Fukushima Plant

Answering Activitists
Left unattended, coalitions of activists, labor unions, and factional nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can drive considerable legal, regulatory, and reputational issues. While your organization’s management team is focused on the multiple facets of running your business, an activist organization has a single-minded focus and sometimes the budget to back that single objective. Since 2001, Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm, has conducted the Edelman Trust Barometer, a global survey of public trust in business, government, and information sources and channels. It is also important to note that the      survey has consistently rated NGOs, which can be classified as activist organizations, as the most trusted of the four social institutions it ranks (the survey ranks NGOs, media, business, and government). Yet, remember, just like businesses and global governments, NGOs vary in their dynamics and certainly not all would be described as activists. These are the keys to answering activist organizations:
Have a management structure in place to track and manage issues.
Understand the issue presented—what is the kernel that goes to the heart of your organization?
Determine the truth: be prepared to defend the positives and develop firm agreements and commitments to address any areas of concern within your organization.
Develop and implement an aggressive, proactive program to blunt unfounded or exaggerated charges. Clearly communicate your positives, note any areas of improvement and the plans to address them, and commit to transparency on the issue. Track and respond to all allegations. Find opportunities to deliver your position directly through executive speeches, program sponsorships, web sites, blogs, and tweets.
Attack the attackers—where it makes sense, call your attackers’ motivations into question. (Be careful here. You do not want to come off as a bully or make an issue bigger by causing a confrontation. Employ this tactic only when the opposition is making outsized claims that are not being challenged by the media or third parties.)
Develop a cross-functional program—with commitments and timelines—that makes the issue kernel the major building block of a leadership platform in the space under attack.
Communicate the program to stakeholders (legislators, regulators, concerned NGOs, investors, local communities, and the media) and continuously update progress.