How Public Affairs becomes more commercial. The Internal Side of Public Affairs (60)

By Alan Hardacre, PhD

Co-Founder Advocacy Academy, Advocacy Strategy

In my last blog (59), I looked at how Public Affairs can better align with General Managers. A recurring theme was the need for Public Affairs professionals to be more commercially aligned and show stronger commercial acumen.

In this blog I want to address what commercial alignment actually looks like in Public Affairs. Let’s start with something that I have stressed many times in this post series - if Public Affairs cannot show how our work links to revenue, risk, cost, timing, or competitive advantage, we will always sit on the periphery of the business. So many Public Affairs functions are in this situation. Commercial alignment isn’t just helpful—it is essential to being taken seriously internally.

Here’s how to make it real.

1. Understand the Business (deeply, not superficially)

Commercial acumen in Public Affairs starts with understanding how the business makes money. Not the brochure version—the real version. You cannot translate policy into business impact unless you understand the business itself.

Ask the awkward questions:

• Where do we actually make margin?

• What slows time-to-revenue?

• Which approvals, standards, or regulations cost us the most?

• Where are the biggest competitive threats coming from?

• What has to go right commercially this year?

  
  

2. Hard-wire Commercial Inputs Into Your PA Processes

This is where most PA functions fall short. If your issue maps, dashboards, and internal updates still use purely political or policy language, you are missing the point. Your commercial colleagues want to see the business implications. You need to embed commercial metrics and thinking into how you analyse, frame, and report your work. You need to embed commercial metrics and thinking into how you analyse, frame, and report your work.

For example:

• Instead of “upcoming regulatory proposal,” write:

  
  

  “Change expected delay to market entry by 6–12 months unless mitigated.”

• Instead of “policy risk increasing,” write:

  
  

  “Probability of €XXm cost exposure rises to medium-high.”

• Instead of “stakeholder outreach ongoing,” write:

  
  

  “Targeting decision-makers who influence €XXm segment of our growth plan.”

This is what commercial alignment looks like in practice.

3. Co-own Problems With the Business

One of the fastest ways to gain relevance with GMs is simple. Stop leading with what Public Affairs needs. Start leading with what the business needs. Ask GMs directly:

• “Where are you being slowed down by regulation or approvals?”

• “What keeps you up at night from a market or competitor perspective?”

• “What would unlock growth for your team this year?”

• “Where do you need political or regulatory air cover?”

When Public Affairs co-owns commercial problems—rather than presenting our own policy agenda—we move from being perceived as a communications support to being part of the business strategy.

4. Quantify, Forecast, and Communicate Like a Commercial Function

This is the step that truly separates high-performing Public Affairs teams from everyone else. Use the simple but effective structure: Policy Development → PA Action → Business Impact. PA reporting should feel familiar to your CFO, COO, GM, Strategy Director, and CEO.

Commercial teams expect:

• numbers

• timeframes

• scenarios

• recommendations

• confidence levels

• clarity

So, we need to communicate in the same way. Here are seven actions that deliver immediate impact:

1. Spend one day with a GM or Finance team – deep dive the P&L, margins, customers, and growth plan.

2. Map your top three PA priorities to commercial KPIs – even if the numbers are directional.

3. Rewrite your next PA update in commercial language – use revenue, risk, cost, timing, and competitiveness.

4. Introduce Development → Action → Impact into all briefings – clarity builds trust.

5. Co-create one joint PA–GM objective for Q2 (air cover, approvals, competitor positioning, etc.).

6. Identify one quick commercial win you can deliver.

7. Start quantifying your work – cost of no action, risk avoided, opportunity created

This is how commercial alignment becomes a habit, not a slogan.

To be a strategic commercial accelerator—removing barriers, shaping markets, protecting investments, and creating opportunities for the business does not mean changing what we do - it is about changing how we do it—and how we communicate it internally.