Introducing the GR Blog: Why is there no strategic writing on the craft of building and leading Government Relations functions?
GR in times of Covid 19: Feeling the heat
If there was a need for another proof point that companies have entered and need to carefully navigate a very complicated era, Covid 19 is it. Global supply chains and markets are not only extremely fragile with regard to the impact of a pandemic, they are also significantly influenced by both the short-term remedies and long-term legislative and regulatory reactions: Governments defaulted to closing borders, have triggered stimulus packages of historic proportions, and committed to minimizing dependencies from foreign supplies in critical sectors all while trying to figure out what existing policy priorities to keep pushing on and what legislative reactions will be needed to adapt to the new reality.
Covid 19 had already triggered difficult cost-cutting exercises in many corporations — Government Relations functions will most likely be affected. At the same time, the measures described above require more GR muscles to protect market access and a fragile global trade order. So here we are at a critical junction for GR functions: Do more with less.
Covid 19 is by no means a one-off. It merely accelerates trends that have been visible for some time. Just look at the annual agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos: While it had been a tech and market-driven debate for long — basically managers explaining politicians a shiny new world — it has recently become a very different conversation: Geopolitics, the general “techlash” against big companies, how climate change requires companies to fundamentally rethink their business model and a general mood of “clean up the mess you have created”.
Classic MBA programs do not prepare managers for these questions. In the past, those questions simply weren’t asked. The post-1990s business world had been a rather calm affair — protected by a belief that the “Washington Consensus” would bring prosperity combined with a trend towards market-oriented liberal democracies, ever increasing globalization of economies and societies and a general depoliticization of doing business with it: The business of business is business! So why should executive business managers let alone product orgs and developers really care about politics in the first place?
How times have changed! The API between business and the messy political world out there becomes C-level relevant. Be it the license to operate, market access barriers, corporate governance or building and defending a brand of a “woke” CEO that allows the company to continue to attract talent across functions and continents. Government Relations teams (you may also call them public affairs or public policy functions) are one of those functions who are currently in high demand: These could be golden days for GR.
You would assume that such new interest in GR would also lead to more thoughtful analysis of or even a strategic management consulting branch specifically focused on GR challenges. This is not the case. Take the example of the Harvard Business Review — we have not found a single article specifically addressing the GR management topics. This is odd.
Tell me more about your turpentine!
There is a saying that if art critics meet, they talk all day long about quality, meaning, and subtleties of art work. Instead, if artists meet, they discuss turpentine: Which one do you use? Where do you buy it? Have you tried out that new oil color?
If political observers meet, they might likewise discuss the big political questions of our time or the fortunes and misfortunes of the powerful. That’s all fine — but as GR professionals, we feel it’s time to start a conversation about GR turpentine — about GR as a craft that can and needs to be trained: How to structure a team and what are the consequences of those structures for your relationship to the business at large? What are key skills for GR managers? How should reporting inside of business look like to have a solid feedback-loop? What are the vital connection points to business? How to scale and set up efficient processes? Can you quantify your GR successes (and should you do it in the first place)?
We strongly believe that GR functions are key to the success of global companies in the next decade. This is true for start-ups just getting their first round of funding entering a highly regulated sector as well as for large incumbents and everyone in between. We also believe that GR as a management discipline is underdeveloped. With our little blog, we want to do our share to help to fix this gap. Developers and designers have a plethora of blogs and places where they discuss their craft and improve their skills — yet, the same does not exist for GR and we don’t see a reason why that should continue to be the case.
Introducing the Government Relations Blog
Both of us work in Government Relations. Over the years, we have been in contact with many gifted and skilled GR managers, who have plenty of experience on do’s and dont’s, best cases, tools, and processes and business executives who have engaged with and challenged our functions . We want to share our experiences with you, and we will do it with the help of our colleagues. We hope to engage with you and start creating a community of GR strategists.
We also believe that the notion that good GR functions are defined by their network and thus access is outdated and leads to the myth that anyone with such a network also automatically will be an impactful GR operator for his or her company. “Great” GR managers are neither dependent on their political affiliation or background nor the amount of time they hang out in bars in capitals across the globe — they are usually the ones who through curiosity, grit and a sharp yet humble mind hone their skills and the craft of building and leading GR functions. GR as a discipline needs to include and welcome individuals from a wider variety of backgrounds to stay relevant and improve.
This blog is an experiment — we are excited where it will take us. For a start, we want to focus on three broad categories:
- People: If there was ever a corporate function that depends on its employees, it must be Government Relations. We are not talking about the importance of their personal networks to decision-makers. The main reason is the formidable challenge of being understaffed. We have not met a single GR function that would consider itself sufficiently staffed. The right people in the right place will let you succeed regardlessly. But who should be on the team? What are the critical skill sets? And how do you find them — and keep them happy once they are on board? And how can you leverage business leaders and other global functions from your company in a meaningful way?
- Structures: While we do not worship org charts, structures are important, too. How Should you structure your GR by regions or by topics or both? How can you cooperate with other global functions in your company? What about bringing external agencies in — where can they help, where not? What are the trade-offs your are making by choosing a specific structure and are you aware of and transparent about them?
- Products: Artists produce art — GR produces… what exactly? We want to spend some ink on the deliverables of GR functions: How do you actually do policy positioning? How can you draft yearly plans and strategies when so much is unknown? Write a great briefing? Track policy developments? Organize a campaign? And once we are here: What is the right way to think about and measure the success or impact of all of these products? Can they be streamlined and scale? Should we have a product manager mind-set within GR rather than the “country lead”?
We will regularly blog about these topics in no particular order. We also plan to invite esteemed colleagues to share their thoughts on this blog as well. And we want to hear from you! If you have ideas about topics, or even some articles to share: Bring it on!
We have spent most of our careers working in GR functions in the tech sector, so we can only really speak about GR in tech. We are aware that GR differs across industries. However, we hope that GR managers from other industries might find relevant content in our blog, as well and would also look forward to learn from their experiences too.
Finally — if you are interested in a deeper conversation about your specific GR function and how it could be developed — ping us! We might engage bilaterally.
Thanks for reading!
Ansgar Baums & Sandro Gianella
[Disclaimer] — this is a project we are both doing in personal capacity
