You’ve advised governments, corporates, and non-profits. How do they differ — and where do they converge?
It is true, on the surface it seems that each category may have a unique and very different language, mandate and approach to doing things, with governments driven by policy and the regulatory requirements, companies by profits and shareholders’ priorities and the NGOs by their mission to impact.
However, the brief is almost always the same: communicate with clarity, build or maintain trust with key stakeholders and protect reputation. The desired outcome is also always the same. That is to maintain credibility and trust while being accountable and intentional with the narratives and tactics to protect and build relationships and reputation.
As corporate or public affairs consultants, we are often called upon during periods of regulatory or investor or public scrutiny, market transitions or changes within the operating environments or when the entity or the company itself is experiencing events that may affect their business continuity and ability to deliver their products or services. At times, it’s a combination of all of these factors like what happened during the pandemic.
Our role therefore is not only to address what was briefed in by the client, but also to make a concerted effort to understand the operating environment’s imperatives, challenges and opportunities. Then determine, based on research and data, the gap between where the entity or the company is now and where it wants to be and provide our recommendations on how to get there. This first principles approach is more important than ever with AI enabling the fastest possible turnaround time for a cookie-cutter strategy and tactical planning which may be good enough for sure. But what they do not and cannot factor in are the learnings that come with the experiences consultants have after advising companies during unique periods such as the global financial crisis in 2008 or COVID-19 or during highly sensitive transactions and shareholder pressures or restructuring communication functions and approaches ahead of growth etc.
You talk about delivering governance, trust, and market positioning. What does that actually look like on the ground?
It’s important to start by highlighting that being a trusted advisor and having a seat at the table are critical success factors. The tales are many about very experienced agencies and advisors who presented the most effective solutions but were not able to deliver on them due to lack of internal comms teams or board or decision-makers’ buy in.
Once you do have a seat at the table, the next step is to ask the really tough questions, remove noise, research and benchmark to present objectively the views from the outside in and be able to address any gaps with the position of relevant and impactful stakeholders, both internal and external. But the most important aspect is to align with the leadership and ensure they are willing and able to deliver a cohesive, intentional and substantiated narrative.
In regulated environments and sectors or for listed companies, the parameters are clearer, and it may be more straightforward to uphold governance practices due to regulatory and stock market reporting requirements. This is more challenging if companies are privately owned where the conflict is typically between a must have and nice to have in terms of transparency and reporting.
Having said that, all companies I believe, with rare exceptions, are operating in highly demanding environments nowadays that require them to behave and/or communicate with clarity and transparency to maintain their ‘social’ license to operate and retain employees, customers and market confidence.
Many companies suffer from fragmented or inconsistent voices. How do you create integration in that environment?
The key challenge for a long time was that communication was treated as a ‘nice to have’ rather than an essential function that supports business continuity and growth. I would start by engaging with the leadership to treat communication as a core infrastructural component not cosmetics driven by adjectives-heavy press releases and some line-up pictures on social media platforms.
By going back to first principles, communication functions should be aligned with and geared towards supporting the achievement of business goals and growth. Starting at the point of understanding exactly what business success looks like, I would then determine what are the tools, channels and tactics that need to be rolled out and engage first and foremost with the relevant internal stakeholders to align. The ‘one voice’ approach will also need to be applied to public speakers on behalf of the business. In a lot of instances, discussing early on a basic spokespeople/topic/platform matrix and getting the leadership approval on it facilitates the implementation.
However, integration does not mean ‘sameness’ across all these channels and tools. The pace and frequency of visibility and activity on social media or media or the website for example may be very different to the investor relations or executive profiling. But they do all need to remain cohesive and aligned with the overall positioning to effectively sound like ‘one voice’ across all platforms and channels.
The GCC is modernising rapidly, yet cultural identity remains central. How do you navigate this in your work?
