Corporate communication at a key element of the series

Kendall Roy’s financier and friend, Stewy Hosseini, was always right: “The family is fucked… and it’s hurting the stock.” The phrase could not be clearer to describe the dysfunctional billionaire family that heads the Waystar Royco corporation from the HBO series, Succession.

A corporation’s image and reputation can be everything, including the family’s behavior that heads it. Waystar Royco is listed on the stock market, and the Roy family owns 36%, so it is always in the crosshairs of its shareholders and stakeholders. It’s a corporation comprising an influential ultra-right-wing television channel, cruise ships with disreputable staff, and decadent amusement parks.

It seems incredible, but in large corporations, sometimes corporate governance is not taken seriously; decisions are made with the stomach, as the mighty Logan Roy, Waystar Royco founder, used to do.

Succession presents two business visions: Logan Roy’s arbitrary and authoritarian decisions (backed by the government) confronted with the demands of a more modern, regulated, and “transparent” corporate environment.

Succession places corporate communication, and its advisors, at the strategic center of Waystar Royco. They save the corporation from different crises, which are worth reflecting on:

The cruise ship crisis

Logan Roy meets with his son Kendall. He tells him of a conversation with his third wife, Marcia.

Marcia: “The Incas sacrificed a child to the sun in times of great crisis.”

Logan: “That’s so wild.”

Marcia: “What could you kill that you love so much that would make the sun rise again?”

For Logan Roy, the Inca analogy meant “sacrificing” his son Kendall to settle the crisis over Waystar Royco’s cruise ship sexual abuse allegations. The idea was that Kendall would go to jail because he knew and hid the facts for a long time.

In the face of a crisis, sacrificing one of the key managers of a company is what public opinion expects, but it may not be the only solution. The company has to take responsibility and outline a plan supported by actions to compensate for the damage and restore trust among its stakeholders. Kendall doesn’t end up in jail (he’s up against his father and the company), nor does anyone at Waystar Royco, for the promise of an internal audit, corrective actions, and a series of negotiations with the government.

The electoral crisis

The media are a key factor in any democratic exercise. During the presidential election, the Roy brothers were clear about it and acted according to their interests, despite warnings from the ATN television network information chief, owned by Waystar Royco, about the legal consequences they could face.

Faced with the uncertainty of conclusive results (due to a close election), the powerful ATN could shape the perception of public opinion by reporting that the voting trend favors the ultra-right wing Republican candidate, Jeryd Mencken. This allows him to take advantage of the situation and make a speech as the future President of the United States.

This may not happen in a real election, but it does give an idea of the power of the media, the negotiations with the ruling party and the campaign teams, to favor one or another candidate.

According to the vision of the Roy brothers, the worst that can happen is that reasonable doubts arise among informed opinion (not the public opinion) because a media outlet is not the one who elects the president and is only making fake news, which will be diluted.

The crisis of the death of the patriarch

The announcement of a CEO’s death can significantly impact a company’s share price. Waystar Royco fell.

Logan Roy dies during a flight. The Roy brothers were in shock and the management team planning the actions to be taken: the statement that the Roy brothers would make to the media and the list of stakeholders to whom to inform. Shouldn’t they have included employees in this plan?

The Securities and Exchange Commission requires publicly traded companies to disclose material information in a timely manner. Therefore, the urgency of presenting a unified response, even though the Roy brothers wanted the airplane to continue without landing until their father’s death was confirmed. Meanwhile, rumors were already running among the media. Wasn’t there a crisis plan in case Logan died, having the precedent that his health was already diminished?

The crisis response was the indicated: a brief statement of the facts to the media (Logan’s death), with no space for journalists queries to avoid speculation that could impact the markets. But it left doubts about the future of Waystar Royco, so Plans A and B were outlined to be developed by Karolina Novotney, the professional and efficient adviser, and Hugo Baker, the dark and subservient character who investigates detractors and leaks information to the media.

Succession ended as it had to. A new CEO was appointed following the corporation’s acquisition. Tom Wambsgans (Shiv Roy’s husband), will subserviently cater to the whims of new owner Lukas Matsson. Kendall’s business experience and Roman’s social intelligence were out of the game. Shiv, who “couldn’t be named the new CEO because she’s pregnant” in Matsson’s misogynistic perception, will either deal with her husband…or continue her career as a political adviser.

From now on, Waystar Royco will have to face other crises:

• Some stumbling blocks of the limited CEO, Tom Wambsgans, in the transformation of the television network ATN as the unstable Matsson.

• An authority act by the President of the United States, Jeryd Mencken.

• The disclosure of some corporate secrets from the battered management team – General Counsel Gerri Kellman, Vice President Frank Vernom, and CFO Karl Muller –         

• The information leak by the Roys’ uncomfortable cousin, Greg Hirsch.

But we won’t see that anymore because one of the great HBO series has ended.

Any resemblance to the reality of large corporations, and their relationship with power, is a mere coincidence…