Wadds Inc. is a specialist advisory firm working with ambitious communications agencies and in-house corporate communications and external affairs teams at a moment of structural change within public relations practices.

Communications is shifting, from a delivery function to a sensemaking and risk advisory discipline. The pressures are real: AI governance gaps, geopolitical volatility, fragmented media, and growing demand to demonstrate strategic value in management terms rather than output metrics. We help communications leaders navigate all of it.

For in-house communications directors, we help elevate the function and align its work with organisational strategy, building the case for communications as a management discipline concerned with sensemaking, governance, behavioural insight and legitimacy.

For agency management teams, we support the development of future-proof, differentiated propositions that exploit emerging opportunities, manage risk and navigate economic volatility.

We offer strategic advisory, executive coaching, team profiling, bespoke research, the PRogress peer advisory group for agency leaders, and our Communications Management and Leadership training programme for senior practitioners.

Wadds Inc. is led by Stephen Waddington, a former CIPR President and visiting professor, and author of more than ten books on management and public relations. Stephen is completing a PhD at Leeds Business School, researching how communications functions achieve strategic recognition within organisations, bringing academic rigour to one of the profession's most urgent practical challenges.

Wadds Inc.

Org chart

Teams

Offices