Corporate Affairs Academy
Start date:
Duration:
- 4 virtual sessions plus 5 days on campus
Time commitment:
- Short programme
Locations:
- Live virtual
- Oxford
Cost:
- £12,000 plus accommodation (£1,200)
About the programme
Improve the impact of corporate affairs across your organisation.
The Corporate Affairs Academy is designed exclusively for senior corporate affairs directors of major international companies and we accept people on the programme who are already in the role and operating at the most senior level in the department.
Membership is by invitation only for a period of one year and will be open to a limited number of senior Corporate Affairs and Communications Executives from major corporations around the world.
Informed and strategic corporate affairs activity helps create significant business value and prepares organisations to best recover from downside risks and crises. Organisations operating in fast paced information overload environments are counting on corporate affairs professionals to make the judgements that are required to build long term success.
Participants benefit from a balance of leading academic research and functional best practices.
The Academy focuses on three core, interrelated themes:
- Reputation research, theory and thinking
- Reputation engagement, trends and practices
- Professional development as reputation experts; high-value purpose, practices and resources
You will be equipped with practical steps for immediate implementation in your organisation.
Run by the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation - our aim is to enable you to make a more strategic and valuable contribution to your business by providing you with an opportunity to connect with the latest academic research in the field and share experiences, ideas, and best practice with expert faculty and a global peer group of Corporate Affairs Directors.
Introduction to the programme
Benefits
To you
- Understand the dynamics of reputation and their implications for business performance.
- Enhance your influence at board level by gaining a more holistic understanding of the demands of a range of stakeholders.
- Strengthen your ability to inform and influence senior executive decisions within your organisation.
- Access the latest research and thinking from the University of Oxford and develop a life-long connection to the institution.
- Lifetime membership of the Oxford Business Alumni Network
To your business
- Develop an integrated approach to reputation and align key stakeholder groups to drive business performance.
- Clear understanding of your strategic direction as an organisation in relation to your reputation strategy.
- Harness reputation as an asset through which the organisation can achieve its strategic objectives.
- Develop strategies to minimise risk and build trustworthy relationships with your stakeholder groups.
Programme outline
Overview
The Academy is for senior corporate affairs directors of major international companies and has been designed around a series of learning engagements over a number of months. Combining virtual and in-person learning, group and one-to-one interactions, you will be exposed to expert insights drawn from the Centre for Corporate Reputation and across the University of Oxford.
Pre-Academy engagement
After registration, you will receive a series of recommended readings encouraging you to contemplate some of the concepts and themes that form your Academy experience. We will then ask for your personal learning aims and objectives for review by our Programme Directors; personalised responses will be shared to help shape your experience and ensure that you get the most value from the programme.
Corporate Affairs Academy series library
We will provide you with a series of insights, delivered in a range of formats, to allow you to engage with the latest thinking from the Centre for Corporate Reputation and around the University of Oxford. The materials will cover a broad array of themes, including reputation, digital disruption, climate change, purpose, ESG and ethics. This content will be available to you throughout your time on the Academy and for several months after.
Live virtual preparatory sessions
March-May 2025
- Monday 3 March, 2-3:30pm GMT - Programme starts and book club session (author presentation and discussion)
- Wednesday 12March, 2-3:30pm GMT - Opening plenary
- Wednesday 23April, 2-3:30pm BST - Oxford-GlobeScan Corporate Affairs Survey 2025
- Wednesday 7 May, 2-3:30pm BST - Tutor groups set-up
Oxford on-campus Academy
30 June-4 July 2025
The programme will conclude with four and a half days on-campus in Oxford where you will enjoy a series of rich and engaging discussions with the Corporate Affairs Academy cohort. You will draw on the insights gained throughout your studies, translating them into tangible actions and strategies to use in your role. Experience a formal college dinner, keynote addresses from leading thinkers and a team building experience on the river.
Academy report
Post-programme
After each Academy a research paper is written, including the latest insights derived from your time on the programme. You will be invited to explore the report, and join a webinar outlining the key findings
Read more about the latest report.
Post-programme
Lifetime membership of the Oxford Business Alumni Network.
Class profile
- 5+ years of senior corporate affairs/communications experience and ten years within a corporate affairs remit
- Job titles such as senior corporate affairs director, head of corporate affairs or external affairs lead
- Roles in major companies, organisations or not-for-profits
What our alumni say
A fantastically designed and executed programme. The insightful academic principles were perfectly balanced with examples of practical application into day-to-day business and how these can be implemented in the Corporate Affairs function.
The Corporate Affairs Academy report
Find out about the research from the programme.
Our Corporate Affairs Academy 2023 report summarises this year's sessions and captures core insights and recommendations to help the function demonstrate its strategic value effectively. Through interviews with the Academic Director, senior corporate affairs directors and external speakers, the report offers shared experiences, detailing challenges faced and the strategies used to overcome them.
The Enacting Purpose in Strategy (2021) report has been created by Senior Corporate Affairs Executives.
Insights from previous programmes:
- Corporate Affairs Academy report (2022)
- Corporate Affairs Academy report (2021)
- Defining purpose, driving engagement (2019)
- Embedding corporate affairs in business performance (2018)
- Engaging with a dynamic universe (2017)
- A transformational function (2016)
- Defining purpose, unlocking value (2015)
- Insights, challenges and opportunities (2014)
Oxford-GlobeScan survey report 2024
The report has been created in collaboration with GlobeScan for members of the platform.
This is the fifth annual Oxford-GlobeScan Global Corporate Affairs Survey Report which provides the latest overview of opinions, trends and challenges through the lens of Corporate Affairs practitioners. This report captures the views and insights of 227 senior professionals from around the world who were surveyed in March 2024.
Geopolitical risk and uncertainty were once again the greatest perceived risk to global business, with the biggest positive opportunities seen as innovation and AI, adaptation to climate related issues and energy transition.
Contact
- Cari Read, Programme Manager
- cari.read@sbs.ox.ac.uk