Recession Communications
Now more than ever, direct, candid and substantive communications are required tostrengthen business relationships. They form the foundation for business survival andfuture success. In this brief paper, Acumen Strategic Communications presents the case for "Recession Communications."
Content
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OMMUNICATIONS FOR A DEMANDING WORLD
Recession Communications
Imperatives for Corporate Leaders
Now more than ever, direct, candid and substantive communications are required to strengthen business relationships. They form the foundation for business survival and future success.
The immediate impulse to reduce communications can exacerbate this crisis situation, and threaten corporate viability.
Communications are not optional
Prescient executives recognize that today’s uncertainties require a crisp business focus communicated to critical stakeholders through effective, ongoing outreach. These corporate leaders are maintaining — and, indeed, increasing — their contact with key audiences. They’re creating precise messages and media to address the well-defined concerns of customers, investors and employees. And they are undertaking these aggressive efforts despite tighter budgets, smaller staffs and demanding timelines.
Seven keys to success
Upwards of 80 percent of all CEOs polled worldwide earlier this year say the credit crisis (and the resulting global recession) is affecting their business. Another survey of corporate leaders found that half believe the structure of their industry will change dramatically because of the crisis. Each corporation faces its own set of challenges in managing through the current uncertainty and communicating its actions. Each corporation’s strategic messages will be unique, as will the information individual stakeholder groups expect. But the fundamentals of recession communications strategies are based on seven keys important to all companies caught in the storm. I N S I G H T — Recessions alter stakeholder opinions and priorities. You must clearly understand how these changed attitudes relate to your own company and its products or services. C L A R I T Y — Your communications must be clear, concise and easily understood by all of your key stakeholder groups. T I M E L I N E S S — You must precede news and rumor. You can never fully correct a media misstatement, and the drip-method of information delivery only
AcumenStrategies.com New York 917-843-0056 Boston 617-771-1212
prolongs the agony in a bad news environment. I N C L U S I V ENESS — You must simultaneously inform all stakeholders of significant news. The grapevine can be more extensive, faster, and less accurate than you think.
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management plan is working.
OMMUNICATIONS FOR A DEMANDING WORLD
Recession Communications...
L E A D E R S H I P — You and your leadership team must remain actively engaged in delivering the company’s strategic messages as well as evidence that the recession D I A L O G U E — Your stakeholder outreach must be a two-way street. Enabling true dialogue enhances your credibility and increases confidence in corporate leadership.
Business survival in this economic environment requires ongoing communications that precisely address stakeholder interests.
VA L U E — As your customers, investors and employees grapple with economic uncertainties, they reexamine their priorities. Messages must emphasize your competitive corporate value and how this aligns with your stakeholders’ interests. Using these keys in their communications strategies, companies can successfully work through this global crisis and deliver messages that engage stakeholders and inspire confidence in a positive future.
The Acumen Advantage
Acumen communications professionals have been through many crises, and we've favorably weathered them all. We are strategic. We see the broad perspective. We understand how corporations must integrate stakeholders’ widely diverse interests into a cohesive strategic initiative. We are very tactical, too. We understand that a successful communications plan requires carefully devised and precisely executed components that reinforce one another and help achieve immediate and long term objectives. Acumen has the right mix of skills, experience and business structure to help companies achieve their objectives cost effectively. We’re knowledgeable communicators, each with more than 20 years of corporate or agency experience. We plan, write, organize, pitch, strategize, execute and evaluate. We are nimble, perceptive and prudent. In this environment, it is natural for companies to constrict organizational size and budgets. But in doing so, they risk sacrificing the loyalty of key stakeholders. Acumen can deliver essential communications capabilities that will allow you to tighten up, compete and prevail.
