Public Affairs
The objective of public affairs is to predict and influence the public environment to the benefit of the enterprise.
• Public affairs manages issues in the public domain, not just issues to be decided by government.
• Public affairs establishes an agenda and builds stakeholders in achieving solutions.
Public affairs – managing challenging issues in the public environment – isn’t a task that should be undertaken without a thorough understanding of the challenge, the terms of success and the impact on the organization. Some of the critical issues to consider include the following:
Commitment to Lead |
What is the problem we are trying to solve? |
Why are we trying to solve it? | |
| What are the benefits to us of solving it? | |||
| What are the problems for us if it’s not solved? | |||
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What do we need to know? |
What is the history of this issue? How did we get to this point? | ||
| What are the political implications of our involvement; of proposed solutions? | |||
| What are the barriers to success? | |||
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Who cares? |
What are the public attitudes? | ||
| Who are the stakeholders, and what are their attitudes? | |||
| What are the attitudes of peer organizations; competitors? | |||
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Why hasn’t this problem been solved before? |
A lack of political resolve? Is it a partisan issue? Is it a politically defining issue for a party, a key political interest? | ||
| A lack of leadership; by whom? | |||
| Are resources lacking? | |||
| Is there entrenched opposition? | |||
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What makes us think we can solve it now? |
Why us? | ||
| Why now? | |||
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Is this a business priority? |
What is the business significance? | ||
| Will there be a corporate face on this issue? Who? For how long? | |||
| Is there leadership consensus on the solutions? | |||
| Is the organization willing to realign parts of the organization to succeed (e.g., create new teams, merge resources)? | |||
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Is our organization committed to creating solutions? |
Are we committed to invest the appropriate resources? | ||
| Is there a coherent, unified team approach? Does management of the issue need a dedicated leader? | |||
| Is this a corporate-wide commitment, or the focus of one or a few departments? | |||
| Are there internal barriers that have to be overcome? | |||
| What will NOT get done if we invest the resources needed on this issue? Are we okay with this? | |||
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Do we want to “own” this issue, or are we willing to follow? |
Are the solutions as important as being identified as a leader on the issue? | ||
| Are we willing to provoke new thinking, new discussion on the issue? Even in the face of controversy? | |||
| Will we be publicly linked to the issue? | |||
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Benchmarks |
What does success look like? If we succeed, what will be different? |
…in one year? | |
| …in five years? | |||
| …in 10 years? | |||
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Who will be measuring us? |
Internal | ||
| External | |||
| Are these the right evaluators, or do we need to change the judges? | |||
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What is the cost of failure? |
To the issue? | Will failure make the problem worse? | |
| Will failure make the opposition stronger? | |||
| To stakeholders? | Is the status quo better/worse than failure? | ||
| Will failure threaten progress on other issues? | |||
| To us? | How will our reputation be affected? | ||
| How will other priorities be affected? | |||
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