HOW DO AUSTRALIA'S MOST PREPARED ORGANISATIONS ENSURE THE STORY NEVER BREAKS?

Olivier Vojetta
Jul 30
6 min read

A prelude to the launch of our new COMMS Series — Initial perspectives

Two weeks out from the launch of our new Comms Series, the headlines keep making our point for us. Reputation crises are hitting the front pages of the AFR, the SMH and The Age more often, and faster, than ever before. On 12 August, at CBD Gallery in Sydney, three leaders who have sat inside these moments — in government, in the C-suite and in the room where the advice is actually given — will tell us what it really takes to stay ahead of the story, not behind it.

From left to right:

Hon. Paul Fletcher: Senior Australian politician; former Federal Minister for Communications; now operating an advisory business, Paul Fletcher and Associates.

Allison Rossiter: Former CEO of Roche Diagnostics ANZ and Country President of Novartis; Chairperson of the Board at Swiss Chamber of Commerce.

Louise Dawson: Communications specialist in financial services; former Senior Communications Executive at CBA, AMP, Colonial and Nestlé.

The Story Is Moving Faster Than the Organisation

Something has shifted in how reputational crises unfold in Australia. The world has changed. Faster media, powered by AI, and an increasingly complex compliance environment mean that a leak, a misstep or a single bad decision can spread at wildfire speed — well before an organisation has finished convening the people meant to respond to it.

The Hon. Paul Fletcher captured the essence of today's world beautifully, and so truthfully, when he said to our founder: "LinkedIn is TikTok for grown-ups." This is a symptom of a world where anyone and everyone can say anything, anytime, anywhere, including employees or leaders from all types of organisations. "Everything is on the record," Mr Fletcher continued.

The result is a widening gap between the speed at which a story breaks and the speed at which most organisations are built to respond. That gap is precisely where reputations are won or lost. Allison Rossiter, one of our panellists at our COMMS Series launch event, talked about "credits in the trust bank" when our founder caught up with her at the end of June. Those credits are the most valuable asset on the balance sheet of any organisation.

"Communications has earned its place at the leadership table because trust has become a strategic asset." — Louise Dawson, panellist, COMMS Series launch

Louise put it plainly, and subtly. Trust is no longer a soft asset sitting somewhere near marketing. It is now core to enterprise value — and defending it requires a seat at the leadership table, not a briefing after the fact.

The Case That's on Everyone's Mind… and the Role of AI

Ask any Comms leader in Australia right now for a live case study, and the conversation turns quickly to KPMG. In the aftermath of the crisis came a new CEO, and with him a wave of redundancies, discredit and scepticism brought onto the firm.

It is a reminder that a reputation crisis is never contained to the organisation at its centre. It is detrimental not only to the body directly affected, but to the industry it operates in, and more broadly to the whole economy — and even the public. Morale and sentiment, inside and outside an organisation, are not soft metrics. They are key to a well-functioning economy.

And KPMG is far from alone. PwC's tax leak scandal and Deloitte's AI report scandal have already put the "Big Four" through very public reputation crises this cycle. The question on everyone's mind is no longer if the next crisis will hit, but where, and how fast.

Can AI and media intelligence help answer that question before it's too late? Some AI-driven media intelligence companies now claim they can predict the next reputation crisis based on today's data — spotting the signals before the story breaks, rather than reacting once it has. It's an intriguing, if untested, promise, and undoubtedly a discussion we will have with the room on 12 August.

The Revenge of the Communicator

Not every signal points to more chaos, however. The Wall Street Journal has recently spotlighted the newly found power of publicists and communications specialists — some are even calling it "the revenge." After years of being the function called in after the damage was done, communications leaders are increasingly the ones shaping the decision before it is made.

READ FULL WSJ ARTICLE

Photo credit: Thomas R. Lechleiter/WSJ and iStock

That shift is exactly why The Argonauts Series is convening this conversation. The C-

suite collaborative ecosystem we are building exists to provide a safe place for leaders daring to venture into the unknown, together — and few functions are more exposed to the unknown, in 2026, than communications.

Three Unique Vantage Points, One Room

"Before the Story Breaks" brings together three leaders who have each sat inside a version of this problem, from a different chair.

Paul Fletcher, former Federal Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts in the Morrison Government, spent eight years on the Senior Management Team at Optus before entering politics, and has written two books on communications and technology policy. Few in the country have watched the interplay between government, regulation and corporate reputation as closely, or from as many sides of the table.

Allison Rossiter, former CEO of Roche Diagnostics ANZ, brings the perspective of a leader who has had to hold a room — and a company's credibility — steady under sustained scrutiny in one of the most tightly regulated industries in the country.

Louise Dawson brings decades spent in senior rooms, from a very young age, advising leaders on the moments that matter most. As she told our founder Olivier Vojetta in the lead-up to the event: traditional comms playbooks are running behind an AI-driven world, and the edge now lies in something far more human. Integrity. Vulnerability. Authenticity. The ability to close your eyes, hold the room, and discern the difference between anxious and excited.

Why an Art Gallery, Not a Boardroom

Held at CBD Gallery on Erskine Street, in our signature Open Boardroom format, the evening gathers senior leaders, Heads of Comms, Heads of Corporate Affairs, CMOs and PR leaders for a conversation that matters more now than ever.

Photo credit: CBD Gallery and Caroline Seltz

An art gallery and a former Minister for Communications: an unlikely but fitting combination for an evening in pursuit of truth, in a world moving faster, and growing more complex and ambiguous, by the day.

The traditional boardroom, made up of the same executives who report into it, isn't equipped to answer the question at the heart of this evening. It is, by design, a room of insiders — people close enough to the organisation to know its blind spots intimately, but too close to see them clearly. Understanding what's truly at stake, and how best to prepare for it, requires the opposite: an independent set of leaders drawn from across sectors, politics, the arts, culture, and everything in between, thinking together in a room with no stake in any single outcome.

At The Argonauts Series, we are strong believers that the arts have a bigger role to play in the AI era. Why? Because art is ambiguous, neither right nor wrong, and as such it holds up a mirror to leaders that is both unique and universal — the mirror of ambivalence and ambiguity that enables leaders to look at themselves and envisage scenarios other than those discussed with their traditional boards of Non-Executive Directors, using the traditional communications playbook, which is now obsolete. The arts are one of the best ways to surface new ideas and considerations in the face of the complex challenges and opportunities we are facing, individually and collectively.

That's why we've built the Open Boardroom the way we have. It takes different perspectives, from very different people with very different backgrounds, in a different environment, to see what's coming before it arrives. This unique platform is built to bring unique perspectives, generated through the mutual interaction of minds that would rarely otherwise share a room.

The question this evening sets out to answer: how do Australia's most prepared organisations ensure the story never breaks — or, when it does, ensure they are the ones telling it?