Burson-Marsteller

What’s happening in your backyard?

by Bill Royce on 25th March 2010 • The Cast Blog

If, like me, you follow proposed industrial developments to see which have a smooth trip and which are abandoned due to local resistance, I guess you see three or four key success factors that are common in country after country:

1. Early engagement
2. Open consultation
3. Effective reporting
4. Local benefit

How this is framed and defined will vary, but I doubt that any major development project is approved without satisfying local authorities and regulatory bodies on 2-3 of these four core issues.

As communications professionals, where should we take a stance on this, and how can we help? The launch today by BM EMEA’s Energy, Environment and Climate Change practice of LOCATION! hopefully answers some of these questions.

Ask yourself this: having bought a home in an environmentally safe location 10 years ago, would you feel OK if the government now approved a nuclear power station less than 3 miles away?

Consider different but difficult issues with other clients and industries. A chlorine plant on the bay. A petrochemical refinery at the mouth of the river. A semiconductor plant on the fringe of town. A massive new retail complex five miles away. The world’s largest wind farm on the hills you see from your bedroom windows.

How would you feel? It’s one thing when other communities are affected, but what if you had a chemical spill in your backyard? How would you respond, and what would you expect from the responsible company? How would you and your family judge the company response and behaviour?

This is the thought pattern and behaviour that we hope to encourage and foster with the LOCATION! approach. See the world though stakeholders’ eyes, not simply through those of our clients.

The sad fact is that industry sometimes makes mistakes or experiences unforeseen accidents. 99% of risks are effectively managed, but errors happen. Some have huge and horrific consequences, short and long term – and sometimes affecting successive generations, as alleged for Bhopal in India. Human activity risks human error – let alone technological.

So where can we help?

First, we need to align with local communities and represent their interests for consideration by our clients.

Secondly, we need to use the consultation processes to help our clients better understand and respond to local views.

Third, we need to build shared benefit approaches between our clients and their communities.

Finally, we need to examine how our clients can contribute to value creation locally, building opportunities for local supply of goods and services.

Where this approach works well, it is enormously productive in terms of both revenue and reputation – but the inverse is true as well. Get this wrong and it can impact worldwide. Get it right and builds substantial goodwill and social capital.

There’s no magic or rocket science in this. It’s common sense, best practice and an honest acknowledgment of what matters to people in their close, personal neighbourhoods.

Please take and adapt the templates for your local markets, and have confidence that the framework does work – we know this, because we have won new clients simply adapting this deck to suit their needs.

Any questions, comments or requests – just send me a note and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Bill

---