Corporate Communication - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Through the previous post we have seen how important building relationships are. Corporate social responsibility aims at just that and hence it is the topic of discussion today.

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So says the textbook, the term corporate social responsibility can be defined as, “The continuing commitment by business to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the community and the society at large”. According to John Elkington, corporate social responsibility is based on the notion of a  ‘triple bottom line’, which consist of people (social), planet (ecological) and profit (healthy financial accounts).

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People indicates all social and labour issues that might occur inside and outside the organization. This includes employee support and compensation, gender and ethnic balance of the workforce, reducing corruption and fraud in business, health and safety codes.

Planet refers to the responsibility towards the environment. Reduction in pollution, recycling, proper disposal of residue, production processes which are environmentally friendly.

Profit signifies selling products in order to have financial gains for the organization and its stakeholders. It is the financial gains of the organization are the base line as if there is no profit it cannot fulfill the other responsibilities of people and planet.

Basically, is the initiative undertaken by the organization in order to give back to the society what it has taken. These initiatives are generally in alignment with the vision, mission and core values of the organisation.

It's just like if you have started earning a lot and are now rich, you decide to help those who are less fortunate than you … in a way!

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Corporations undertake CSR activities for marketing and public relations purposes. This is one good way of connecting to the society and market their company as well as do good for the society.

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Plus another way to looks at corporate social responsibility and more often this is the reason, to help the society and gain the trust and love of its stakeholders. Most organizations look to not only make profits but also to maintain goodwill with their consumers, employees and all the stakeholders.

Corporate social responsibility has now become one of the essential functions of the corporations. The main idea is to build a strong and long lasting relationship with its stakeholders and consumers. A relationship is one investment that never fails us. At the end of the day what people remember is how they were treated and cared for not only how much profit they made. The idea is to spread kindness and generosity among the publics.

I can’t believe I have managed to stick to the theme so far … I am surprised myself, I hope this goes on with the post that will follow :)

Till then Namaste! :D

"Corporate Social Responsibility is a hard-edged business decision. Not because it is a nice thing to do or because people are forcing us to do it because it is good for our business" 

– Niall Fitzerald, Former CEO, Unilever

Corporate Communication - Crisis Communication and Management

The last post was all about issues and how to manage them. It also spoke about how an issue, if not taken care off then and there, can turn to be a crisis situation. It only felt right to follow the last post with the topic of today, which is crisis communication and management. 

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Crisis communication has always excited me and writing a post about it only makes it better. So the agenda for today is to discuss Crisis communication and management. *I can already tell this will be fun*

Theoretically speaking,

In a world where information about the organization is available at its publics' disposal and they are aware of the issues and risk which, are linked with the organization, crisis communication and management is the saving grace. People now can share views and voice their opinions against the corporation, tarnishing their image. Crisis communication and management is an answer to these worries. The principal objective of crisis communication and management is to try and have control over the events and the activities of the organization, so as to avoid losing the interest of the stakeholders as well as to conform to the social, safely and environmental standards.

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The two main aspects of crisis communication and management are to prepare for the crisis that may occur and to effectively respond to the crisis situation. Some crisis can be prepared for in advance, like in the case of natural calamities or terrorist attacks while, some just appear and have to be taken care of.

To understand this with a simple example

Imagine you are at home alone, your parents and sister have gone away for the weekend. You call your friends over and throw a party. In a case like this the most common thing to happen is the mess in the house and probably a few broken things. This is our crisis situation.

What do you do? There are two things you can do, one, before the party starts, you make sure that all valuable and fragile objects are moved to a safe place and warn your friends that there can be no mess whatsoever or probably keep making sure everything is in place time and again. The second thing you can do is, tell your friends that the mess has to be cleared before your parents are back and do so. In each of the cases the situation is under control.

This would qualify as a situation where you aware of the crisis and respond effectively in order to make sure that your stakeholders (parents) have retained their trust in you.

Another situation would be, where in your parents have gone out for the weekend and you are home alone. Like an obedient child who doesn’t cause a mess, you sit at home, put on a movie and enjoy popcorn. Suddenly out of nowhere the doorbell rings. You open the door only to see your gang of friends barge into your house and scream ‘party!!!!!!!’ now there is an unannounced party in your home *hmph*.

At as luck could have it, your parents come home a few hours earlier than what was expected. CRISIS!!!!! You know you are practically dead now.

How would you manage that? This is typically a situation where in organizations are not prepared and have to take charge of the situation and bring it under control.

In cases of crisis management one thing that must be remembered is that, people lose trust. Trust is invaluable, be it from an organizational point of view of from a personal point of view. The best thing that should be done is to be honest in such situations because lying or manipulations only make it worse.

Think of it like this, you know the truth, yet your best friend is lying to you, manipulating the situation, blaming it on someone else or worse, she just denies the whole thing, would you like it? What are the chances you’d want to punch her in the face? :/

Similarly, imagine if she confessed and said sorry? Would you forgive her? You are more likely to forgive her. The idea that she is honest enough to tell you the truth and expects her fault is enough for you to regain trust in her.

