Corporate Affairs Academy

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Connecting reputation with strategy and business performance

Start date:

Duration:

  • 4 virtual sessions plus 5 days on campus

Time commitment:

  • Short programme

Locations:

  • Live virtual
  • Oxford

Cost:

  • £10,600 plus accommodation (£1,150)

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:

  1. Reputation research, theory and thinking
  2. Reputation engagement, trends and practices
  3. 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.

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.


Lewis Roberts

Head of Government Affairs (Europe) at CH2M

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 2024

To allow you to interact with your cohort, introduce the structure of the programme, and assign your tutorial groups, you will be invited to join a series of live virtual sessions in advance of your time at Oxford in the summer.

  • Monday 4 March, 2-3pm GMT - Programme starts and book club session (author presentation and discussion)
     
  • Wednesday 13 March, 2-3pm GMT - Opening plenary 
     
  • Wednesday 17 April, 2-3pm BST - Oxford-GlobeScan Corporate Affairs Survey 2024
     
  • Wednesday 8 May, 2-3pm BST - Tutor groups set-up

Oxford on-campus Academy

1-5 July 2024

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.

Meet the faculty

The programme is taught by a mix of academic faculty and senior practitioners comprising current CEOs and Chairs of large, global, public and private corporations. Led by Rupert Younger, founder and director of the Oxford Centre for Corporate Reputation at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and a leading commentator on reputation matters. Alongside Rupert is Associate Fellow, Stewart Prosser, a highly experienced Corporate Affairs and Communications practitioner and mentor.

Industry experts and speakers

Every year we welcome new insights from other members of faculty from within the School, industry experts and external speakers who offer invaluable learnings to you and your cohort.

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:

Oxford-GlobeScan survey report 2023

The report has been created in collaboration with GlobeScan for members of the platform.

This is the fourth 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 109 senior professionals who were surveyed in March 2023. 

Geopolitical risk and uncertainty is once again the greatest perceived short-term category of risk to global business. Climate change now finds itself as the second most-significant risk, specifically reflecting deep concerns over the impact of the environment, but with growing political resistance in some parts of the world.

Read the report

Insights

Useful resources to help you find out more about our Faculty and programme.

FT rankings 2023

The global FT Executive Education 2023 rankings placed our open executive education programmes first in the UK and fifth in the world.

Overall, our executive education programmes, which combine both custom and open, rank second in the UK.

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