Blog
The Foreign Policy of Global Business
By Robert Grupp
As the current political environment in my country (among others) demonstrates, it is particularly difficult to have conversations about politics and social issues with people who hold views different than your own. These conversations are always challenging, but when people function in an echo chamber hearing their own beliefs from everyone around them (and likely in the media they consume), it’s even more difficult to offer a different viewpoint. (more…)
“The Benefit of the Doubt” on NSA Spying Versus Germany’s “Private Dignity” Narrative
The public side of a private conversation between President Obama and Chancellor Merkel
Often when we want to understand attitudes, beliefs and assumptions we rely on intuition, instinct or we make quick guesses, but that’s unsatisfactory and unfulfilling. What happens is we try to dominate a narrative without paying too much attention to how people are hearing us.
The question is, do we really understand our audiences before we market to them, before we try to shape their thinking, before we try to move them to action? We spend a lot of energy understanding what we want. Do we spend sufficient energy understanding what they want? (more…)
China as a Diplomatic Actor
“If You’re Not at the Table, You’re on the Menu”
There may not be a single, clear-cut definition of public diplomacy; however, one could say that diplomacy is a political dance where two partners, or in this case countries, struggle to lead and sway the opinions of foreign publics.
China may be perfecting the intricate footwork of this political dance better than other nations. With a diplomatic past shrouded in ineffectiveness and grandstanding, China now is emerging as a powerful presence and potential partner in global diplomatic relations, says Ambassador Charles W. Freeman, Jr. in remarks made recently to the American Academy of Diplomacy. (more…)
Faith, Hate and Fake: Understanding Three Stakeholder Relationships
We all know that engagement is essential and is what truly helps to build loyalty and trust in a brand, business or organization.
With the gaining use and popularity of social media it is imperative to maintain positive communication and monitor negative interactions in online engagements with customers or stakeholders. Social media gives an organization’s stakeholders outlets for expressing their views to large audiences. By using social media as an avenue for communication, stakeholders increase their power and value as long-term assets. (more…)
Strategic Communications: A Business Perspective
These are excerpts from remarks by Robert T. Hastings, Senior Vice President, Communications & Government Affairs and Chief of Staff, Bell Helicopter, at the 4th National Summit on Strategic Communications on April 23, 2013 in Washington DC.
I had the opportunity for about a year and a half to serve in the Pentagon as the head of Public Affairs (Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, 2008-2009). That experience was informative; in fact, it was transformational for me. I was hired because of what I had done as a corporate communications executive, (more…)
4 Battle-Tested Principles for Responding to PR ‘Meteor Strikes’
The moments of greatest anxiety in my career as a strategic communicator always have come when I couldn’t respond fast enough.
I’m not alone, am I?
Television images of US Airways Flight 1549 are vivid in nearly everyone’s mind. I also remember a response that US Airways CEO Doug Parker gave when asked if he had any regrets about how he communicated following the miraculous incident. Pausing and clearly becoming introspective, Mr. Parker said he wished he had been faster¾despite cautions by lawyers¾to acknowledge the heroic actions of the crew and passengers early on¾even before the company knew whether all passengers survived.
A week hardly goes by when a company or its CEO isn’t being critiqued on the speed with which it reveals news and information. (more…)
Insider View: How President Obama’s Campaign Used Data and Analytics to Rally Individual Voters
Today, communications professionals and public affairs officers must be masters of data and analytics. This capability goes beyond measuring the impact of an organization’s communications and public relations—as useful as that is.
Communications professionals need to build expertise and capabilities in data analytics into communications planning and programs as well as capabilities to understand data in order to take effective action—and do so in real time.
These excerpts are from Rayid Ghani’s presentation to the 4th National Summit on Strategic Communications (www.strategicsummit.com) on April 23, 2013 in Washington DC. Ghani was “chief scientist” for data analytics in the Obama for America 2012 campaign. (more…)
Building Advocacy at Scale
Never have word-of-mouth and peer-to-peer influence been more ubiquitous or powerful. Billions of individuals now have the means to share their experiences, opinions and ideas – and to organize for action – at scale. They are revealing and generating unprecedented amounts of data about themselves. This has profound implications for Chief Communications Officers and their teams. They must become adept at extracting actionable insights from what many are calling the “Big Data” era.[1]
How does an enterprise best engage individuals, in addition to audiences, publics or segments of populations? If the goal is not merely to shape the opinion, sentiment and perception of those individuals, how do you spur them to action, continuing behavior and advocacy?
One organization that answered those questions is the Obama for America 2012 campaign. Rayid Ghani served as “chief scientist” leading the presidential campaign’s data analytics team.
The following excerpt is from Rayid Ghani’s presentation to the 4th National Summit on Strategic Communications (www.strategicsummit.com) on April 23, 2013 in Washington DC.
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Something we struggled with quite a bit was that it seemed everybody in the campaign was a 20-year-old.
I think the average age was probably 24. A lot of those people think everything happens in the online world; that digital is everything and nobody takes any action offline. Well, that’s not true, and especially not true in an election where the most important action is voting. You can’t take that online. You have to take a physical action. (more…)
Bringing a global brand to life
As the third-largest defense and security company in the world, BAE Systems is continually adapting and responding to changing market conditions. Core to the company’s strategy is a new brand narrative that is helping the organization tell its story in a way that is relevantly localized and business-sustaining in key geographic markets where BAE Systems expects to expand.
“GE Works” — Communicating Brand Value & Impact
“We are realizing that times have changed, and we want to reflect that we are operating in a new, changing environment,” said Gary Sheffer, Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at The General Electric Company. Gary presented at the National Summit on Strategic Communciations in April 2012.
“Today, it’s more about rolling up our sleeves, focusing on the serious, complicated times that we live in, and that’s why we have shifted our focus – our brand theme – to ‘GE Works,’ which we think is a great way to talk about the impact of The General Electric Company.”
[See Gary’s presentation to the 2012 National Summit on Strategic Communications here: GE Works by Gary Sheffer – 2012 Strategic Summit]