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| ©2008 Forrest W. Anderson |
http://forrestwanderson.blogspot.com/
Institute for Public Relations/
The Lean Communicator/
Market Development Group
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Forrest W. Anderson combines management disciplines, such as management strategy and market research with communications to develop messages that work for management as well as multiple stakeholders. The following paragraphs discuss what it is like to work with Forrest.
After working with us you will have the foundation you need to develop stronger relationships with the stakeholders that are key to the success of your business through both words and actions. This will include a coordinated set of messages that are persuasive to your stakeholders and that work in unison to help you achieve your business goals. You will also know which stakeholder relationships are at risk and what actions you should take to strengthen those relationships.
Through years of communications audits commissioned by CEOs, we have seen that the key challenge senior management faces is balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders, such as investors, customers, employees, communities, activist groups and others, against each other, so each group wins, even though they frequently compete for the same resources.
This challenge manifests itself both in policy and communications. Achieving a win-win-win situation requires not only balancing needs through actions but communicating to each group in a way that addresses their primary interests, while not ignoring the primary interests of other groups.
We work with organizations that are honestly trying to achieve this balance. They are not trying to maximize shareholder gain at the expense of customers or employees. But they find themselves a bit overwhelmed by the communications challenge the situation presents.
I have a passion for helping organizations manage these challenges.
- We start by learning what management is trying to achieve for the organization, which stakeholders management believes are the most important and what they think messages to these stakeholders should be. This will involve management interviews and reviewing planning documents. Sometimes, instead of management interviews, we will meet with the entire management team for a full- or half-day workshop.
- We learn what the stakeholder groups want from the organization and how well these groups feel the organization is delivering. We use research the organization might have done or is doing, and we also do primary research, such as one-on-one interviews, focus groups and surveys to inform this phase. An important part of this process is not only identifying what stakeholders want, but the language they use to describe those wants.
- We integrate the information from the management interviews and the stakeholder research to develop messages that express management’s point of view in the language of the individual stakeholders. We also assess all the messages looking for common language, to develop overarching messages and to ensure the messages do not conflict with each other.
- We go back to a few members of each stakeholder group to test the messages.
- We meet to share our findings with management and make recommendations on implementing the messages and other actions management can take to improve stakeholder relationships.
- We check back with management in two to three months time to assess progress.
We bridge the gap between management and communications. We have been helping organizations develop compelling communications that help them reach their business objectives for more than 30 years.
With an MBA in marketing and management policy from Kellogg and 30 years in public relations, primarily in senior account-planning and insight positions, we have brought targeted strategies and results to organizations throughout the United States.
Now that you know how we work, click on this link to see our Case Studies.
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