Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications Andrea Hagelgans warns of the woeful lack of preparedness by CCOs and CMOs for the issues that will pile up before November 5.
Since 2020, companies and brands have been drawn into a near constant frenzy around societal and political issues. Voting rights, racial justice protests, Israel-Hamas war, Russia-Ukraine war, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, attacks on DEI and Pride marketing, the January 6 insurrection and, most recently, an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
These are just a few of the situations requiring CCOs, CMOS and all C-suite leaders to gather and assess if and how to respond. Each event requires a rapid analysis of the situation, an understanding of the competitive landscape and a good read on stakeholder positions followed by flawless execution and smart coordination across all teams to prevent any unintended consequences.
What happens next? Often company leaders breathe a sigh of relief and move quickly back to their day-to-day. In my experience, very few analyze the decision-making process to apply learnings and evolve the system by issuing an after-action report.
Instead, too many leaders at organizations large and small still operate under the misguided belief that each of these events is a one-off and not a pattern. But if you were to examine the number of times company leaders had to come together to analyze an issue not directly related to their core business, you’d see dozens of one-offs.
We’re headed into a highly polarizing election season. Recent polling shows that 65% expect more political violence in the coming weeks.
Instead of avoiding the outside noise, companies should be planning: If you had an opportunity to learn from 2016 and 2020, and all the other moments, what would you do differently?
As a counselor to C-suites, here’s what I would love to see companies thinking about this time around:
1. What issues are core to your company’s purpose and values? What issues are more secondary but may have stakeholders attached to them? If your company has spoken out previously, take an inventory on when, where and how to better understand the expectations you may have already established with your stakeholders, whether internal (employees) or external (investors and customers).
2. Do you understand your culture as well as the expectations of all your stakeholders? Some companies have built a brand leading the pack and speaking out on issues. The majority, though, prefer to be mid-pack or never engage. It is helpful to know your culture.
3. Are you set up for information sharing across teams? If not, what can you do to begin to build that muscle? For example, a new job posting or shift in job titles, usually under the purview of HR, can trigger a spate of media stories that may need to be managed by communications and other teams. Similarly, a decision by government relations to stay silent on a topic, or speak out, may create reputational risk among employees. Managing risk is about understanding all possible risks and planning accordingly.
4. Do you have systems in place to monitor the issues and how your peers and competitors may be engaging? In the age of digital media and activism, issues move quickly. It is now standard for companies to receive media calls asking for the CEO or company perspective on a major world or national event. Many companies immediately begin monitoring their peers to inform decision-making. This is not to suggest that you should mindlessly follow the pack. But it does help inform strategies.
If there is one industry-wide lesson at the top of the after-action report, it is that there is no distinction between “good” and “bad” issues. Every issue has the potential to be politicized in a hyper-polarized environment. Leaders need to think in terms of authenticity—what issues align with their brand values. But even then, companies must understand that unprecedented events seem to happen every week at this point. Building a readiness infrastructure and decision-making rubric can make what seem like complicated times much simpler.
About Andrea
Andrea specializes in strategic and crisis communications and issue advocacy. She works with clients in corporate, government and nonprofit spaces. Before Avoq, Andrea served as managing director of U.S. social issues engagement at Edelman, where she advised CEOs and the full C-Suite of Fortune 100 companies on navigating complex social and political issues. Prior to Edelman, Andrea was appointed communications director and then senior advisor for strategic planning by former Mayor Bill de Blasio from 2014-2018 — making her the highest-ranking communications official to the former mayor. She has worked in-house at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, as well as a consultant to the national office and its affiliates.
Andrea is from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, but she and her husband have lived on the Upper West Side for more than 20 years. She is the mom to two boys and two dogs. She has run 13 marathons with a personal best of 3:21 and recently completed the Abbott World Marathon Majors’ six stars series. She is also a NASM certified personal trainer.
