Knowledge Centre

New power shift

George Onisiforou When Facebook tried to amend its user information policy last month, it found itself being the victim of its own dynamics — this is a company that thrives in giving its users the tools to organise themselves in groups and communicate their own messages. This is exactly what the unhappy users did — they created their...

socio political environment

Recovery dot com

George Onisiforou The recent global economic developments have given governments a new air of authority over other institutions, including businesses. The possibility of increasing public scrutiny in private businesses would have seemed unthinkable ten years ago. Now, it is not only a possibility, it is an expectation. Governments...

socio political environment

An era of responsibility

George Onisiforou There are lessons to be learned for businesses in Barack Obama's inaugural address, which was a call for restoring trust in government and a promise for an era of responsibility towards hard times. There is no doubt that the financial crisis has intensified a continuous decline of consumer trust towards businesses,...

socio political environment

2,408 words: powerful leadership messages

Wayne Burns As a communication tableua, President Barack Obama's Inauguration speech is a guide to good leadership communications because of its brevity, economic use of descriptors, and because it addressed pressing public and political policy issues without once using the word 'policy.' Good speeches like the President's...

socio political environment

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