IMC Forum Marks Trends, Recognizes Excellence

VOL. XXXIV, No. 4—Corporate Public Issues
Volume XXXV, Number 4 — November 2013
IMC Forum Marks Trends,
Recognizes Excellence
W
ith the suitably Texan cattle trail theme,
“Driving Issue Management Success,”
members of the Issue Management Council met
in Houston on 15-16 October.
Hosted by the global
engineering and construction
firm Bechtel, the Forum
agenda was structured as a
“finger on the pulse” of recent
ISSUE
developments from companies
MANAGEMENT
at differing stages of IM
COUNCIL
growth. Conversations with
practitioners revealed the following top-line
trends as the profession wraps up 2013:

In companies where the process is newly
established, the impetus for development
stemmed from the need for issue impacts to
be mitigated in several parts of the company
—from shareholder incidents to supply chain
practices to competitive bidding.

The infrastructure for these new programs is
significantly more global, often including a
representative for the global IM team from
each geographic area of operations.

In some companies where issue management
has existed for several years, there is a new
wave of specialists who are charged with
building disciplines—tools and processes—
to make IM less reactive.
The Forum began with
welcoming remarks from Host
James Lamble, Bechtel’s deputy
manager, corporate affairs and
manager, issue management.
After a brief Roundtable
introduction and conversation
about specific current interests, speakers shared
ideas on what works best and where
improvements are needed. The candid
conversation was, per IMC custom, kept private
among those present. This report features
highlights of public presentations.
Potash IM Process Based on
Facts and Facility Engagement
What happens when a rapid succession of
external events transforms your
company and propels it into
awareness of the need for a
formalized issue management
process? Bill Cooper, manager,
public relations at PotashCorp
recalled how unprecedented
growth made his company the
target for both takeover and
Bill Cooper
activism. After these
experiences, corporate leadership determined
that a more formalized approach to issues
was needed.
The first step in the PotashCorp IM process is
“Fact Base Development,” considering issues,
stakeholders and current activities, Cooper
noted. Early on, site visits are conducted to
relevant areas within the company’s 17 global
facilities to get a sense of operations and to
strengthen relationships. These site visits
launch the following tasks at each location, with
a 18-month timeline for completion:

Conducting an Issues Audit, including an
early assessment of low, medium or high
priority

Identifying and assessing appropriate
relationships with stakeholders—whether to
engage, manage or monitor
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Corporate Public Issues—VOL. XXXIV, No. 4

Assembling a dedicated and cross-functional
Issues Team that will lead the IM process at
each site

Challenges and opportunities ahead for the
IMG
After issue prioritization and developing the
IM plan, the process builds accountability in its
review and report phase. Four times a year, each
facility prepares an IM update and annually, each
facility updates its IM plan and provides a copy
to management and Corporate Public Affairs.
Curry-Staschke also explained how Nike's
issue management team is working toward
methods for not only issue tracking, root cause
analysis and resolution, but also an effective
front-end forecasting service that results in
smarter resource deployment and measurable
savings.
Nike’s IMG Supports Innovation
and System Change
Robust Tools Help General Mills Set
Issue Priority, Take Coordinated Action
At Nike, the most recent Issues Management
opportunity has been to coordinate several
internal functions—from both the traditional CR
focused Sustainable Business & Innovation group
to now including involvement
from other non-traditional
internal participants such as
the Product teams. Amy Curry
-Staschke, Nike’s director,
sustainable manufacturing
policy & issues management
described the multi-disciplinary
move to create a crossAmy Curryfunctional line-and-staff Issue
Staschke
Management Group (IMG).
Details included:
General Mills has long managed issues, but
when it hired a dedicated
issues management person,
the company was able to
develop a more formalized and
proactive IM process. Naamua
Sullivan, director, issues
management, General Mills
outlined the issues
management structure the
Naamua Sullivan
company has built over the
past three years, including people, meetings,
documentation and tools.

How IMG membership is comprised

The structure and duration of IMG meetings

Examples of how the group works as a
collaborative tool to manage and mitigate
issues
Sullivan began with acknowledgement for
early support. “Much of our system was inspired
by our attendance at the 2010 IMC Forum, just a
month or two after our issues management
function was established,” she said. “We hope
that this presentation will provide ideas for
others who are just getting started, or possibly
even some different tools for those who are
more well-established.”
PotashCorp’s Issues Management Process Overview
Source: Bill Cooper, PotashCorp, 2013
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VOL. XXXIV, No. 4—Corporate Public Issues
Three of the recently created tools are
particularly helpful, Sullivan continued. They
include:

Issues website – an internal resource that
allows user-friendly browsing through issue
papers, including company positions; lists
and details on Top 10 issues; top issues by
business; emerging issues and triggers; and
the IM Decision Tree. Before exploring
specific topics, visitors arrive at the landing
page, which offers top issues stories, as well
as the IM Mission Statement, Presentations
and New Issues Materials. A screen shot of
the IM website appears below.

