Case Study #40: Mitigating Tarnished Reputation and Credibility

Brand success is also dependent on the brand's stakeholders. But, what if a brand's most visible stakeholders mess up? Customers migrate to a competitor. Shareholders shed stock. Problem mitigation costs rise. The brand is mocked and teased in the social media universe, as well as Saturday Night Live.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn hired a public relations firm for advice after his arrest for sexual assault. Clearly, this problem is much bigger than a lapse of judgement in a New York hotel.

While Strauss-Kahn's blunder was not directly associated with his IMF responsibilities, his behavior, most likely, directly violated the organization's values. Also, no one wants to elect a public official with questionable values. But, ambitions die hard; Strauss-Kahn wants to salvage what's remaining of his reputation and credibility.

Mitigating tarnished reputation and credibility usually involves the investigation of sources causing those issues. Some sources are credible; Some aren't. And a communication plan should address all of them with proportional emphasis. Concurrently, it's important to establish a "future state" of the "brand" (entity or person). Regardless of the mishap, how does the affected entity or person"deal with the now" while re-baselining personal and professional goals? Crises consume the resources of organizations and entities; But, crises also drive the urgency to adapt strategies for improved tomorrows.

If one does the crime, one does the time. While image management may not help in a prison environment, pre-lock up communication efforts may help the improved tomorrows of close ones directly impacted by poor decisions.

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Case Study #39: Building Brands Through Social Impact

Two years ago, I published a case study about TOMS Shoes. Since September 2010, TOMS has surpassed its social committment -"With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One" - by giving over one million pairs of new shoes to children all over the world. Keep up the great work, Blake Mycoskie!

Brand building based on points of product, service and channel differentiation is rather antiquated. Stakeholders care about brand impacts peripheral to the income statement. TOMS provides compelling product descriptions to secure sales. However, TOMS mostly discusses health risks of moving around barefoot, explains progress with global shoe giving and provides transparency into the organization's stakeholders. TOMS is not only socially responsible and accountable; TOMS is a great brand.

What if a Chief Marketing Officer walked into his Chief Operating Officer's office and recommended: "We should re-position our brand based on a national or global cause." Let's assume the CMO and COO work in the food quickservice (QSR) industry. National or global causes can be: feeding hunger, obesity levels in young adults and increased risk of diabetes. Operational plans can be designed from the agreed upon causes.

The pervasiveness of bullying in American schools saddens me. A lot of this harrassment is done online. In response to the White House Conference for Bullying Prevention, Facebook created a suite of tools to protect users from bullying. Facebook can certainly use the functional enhancement to better demostrate an overall committment to responsible online communication.

Cause-based brand strategies may be challenging to implement in established companies. When dollars drive decisions, a "one for one" strategy may be a tough sell. Even if a company cannot build a cause-based brand, it should invest more in helping the world be a better place.

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Case Study #38: We Shouldn't Dance In the Streets Yet, Even If We Know How To.

Most current economic and market metrics say we are recovering from The Great Recession. When can someone of intellectual credibility and unequivocal wisdom say: "We're back, baby. Let's dance."? Champagne corks are popped, relieved laughter spreads across the world. The next morning, we wake up, renewed and empowered. Everything is going to be okay.

Unfortunately, the optimism about recovery isn't as upbeat as we'd like. Looking in the rearview mirror to look for "blind spots" in political, economic and social decisionmaking is an exhausting activity. Celebrating recovery based on the superficial communication of economic and market metrics is simply ignorant. So, when can we dance? When does the music start playing again?

When we read. When we pay attention. When we treat people the way we want them to treat us. When we help others without expecting anything in return. When we appreciate the non-material impacts of our efforts. When we smile. When we laugh. When we hug. When we pet our neighbor's dog (not the neighbor). When we fall in love. The list goes on. I imagine that when we prioritize those simple, effortless things a bit more, we will hear the music and our feet will then move to a beat.

I dedicate this blog to those brands or entities who get their stakeholders to prioritize the simple, effortless things in life. Enjoy.

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Case Study #37: “Read My Lips”: U.S. Government’s Approach to FY 2011 Budget Planning Lacks Long-Term Vision and Analytic Sensibility

We have heard support for and protests to the $61 billion of cuts for the remainder of the government’s fiscal year. Have we ever thought about the people actually working on the budget? I am talking about the exacerbated, most likely, exhausted analysts of multi-versioned, multi-tabbed, macros-and-password enabled spreadsheets which objectively represent the decisionmaking aptitude of the officials we elected into office a few years ago. Jacob Lew from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has provided some high-level transparency behind the budget data, and the budget outlook published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) was rather interesting, but we all know that the devil is in the details. What are really in Cells AA189 and AB189, and why do they change Sheet188 in Book79 when updated with different values above a certain threshold?

