Archive for Issues Management
August 21, 2008 at 10:14 am · Filed under Issues Management, Australia
In Tasmania a proposed pulp mill to be built by Gunns squeaked through the approval process late last year. Environmentalists decry a plant that turns forests into woodchips. Locals are split with some wanting jobs and others wanting forests. Outside Tasmania public opinion is solidly against the mill.
Spot the Difference
While government approval was granted, the mill has yet to start construction. Why? Consumer activism has made funding the deal a hot potato for banks.
The Three Gorges Dam is the best example of how financial backing can turn into a corporate reputation minefield. This controversial project has been decried for the massive relocation required - some 1.2 million people and 1,500 industries were displaced. Worse environmental and cultural heritage sites are being flooded. Even China now acknowledges there are problems:
Wang Xiaofeng, the head of the Three Gorges Dam Project of the State Council declared: “We cannot win passing economic prosperity at the cost of the environment.”
For bank funding the dam there are similar corporate reputation issues, leading to numerous shareholder resolutions to block damaging transactions:
“…but an outstanding example is the resolutions with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch concerning their involvement in financing the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.”
Source: Social Funds: The largest personal finance site devoted to socially responsible investing
Now it’s the turn of the Australian banks to feel the heat - today Gunns announced a $300 million non-underwritten rights issue led by Credit Suisse, JP Morgan and Macquarie Capital Advisers.
Gunns may yet build their mill yet the company and its financial advisers will feel the sting of public outcry for some years to come.
August 15, 2008 at 10:16 am · Filed under Issues Management, Public Relations
I went to the chiropractor this morning - since starting adjustments a month ago I’m sleeping like a log and chronic back pain is a thing of the past. So I was annoyed to have sharp lower back pain for the last two days. The chiropractor did an evaluation then starting working on my left knee. Apparently tightness there sent the back out of whack. Attack the cause and the symptoms dissipate.
Too often companies hire public relations firms to address the symptoms. They have a bad image and get negative press. Driving back I saw an advertisement for an oil company - they use rainforest friendly coffee beans in their cafes. What gets glossed over are the human rights abuses in Nigeria where they have operations, and their impact on the environment when they drill.
Public relations is limited in its efficacy when companies do not address the root causes. Press releases can’t make sub-standard working conditions in developing country factories go away. Poor customer service can’t be covered by one case study.
Smart corporations redress their business practices and ensure they are functioning smoothly before trying to gain a better image through public relations. Otherwise its the equivalent of a “10 minute back-rub” by an in-mall masseur versus finding the root cause of the pain.
June 17, 2008 at 8:07 pm · Filed under Issues Management, Australia
Australia is fixated on a political scandal - “Iguanagate”
It’s always bad for the parties involved when their issue gets a “-gate” added to the end. For those not “in the know” this suffix originated from US President Nixon’s ordered break-in to the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate office complex in the early 1970s.
For trackers of crises and issues, the time to turn public opinion in your favour is well before your issue is “gate-d”. All now assume guilt.
“Iguanagate” started at a Central Coast restaurant two weeks ago. NSW Minister John Della Bosca and Federal Minister Belinda Neal were dining at Iguana Restaurant on 6 June and were asked to move tables. Apparently a row erupted with Della Bosca and Neal shouting abuse at staff.
Staff filed Statutory Declarations outlining their recollection of events. Some were withdrawn - others were hidden. Two versions of events are circulating. Bar staff and waiters - putting their jobs on the line - state the political pair were rude, abusive and threatening. Della Bosca and Neal claim there was no such rancour.
What makes this murkier is the allegation that some staff were coerced into changing their statements. Others were never released. And Della Bosca penned an apology letter that he faxed to the restaurant - which was meant to come from the restaurant to him!
Today Federal Minister Blinda Neal “promises the truth” (see today’s Sydney Morning Herald). It’s all too late.
People in public office are held to a high standard. This would have been better managed from the start to admit to the blow-up and offer a full and frank apology. Then this storm in a tea cup would never have spilled over into a second week of national reporting and intense questions in Parliament.
It’s bad enough to lose your temper - but hey, we’re only human. What’s inexcusable is to attempt a cover up. We can forgive a bully. We can’t forgive a bully and a liar.
April 20, 2008 at 8:15 pm · Filed under America, Issues Management, Media Industry
Television and radio require “good talent” to offer commentary and insights into the day’s issues. When there’s a lack of third party experts journalists resort to interviewing each other - Christina Amanpour on CNN is a favourite for commentary when an unaligned expert isn’t available.
