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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.
We 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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