Issues Prioritization System – a color-coded
weighting tool that measures on a 1-to-5
scale both “public sensitivity measures” as
well as “strength of company position” for
key issues, thereby helping to set priorities
for action

Global Decision Tree – a detailed flowchart
that helps connect issue team members with
appropriate resources, support and partners
Sullivan concluded with the following
summary of “what we learned” thus far:

Designating “owners” inspires ownership:
For each important issue, the company
General Mills Issues Management Website
Source: Naamua Sullivan, General Mills, 2013
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Corporate Public Issues—VOL. XXXIV, No. 4
designates Issue Owners, Issue Managers and
Subject Matter Experts.

More awareness creates more interest: For
example, issue team meetings and outreach
are timed to coincide with the development
period for each business’s long range plan.

Prioritization allows pursuit of “less is
more,” noted Sullivan, referring to the
weighting system described earlier.

Transparency creates trust: The way in
which GMI’s issues management website
explores each topic acknowledges that there
are often more than two sides to any issue.
“Predictors” and “Consent Factors”
Inform Bechtel Issue Plans
With work on hundreds of diverse projects in
nearly 50 countries on six continents, Bechtel
frequently draws expertise from its wellestablished process for
managing issues. “We have a
global footprint, a diverse
portfolio, and operate in a
hyper-transparent world,”
noted James Lamble, deputy
manager, corporate affairs and
manager, issue management.
“Seemingly local project issues
James Lamble
in faraway places can
immediately affect the global
reputation of the company,” added Iva Zagar,
manager, communications in Bechtel’s Oil, Gas
and Chemicals Business Unit.
To address the challenges, Bechtel has
created a robust process for issue management
(IM), as illustrated in the map on the following
page. Primary steps include anticipate, plan,
implement, measure & learn.
Lamble and Zagar shared a set of Common
Predictors for Issues that are part of Bechtel’s
analysis and help anticipate emerging issues
while assessing their potential velocity.
Predictors include:

Lack of public consensus about the project
or its elements

Local expectations and concerns
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
Environmental or social controversies

Complex roles on the
project

Political or security risks

First-of-a-kind projects
Additionally, since issues
can arise if misalignment
occurs along stages of project
Iva Zagar
implementation, Bechtel has
identified a set of Key Consent Factors (KCF)
that are also important indicators for potential
issues, including:

Construction impacts on the local
community

Cost and schedule performance

Funding availability and continuity

Regulatory and permitting approval
In spite of the monitoring and proactive
management built into Bechtel’s IM process,
issues do arise across the globe. Lamble and
Zagar observed that response to issues is not
necessarily unilateral, and ranges from rebutting
incorrect information to managing a difficult
situation.
DuPont Wins Chase Award
for Global Food Security Program
By 2050, the world’s population will grow from 7
billion to 9 billion people, and one of their most
basic requirements is food. Anthony R. Farina,
head of global public affairs &
director of corporate
communications and Aaron
Woods, regional manager,
public affairs, DuPont
Company, described DuPont’s
Global Food Security Index, a
program that engages and
stimulates conversations among
Anthony Farina
global thought leaders on
solutions to this important issue.
Farina and Woods recalled the events leading
up to the Global Food Security Index rollout, as
well as the application of several classic issue
management tools. Highlights included:
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VOL. XXXIV, No. 4—Corporate Public Issues


Building and convening the DuPont
Advisory Committee on Agriculture
Innovation and Productivity for the 21st
Century
Setting definable internal
performance measures in
DuPont’s Food Security
Goals, to be achieved by the
end of 2020

Obtaining credible thirdparty expertise by
Aaron Woods
commissioning the
development of the Global
Food Security Index, a scoring mechanism
that assesses food security strengths and
vulnerabilities among 105 nations

Engaging the on-line issue community
through a three-month eListening exercise,
to learn key issue drivers

Identifying and understanding opinion
leaders with Influencer Quotient Mapping
research

