How to think about GR
What’s GR in the first place?
Before we start blogging about specific aspects of GR management, we want to spend some ink on the boundaries and substance of Government Relations. In fact, we found that one of the main challenges of GR management practice is a rather fuzzy understanding of what GR really is about. It starts with the term itself: Is it Government Relations? Or Public Affairs? External relations? Public Policy? We also see a rich variety with regard to the scale of GR operations: While some companies focus on risk management and try to maximize impact of very limited resources, others are happy to spend considerable resources and have the ambition to shape the regulatory environment.
We do not argue that GR should be exclusively defined as one type or the other. However, it definitely makes sense to discuss GR with a common framework of understanding — so here is our proposal: GR should be understood as a practice that could incorporate (1) brand- as well as policy-oriented activities, and (2) stretch from risk-oriented minimal efforts to more ambitious thought leadership strategies. We would suggest to define “Public Affairs” as the GR type that pivots more towards brand building and protection, while “Public Policy” focuses more on policy-influencing. There are no hard borders here — it is rather a very rough system to describe tendencies.
The graph below maps these types in a two-dimensional matrix (as you will find out in our blog, we love a good two-dimensional matrix from time to time).
What moves the needle for your company?
Clarifying terms is one thing, providing added value to your company another. In our experience, many GR functions actually struggle to identify the value added. This might sound odd, but is rather typical for large organizations. Research suggests that the overall corporate goals are far less well-known that the top management usually assumes. GR is no different, leading to a lack of alignment on what really matters. Such a lack of alignment might not be obvious. We have seen plenty of cases where this gap has been plastered over with generic GR goals like “manage government stakeholder relations” (why is this actually important?) or “develop policy positions” (again: Why does this matter to the company, how does it connect to your product roadmap or market expansion?). Do a quick test with your team and ask them the question of which goals GR prioritizes and why — we are pretty sure what you will find pretty incoherent answers in most organizations.
So what to do? We find it very helpful to start strategy exercises with GR functions with this very basic question: What moves the needle for the company? And what can GR contribute?
Here is an example of how to start such a conversation: GR might move the needle in three specific areas: (1) protecting the ability to develop the best possible version of a product and sell them (market access — cf non-tariff barriers) or opening the ability in the first place (market expansion), (2) Increase willingness to pay premium prices for products (e.g. by explaining USPs to public sector customers, and (3) protect the brand (e.g. by managing societal relationships).
These goals apparently could differ, depending on your company’s set-up. However, once you have created alignment on the fundamentals, it is much easier to add strategies, tactical goals, and resource plans accordingly.
Where are you?
Importantly, we do not argue that there is a right or a wrong understanding of GR. However, once you have identified what kind of GR function you need to be in order to drive your company’s success, it is important to align on structure (be part of Comms? Or rather Legal? Or Corporate Strategy?), people (which skill-sets do I need in the team?), and products (am I in the campaigning business? Or should I focus more on enterprise risk management?)
If GR can be very different things — where does your GR function sit today? More importantly: Where should it ideally sit to have maximum impact and be fully synced with your company’s priorities? We will provide some further thoughts on the GR sweet spot in a later blog post — stay tuned!
