{"podcast":{"title":"Communication Breakdown","slug":"communication-breakdown-7019931","podcast_index_feed_id":7019931,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/6301456/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://corporateobservatory.com/podcasts/communication-breakdown","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/bb1654c4c2ff3f77a3c1f292f51b3d52.jpg","author":"Observatory on Corporate Reputation LLC","episode_count":100,"summary":"Communication Breakdown is a postgame show for PR pros. In each episode, hosts Craig Carroll (Founder of the Observatory on Corporate Reputation, Editor of the SAGE Encyclopedia of Corporate Reputation, Lecturer at Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business) and Steve Dowling (former head of communications at OpenAI and Apple) discuss the strategies and tactics companies are using in high-visibility crises and PR initiatives, giving listeners unique insight into how key decisions are made. The podcast offers two unique perspectives on communications theory and practice, drawing on Craig’s research and teaching on reputation at USC Annenberg, UNC Chapel Hill, and universities worldwide, and Steve’s two decades of experience as a comms leader at some of the world’s most influential companies. Whether you’re a PR professional, marketing executive, or just curious about how companies make key communications decisions, you’ll find these discussions insightful and valuable.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-11T02:22:07.181025+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/communication-breakdown-7019931"},"episode":{"title":"Return on Mission","slug":"return-on-mission","published_at":"2026-08-27T13:00:03+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/communication-breakdown-7019931/return-on-mission","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/communication-breakdown-7019931","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/return-on-mission--74700560","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74700560/ep_98_for_review.mp3","summary":"In this episode of Communication Breakdown, Steve Dowling and Craig Carroll explore a different way to measure the value of corporate communications, public affairs, and stakeholder engagement. Building on Dell’s use of “return on mission,” Craig applies the concept to corporate affairs and asks whether communications work makes an organization more capable of accomplishing its strategic goals. The conversation examines transaction costs, coordination costs, attention, confusion, crisis prevention, and other outcomes that traditional ROI metrics often miss. For communications leaders under pressure to demonstrate value, return on mission offers a way to connect their work directly to organizational performance. Takeaways Return on mission measures whether corporate affairs makes an organization more capable of accomplishing its strategy, goals, and obligations. Measures such as media impressions and share of voice capture attention, but they do not necessarily show whether communications helped the organization accomplish its objectives. Prevention can be a legitimate outcome when communicators identify a credible risk, intervene before escalation, and document how their actions changed the trajectory. Topics Mentioned return on mission, return on investment, corporate affairs measurement, public relations measurement, public affairs, stakeholder engagement, attention economy, non-market strategy, transaction costs, coordination costs, delay costs, attention costs, crisis communications, contradiction costs, confusion costs, strategic allocation of attention, executive attention, prevention as an outcome, corporate agency, after-action reviews, communications measurement, leading indicators, lagging indicators, stakeholder relationships, organizational friction, commun…","meta_description":"In this episode of Communication Breakdown, Steve Dowling and Craig Carroll explore a different way to measure the value of corporate communications, publ…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1908,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/communication-breakdown-7019931/episodes/return-on-mission/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/communication-breakdown-7019931/return-on-mission.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}