In the Iraq propaganda war, the Bush Administration has used the same approach, according to today’s The New York Times (”Behind Analysts, the Pentagon’s Hidden Hand”). Military analysts were flown to Iraq and given behind the scenes tours to help them understand military strategy. Later these same people were recommended to television and radio stations as qualified, independent experts able to comment on the progress of the war.
It’s a great public relations practice but it was poorly executed.
Seems the insights provided were biased. One side was shown. Today those same unaligned experts are up in arms over their treatment. Kenneth Allard, who participated in the program, said:
“Night and day I felt we’d been hosed.”
If you want to get your point across then develop strong messages and get your spokespeople trained. They can site the company line on all media channels. Yet if you choose to engage third parties to support your case make sure they have access to all the information.
The White House’s strategy has backfired. By providing some of the people with some of the information, they ensured that sooner or later all of the people would see through the ruse - and demand more and more and more of the information originally blocked.
Do not engage third parties if you don’t want them to speak freely.
April 7, 2008 at 2:00 am · Filed under America, Issues Management, Public Relations
Mark Penn stopped riding two horses today - he was forced to step down as Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist. He continues as CEO of Burson-Marsteller. Seems he stopped in on a client meeting with the Government of Colombia - who hired B-M to promote the country (and a Free Trade Agreement that Hillary opposed).
So it wasn’t appropriate for Clinton’s strategist to attend THAT meeting. But no one’s raised the issue of Penn acting as CEO of a global PR firm while dedicating himself to the Clinton campaign. How much was Camp Hillary reimbursing B-M for those services?
The departure comes at an awful time for Hillary. She’s falling in the polls. She didn’t dodge sniper fire in Bosnia. She’d also called for healthcare reform referencing the case of a woman who died in childbirth in Ohio because she didn’t have healthcare coverage. Ooops - girl is fine, baby is fine and both had private healthcare cover.
Penn definitely brought immense depth to the Hillary campaign. He’s a top strategist who authored “Micro Trends”.
But running a global PR firm and leading a presidential campaign was bound to end in conflict of interest. That said it makes it easier for companies aligned with the Republican Party. They’re free to chose anyone but B-M - no conflict!
March 25, 2008 at 7:52 pm · Filed under Issues Management, Public Relations
Neurolinguistic programming looks at the effect certain words or phrases have on us. University of California professor George Lakoff teaches the art of “framing” in his Cognitive Science 101 course at Berkley (for a .pdf version of Lakoff’s book “Don’t Think of an Elephant”, click here).
In “Elephant” Lakoff shows how certain words attach to the psyche and become “frames” for all subsequent discussions on the subject. In politics think “Patriot Act” or “Tax Relief”. These laden words cannot be countered effectively - how can any politician object to “Tax Relief” or be against the “Patriot Act”?
This concept applies to names, as well. London-based psychologist Richard Wiseman and his team surveyed 6,000 people to get their impressions of first names. Today’s “The Australian” includes highlights:
“People called James and Elizabeth are seen as the most successful. Jack and Lucy are the luckiest and Sophie and Ryan are the most attractive. But Lisa and Brian are most likely to fail, Helen and John are the unluckiest and Ann and George the least attractive.
“Professor Wiseman said: ‘Attractive female names tended to be soft-sounding and end with the ‘ee’ sound, whereas the sexiest males names are shorter and harder sounding.’”
Poor, unlucky George! Sounds like Brad and Angelina are onto something!
Public relations and advertising can use these insights to build better “sound bytes” and slogans. Use of key words and phrases will embed the concept in the mind of the listener - and make the phrase harder to counter.
What examples stick in your mind?
March 25, 2008 at 3:04 am · Filed under Issues Management, China
Last week I wrote about Gloria Jean’s Coffee - and yesterday found a Facebook Group organising a boycott. Consumer companies need to fear public backlash. The goodwill that propels a brand to stardom can be fickle. It turns quickly.
Beijing is in the throes of boycott avoidance. The Tibet uprising couldn’t come at a worse time. Over the coming weeks the Olympic flame will visit most major cities - to provide a searing reminder of the issue of human rights.
I am old enough to remember the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Then the USSR had invaded Afghanistan and was subjected to a global boycott. Many Eastern European nations retaliated in 1984 by avoiding the Los Angeles games.
