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

Engage Public Policy

"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."
--Plato


Political consciousness and political engagement are hallmarks of leading companies. Public policy at the federal, state, and local level affects not only the functions of government and citizens, but the functions of companies as well.

Any business leader who believes he / she can stick its head in the sand and avoid politics or policy, is in for a rude awakening. Corporate leaders who ignore this aspect of business do so at their peril as Microsoft learned in the 1990s.

If your company does not have a political action committee (or PAC), organize one. If your company does not have a committee on its board that deals with public policy, establish one. If your company does not know its elected representatives at the local, state and federal levels, learn them. If your company does not have a go-to person or group that is responsible for public policy, get one. And if you are not using your industry trade association to the fullest, start now.

Finally, if you are not personally contributing to political candidates from both parties you are missing a golden opportunity to establish yourself as a leader. Politics and policy are embedded in our system. Embracing this reality is good business, plus the policymakers need to hear your voice.

(c) 2008 Adonis E. Hoffman