Issues management
Today’s business context means that every organisation will face issues. The environment, product safety, marketing to children, ethical sourcing, planning, pricing, childhood obesity, animal testing, off-shoring – the list is endless and constantly changing. The way that an organisation manages these issues can be business critical. An unchecked issue can fester and infect the organisation’s long term reputation. Recovery is possible, but time consuming and very expensive. Much better to have a strategy in place to pro-actively manage issues before they turn into crises. Insignia is geared up with the resources and skills to help you do this.
Issues mapping
You probably know in your own mind the key issues affecting your business today. But do your fully understand their relative importance and ability to damage your organisation? And are you aware of the issues lying in wait just round the next corner? Insignia’s issues mapping methodology allows you to get to grips with the risk landscape facing your business – the first crucial stage to effectively managing it.
Stakeholder analysis
Many stakeholders will have a view on your issue – and some of them will be very vocal in expressing it. The barrage of noise can be deafening and the task of managing it can appear insurmountable. Insignia’s solution – stakeholder analysis – cuts through this noise and provides a clear matrix of stakeholders prioritised according to their relative influence and attitude. All of a sudden the task of communicating with key stakeholders in order to manage the issues becomes a whole lot clearer.
Strategy development
Insignia’s consultants have managed many diverse issues over the years, but one thing is common to all of them: a clear and well-conceived strategy. Based on our analysis of your issues landscape and the stakeholders relevant to it, we will develop a strategy to steer a course through the issues maze to help you emerge with your reputation preserved.
Resource creation
Whatever the strategy – primarily reactive or pro-active –you will need communication resources to manage your issues effectively. Insignia’s experienced consultants can craft the materials – positioning papers, Q&A sheets, template holding statements, factsheets, brochures, on-line content – which will state your case effectively, reaching and influencing key stakeholders in the desired way. of course, we can provide media or communication training to ensure that your people have the ability to communicate about the issue with confidence.
Stakeholder engagement
With planning complete, Insignia can execute your issues management strategy. Whether that involves setting up and facilitating meetings with politicians or civil servants, communicating with NGOs, embarking on a pro-active media relations campaign, or simply monitoring events as part of a reactive strategy, Insignia has the experience and capabilities to implement a successful issues management campaign.
Case study
When one of the world’s leading brands developed plans to enter a new, lucrative and rapidly expanding – but highly controversial – market, Insignia’s Jonathan Hemus led the team tasked with formulating an issues management strategy to protect the reputation of the brand. Analysis of the external environment and a deep understanding of the attitude and influence of key stakeholders led the team to propose two alternative issues management strategies. The first was a deep and pro-active programme of stakeholder engagement combined with an all-encompassing rapid response capability based on meticulous preparation, development of compelling resources and training of key executives. The second – and preferred - strategy was to back away from this market on the basis that the potential returns did not justify the level of risk to the overall reputation of the brand. The launch was cancelled.
Issues management Communicating through corporate change Communication and media training Online reputation management