Today athletes are under pressure to consider personal boycotts of the games. Nations stand like dominoes ready to topple in succession. Each awaits the other’s move.By the Northern Hemisphere summer we’ll see a succession of boycott calls. And many individuals will heed the call. Soon after pressure will grow for nation states to follow.
Don’t book your hotel rooms in Beijing quite yet. It won’t be a politically correct place to visit this year.
March 17, 2008 at 5:56 pm · Filed under Issues Management, China
In olden days, China only needed to censor the media and expel foreign journalists. This week video footage of uprising in Tibet has been uploaded to YouTube. In Mainland China access to YouTube is down today. For some quirky reason you can’t get your favourite karaoke, pet tricks or scenes of activists being led away in chains (or in a body bag). This is the bleeding edge of citizen journalism.
On 11 April the Newseum opens in Washington DC. This is a museum dedicated to news and journalism, and is likely to honour journalists killed in the line of action. Soon they will have to feature the ordinary citizens who place their life on the line to ensure atrocities are witnessed by all the world.See this clip on YouTube.
And realise this - your ability to watch this means you’re living in a democracy.
March 16, 2008 at 10:08 pm · Filed under Issues Management, Australia
Not many Australians like chain coffee. Starbucks has yet to make a dent in an already established cafe culture. Local chain Gloria Jeans has met with better success. This home-grown chain serves the same syrupy overpriced concoctions that led to Starbucks’ fame in the USA. Yet today this local coffee chain is in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Today’s The Sydney Morning Herald features a harrowing tale of faith-based approaches to treating mental illness. Patients report of abuses that are clear violations of civil liberties. Tragically the centres where these abuses occurred are meant to solve serious mental issues. Instead, they appear to cause more harm.
The centres are all underwritten by donation boxes in local coffee shoppes run by Gloria Jeans. Here is a corporation underwriting a religious organisation that is accused of mishandling women in crisis. Can I get a muffin to go with that?
For corporations the issue becomes a clearer understanding of which charities you choose to underwrite. Faith-based charities do attract strong support from elements of the community. Sadly they also alienate other parties.Corporate social responsibility (CSR) provides an opportunity for companies to give back to their local communities. Ideally it should provide a win-win for all involved.
But by underwriting a faith-based organisation that has sparse resources to handle women in mental crisis Gloria Jeans has done damage to its reputation. Few corporate communications people want to start their day with this in a leading newspaper:
Taking in girls and women aged 16 to 28, Mercy Ministries claims to offer residents support from “psychologists, general practitioners, dietitians, social workers, [and] career counsellers”. These claims are made on its website, and the programs are promoted through Gloria Jean’s cafes throughout Australia.
But these former residents say no medical or psychological services were provided - just an occasional, monitored trip to a GP, where the consultation takes place in the presence of a Mercy Ministries staff member or volunteer.
Instead, the program is focused on prayer, Christian counselling and expelling demons from in and around the young women, who say they begged Mercy Ministries to let them get medical help for the conditions they were suffering, which included bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders and anorexia.
My advice is simple - do get involved in CSR, but make sure you thoroughly vet any organisation before bringing your brands together. You may indelibly tarnish your reputation if you don’t.
January 31, 2008 at 10:04 pm · Filed under America, Issues Management
The confirmation hearings for USA Attorney General candidate Mukasey offered an interesting twist on language and legality. It all revolves around waterboarding.
Sadly this is not at all like wakeboarding. That sport involves slicing across the wake of a fast-moving speedboat then grabbing air in gravity-defying acrobatics.
Instead waterboarding simulates drowning. Candidates are tied to a board with a hemp bag tied over their heads. Water is streamed over their faces making breathing nearly impossible. “Simulated drowning”. Who thinks up this stuff?
When asked his opinion on waterboarding, Mukasey said the practice was not considered torture so therefore was legal. Yet - and here come the weasel words - he said if he were subjected to waterboarding it would feel like torture.
Frankly the subtlety is lost on me.
To gain a greater understanding of the issue, see The New York Times. Their article starts explaining the differences:
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Wednesday that while he would consider it torture if he underwent the harsh Central Intelligence Agency interrogation technique known as waterboarding, the practice was not necessarily illegal, and he would not rule out its use in the future. (Source: The New York Times 31 January 2008)
So while it may FEEL like torture, waterboarding is not necessarily torture - so therefore not illegal. Or legal. Or not?
See why I’m confused?
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