News and Views from the leaders in sustainable and renewal energy communication A halo headline in the New York Times for an oil company is not something you expect to see very often. It is especially rare for a company blamed, condemned, excoriated and sued for its role in a disaster that inflicts severe damage, death, economic and environmental pain and suffering. http://envirocomm.com/2012-comm-BP-makes-amends-011012.php"> This is personal. One of those new-year-reflection things. It was teed up by a journalist, writing his piece — and maybe later a book — about greening. http://envirocomm.com/2012-comm-silent-spring-010212.php> The riskiness of citing risk in the C-suite is you can get fired for it. Or you can compromise yourself and your truth-telling principles by overlooking the boss' moves to silence a complaint. Or you can isolate yourself when the chief makes a lame comment in public that wasn't in the plan. http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-whos-talking-truth-122011.php"> It's been said that journalists, men and women who work as on-the-scene reporters, serve a purpose higher than current informing; they provide the first drafts of enduring history. http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-burson-100611.php Why the legal fight between BP and Halliburton reminds me of Kramer vs. Kramer http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-information-vs-defamation-090511.php Frank Bruni in Sunday's New York Times makes an interesting comparison between politicians and aardvarks. I wonder if we can't apply the same analogy to people running corporations. http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-subsistence-diets-for-CEOs-081511.php Leaders like to win. In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins found the one-two winning combination for building a company's enduring greatness: a fierce, professional will and a comfortable, personal humility. http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-victory-seven-traits-081511.php "Quick, boss, you need to apologize!" Are these the first words out of the mouth of the chief communication officer when the CEO owns up to personal accountability for a negative situation? http://envirocomm.com/2011-CCO-as-advocate-080911.php The CEO who metaphorically jumped off a burning platform into a dark and uncertain sea earlier this year has come up for air. He holds aloft a smartphone, the product that he says is a symbol of the answer to save his company, giving a bullish interview that personifies the Finnish word that he uses to describe the company he's leading: sisu. http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-nokia-CEO-sisu.php While journalists and the public are poring through 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin's e-mails, corporate communicators may well be asking, could it happen with us? Are there e-mails bouncing around in and out of our offices that could come back to haunt us? http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-whistle-blowers-061411.php Chet Burger, one of the great corporate counselors of our time, told me at least 30 years ago that if I wanted to win the confidence of a potential client, I needed to talk less and listen more. http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-counsel-mouth-shut-051711.php Ambiguity. The word means it goes both ways. Company communicators are leery of it. They are trying to engage with stakeholders and the media in terms that won't come back to haunt them. Ambiguous messages can backfire. On the other hand, a lot of corporate executives love ambiguity. Making decisions that allow flexibility or wiggle room are fairly common in business, just as they are in the legal profession, and ambiguity is a natural opening move in legal negotiations. http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-leadership-ambiguity-042411.php The Coast Guard report on blame for the Gulf oil spill reaffirms a crisis verity: somewhere in the story there's almost always the revelation that two organizational factors — company culture and leadership communications — are significant elements in achieving workplace safety and product reliability. http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-CCOs-Cassandra-042311.php A company's stakeholders, particularly its investors, must seem to some chief executives like the pesky kids in the backseat asking the universal question, "Are we there yet?" BP's chief executive, Robert Dudley, knows his backseat of passengers and critics are not only asking if the giant oil company is back on safer ground after the disaster in the Gulf. They're asking, are you the guy to get us there? http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-are-we there-yet-031411.php Nokia CEO Stephen Elop's now-widely publicized letter to employees prompts three questions. What was he thinking? Was it an effective letter? And did he have help from a professional communicator? http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-wisdom-021011.php The New York Times ombudsman reveals how the Gray Old Lady, America's archetype of reliable journalism, was burned when she stepped across the digital divide on January 8 to deliver information on the Tucson shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords. http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-time-the-enemy-011811.php Story in Boston Globe says politicians need to spit it out. They say sound bites have to shrink to nine seconds. Politicians