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Always think about thinking ©
In this episode of The Piar Podcast, host Tan Sukhera sits down with Tabita Andersson—author of "Chief Communications Officers at Work" and a senior communications leader with over 25 years across agencies, in-house teams, and freelance consulting—to explore what she calls "the art of the possible" for communications professionals aspiring to the C-suite. Tabita's book draws from personal interviews with CCOs at large global organizations, and the findings are both encouraging and sobering: while the profession has grown enormously in the past 10-15 years, the number of executives holding formal CCO titles remains remarkably small compared to roles like CMO. The gap, according to every CCO she interviewed, comes down to business acumen. Communications professionals excel at writing, presenting, and press releases, but many reach senior positions only to discover they lack commercial and management understanding. Tabita describes the CCO's unique advantage as a bird's eye view across the entire organization—often shared only with the CEO—which positions them to connect dots others miss, spot blind spots before decisions are locked in, and bring critical thinking to strategic planning rather than just communicating decisions after they're made. She introduces the concept of "ordering chaos": balancing frameworks with flexibility, using crisis scenario planning and tabletop exercises to train a muscle that strengthens before you need it. One CEO she interviewed offered advice that stuck: build trust early, so when crisis hits, you skip the niceties and go straight into action. The tight coupling between CEO and CCO explains why their departures so often correlate. For senior communications leaders who want more roles to open up, Tabita calls for a pincer movement: communications professionals stepping forward to build C-suite relationships and demonstrate value beyond their safe zones, while CEOs and other executives open their minds to what strong communications leadership contributes to strategy, not just execution.
Tabita Andersson is a senior communications, brand, and marketing leader in the B2B industry... For over 25 years, she has worked in-house, with agencies, and as a freelancer to provide communications support, advice, and leadership to build and protect company brand and reputation. She is passionate about the role communications play in helping a business thrive and how it can help C-level executives connect the dots- both inside and outside their organization. Throughout her career, she has seen first-hand how difficult it is for talented communications professionals to make it to the C-level and beyond. At the same time, with the world becoming more volatile and the number of disparate stakeholders growing by the minute, the importance of having a trusted reputation is becoming a vital part of ensuring success for strategies aimed at growing or protecting businesses.
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Tan Sukhera is a strategic thinking partner, a super connector of people & ideas, and perpetual student of the communications craft. A Canadian with a Marketing Communications background and former TV news anchor, Tan held roles at leading multinational media monitoring organizations before founding Piar. That work revealed something important: measurement was largely solved, but the cognitive blind spots where CCOs unknowingly leave gaps in their armor remained unaddressed. Over two and a half years, Tan invested six figures unlearning why his assumptions about the industry were wrong, drawing on behavioral science, decision theory, mathematics, and AI-assisted human-in-the-loop approaches to build systems, lenses, and frameworks that sharpen strategic judgment. As CEO & Co-Founder of Piar and lead workshop facilitator, he works with business leaders around the world on high-stakes decisions.
