is communications.
Over the years, I’ve met and advised countless companies who are fixated on outputs. They want sales. They want clients. But in the rush to build, they’ve neglected their reputation. The website has grown virtual cobwebs. That one negative social media comment has quietly multiplied into a pile of unflattering online reviews. And suddenly, what were once a few isolated issues have combined into a very real mountain. Lo and behold, it’s now impacting sales numbers; and that is when we usually get called.
What’s far easier, and far cheaper, is doing an annual reputational MOT. A proper health check on your communications, brand, press coverage, investor relations, social channels and the overall state of your messaging and corporate reputation.
These audits often surface other issues too: operational weaknesses, unhappy employees, tools staff don’t have but desperately need. But, more importantly, they allow you to create a strategy and make informed decisions, so that when you’re sitting in your 2026 kick-off meetings, you’re actually setting your business up for success.
At Invicomm, we simply call these 'Audits'. Not because we’re trained auditors (although at least one of us is a former CFA), but because we use the combined expertise of our senior team to look at our clients with fresh eyes. We reflect on what worked, what didn’t and only then do we make real, impactful plans.
It’s not corporate jargon, although 'impactful' still makes my skin crawl as one of the most overused words in business. It’s your annual check-up. It’s good practice. It’s taking stock before you start planning the year ahead.
So, as 2026 gets underway, let me gently nudge you to add a comms audit to your list of meetings. Before the planning sessions, before the strategy off-sites, before the ambitious targets are locked in. Because done properly – and at the right time – a comms audit strengthens your reputation quietly over time, builds trust before you need it and makes everything else you’re trying to achieve work that little bit harder for you.
Treat it the same way you’d treat that doctor’s appointment you keep postponing: slightly inconvenient, mildly uncomfortable, but ultimately essential.
If you’d like some advice on where and how to start, sign up for a complimentary Brand Armour consultation here.