AcumenStrategies.com New York 917-843-0056 Boston 617-771-1212
References PriceWaterhouseCoopers 2009 12th annual global CEO survey presented at the World Economic Forum, Davos, January, 2009 “Recession Response: Why Companies Are Making the Wrong Moves,” Booz & Company, January, 2009
OMMUNICATIONS FOR A DEMANDING WORLD
Recession Communications
Imperatives for Corporate Leaders
Now more than ever, direct, candid and substantive communications are required to strengthen business relationships. They form the foundation for business survival and future success.
The immediate impulse to reduce communications can exacerbate this crisis situation, and threaten corporate viability.
Communications are not optional
Prescient executives recognize that today’s uncertainties require a crisp business focus communicated to critical stakeholders through effective, ongoing outreach. These corporate leaders are maintaining — and, indeed, increasing — their contact with key audiences. They’re creating precise messages and media to address the well-defined concerns of customers, investors and employees. And they are undertaking these aggressive efforts despite tighter budgets, smaller staffs and demanding timelines.
Seven keys to success
Upwards of 80 percent of all CEOs polled worldwide earlier this year say the credit crisis (and the resulting global recession) is affecting their business. Another survey of corporate leaders found that half believe the structure of their industry will change dramatically because of the crisis. Each corporation faces its own set of challenges in managing through the current uncertainty and communicating its actions. Each corporation’s strategic messages will be unique, as will the information individual stakeholder groups expect. But the fundamentals of recession communications strategies are based on seven keys important to all companies caught in the storm. I N S I G H T — Recessions alter stakeholder opinions and priorities. You must clearly understand how these changed attitudes relate to your own company and its products or services. C L A R I T Y — Your communications must be clear, concise and easily understood by all of your key stakeholder groups. T I M E L I N E S S — You must precede news and rumor. You can never fully correct a media misstatement, and the drip-method of information delivery only
AcumenStrategies.com New York 917-843-0056 Boston 617-771-1212
prolongs the agony in a bad news environment. I N C L U S I V ENESS — You must simultaneously inform all stakeholders of significant news. The grapevine can be more extensive, faster, and less accurate than you think.
Acumen C
Page 2
management plan is working.
OMMUNICATIONS FOR A DEMANDING WORLD
Recession Communications...
L E A D E R S H I P — You and your leadership team must remain actively engaged in delivering the company’s strategic messages as well as evidence that the recession D I A L O G U E — Your stakeholder outreach must be a two-way street. Enabling true dialogue enhances your credibility and increases confidence in corporate leadership.
Business survival in this economic environment requires ongoing communications that precisely address stakeholder interests.
VA L U E — As your customers, investors and employees grapple with economic uncertainties, they reexamine their priorities. Messages must emphasize your competitive corporate value and how this aligns with your stakeholders’ interests. Using these keys in their communications strategies, companies can successfully work through this global crisis and deliver messages that engage stakeholders and inspire confidence in a positive future.
The Acumen Advantage
Acumen communications professionals have been through many crises, and we've favorably weathered them all. We are strategic. We see the broad perspective. We understand how corporations must integrate stakeholders’ widely diverse interests into a cohesive strategic initiative. We are very tactical, too. We understand that a successful communications plan requires carefully devised and precisely executed components that reinforce one another and help achieve immediate and long term objectives. Acumen has the right mix of skills, experience and business structure to help companies achieve their objectives cost effectively. We’re knowledgeable communicators, each with more than 20 years of corporate or agency experience. We plan, write, organize, pitch, strategize, execute and evaluate. We are nimble, perceptive and prudent. In this environment, it is natural for companies to constrict organizational size and budgets. But in doing so, they risk sacrificing the loyalty of key stakeholders. Acumen can deliver essential communications capabilities that will allow you to tighten up, compete and prevail.
AcumenStrategies.com New York 917-843-0056 Boston 617-771-1212
References PriceWaterhouseCoopers 2009 12th annual global CEO survey presented at the World Economic Forum, Davos, January, 2009 “Recession Response: Why Companies Are Making the Wrong Moves,” Booz & Company, January, 2009
