With Parliament not sitting and politicians away for their holidays, the summer can provide some much needed time to reflect on public affairs activity. It can also be used to think about some of the bigger challenges facing the sector.
Some of these challenges are common across countries. My new book, ‘Public Affairs: A Global Perspective’, shows that despite what some may believe, there is a great deal of similarities between markets and the issues we all face. Some markets are obviously more mature and established than others but challenges remain for us all.What are some of those challenges that we can reflect on over the summer?
- The challenge of reputation – it appears that public affairs suffers at the hands of a poor reputation. We all have a responsibility for doing something about this and we could possibly start by reclaiming the ‘L’ word – lobbying. This poor reputation often has a business and / or political element but the sector takes the hit. The way out is usually statutory regulation but its effectiveness can be questioned.
- Growth of government intervention – even the former Conservative Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine, admits that all governments intervene but some just do it a little more explicitly than others. But intervention is not always well thought through. Some could see more intervention as an opportunity for public affairs. If enough organisations are worried about what governments might do then they will turn to the experts in political engagement to help them. The flip side though is the challenge of government’s being prepared to listen and engage. More active governments are often ‘aggressive’ towards businesses despite what they might claim and what their motives are.
- Client reputations – it is becoming an increasingly full time job to manage all aspects of an organisations’ reputation. From the behaviour and comments of senior executives, through to relations with customers, the way in which stakeholders are engaged and onto how crises are dealt with, reputation management and protection is critical to the success of an organisation.The real challenge, however, is ensuring that the political element and potential fallout from the reputation mix is considered when decisions are taken, often by senior management. The politics and potential governmental matters are too often ignored. There is often good coverage to be gained by a government that is prepared to take action against an organisation which is invoking the ire of the media and population.
- Grassroots engagement – an anti-politics movement seems to be gaining ground. The Brexit vote in the UK but also the rise of Trump in the US are just two examples. Anti-politics gives rise to unexpected outcomes and make governments look out of touch. As a consequence, there will be an increasing want and need by governments to hear genuine voices. So this means public affairs strategies need to be able to motivate and engage with the grassroots of an organisation. Some bodies already to this but the challenge is when it becomes a more mainstream expectation and, critically, need.
- The growth of data – this is not just a challenge for the public affairs sector but for many the shift from a very traditional, analogue way of working will be a massive leap into the dark. The need for data will come on two levels. The first is that which will helps inform the strategy. The data may be about audiences or who the most relevant stakeholders are. The second has more of an internal focus and will mean that public affairs can compete meaningfully with internal audiences. Data will help public affairs to talk to senior management in a way that they can understand. Always being the ‘special case’ may not be an option for public affairs for too much longer, especially in larger organisations.