I fear I may have missed peak interest in Succession, but I became suddenly obsessed with this brilliant HBO show over the summer holidays, mainly because of its razor-sharp writing. The legal battles are quite accurately portrayed, lawyers say, but it’s a very misleading representation of how corporate communications works – at least in my experience. 

Let’s start with the positives. It’s good to see the communications professionals at the top table. Hugo and Karolina from the Roy family’s Waystar Royco and GoJo’s Head of Communications Ebba are definitely in the inner circle. They travel with the CEO on the corporate jet. They work closely with the M&A team. The top executives clearly value these people, even as they disdain them. “You’ll be my dog, but the scraps from the table will be millions,” Kendall Roy tells Hugo with an oddly Biblical turn of phrase. “Woof,” replies Hugo.  

The flipside of Hugo and Karolina’s importance to the plot is that their total war, whatever-it-takes approach to PR is a parody of what senior communications executives do, not a realistic representation. Part of what makes Succession so compelling is that the Roys are in a permanent frenzy of hostile M&A deals and internecine psychodrama. But that means that their communications advisors have to be assassins: discrediting adversaries, spreading false rumours about deals and even casting aspersions on the late Logan Roy at his son’s behest. 

Their approach to media comes across as tactical and transactional in the extreme. That’s a fair reflection of the Roys’ approach to business and their strategic horizon, which doesn’t seem to extend beyond revenge (which they prefer to serve hot) and intraday stock moves. The Roys brief journalists and give interviews in efforts to destroy their rivals of the moment, but they don’t discuss strategy or build relationships with reporters, which is a hallmark of a long-term approach to communications. And their behaviour on election night shows they don’t respect the independence of the media properties they own. 

Shadow of truth 

It’s hard to imagine these characters taking a less cynical and more realistic approach, although one of Karolina and Hugo’s more brutal PR schemes was too much for the occasionally ethical Roman Roy (“don’t bring us this disgusting s*** ever again”), if not for Kendall. But more realistic comms would make rubbish drama anyway. Most PR executives spend a lot of time in meetings discussing things like strategy, governance and measurement. It’s hard to make any business meeting into good TV (those in Succession rarely last more than a minute) but M&A and corporate politics obviously make better material than a serious discussion about a thought leadership campaign. 

For the most part, there is an inverse relationship between Succession comms and the real-life work. The better it is as drama, the worse it would be in reality. Lying to journalists and corrupting editorial independence would be a terrible idea for a real company. Apart from being ethically wrong, it would inevitably be exposed and make any crisis worse. But it thickens the plot in Succession nicely.  

There is a shadow of the truth about corporate communications in this series, though.  

PR executives should certainly spend most of their time on strategy and programmes that support their clients’ reputational goals day in, day out. But times will come in every company when the comms team finds itself at the heart of a battle – and must strain every sinew to win it. It could be trying to prevent negative or unfair coverage. It could be trying to advance a counter-narrative to criticism of the firm. It could be a conduct issue involving a senior executive.  

Succession is accurate in suggesting that comms executives play a vital part in handling these kinds of problems. But the difference is that every successful comms person I’ve worked with has done that within the law, with their personal integrity intact and often with their standing among journalists enhanced.  

Real-life crisis management wouldn’t often make good TV, but approaching it differently from the Waystar Royco team is much better for the standing of our profession and the long-term reputation of the firms we serve.