Archive for Issues Management
December 10, 2008 at 2:00 pm · Filed under Leadership, Issues Management
Heard over breakfast that a friend’s husband was retrenched last month along with 60 other workers in a Sydney finance company. Seems on his daytime walks along Bondi Beach he sees quite a few people he knows - most fellow finance professionals, now out of work.
The global economic crisis is biting hard.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald the finance sector has been hit hardest:
All up, the FSU [Finance Sector Union] estimates there have been almost 5000 jobs lost in the finance industry since the start of the year, most of them in Sydney. Surprisingly, it appears even this may be an understatement. The chief economist at JPMorgan, Stephen Walters, puts the losses at closer to 19,000, based on company briefings to analysts and media reports.
Unemployment hits hard especially when you’re the primary breadwinner. There’s a shame that comes from losing an important element of your identity. I remember the first time someone asked me what I did after being retrenched a few years ago. I replied, “Nothing.” It was more of a surprise to actually say that!
So the advice? Seek out others and talk. Raise your fears, concerns, anger - and strategies for re-employment. Bottling up rage and shame is a mistake. If you don’t become a miserable SOB immediately within months you’ll be clinically depressed.
And enjoy yourself when you walk the beach. Because you will be employed again and you’ll not have the daytime to enjoy the sand between your toes.
November 25, 2008 at 3:12 pm · Filed under Issues Management, Globalisation
It’s hard adjusting to the new world order. Citigroup owes its future to a US$300 billion rescue package from the government. Detroit is crying calamity if they don’t get money - US$25 billion is a start.
Consumers are about to get angry.
The bail-out fall-out is going to be surprisingly nasty. In the aftermath of Enron and Worldcom we consumers sat back in shock. Now with direct government support the levels of participation and demands will ratchet up.
Minimum requirements going forward will be transparency in use of government funds. More likely will be calls for active, hands-on governance as vested parties. The American public will feel entitled as owners of Citigroup and possibly General Motors to be involved in the decision-making.
For other companies, you can expect greater scrutiny on financial solvency and demands for the greatest level of transparency possible.
The bail-out fall-out is you’re going to have to share enormous amounts of information now and forever.
November 24, 2008 at 2:49 pm · Filed under America, Issues Management
We’re experiencing once in a lifetime structural change to our economy. Last week the CEOs of the major car firms boarded their private jets and flew to DC begging for financial relief. Today Citigroup is seeking a bail-out. The brands we knew that dominated global finance are shrinking rapidly.
In the aftermath of losers will come winners. It’s anyone’s guess who will remain in finance. Auto companies may be unrecognisable - especially if GM is broken into three, as some suggest. By the time this is over - say another two years - we’ll have a new portfolio of companies in key industries.
Don’t look for GM, Citibank, AIG or Yahoo! Do expect HSBC, Toyota, Allianz and Google in their place.
We have a lot more pain in the coming two years. And when it’s over we’ll be scarred and bruised and cynical as hell. And the companies that remain will have to earn every cent of our business.
November 7, 2008 at 10:51 am · Filed under Leadership, America, Issues Management
In “Cabaret” Liza Minelli plays down-on-her-luck Sally. Plucky, determined, forthright and ultimately a loser sent packing all alone.
It’s hard not to imagine Sarah Palin humming “Maybe This Time” on her flight back to Alaska. The night of the long knives is underway. Something’s flowing and it sure ain’t praise:
- Alaskan “hillbillies” is how a McCain staffer described her family.
- Palin shopped the hardest - expected to buy a few outfits it morphed into “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast”.
- Fox News reporter David Cameron says Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent - she thought it was a country. (Fair enough because Australia is a country - and a continent.)
- She arrived in Phoenix with a concession speech in hand - and was surprised McCain didn’t expect her to speak on the night.
What do you do when you’re cornered and it’s coming at you from all angles?
Palin has strengths including mass public appeal. She needs to return to Alaska and govern, then appoint herself as Stevens’ replacement (Senator indicted for felonies but not sentenced yet may narrowly win his Senate re-election; once a convicted felon he cannot serve and Alaska’s governor Palin gets to name his replacement). She need to forge her reputation in the Senate and help rebuild the Republican Party.
Today’s insults and barbs do not merit responses. It’s time to lie low and re-emerge stronger, cleaner and smarter.
Then perhaps she and her fellow Republicans can sing another “Cabaret” classic - “Tomorrow belongs to me.”
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?
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