Newsletter
The interplay between public affairs and reputation management
Interview with Peter Lochbihler, Business Director at the Pleon Brussels office and European Practice Leader Public Affairs at Pleon.
ECRS: A new European parliament has just been elected. How important, in fact, are the European elections and upcoming changes in personnel at the Parliament and Commission for reputation strategies in a European context?
Peter Lochbihler: Personal networks are central to the success of public affairs activities as part of a reputation strategy at European level. Changes in political personnel therefore have to be recognised ahead of time and utilised. The European elections in 2009 have seen a particularly high turnover in the European Parliament: about half the members in Brussels are new, for some countries it’s three-quarters. There is a big chance here to gain these new players as advocates for our own interests and issues. How one manages to do this – those are the matters on which we support and advise our clients.
ECRS: What exactly is public affairs?
P.L.: One can think of public affairs as the dialogue between an organisation and politics and other stakeholders. It ranges from positioning a company generally in relation to political target groups through to lobbying in a specific legislative process. Particularly as regards public affairs work in Brussels, it is often a question of actively shaping legislative and regulatory initiatives from the European Commission. For, 70% of all laws affecting companies are enacted at EU level and merely implemented at national level.
ECRS: And what activities do you use to achieve these goals?
P.L.: For us, the foundation for any public affairs strategy is to first prioritise the issues and areas of politics that are relevant to a company. Political monitoring then enables us to stay informed about the current status of a particular issue and ready to act. We not only analyse media but also actively follow political decision-making processes – for example, by attending parliamentary select committee hearings or engaging in background discussions with politicians. Based on this, we compile analyses and recommendations for action. Along with particular issues, we assess and plot the importance of the relevant players in both politics and in associations, organisations and media using stakeholder maps. The aim is to establish and maintain a network with these players. Only when such careful preparatory work has been done can the actual lobbying work and issues management begin – that is, actively shaping issues and moving them forward.
ECRS: What role do the media play in public affairs, then?
P.L.: Media, as a watchdog, play a central role in every democracy. They significantly contribute to the formation of opinions and thus affect the reputations of politicians as well as companies. Since politicians often base their actions on published opinions, no public affairs strategy can be complete without taking account of the media.
ECRS: Do companies with a good reputation have a better chance of influencing political decision-making processes?
P.L.: Here, one has to be aware what a complex political system the European Union is. Each institution comprises representatives from 27 member states, and so politicians’ loyalties are a mix of nationality, party policy and personal conviction. When pursuing interests, one must also be aware which interests dominate each EU institution. In the Council, for example, where member states represent their own national interests, arguments relating to a country as an industrial location are more readily listened to than in the European Commission, which primarily represents pan-European interests. Given this constellation, a good reputation with the wider public by no means guarantees success. A strategic public affairs concept thus takes account of the diversity of EU institutions and essentially answers the question of which contacts at which organisation at which time are the most suitable for a particular issue. A generally poor reputation for a sector, however, makes it difficult to effectively implement public affairs activities, or rather represents a challenge.
ECRS: Can you give an example of how the reputation of an entire sector can affect the efforts of individual organisations?
P.L.: The political debate about REACH – the reform on the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals – suggests that a negative reputation for a sector as a whole can impact on political decision-making processes. The reputation of the chemical industry in the wider public could hardly be worse: chemical companies are associated with toxic residues, polluted rivers, air pollution and cancer. From 2001 to 2006, the EU developed a new regulation for chemicals through long political negotiations between the Commission, Council and Parliament. In one of the most intensive and protracted lobbying battles in recent decades in Brussels, the industry presented countless studies about the potential dangers of stricter regulation for innovation and competitiveness, and tirelessly pointed out the vital importance of chemical substances in almost every area of everyday life. But the chemical industry’s fundamentally negative reputation and the attendant lack of trust on the part of politicians meant that the often technical or scientific arguments put forward by the industry could get no purchase.
ECRS: Thank you for this interview, Mr Lochbihler.
A comprehensive essay by Peter Lochbihler on the topic of reputation management and public affairs will appear in September in the essay collection “Reputation Capital – Building and Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century”, published by ECRS executive board member Robert Wreschniok and ECRS supervisory board member Joachim Klewes.