Stay Close to Your Stakeholders and Communicate Often During The Trump Presidency.
Weathering the Trump Presidency: Be Your Stakeholders’ Go-To Source
This WPNT Ltd. article from 2017 remains relevant today. While some of the references are dated in “Weathering the Trump President: Be Your Stakeholders’ Go-To Source” the fundamental counsel is rock solid. Stay close to your stakeholders and amp up communications in this time of whip saw events and announcements.
By Stephanie Nora White
It started with now-infamous tweets by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump expressing a combination of disdain, outrage and condemnation for Fortune 500 companies from Boeing to Apple.
Before panicked corporate executives could decide what to do if they found their organizations in the crosshairs of a tweetstorm by now-President Trump, his controversial executive orders are bringing new pressures to respond or even act.
“Corporate chiefs are now dealing with the harrowing new reality of mass protests—and potential boycotts—if they go along with some of Trump’s more controversial policies, and the possibility of stock-tanking Twitter tirades from the president if they speak out,” Vanity Fair contributor Bess Levin recently wrote. “Rock, meet hard place.”
The one constant is the initial uncertainty about how to respond. Almost every client of our consultancy—whether in the pharmaceutical, private equity or manufacturing industries—is concerned and has solicited our counsel on what to do if their organizations are lambasted by Trump. Whether your approach is proactive or under-the-radar, we offer one piece of overarching advice: Stay close to your stakeholders.
No matter what flies from Trump’s twitter feed or the Oval Office, leaders need for their employees, investors, customers, suppliers and communities to look to the company first as the trusted source of information on its philosophy, positions and plans. How successful your organization is during the Trump presidency may largely depend on how well you regularly connect with these important constituencies.
How can you do that? Here are some high-level tips:
To engage or not to engage? It depends on your company, its size relative to its industry, and probably on the industry itself. As The New York Times recently detailed, some industries (namely technology) are out in front, at least right now, largely because of their reliance on highly skilled immigrant employees who are being threatened by the immigration ban. Other sectors such as finance and telecom have been more publicly muted, probably because of their fears of regulatory backlash. Despite Starbucks’ explicit response, most organizations should take a measured approach. If you find your organization at the center of a Trump tweetstorm, a restrained, somewhat assuaging response along the lines of, “We welcome face-to-face communication and the opportunity to work with the administration in support of our country and our company” is likely the best approach.
Far more important than whether or how you publicly respond to the Trump administration is how you engage with your stakeholders. They need to hear from you first – and regularly. If you haven’t already done so, consider an opening communication that acknowledges the unconventional nature of Trump’s presidency, but that underscores your organization’s hope that both your company and the country will prosper. You should also outline how you will interact with Trump if provoked. (If you’re never going to respond to criticisms of your company on Twitter, tell your stakeholders that.) But make it clear that your first priority is to communicate regularly with them about what’s on the company’s agenda, what’s important to the organization and how you’ll approach any challenges that stem from the presidency. Then make sure those communications happen.
How you communicate will be influenced by your organization’s culture, its size and how you already share information. It could be via more regular interactions with investors, regularly scheduled employee updates in face-to-face meetings, emails or Intranet posts, and/or more frequent communications with customers.
A systematic approach will require a communications apparatus and schedule. It also will demand time, discipline, and forethought because success could ride on being two or three steps ahead of what the Trump administration says or does next. Given Trump’s unpredictability, that’s obviously easier said than done, but brainstorming potential scenarios that could face your industry or company and plotting in advance how you’d respond is a good start.
The payoff will make that effort worth it because a successful program can allow you to jettison your anxiety and keep the melodrama coming out of the White House in perspective. Your company’s position will be secure because the people and organizations your business depend upon will know that meaningful information about your intentions will consistently come from the mothership. Which is as it should be because all the sensationalism, controversy and national handwringing aside, you lead your organization and set its policy – not Donald Trump.