I recently attended another interesting and enjoyable BSR Conference, this year focused on the Power of Networks (and conveniently for the GlobeScan San Francisco team – located in our own fair city!). At the conclusion of the conference I left having spoken to many interesting people who are doing fabulous and formative work in the sustainability arena. My own personal network is always expanded, and I am buoyed by the efforts of these people who are leading their companies to … “A Sustainability Conference, Without Sustainability Professionals?”
Last week, my colleague, Abbie Curtis, and I enjoyed a fantastic couple of days at Sustainable Brands London. Monday started with insights on declining trust in brands and the rise of feminine values, and Tuesday ended with lessons for intrapreneurs and how to be a successful change agent. There was an abundance of research, advice and case studies in between. I’ve just selected 3 lessons for organizations that are trying to cement their position as sustainable brands. These stood out … “3 Lessons for Brands from Sustainable Brands London 2013”
In my previous post, we looked at the importance of maximizing value by integrating intelligence streams, and developing an integrated framework that includes key indicators across primary research, secondary research, and media monitoring. The next goal for any corporate reputation strategy is to really go beyond the data and to apply the insights to drive better decision making. While regularly benchmarking and tracking a company’s reputation is a valuable exercise , the simple collection of data and monitoring of … “Are you converting data into true business intelligence?”
In my last post, I outlined the importance of gathering stakeholder intelligence from a wide diversity of audiences that can impact your reputation. The aim should be to capture the complexity of the company, starting with the most important markets and audiences, and scaling up over time. In this post, I want to talk about how to maximize value by integrating intelligence streams. With the massive popularity and impact of online and social media, companies need to frequently monitor how … “Are your intelligence streams integrated?”
Last night I attended a forum on Radical Collaboration, hosted by The Crowd. Here’s my perspective on how to build ‘open innovation’ with stakeholders, from what I heard in the great TED style talks, panel Q&A and our stimulating round table discussion: 1. Have a common goal. In her talk, Jenny Holdcroft (Policy Director at global union IndustriALL) explained that the success of the Bangladesh Accord depends on companies and unions working towards a common goal to transform the industry. In areas … “8 ways to build open innovation and collaboration with stakeholders”
In my previous post, I discussed the importance of understanding the external operating environment for best practice reputation management. It is equally important that companies understand the internal operating environment, to understand which approaches to reputation management will work best within the company’s culture. For a reputation management strategy to be successful and sustainable, it is critical that there be cross-functional buy-in and engagement across the business – people need to believe in the process and see reputation as “everyone’s … “Is your company aligned and are you asking the right questions?”
Drawn from our new brief, Building Resilient Corporate Reputations, this new blog series explores best-practice solutions to common challenges and shortcomings of corporate reputation management. Whether you need to begin, to evaluate or to re-design your reputation management system, the brief and blog series will help you to assess how fit-for-purpose your current reputation approach may be. Femke de Man, Director, Reputation, introduces the findings in the video below. As society becomes more globally interconnected and expectations of business increase and expand … “What are the best practice solutions to improve reputation management systems?”
The final blog in our series on stakeholder engagement (part 1 | part 2) looks at the psychosocial factors that underlie group brain storming, and why collaborative forums are emerging as an effective tool for business. We know that collaboration between individuals is particularly effective when attempting to generate unique and constructive solutions to problems. Group brainstorming has been shown to produce more high quality and relevant ideas compared to individual efforts1, 2. Exposure to others’ ideas has been shown … “Why are online Collaboration Forums effective for engaging stakeholders?”
We’re starting this week’s blog with a brief history of stakeholder engagement on corporate responsibility. Looking back to the eighties, corporate stakeholder engagement on sustainability was initially oriented towards governments and environmental compliance. Push-back on infrastructure and development from communities was the main catalyst for public consultations, which were largely local, box-ticking exercises. As we moved into the 1990s, the rise of a more empowered civil society culminated with the Battle of Seattle protests at the WTO meeting as the … “What is the future of stakeholder engagement?”
The first blog in our series on stakeholder engagement starts with the basics – why does stakeholder engagement matter? We’ve identified three key trends that help answer this question and give direction on how business can gain more value from stakeholder relations. First, companies are having to manage the rapidly changing dynamics of the relationship between business and society. They are being increasingly compelled to engage in dialogue and collaborate with their stakeholders, rather than simply communicating to them. While … “Why does stakeholder engagement matter?”