                                 

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The public has to be constantly communicated with and given authentic information time and again. In this whole scenario, people shouldn’t forget to communicate with its employees, because at the end of the day, each of your employees is an ambassador of the organization. If you don’t communicate with your employees, you are the one at loss because you will not only lose the respect and trust of the employees but also a lot of mis-communication will take place, since most people turn to the employees for information (and they aren’t aware! -_-)

A crisis situation has the capability to ruin and tarnish the image and reputation of the organization. It is very important that the organization tackles this situation for its own well-being. It is crucial that the organization recognizes the problem and adopts a plan that is best suited for its reputation and maintains the trust and the interest of its stakeholders.

“It is better to be safe than sorry”
– Anonymous

Corporation Communication - Issues Management

Back with a bang. The topic of discussion today is, Issues Management.

What is issues management?

Issues management is a new branch of corporate communication that is speedily gaining importance. It has been noted that, in the past there have been many high-profile issues concerning the publics, which have caused damage to the corporations. These issues vary from environmental, health, security, terrorism etc. in such situation the public demands an explanation from the corporate. The corporations have now learned that instead of fighting the opinions that the public form about them, it would be more fruitful if they advocated their own situation directly to the public and try and become a part of the political decision making. They have realized the importance of having knowledge about public policy so that they can protect and prevent themselves from potential danger.

To put it simply, issues management is nothing but the steps that organizations take in order use the public policies to it benefit and also to save themselves from violating the policies.

Issues management takes place in the following stages.

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Environmental scanning: The environmental effects of environmental changes vary from organization to organization. These changes have to potential of proving to be a strength or a threat. The first step is to do a SWOT analysis.

Issue identification and analysis: after the process of environmental scanning, the corporate communication practitioners analyze the data and identify the problem. They then analyze the problem. The aim idea behind analyzing the problem is to see how intense and deep the problem and which key stakeholders are likely to be affected.

Issue specific response strategies: after the issue/problem has been identified, a response is selected for the problem that is the most relevant and issue specific.

Evaluation: evaluation is the last part of the strategy, after the issue management process has taken place the, the responses of the stakeholders, their opinions etc. are noted and evaluated. They evaluate how the opinions of the stakeholders have changed and the changes that have taken place.

One of the important jobs of issues management is to influence public policies.

Issues can have negative impacts on the reputations of the organization. it doesn’t take long for an issue to become a crisis. It hence essential to take preventive steps before and issue becomes a crisis and tarnishes the reputation of the organization. Managing issues have become imperative.

“Human behavior is only unpredictable and dangerous if you don’t start from humanity in the first place.”

― Stan Slap

Corporate Communication: Corporate Identity, Corporate Branding and Corporate Reputation

In the previous post we have learned how crucial it is to maintain relations with our publics, be it internal or external. This brings us to the next topic of discussion - Corporate identity, Branding and Reputation.

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Speaking of what the books say:

Corporate Identity: Corporate Identity is, the image created and constructed by the corporation about itself in the eyes of the publics. This is done in order to differentiate a company's standing and position in the eyes of its important stakeholders. One of the important aspects of corporate communication is to make sure that the corporate identity is in sync with the core values, vision, and mission of the corporation.

Corporate Reputation: Reputation means, the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something. Corporate reputation is established when the organization consistently communicates genuine, exclusive and distinctive corporate identity towards its stakeholders.

Corporate Branding: Corporate Branding is, where all the products, services, building, employee behaviour, official communication etc. are named or labeled (branded) after the same company name.

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And blah blah blah …

After simplifying this, Corporate identity is nothing how others see you. It is all the efforts you take to create an image about yourself so that people see you the way you want them to see you.

Example
As a kid you’ve always been ‘Denis the Menace’. Now you are all grown up and you realize that people have the same image about you ‘that kid who caused trouble!! *hmph*’ , you want to change that, so what do you do?

***Mission Change Image***

You start opening doors for women, show off your chivalry skills, help the blind, old and young children cross roads, be the helpful neighbour etc. Over a period of time, people start seeing you in a different light, you can hear people talk in hushed voices ‘ looks like he has changed and grown to be a good man’. Then one day, there comes a point where everyone says ‘He is a good man’. Bravo!!! Mission accomplished.

Did you see what just happened? When you started changing your image, people compared your past acts with your present acts, but over a period of time the past was forgotten and all they remembered was that you are a ‘good man’.

In the context of an organisation  one has to make sure that the image he/she wants to create has to be in sync with its own values.

Corporate Reputation: 

Now, everyone in the neighbour hood knows you as a good man, that’s the image or the identity you have created for yourself. However, this will be your reputation only if you continue behaving the way you lately have, consistently and over a period of  time.

Though your image right now is that of a good man, somewhere people still remember the 'pain' you used to be. However if you display your good nature and deeds over a prolonged period, your neighbours are bound to say things like, ‘He is a good man and he will surely help you’. That is the reputation you form. The key however is to be consistent.

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Can you connect this from an organizational point of view?

Corporate Branding: now that you have your identity and reputation in place, people connect with you. They know you and they trust you. At this point anything that is related or belonging to you is automatically associated with your image and reputation. Branding is nothing but using your name for all the things you own or having.

From an organizational point of view, a brand is nothing but the name of the organization that is used for every product and service, employee behaviour, official communication etc.

It is important that you have an image and reputation that people trust, because that is what helps your brand gain the trust of its publics. For a corporation, it is crucial that its corporate image, identity and brand are aligned.

I will see you the next time with a new topic, till then saiyonara! :D

“You don't have to fear your own company being perceived as human. You want it. People don't trust companies; they trust people.”
― Stan Slap