Knowledge Centre

Crafting the corporate message - pessimistic optimism

Wayne Burns The New York Times columnist David Brooks has been analysing the tone of language and messages from Barack Obama noting that he has become highly skilled in December and January in the art of 'pessimistic optimism'. Pessimistic optimism involves communicating that things are very tough, and are likely to get...

socio political environment

Don't vacuum

Wayne Burns Stakeholders are not likely to know about an organisation's activities unlesss thay see or hear about it in the media (including blogs and social networking sites), are involved directly in that activity, or hear about it from the organisation itself. At a time when most corporate activity in particular is perceived...

socio political environment

A clamour to yammer

Wayne Burns Many of us have not yet twittered, never mind yammered. But check out yammer.com, and think about whether this business only microblogging site could help you and your public affairs team do what you do better, and more easily. Yammer is a free online site launched in September 2008. It is compatible...

socio political environment

Blogging coming into its own

Wayne Burns Well known corporate communications blogger Trevor Cook (Corporate Engagement) notes today that not all bloggers as often assumed by many reporters want to be journalists or be perceived as journalists (http://blogs.crikey.com.au/trevorcook/2008/12/31/blogging is far more important than...

socio political environment

Getting the message right on carbon

Wayne Burns Governments are finding it tricky to get the messages right to influence the behaviour of the public to strike a balance between putting a price in carbon to reduce emissions, and not harming the economy during the global economic crisis. The same is true for companies. In the face of potential job cuts and...

socio political environment

Reconsidering corporate decision-making

George Onisiforou A few nights ago at the Lowy Institute, the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Ian Macfarlane, attributed the current economic crisis on financial executives pursuing short term economic gains and ignoring risks for the benefit of their bonuses. There's no doubt that the crisis brings forward the need...

socio political environment

A crisis for corporate social responsibility?

George Onisiforou Public affairs practitioners can now visit the UN Global Compact's website to do some serious thinking around the implications of the current global financial crisis. The world's largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative released its response to the crisis, requesting public commentary and observations....

socio political environment

Business in China and the Olympics afterglow

Wayne Burns Talk to senior corporate public affairs executives working in China post the 2008 Olympics and they will tell you confidently that the Beijing Games is already changing business in the Peoples' Republic. Public affairs practitioners in corporations at the cutting edge of information flows and stakeholder demands...

socio political environment

Now is the time for all good public affairs practitioners to come to the aid - of themselves!

Wayne Burns It is June, so it must be Melbourne, Australia. And if its August, it would be Hong Kong. These are the months and the cities when my mind and the efforts of the staff at Centre for Corporate Public Affairs turn to heavy duty professional development via our long established residential public affairs...

socio political environment

Political messaging

Wayne Burns For those of you who may be following Australian politics today, the six months old national Labor Government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is being admonished by the Opposition and by journalists for being enamored by 'spin' a charge that tarnished seriously the credibility and community standing of British Prime...

socio political environment