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Corporate Affairs enters the Age of Corporate Diplomacy

The 2026 Edelman Future of Corporate Affairs report identifies corporate diplomacy as a defining leadership capability for today’s business environment. It is the ability to advance business priorities while navigating competing interests and preserving the relationships companies need to operate and grow.

CEOs are increasingly accountable for business performance that a broad network of stakeholders shapes. Reputation is now an input to strategy, affecting whether a company can execute, enter new markets, and introduce new technologies.

The report examines how Corporate Affairs leaders and communications practitioners can build the enterprise’s capacity for diplomacy by developing the objective intelligence, seasoned judgment, and hard-earned relationships the enterprise needs to make decisions in a more complex operating environment. That requires a clearer mandate for Corporate Affairs, access to expertise across the business, and measures of success that reflect influence and impact as well as output.

Explore the findings below to see what this shift means for CEOs, Corporate Affairs leaders, and the organizations they serve.

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Top Findings

01

The CEO has more influence and less control.
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CEOs are expected to shape trust across employees, customers, policymakers and communities – stakeholders they can influence but cannot command.

02

The faster the world moves, the earlier Corporate Affairs has to move.
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Political, cultural and reputational issues rarely move on a company’s timetable. Competitive advantage comes from recognizing what is developing while leadership still has room to act.

03

Technology can see more. Diplomacy requires understanding more.
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AI gives Corporate Affairs access to more information, patterns, and connections faster than ever before. But making sense of what it sees requires context – understanding the political, cultural and reputational forces behind the signals and recognizing where specialist expertise is needed.

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Corporate Affairs has a seat at the table. Now it has to deliver.

Jonathan Jordan, U.S. Head of Corporate Reputation

Corporate Affairs and communications leaders have spent years turning expertise in reputation and storytelling into a larger role in business decisions. Many have gotten there. What was once a function brought in to communicate decisions after they were made is now helping shape them, with a stronger voice in business strategy. Corporate Affairs leaders now hold more senior roles and sit closer to CEOs and executive committees, where they advise on pressures that start outside the company. 
But access only matters if Corporate Affairs changes what the business does. 

Corporate affairs faces an influence gap

Simon Hernandez Arthur, Writer, Axios Communicators

Getting comms leaders into the executive meeting may be the easy part - getting the rest of the company to act on their advice is harder. Why it matters: The reputational risks corporate affairs leaders have to manage often originate in business decisions about products, jobs, technology and public policy...

Edelman helps organizations navigate the Age of Corporate Diplomacy by strengthening trust, reputation and stakeholder relationships.

Connect with our experts to navigate complexity, advance business priorities and build the influence needed to succeed.

25 Years of Trust

Corporate Affairs enters the Age of Corporate Diplomacy

Top Findings

01

The CEO has more influence and less control.⟲

02

The faster the world moves, the earlier Corporate Affairs has to move.⟲

03