Engage Critics

"Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business."

Zig Ziglar, Business and Motivational Speaker


If you don’t talk to your enemies; you’ll never reach a compromise. With all of the scrutiny on the actions of corporations and their leadership today, you are bound to have conflicts and critics. It is inevitable but not insurmountable.

A new approach has developed over the last few years wherein corporations are actively engaging their critics. Environmental activists, consumer advocates, and human rights groups, among others are finding corporations much more willing and available to meet and openly discuss their gripes. In the process, both the business and activist leaders are discovering they may have more in common than in conflict.

There is no right or wrong way to go about establishing dialogue. In today’s world, industry knows where the criticism is coming from and who the loudest voices are. A company can set up an informal process or it can formalize the dialogue by establishing a committee or council or group of some kind.

Whatever approach you take, it is important to have an ongoing mechanism for engaging dissident voices from outside. Many a corporate leader has been undone by refusing to “give in” to those on the outside throwing rocks. Talking is a sign of strength, not weakness.

(c) Adonis E. Hoffman, 2008