have to say it fast, clean, clear. They have to figure out what works with voters. Same for corporate communicators? http://envirocomm.com/2011-comm-nine-seconds-010711.php The rising challenge of risk managing — the conflicts inherent in balancing stakeholder support, competitive pressure and government oversight with the value of taking risk in any business — is a corporate communicator's call to arms. http://envirocomm.com/comm-managing-risk-120610.php Should an anxious stakeholder be given less information? All the rules and evidence available to corporate communicators confirm the opposite. http://envirocomm.com/comm-public-distrust-112410.php If it bleeds, it leads. And if the news media are the bloodied, even superficially, you've got yourself a surefire headline. Did Dudley earn the reaction? http://envirocomm.com/comm-bp-chief-slam-headline-102710.php Government gets it. Companies don't get it. What is "it"? The lesson of the BP oil saga, as judged by the New York Times' editorial, entitled "What Have They Learned?", suggests that Federal regulators will do a better job in future deep water drilling crises. When it comes to industry, the Times is not so sure. http://envirocomm.com/comm-learn-from-crises-101310.php In the rise of business executives as battlers for political office, Kimberley Strassel writes in the Wall Street Journal (Why Business Bashing Has Flopped, 9/24/10, page A21) that anti-Washington candidates are perceived as preferable to anti-business policy makers. http://envirocomm.com/comm-next-boss-a-senator-092610.php If you're the CCO when a crisis hits your company, what would you think if the CEO called you into his office to remind you to be open, straight-forward and transparent? To bring him the bad as well as the good news and to shut down anybody who tries to dissemble or hide the truth? You might leave thinking, "He sounds a lot like Arthur Page. Is he for real?" http://www.awpagesociety.com/awp_blog/comments/the_cco_advantage_when_the_boss_writes_the_crisis_playbook Rick Wartzman, who keeps alive the Peter Drucker management flame at Claremont University's Drucker Institute, raised in a Bloomberg Businessweek column the need to empower workers at the lowest level possible with both "autonomy and accountability." http://envirocomm.com/comm-culture-cohesion-083010.php Years ago, I wrote some plays. In the theater of my head, I'm seeing the CCO's possible conversation with the CEO, in the office, door closed, maybe after hours, early in the game that became a crisis: "Okay, boss, you depend on me to be smart for you on at least two things — the way information about you and the company flows — and the perceptions of our critical stakeholders." http://www.awpagesociety.com/awp_blog/comments/the_cco_talks_to_power_an_imagined_message_unheard/ "By serving as a 'culture counselor' and a conservator of corporate character to the CEO, demonstrating how a strong corporate culture shapes corporate reputation, and a leading voice in the C-suite, CCOs can use the culture-reputation nexus to align a company's workplace with its marketplace." [From AWPS slide on CCO role March 2010] http://www.awpagesociety.com/awp_blog/comments/excuse_me_professor_but_would_you_say_again_what_a_culture_counselor_does/ There are three phases of corporate crisis communications: pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis. http://envirocomm.com/comm-three-phases-of-corp-comm-062910.php In novels and the theater, the climax is the point at which escalating tension is relieved. Hamlet dies (apologizing). Burt Lancaster survives the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Boy finds girl at the top of the Empire State building. So, when will the gushing oil crisis reach climax? http://envirocomm.com/comm-oil-crisis-climax-061410.php Attention, class. Today, we hand out mid-term grades to those of you who have been handling crisis communications for the White House and for BP. http://www.envirocomm.com/comm-how-do-we-grade-oil-spill-PR-060210.php The date was April 22, 1970. Marilyn Laurie had helped New York City launch its first Earth Day. She could not have dreamed that the event she volunteered to publicize would make her the co-founder of an enduring international institution, and would put her on a personal career path as a corporate communications leader. http://envirocomm.com/comm-laurie-earth-day-042110.php This CEO lays it out: Corporate Communicators must be smart, engaged in driving the company's business mission. What's your reaction to this new perspective from the chief of Kraft Foods? http://www.envirocomm.com/comm-kraft-at-page-041510.php Three interdependent business factors — financial/economic, social/environmental, and political/government — must be combined to motivate companies to the practical application of carbon reduction and corporate sustainability. http://envirocomm.com/comm-competitiveness-041210.php Corporate greening moves up on corporate agendas as the economy strengthens and government pushes for private sector action. Here are 10 points, or reminders, for chief communications officers for 2010...and beyond. http://www.culpwrit.com/2010/01/08/a-corporate-greening-plan-for-2010/ As we edge away from what Time magazine called "the decade from Hell" and plant our feet on more favorable, if not exactly heavenly, economic grounds, communicators in C-suites will need to rethink their corporate greening options and reputation. http://envirocomm.com/comm-green-game-changes-122909.php/ Welcome to the