Creating an internal Issues Management
Task Force and plan to achieve intended
results
This progressive issue case study, as well as
the robust processes that supported its
development, earned the 2013 Howard Chase
Award for Excellence in Issue Management. The
Award was presented by IMC Board Member
Amy Dirks Stevens, COO at Presence St. Joseph
Medical Center, at a reception immediately
following the DuPont presentation. The full
nomination form for “Food Security: Welcome to
the Global Collaboratory” is posted on the
Awards section of the IMC website.
To receive an invitation to the 2014 Member
Forum, send an update request to the Issue
Management Council or telephone the IMC at
+1.703.777.8450. Click here to join the IMC.
Bechtel’s Issues Management Process Map
ANTICIPATE
PLAN
IMPLEMENT
MEASURE AND LEARN
Desktop research
Stakeholder
engagement
Issues
Management
Plan
Cost
and
Schedule
Measure against
goals
Common
Predictors
Coms Plan
Crisis Coms
Plan
Coordination
& alignment
(internally & with
customer)
Adjust
plan
Messaging
Tracking
-issues
Tracker and
Issue Status
Report
Relevant to
Bechtel
business?
Yes
KCF
(identification
and
prioritization)
Advice on
operations
adjustment
Risk
Assessment
Metrics
Management
updates on status
and key metrics
Source: James Lamble & Iva Zagar, Bechtel, 2013
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Corporate Public Issues—VOL. XXXIV, No. 4
IMC Member Chats will
Tackle Field’s “Sacred Cows”
A
t the Bechtel Forum, IMC members had
ample opportunity to tap into the
considerable group experience among those in
the room. In a series of conversations that were
linked to the Texan theme of “Driving Issue
Management Success,” practitioners took a hard
look at some of the field’s “sacred cows”—
established ideas that have become accepted
wisdom but should perhaps be challenged in
light of new developments. For example:

There is always “one” corporate position on
an issue.

Always seek stakeholder input at the frontend of the issue management process.

We need to retain full control of this
situation, versus partnering with other
stakeholders, especially those whose
interests are not in full alignment with ours.
During the first half of 2014, these
conversations will be repeated, each as a onehour Member Chat with facilitation from IMC
Board members who were in Houston: David
Laufer, President, Forum Strategies &
Commun-ications; Sylvia Williams, Head of
Global Issues, Shell; Nancy Pattarini, President
& CEO, The Paige Group; and Amy Stevens,
COO, Provena St. Joseph Medical Center.
Issue Management Council
Announces New Board Members
T
he Issue Management Council (IMC) has
announced the addition of three new board
members: Donna Garland, Chief of Strategy &
Communications at the National Archives and
Records Administration; Urs Leimbacher, Head
Issue Management and Messages, Swiss
Reinsurance Company and Marianne Smith Edge,
SVP, Nutrition & Food Safety at the International
Food Information Council.
Donna Garland is Chief of Strategy and
Communications for the National
Archives and Records
Administration (NARA). She is
responsible for oversight of the
agency’s communication activities
including capacity building,
marketing and consistent
communication of key issues, as
well as overall strategic planning,
Donna Garland
issues management and policy
development.
Urs Leimbacher is Head of Issue Management
& Messages at Swiss
Reinsurance Company Ltd.
(Swiss Re) in Zurich, a position he
has held since 1 June 2013.
Before his appointment,
Leimbacher served as Head of
Public Affairs at Swiss Re from
2005. Swiss Re is a leading global
reinsurer which operates in 30
Urs Leimbacher
countries with currently 11,000
employees.
Marianne Smith Edge is Senior Vice President,
Nutrition & Food Safety for the
International Food Information
Council (IFIC) in Washington, DC,
a nonprofit organization that
communicates sound, sciencebased information on nutrition
and food safety to health
professionals, educators,
government officials, journalists
Marianne Smith
and consumers.
Edge
Publisher and Editor: Teresa Yancey Crane
Production: Judith K. Dimsey
Corporate Public Issues and Their Management (CPI) , founded in 1976 by W. Howard Chase, is the original and leading resource
for the business discipline of Issue Management. Material in CPI may be quoted with attribution to Issue Action Publications, Inc.,
www.issueactionpublications.com. Office address for IAP is 207 Loudoun Street, S.E., Leesburg, VA 20175 USA; telephone:
+1.703.777.8450; e-mail: [email protected]. Subscription rate is US$195 for one year (six editions). ISSN 0730-5192.
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