There is a certain irony in a magazine that seeks the views of CPOs offering advice on how they can handle the media. Nonetheless, allegations of poor corporate practice – and it needs only to be an allegation rather than a proven case – are on the rise.
Executives are much more publicly accountable for their company’s activities. Whether it’s over claims of dodgy components, fears of child labour, emissions or a panoply of other ethical concerns, the chances of your company appearing in the mainstream media to face allegations of some wrongdoing are higher than they were 10 or even five years ago.
And should it happen to you, it isn’t easy to deal with. Added to the never-ending series of questions to be faced and outlets to satisfy, senior executives must deal with a reflexive mistrust of “big” business in much of the media. For CEOs and others in the spotlight, they are guilty until proven innocent.
Unfortunately, this perpetuates the cycle with even the most opportunistic claims by self-serving and publicity-hungry organisations “exposing” what company A is doing, or not doing, gaining headlines that company A’s bosses have to deal with. Even the most frivolous and easily batted away issues consume time and money.
Until recently, CPOs were mostly spared this kind of intrusion. But that is changing. As the consumer-driven clamour for demonstrations of ethical sourcing grows, senior buyers are asked to answer the questions on palm oil, cotton, fruit or a million other topics. Initiatives such as the annual Fairtrade fortnight (that ended on 9 March) intensify the spotlight.
Although all organisations want to demonstrate their ethical sourcing, meeting Fairtrade thresholds for “environmental, labour and developmental” standards extends the realm of buyers’ responsibilities into politics and international development – areas where their role is likely only to produce criticism. After all, you’ll never hear a news story about a large corporation unilaterally helping a rural community in Tanzania or Bangladesh. It just doesn’t make for good news coverage.
And when such initiatives do happen, they are often presented in a such a sententious fashion that they end up looking solely like a PR exercise and serve to heighten further the cynicism about companies “doing good”.
Knowing how to deal with those tricky questions and to get your own point across is part of the answer, and getting closer to the corporate communications view will also help.
As our article on Toyota says, most organisations will be glad it isn’t them in the glare right now. But imagine if it were your company – how would you deal with the questioning? The ubiquity of the media and the interest in sourcing will almost certainly demand that at some point the spotlight will be on you.
Steve Bagshaw
steve.bagshaw@cpoagenda.com