The budget exercise happening in our nation’s capitol lacks analytic sensibility. Unacceptable levels of bias, emotion and politicking have debased a process that should be as objective and analytical as possible.

I haven’t encountered a communication touchpoint that clearly explicates the breakdown of the $61 billion of cuts immediately after the bill was passed in the House of Representatives, and the size of the cuts in context of the FY 2011 proposed budget. Have you? Number-heavy articles should be supplemented with simple, data visualization elements which can be readily absorbed by the reader. The confluence of numeric information in these articles makes the budget cut analysis rather nebulous.

Where are the risk analyses and for each of the cuts that have been proposed? By cutting the State Department by $X billion, the following A, B and C impacts may ensue, and the mitigation plan will be D, E and F. By cutting the Department of Education by $X billion, the following impacts may ensue, and the mitigation plan will be G, H and I. Most everyone understands the politically emotional and strategic reasons for the proposed cuts, but the taxpaying public cares about the how the cuts may impact them. Since I am not a bug under the table, I am not sure if these risk analyses are being conducted. If they are, they should be effectively communicated so the cuts aren’t perceived to be haphazard and irresponsible.

Also, I believe there is a negativity and shame communicated about the government’s budget crisis. The issue of overlays exceeding revenues has been persistent for years. Rather than position the budget cutting activity as a necessary, “we needed this yesterday” punishment for years of recklessness, everyone involved in the process should coalesce on the long-term economic, social, technological and environmental benefits of the cuts. When a team can agree to a long-term view of an important action, they can better align on the near-term tactics to achieve that goal.

Our elected officials are working very hard to avoid a potential government shutdown next month, and there are some signs that the Republicans and Democrats are playing well in the sandbox. Let’s hope that the next few weeks on the Hill will be less about pre-election season politicking and more about the vision of where this great country will be in ten years.

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Case Study #36: NFL’s Recent Policy Enforcement Yields Business Accountability Opportunities

Several external (recessions) and internal (resistance to change) forces inhibit brands from successfully executing innovative business strategies. This blog profiles brands that overcame those forces to competitively enter markets, profitably grow market share or mitigate deleterious impacts of brand dilution. But, what happens when brands operate under increased enforcement of an existing policy?

Last month, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell fined three football players a total of $175,000 for illegal contact on the field. Goodell notified all 32 teams that increased discipline – including possible first-offense suspension – would be imposed on players that deliver illegal hits to the head or neck of an opposing player. The commissioner’s memo was accompanied by this video: http://cli.gs/N9qjSq

There was some heated debate about Goodell’s enforcement of existing contact policy, particularly from the NFL’s main stakeholders: its fans. A subset of these fans is the customer base: season ticket holders, corporate sponsors and national networks. These customers help sustain the NFL business model.

Did you know that 70% of each team’s revenue is shared equally among all teams (“The highly successful NFL business model, The Casual Truth, February 8, 2010)? This includes money from TV deals, sponsorships, ticket sales and merchandise. The NFL negotiates all of its television contracts as a single entity. Its latest contract, which will run until the end of 2011, will bring in $3.7 billion a year from several national networks (“In a league of its own”, The Economist, April 27, 2006).

In the current scenario where game officials are further empowered to police the field, the following “worst case” impacts may ensue:

1. Frequent interruption of play as game officials evaluate whether a hit is illegal or not
2. Viewership attrition of certain fan micro segments if they feel they won’t see “smash-mouthed, hard-nosed” football anymore
3. Reduction of advertising and sponsorship dollars because target audience and reach may decline
4. Less NFL revenue may affect future plans for construction and upgrades to stadiums
5. NFL may have difficulty negotiating potential demands from the player’s union

While I completely agree with Goodell’s enforcement of existing contact policy, the NFL still has a business to operate. To mitigate revenue attrition while upholding player safety, the NFL may consider these solutions:

1. Use the money collected from the fines to create a fund for the rehabilitation and recovery of young ex-athletes suffering from post career injuries
2. Align with network partners to nationally market and advertise this fund
3. Leverage advanced training technologies so players have the strength and ability to withstand collisions
4. Align with network partners to show transparency of what players do to meet the increased physical demands of the sport
5. Work with helmet and padding manufacturers to improve the quality, durability and reliability of the equipment
6. Align with network partners to demonstrate a commitment to safety that is associated with, but peripheral to policy mandates

Brands can still innovate in the face of policy enforcement. These policies need to be distilled and effectively communicated to ALL stakeholders to avoid discontinuity with current business success and positive brand perception.

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Case Study #35: Obama’s Home Office on Pennsylvania Avenue Is Positioned to Drive High Performance Government

One of the changes I alluded to in the announcement post was that I moved to DC to pursue a career in politics. Just kidding! That wasn’t very funny, I know. What is funny is that quite a few people ask ME for directions as if they think I KNOW where I am going around here (note to self: Buy a GPS).

