How to Effectively Partner With Governments to Fight COVID-19

During this time of need, many businesses are pivoting to support government efforts in combating the coronavirus pandemic. But, given strained public resources, it can be difficult to break through the turbulent nature of governmental crisis response and effectively message your capabilities to government stakeholders.

To help cut through the noise, below are some steps you and your business can take to best partner with governments and help do your part to stop the disease.

1. Cast a wide net. It’s easy to want to focus on prominent markets (e.g., New York) or geographically familiar jurisdictions (perhaps close to your HQ), but you should look to identify and pursue contacts with a broad range of governments across states and localities (as well as federal where relevant). This is certainly in part because needs vary and your ability to help may be better-suited to jurisdictions other than the prominent and familiar. But additionally, from a pragmatic standpoint, many governments are stretched inconceivably thinly at the moment and even where there might be a need for your product, abilities, or services, there just may not be sufficient bandwidth on the government’s side to sit down with you and establish a working relationship.
2. Make reasonable asks. As we know, it’s common for government actors to temporarily suspend certain rules in times of crisis. Consequently, where your ability to contribute may be unnecessarily limited by a city ordinance or state regulation, your government partners may be open to granting a temporary exemption to facilitate your ability to support COVID-19 efforts. But, in making such asks ensure they are both reasonable and something the official can actually do (e.g., it’s generally unhelpful to ask a local mayor to suspend a state law, though she may be able to help lobby state officials). Fully game plan out these asks ahead of time to avoid looking demanding and/or uninformed.
3. Understand your risk exposure. Moving quickly in an emergency naturally increases the risks of things going wrong. And you may naturally adjust your levels of risk tolerance as a result. But it is absolutely critical you and your teams are aligned on what kinds of risks you are comfortable taking. There’s a big difference between possibly being unable to fulfill orders because your supply chain is disrupted and product safety lapses. You want to ensure your teams are not being bogged down by risks you’re comfortable taking, but also that they are still keeping an eye out for risks that remain red lines.
4. Be open to feedback. Similar to development of an MVP, you should develop an initial hypothesis regarding the specific government needs you believe your company can help solve. But, as with finding product-market fit, you should be continually listening to the officials you engage with and refining that hypothesis. Maybe the government’s highest-priority problems differ substantially from your hypothesis. Or you correctly identified initial pain points but they’ve already been addressed through other means. And of course new issues may arise as your engagement with governments continues. The key is to listen and understand the evolving needs of government partners just as if they were your customers. Then continue to work with your internal teams to identify how you can best help solve those issues at some degree of scale.
5. Brevity. It’s now more important than ever to keep your engagement and interaction with government actors short and concise. They are understandably dealing with a multitude of priorities, and their time and attention bandwidth is severely limited. So, it’s important that you don’t monopolize their time. In crafting your messaging, include only as much detail as absolutely necessary to ensure that your value add is cogent and received in the best manner possible.

We hope the above is informative and helpful in refining your approach to government engagement in these unprecedented times. To the extent your organization would benefit from broader support in developing and executing your public affairs strategy, Runway Strategies is here to assist.