world of Twitter, where everything you’ve relied on in corporate communications has been given racing wheels. Old crises peak faster, often hotter, engaging far more people, both important and not, and they take for granted that chief communications officers today are capable and already in the game. How will you manage your first Twitter crisis? http://envirocomm.com/comm-twitter-crisis-120409.php/ This past week I attended the annual meeting of the Drchelle, 09/28/2009 — Clinton Global Initiative. What struck me most was the call to action. Investing in young women reaps economic, social and political rewards for their families, their communities and their countries. Every story was followed by an investment of millions of dollars and countless hours by individuals, communities and corporations, including 284 commitments valued at $9.4 billion and projected to impact more than 200 million lives. Action has become intoxicating to me — because it requires courage and hope, because finding the will to act is often more difficult than acting, and because if a petite Indian woman can help millions to see then imagine what you can do. http://drchelle.wordpress.com/ Yoko Ishikura, 09/12/2009 — I spent three days in Dalian for the Meeting of New Champions organized by the World Economic Forum. It was quite a stimulating forum in that we talked more about specific actions (rather than theory) for identifying and promoting the unique positioning of Asia in the face of the global economic downturn and the trend found toward protectionism. http://www.yokoishikura.com/english/?p=671 Aron Cramer, 09/10/2009 — As the 1,000 leaders gathering for this year's event spend three days debating how to restore economic growth and social stability, the need to focus on a long-term transition to a more sustainable economy is clearer than ever. Doing this will require unprecedented cooperation among businesses and consumers. The companies that build new business models and innovative products and services will win in the reset world, and shape an economy that avoids disruptions like the one that erupted last fall.... http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/tag/world-economic-forum/ Chris Scott, 09/24/2009 — What strikes me most is the overwhelming sense of uplift and optimism here. There's a genuine sense that some of the world's biggest problems can be legitimately, persistently tackled through vast cooperation and innovative thinking. http://www.one.org/blog/category/clinton-global-initiative-2009/?aux=18 Reena Jana, 09/22/2009 — The Fifth Annual Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting kicked off today in New York, a gathering of heads of state and CEOS such as Wal-Mart’s Mike Duke and Coca-Cola’s Muhtar Kent. They come together annually to discuss and then find solutions for humanitarian problems. The opening session, which included an address by President Barack Obama, focused on the importance of innovation in the world’s recovery from the current economic downturn. http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2009/09/obama_clinton_a.html The speakers at TED create an eclectic list which, on first inspection, reveals no-one familiar at all. However, the skill with which they are picked, and the diversity of what they bring, and the professionalism of the whole event, is extraordinary. They are clearly quite an extraordinary organisation, with a great power to communicate powerful ideas. http://transitionculture.org/2009/07/27/some-notes-from-the-final-day-of-ted-global-in-oxford Steve Boehlke, 07/27/2009 — The TEDGlobal 2009 Conference in Oxford was unquestionably THE most stimulating and engaging professional conference I have ever been privileged to experience. Most notable to me was the diversity of talent, stories, projects, people, from all over the world. Immediate affirmation was everywhere of the power of contrast and differences to stimulate learning and deepen global understanding. http://politicsofcreativity.blogspot.com/2009/07/learning-with-constrast-and-differences.html Modern cities are disconnected from food prodution, making them unsustainable and vulnerable. Carolyn Steel says that food needs to return to the centre of our lives and cities. We assume that it will magically always be there in our restaurants and supermarkets, but "it's remarkable that cities get fed at all." We are as dependent on the natural world as our ancient ancestors were. http://www.hungrycitybook.co.uk/blog/?p=88 David Rothkopf, 07/03/2009 — Aspen is emerging as the American Davos... absent the stultifying earnestness of the Alpine gabfest. While sometimes you look around a room (or a big tent) and it seems like all the people speaking are people you know from Washington continuing a conversation they were having hours before in the breakfast restaurant at the Hay Adams Hotel, the crowd is smart, unafraid to ask tough questions and the overall air really does seem to involve the search for ideas. http://rothkopf.