Speaking of my excellent sense of direction, I got completely lost on my way to a birthday party in DC. I ended up near the White House, several blocks away from the celebration. The White House looked so beautiful and peaceful that evening, so I took in the view for a few minutes before I hailed a cab to get me to my final destination.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Case Study #35 is about the White House, specifically the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB isn’t a brand; It certainly doesn’t innovate, manufacture or distribute products. It doesn’t turn a profit. How is the OMB an example of Stratelysis?

Securing investment for any strategy requires the selling of the strategy to those who have the money to pay for it. As cross-functional teams are formed, NDAs are signed and data is pulled, a few people get the fun job of internal sales. In several cases, business plans are thoughtfully developed by a consortium of subject matter experts, mostly with promising numbers, irrefutable research and maybe a few bullet points about risks and contingencies.

I came across a document published by the OMB called Performance and Management. To deliver high-performance government to the American people, the President appointed a Chief Performance Officer to pursue three performance management strategies:

1. Use Performance Information to Lead, Learn and Improve Outcomes
2. Communicate Performance Coherently and Concisely for Better Results and Transparency
3. Strengthen Problem-Solving Networks

The document proceeds to lay out the Agency High Priority Performance goals. For the most part, each government agency provided their mission statement, near-and-long term strategies and performance goals to execute the strategies. Last night (yes, on Saturday), I counted over 100 unique metrics for 23 different agencies. For several of the agencies, the performance goals in the Performance and Management document represent a subset of all of their total performance goals.

I learned some very good lessons from this document:

Lesson #1: Everyone and anyone affected by strategies should be addressed in strategy statements.

Lesson #2: Strategy statements that are succinct, compelling and inclusive will trump a fancy, multi-colored, chart-heavy presentation.

Lesson #3: Data without context is garbage.

Lesson #4: There is no need to force metrics against all strategies; Some strategies can be measured while others can’t. That doesn’t mean that an un-measurable strategy should be abandoned if its effectiveness can be proven in non-quantitative, perhaps, empirical ways.
I am confident that OMB is structured to successfully deliver high performance government to the American people, but it can’t hurt to still stress the following:

Agency Alignment: Monitoring over 20 agencies with 100+ unique metrics is not an easy job. Designing the organizational support for the Chief Performance Officer to keep agencies accountable to high priority performance goals will be very important as a high performance government is created.

Reaction to Change: Various external and internal changes can affect the execution of an agency strategy. The OMB must establish specific rules and conditions by which a goal can be increased, decreased or eliminated. It may also considering establishing specific rules and conditions by which an entire strategy can be completely revised. In the private sector, for example, several companies drastically reduced their product sales forecasts during the Great Recession.

Dashboards: This is one of the greatest inventions I have ever seen. Agency contacts connected to their OMB counterparts should have an online, collaborative tool where information about the goals is exchanged during a specific time every month. For example, the agency contact submits the data and the OMB uploads the data into a dashboard where the agency contact can immediately see how they are tracking against their high performance goals.

External Communications: As agencies are executing on goals, OMB should leverage the local and national media to communicate wins against those specific goals. Giving constituents and stakeholders the visibility into how their taxpayer dollars are being used will improve the trust levels they have with the government.

This is definitely easier said than done, but at least there is a mandate from above to lead the government into a behavior of accountability and transparency with their “customer base”: The American people. Regardless of who wins in the upcoming election, this mandate should not only be upheld, but reformed as the people who are part of it see opportunities for improvement.

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Stratelysis Announcement

I apologize for the hiatus I have taken from updating my Stratelysis blog. This year has been full of changes for me, but after all the “blood, sweat and tears” I placed in the implementation of this blog (well, more tears than blood and sweat), I am reviving Stratelysis. Also, quite a few of you have inspired me to continue to write. Thank you for your encouragement.

Before I post Case #35, I have a few points I’d like to address with the Stratelysis reader community.

I welcome any positive word-of-mouth you can spare about my blog, but I have noticed some inconsistency in how it is pronounced. That is all my fault because I never explained the pronunciation. Oops. It sounds like this:

Stra: It should roll off your tongue as if you were saying the word “strategy”
Te: See comment above
Le: This means “the” in French
Sis: This is the affectionate abbreviation for “sister”

I also notice very high engagement levels from universities, graduate schools and agencies. I would really appreciate it if you contact me if you wish to use the content in your work. It’s less about me wanting something in return and more about building relationships with my readers.

I agree – The site is a bit of an eyesore. Over time, I will do whatever I can to improve the user experience for all of you.

So, let the show begin!

Regards,
Anup

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