Business and Communication Trends

At a recent wedding, the father of the bride stepped up to the podium to begin his speech to his daughter and new son-in-law. “The keys to marriage are what I refer to as the 4 C’s.”, he began. “Commitment, collaboration, compromise and, and…uhhh.” As he struggled to remember the fourth, the voice of his wife of 40 years came from the attentive audience, “Communication, dear.”

As in marriage, those principles apply in the world of business. In a sense, the business relationship is a “marriage” of sorts between numerous parties including customers, employees, management and internal and external business organizations. At the forefront of these business relationships is communication, the process of information relayed from one source to another.

The process of business communication strongly relies on two of the basic forms of communication, speaking and writing however, body language and eye contact play key factors also. At first glance, reading and writing appear simple enough but further investigation reveals that these forms have grown in importance.

In an expanding trend of portable and stationary electronic communication devices available to the workforce (desktop computers, laptops, cell phones, PDA’s, etc.) even more so than in recent generations, business communications should be

• Clear

• Concise

• Consistent

• Credible

• Courteous

Whether it is an E-mail, memo, text message, live or video presentation, teleconference or a phone call, a follow-up communication can benefit both sender and receiver if questions arise from the initial message.

E-mail is an important trend in today’s workplace. An E-mail can be quickly and easily transmitted to one person, one or more departments, an entire organization, a group of vendors or customer base with a single keystroke. Information about the daily schedule to an employee from his or her supervisor is transmitted as easily as a recall memo to a company’s customers.

Accompanying the sent E-mail with...