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/03/an_ideas_festival_at_a_precarious_moment Hartnett Hurst, 07/02/2009 — While the financial markets have dominated the discussion here, other conversations have been devoted to the equally challenging issues of creating the political will to support new directions in energy policy, fixing our broken health care system, creating safe and performing schools for our nation's youth, and reforming the food and agriculture industry in the United States to give consumers healthier options. http://blog.bsr.org/2009/07/next-big-ideas-postcard-from-aspen.html Washington politicians who favor legislation to fight global warming are doing what companies do when faced with a declining brand in an overcrowded marketplace: rebrand and take charge of the terms that influence perception. "It’s about security, economic security, energy security and national security", Sen. John Kerry told a Washington press event. In a congressional space where financial and health reform has sucked up 99 percent of the air, the senior senator from Massachusetts asserted that the bill is hard nosed. "It’s about security!" http://envirocomm.com/comm-global-warming-security-100609.php Sharp, effective communications to manage the perceptions of stakeholders must wrap around the company's government relationships, is key message in Harrison's speech. The Distinguished Service Award is presented to individuals who have devoted themselves to services that help build and nurture the profession. Harrison has been active in the Page Society since 1989 as board member, secretary and conference organizer, as well as its first executive director. http://envirocomm.com/comm-awpage-remarks-093009.php Sustainable development has evolved to a more specific and significant set of applications that is redefining business models, changing the scope of policy initiatives, transforming governance and expanding the voices of global citizens. Jane Nelson and Terry F. Yosie explore some of the challenges: the global economic crisis and evolution of financial and trade systems, poverty and economic development, climate change impacts, water and other global scale ecosystem stresses, and the crisis of trust and legitimacy facing businesses and governments. http://envirocomm.com/comm-transformation-060809.php Who would have thought, say five years ago, there would be a PR job in carbon capture advocacy? What's driving such an opportunity, posted by a Florida firm earlier this year? Read Bruce's recent commentary on Ron Culp's blog "Cupwrit" this blog, filled with useful career insights and direction for individuals pursuing careers in public relations. http://www.culpwrit.com/?p=410 Diogenes, the Greek philosopher who went about ancient Athens with a lantern in the daytime, looking for an honest man, was the most noted of the Cynics, a school of philosophy that preached that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. In the business world today we have the Diogenes of corporate greening. http://www.envirocomm.com/comm-be-diogenes-030909.php Chief communication officers have a new challenge. They have to understand, explain and engage with the federal handouts. http://www.envirocomm.com/comm-CCO-role-030409.php There are two alternative approaches that the Obama administration can take to regulate greenhouse gases, like the carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants. One is to craft regulations under existing legal authority, particularly the Clean Air Act. The other is to work with Congress on the enactment of legislation to address climate change. Although either approach is feasible, we believe new legislation is preferable for four reasons. http://www.envirocomm.com/comm_graham_richards_022009.php Only two companies' stock rose in the Dow last year. Coincidentally, or not, they are companies that, under the influence of the same green activist organization, have made environmental accountability a key business strategy. http://www.envirocomm.com/comm_lessons_green_lift_020109.php Why does a company communicate? How are companies — and especially American companies who work under the distinctive carbon war conditions of American democracy — communicating their climate change and sustainability strategies? http://www.envirocomm.com/comm_create_stakeholders_011709.php If you're in the C-suite of any large company, here are three strategies that can be considered for a rudimentary evaluation of how you are positioned and from that, how you will communicate in the years ahead. http://www.envirocomm.com/comm_benchmark_111508.php We have only just begun the task of reconciling the facets of climate-change impact on companies. http://www.envirocomm.com/comm_reconciliation.php Who wants to talk about corporate greening, philanthropy and social accountability in the middle of financial upheaval? http://www.envirocomm.com/comm_wallstreet.php The war on carbon is a different kind of campaign. The ultimate object — namely, carbon-containing fuel — is a critical economic mainstay. http://www.envirocomm.com/comm_carbon_scorn.php Everything a company does – where it operates, its use of raw materials and fuel, operational pollution, product stewardship that goes from design to reuse – strives to have minimum or no negative impact now or in the future. http://envirocomm.com/comm_going_green.php Corporate communications, to engage the true power brokers in the climate change arena, will be aimed at the financial community. Investors have coupled with the interests of social-issue groups, free marketers, environmental and energy businesses, to question corporate performance, commitments and risks related to global warming. http://envirocomm.com/comm_trends.php The practice of sustainability reporting has continually evolved since its origins in the 1960s and '70s to become more robust, more demanding, and more credible as a means for a company to convey the full range of its social, environmental and economic commitments. http://envirocomm.com/comm_sloan_reporting.php