Hi Mike Not sure about the etiquette here so I'll reply on your blog. Nice comments for which I thank you. However, you may have misunderstood my original point. "But I violently disagree with the notion that there is no point in looking at how Internal Communication can be fundamentally reinvented and that we should instead focus on making ourselves more “competent” instead." The point isn't that we shouldn't aspire to being better or to advancing our craft. The would be terribly complacent and I doubt if anyone would agree with that as a position. The point is that endless navel-gazing and hand wringing awaiting the messiah doesn't help anyone. I get quite frustrated by the mindset that implies that somewhere around the corner is something that is going to transform everything in IC. It might well be true, but I think doing a half-way decent job is a pretty good aspiration for most of us to be going on with. "Despite our successes as a profession over the last twenty-or-so years, Internal Communication has yet to definitively prove its value to organisations in a way sufficient to be seen as a business necessity" And I think that's because there are still lots of people out there who are still struggling to master the basics. We've only been going for five minutes for goodness sake! Saying the credibility of the profession depends on a new vision is a bit like me hoping medical science will come up with a miracle way to lose weight rather than accepting that I'm fat because I eat too much and exercise too little. The answer to professional credibility is plain for all to see - get everyone doing a good job! And with regard to "but we have yet to prove that $1 spent on internal comms will reliably produce $1.10 on the bottom line by the end of the year". And I'm not convinced on this one either. It would be great if we could prove it but we'd be one of the few business disciplines that could. HR, legal, IT and even marketing don't actually have terribly robust metrics but they get taken seriously... It's going to be a long wait for someone to split this particular atom... And I'm also probably going to get myself burnt at the stake for this heracy but who says that IC should be about delivering "transformational rather than transactional benefits". Maybe, just making organisations work is good enough? Why must IC only matter if it's delivering change? Finally, I'm a bit puzzled by the statement that "Liam’s view only really holds water if you accept a view that organisations are fundamentally hierarchical and that internal communication exists to support the smooth functioning of hierarchies." I'm afraid that the logic of this one doesn't work for me. Do you mean... - Liam thinks crystal-ball gazing discussions about the future of IC are sterile and boring - but organisations are on the verge of being transformed into whole new models... -... so that means we should start worrying about what IC models are needed in these new types of organisations... If you do, maybe you're right but it still feels like counting angels on pinheads to me! ;-) Enjoy EurComm Liam