How Stakeholder-Centric Pr Delivers More Value

Public Relations as a profession often carries a negative connotation. Corporate Public Relations teams and PR agencies are thought to be made up of people who spend their days working on ‘spin’: skewing information to control a story or as firewalls: standing between the free press and the forces of greed. With this impression, we are often asked about the relationship between public relations and corporate purpose. If purpose is supposed to be about authenticity and social good, then how can you have both? The landscape becomes even more challenging when you consider the growth of ESG and stakeholder capitalism (Larry Fink’s Letter to CEOs 2022:?The Power of Capitalism), which requires corporations to engage with more people in more places than ever before.

Stakeholders are equipped with communication platforms that were barely imaginable 20 years ago, and this has led to greater organization, empowerment, and agency. Today, stakeholders are aware and interested in the relations a corporation will have with other stakeholders: Investors care about the integrity of supply chain partners, customers care about labor practices, employees care about CO2 emissions, and industry media care about employee engagement, to name a few.

The narratives we share need to reflect the priorities of each stakeholder and recognize that all narratives must be complementary; it is the public relations team who is responsible for ensuring these narratives come together with the corporate purpose to make a cohesive whole.

Recognizing this interconnectedness requires that public relations do more than tailor messages to specific audiences, but rather that they operate with a systems mindset, to be holistic as they empathize with each stakeholder group, deeply understanding what they seek and how they can benefit.

Understanding this as the outcome of public relations efforts, shines a light on the complementary space that public relations and corporate purpose occupies. Further, stakeholder capitalism has its critics who raise serious concerns around which stakeholders are considered amid decision making and that it could be seen as over-reaching and akin to Victorian-era corporate paternalism, making decisions that are perceived to be beneficial while failing to give agency to those stakeholders (1).

Effective public relations practices mitigate these risks: practices that require a deep understanding of what is beneficial to stakeholders, practices that take a holistic view of the stakeholder groups as an interconnected system, and practices driven by empathy that seek to build relationships. At BCG BrightHouse, we activate and embed corporate purpose across three broad areas: culture, strategy, and communications or even more simply put: Be, Do, and Say. We begin with ‘Be’ ensuring that our clients know their distinctive strengths (and are leaning into them); second we address ‘Do’ decision making around what our clients can begin, stop, or do more of across their operations (a review lobbying efforts and contractor agreements for example); and then the third consideration is ‘Say,’ which is intentionally the last area because when you are clear on your Be and clear your Do, then Say can be sincere and more authentic.

The Public Relations function, rather than working against corporate purpose or being constrained by it, is a critical part of ensuring that purpose delivers value (ROI) to the organization.

(1)?https://instituteforpr.org/deconstructing-stakeholder-capitalism/

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Contact: Heather Askew Managing Director, BCG BrightHouse for more info