Behavioral sciences and research have been growing at exponential rates in the past few decades and business writers have provided countless insights to showcase how growth is driven, not hindered by cultural backgrounds and nuances. As a young professional in an agency in Dubai, one of my mentors shared insights from a book on this topic written by an expat living in the GCC. The book is entitled ‘Don’t they know it’s Friday’ by Jeremy Williams and was first published in 1998. Whilst I unfortunately didn’t get my hands on the full book, I remember the lessons which have become essential parts of business engagements and ways of doing things for me. It helps too that I grew up in the middle east and understand the language. But the truth is I probably learned more from the countless mistakes my colleagues and I made along the way. At the start of my career for example, I wrongfully assumed that just because I read and write in Arabic, I fully understand the culture especially in the GCC.
Luckily, I had the great opportunities to work on unique mandates that helped improve my cultural understanding and translate that into the outcomes I delivered to clients. For example, in 2006, I worked with Watani Program, an amazing initiative by the Dubai government to bridge the cultural gap between Emiratis and the expats through communication and engagement initiatives. One of them was to create a cartoon character ‘Ajaaj’ and produce a limited comic book series under the same name to unpack various related topics and communicate them with clarity. I was fortunate to co-edit this series in both English and Arabic and work closely with the creative team and the client to deliver successfully on the brief.
Also, you wouldn’t be able to deliver successful strategies to attract customers to Takaful or Islamic finance products if you do not have a proper understanding of the significant business, social and cultural aspects of Sharia-compliance.
This issue is not restricted to the middle east though. During COVID-19 for example, the Australian governments struggled to communicate with various immigrant communities about the symptoms of the disease and protection ways. The impact was devastating with thousands catching the virus and passing it to family members due to this language barrier and multi-generational living. These governments then had to go back to basics to deliver the same messages not only in English, the official and broadly used language in the country, but in the native languages of the various immigrant communities across the country.
For individuals, I would say think of cultural identity and nuances not as something to ‘work around’ but as key imperatives within the operating environment of your client that can make or break your ability to successfully deliver on desired outcomes.
For companies, cultural relevance falls right at the core of their ability to win and maintain their social license to operate. Indeed listed companies as well as many government related entities and privately owned companies have in recent years been reporting on various aspects of their social and cultural impact including in the region. Whether all companies are aligned with and follow ESG principles, and how successful they are on the ground instead of just on paper is a huge topic for another day!
Change is constant — but so is resistance. How do you guide people through it?
There’s no doubt that change is as inescapable as the passage of time. However, it can take longer for some than others to adapt to it. One of the CEOs I worked with in recent years repeatedly said, “you can’t steer a ship around all at once”, regardless of how critical and fast a change must be implemented.
From a change management perspective, planning is everything. The key is to ascertain in advance where possible all the potential answers to questions such as what exactly is changing, how does this impact all key stakeholders and what are their likely reactions. This enables you to plan for potential scenarios and to identify both your change drivers and ambassadors as well as the change-resistant individuals or pockets that need to be addressed. When you roll out the narrative, communicate with clarity and allow for two-way or multi-way communication and feedback, you then ensure that all relevant stakeholders are brought on the journey and importantly they feel their views are seen and heard. Then rinse and repeat for as long as you need to!
Being part of the advisory team working with AstraZeneca Australia during the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out meant that we were exposed to so much noise as you can imagine. However the approach was very clear. Our role was to collaboratively work with all relevant stakeholders, especially the resistant ones, by addressing their questions as many times and as clearly as needed, simplifying the message without oversimplifying the matter at hand and being relentlessly transparent in the reliance on the scientific evidence that was available at the time.
In less dramatic instances, during any significant change to the structure, leadership or operating environment of a company, ensuring all levels of staff, customers, partners and key stakeholders are informed regularly is critical. So is allowing time for people to adapt, acting as the main source of truth for questions that may arise, offering input and engagement from the leadership and providing clear and regular updates, to keep them informed and included on the change pathway and outcomes.
