The Caracal Global 5-Step Communications Audit™
You're operating in the most complex geopolitical communications environment in a generation. The executives who win in this environment aren't just the ones with the best strategy — they're the ones who know how to communicate it, from the boardroom to the newsroom to the halls of government.
The Caracal Global 5-Step Communications Audit™ is where that work begins.
Led by Marc A. Ross, founder of Caracal Global, the audit has helped a range of senior leaders, including Fortune 1,000 executives, private equity portfolio company CEOs, founder-led business leaders, a former US cabinet official, and a senior foreign policy professional.
Think of it as having your own private strategic communications director, focused entirely on you.
What the Audit Does
The Caracal Global 5-Step Communications Audit™ reviews your existing assets and tools, asks questions without bias toward any particular solution, and presents a clear, actionable path forward. It's not generic communications advice. It's a rigorous, structured process designed to align your communications with your strategic vision — and equip you to execute with confidence.
The audit measures your company's communications program against the E-STOCK Framework™, the proprietary six-part discipline behind every successful global business communications program: Event, Strategy, Tactics, Organization, Consistency, and Know-how.
The Caracal Global Approach
Most engagements begin with The Caracal Global 5-Step Communications Audit™. The audit establishes a baseline on the issues, players, and audiences reshaping how your company is understood by the people who matter most: boards, investors, employees, customers, regulators, journalists, and the broader public.
The audit provides a path forward grounded in three proprietary frameworks. SIGNAL™ reads the world in which the company is operating. TWIN™ identifies the audiences that must move for the company's decisions to land. E-STOCK™ is the operating system that turns the audit's findings into a working communications program.
From there, clients typically retain Caracal Global for ongoing Executive Communications work, Geopolitical Intelligence subscriptions, or both.
The three services are designed to compound rather than substitute.
How it works
Each step contributes to the final E-STOCK scoring and the path forward.
Step 1: Vision:
We start where everything starts — with your goals. We ask you to describe your strategic vision, how you differentiate from the competition, and what communications success actually looks like for your organization.
Questions include: How do you stage your communications now? How do you win in the marketplace? What makes you different? What is your strategy in ten words or less? What is your image? How do you compete?
This conversation gives us a direct read on where you are, where you want to go, and what's standing in the way.
Action step: Minimum 120-minute conversation and interview
Step 2: Personification
Communications without personality is noise. In this step, we run you through a series of exercises to define the personality and feel your communications should convey, and to identify the arenas and vehicles that will carry it most effectively.
Questions include: If your communications were a famous actor, who would it be? If your communications were a city, which city? Where will you be active? What vehicles will move your communications forward?
These aren't abstract exercises. They force clarity about the identity you're trying to project — and that clarity shapes everything that follows.
Action step: Minimum 120-minute conversation and interview
Step 3: Synthesis
Caracal Global reviews the recordings, transcripts, and notes from the first two sessions and produces a working synthesis of your communications situation: where the gaps are, where the opportunities are, and where the path forward likely runs. The synthesis is the input that drives the scoring in Step 4 and the path forward in Step 5. This is the step that turns conversation into a defensible analysis. Action step:
Action step: One week for Caracal Global to prepare rough ideas and concepts
Step 4: Score + Grade
Using Caracal Global's proprietary 100-point scoring system, we audit your current state of communications against the six dimensions of the E-STOCK Framework™: Event, Strategy, Tactics, Organization, Consistency, and Know-how. You'll know exactly where you stand, and where the gaps are.
Action step: One week for Caracal Global to conduct the audit
Step 5: Present a path forward
Using the proprietary E-STOCK Framework™ — Event, Strategy, Tactics, Organization, Consistency, and Know-how — Caracal Global presents its findings. We identify the highest-impact opportunities, align them with your aspirational vision and communications personality, and match them against the realities of your tools, talent, staffing, commitment, and budget.
You leave with a clear, sequenced strategy you can execute over 12-, 24-, and 36-month periods.
The path forward incorporates two additional Caracal Global frameworks. TWIN™ segments the audiences who must be moved to win, influenced to neutralize opposition, or neutralized to prevent active opposition. SIGNAL™ is the intelligence framework that reads the operating environment in which the audit's findings will land. Together, E-STOCK, TWIN, and SIGNAL form the Caracal Global operating system for global business communications.
Program Details
Location:
We prefer an off-site setting for the first session — a museum, private club, or neutral environment that encourages open thinking. Your office or video works if needed.
Duration:
Minimum three hours on-site for the first two conversations, plus two hours for the path-forward presentation. Total project: 21 days, though complexity may extend the timeline.
Scheduling:
Most audits can be confirmed within 2–8 weeks, depending on the time of year.
Deliverables:
Audio recordings and printed transcripts from the first two sessions
A detailed path-forward strategy with specific, sequenced tactics executable over 12, 24, and 36 months
Audit clients receive complimentary advance copies of the forthcoming E-STOCK book upon publication
Post-Audit Guidance:
Following the presentation, Caracal Global remains accessible for three months via up to three strategic touchpoints by phone or email. Touchpoints are designed to pressure-test the path forward as the company begins executing against it, not to function as ongoing coaching.
Investment:
From $12,500, with increased fees for additional executive interviews and added complexity in the final plan.
Payment Terms and Schedule:
The total fee is divided into three equal payments: one-third due upon confirmation of engagement (non-refundable), one-third due three days before the first session, and one-third due three days before the final presentation.
Ready to build the communications foundation your strategy deserves?
Contact Marc Ross directly at marc@caracal.global or call +1 202 596 5270.