Weblog

I recently had the pleasure to speak on behalf of the Chamber newest project called Jax Boldest. I was on the best-of-class show, First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross. You can hear the show here, click the Tuesday button, my segment starts at 23:00, its worth listening to as there are numerous call ins and anecdotes.

Jax Boldest is an interesting look at amazing things that are happening here on the first coast. What has blown me away is the rapid adoption of this contest. Typically video contests and user submitted content projects are slow to gain steam. I thought this might be true of the Chamber’s demographic (formed 1885). Lets face it, many businesses and non-profits are trying to hang in there and probably don’t have a lot of time for self promoting video initiatives. But something different is happening here. There are already dozens of submissions. This is very encouraging. As a firm who is always looking to help innovators tell their story, we have found, at times, Jacksonville can be very comfortable, maybe even reserved about exciting things happening in our area.

We love that the Chamber has dusted off its shoulders (a bit) and is aggressively looking to promote all levels of entrepreneurship and invention and is using an avante-garde approach to illustrating what is so great about who we are and where we call home.

Tonight is the Chamber’s 127th Annual meeting. I’m going as a guest of my great friends over at Content Design Group. I can’t wait to discuss this project with folks and with any luck meet Mr. Kahn!

(TA)

As I write this blog post, in another tab in my browser, I have a live feed from One Stadium Place where a press conference is about to start to announce the Jaguars new head football coach. Coach Malarkey will presumably say a few words but, like the rest of Jacksonville, my eyes will be searching for a certain mustached billionaire. Mr. Kahn, who only recently bought the Jaguars has become an instant celebrity in our fair city. He has made a few strong moves already including the hiring of Malarkey. There is something beguiling and yet comforting about Mr. Kahn’s mustache that really connects to Jacksonville. It can’t hurt that the deal to buy the team was announced in Movember. The iconic turn-of-the-century-before-last stache has spawned a flood of twitter-fueled marketing love and hipster fitted screened t-shirts. One is not sure whether to believe Shad Kahn when he says he didn’t know his mustache had super powers.

The energy around the stache, the Jags and Jacksonville itself seems palpable right now. Our business community is gaining steam on several fronts. When you combine the sale of the Jaguars to Mr. Kahn, the sale of Winn Dixie, and the announcement that Embraer will be building their jets in Jacksonville, you are looking at more than a billion and a half dollars in business and transactions in December.

So what can we do be a part of this amazing Jacksonville and Jaguar renaissance? Here is something! With a click of the link you will find the first of many opportunities to see Mr. Kahn and Coach Malarkey together with some key Jaguar players, the Roar, and thousands of your closest Jaguars friends.

But how do we know Mr. Kahn knows and loves this city?
Discounted concessions and $2 beers! Clicking the link now aren’t you?! That’s turn-of-the-century-before-last beer pricing!

Please join the Keymer crew as we welcome Shad Kahn and Mike Malarkey to Jacksonville on Tuesday the 17th at the ‘Bank, and lets keep this momentum rolling like Jones Drew on 3rd and short!

A full two-thirds of the Jacksonville office are at the Florida offices of Hamilton Campaigns working on media training today. In campaigns and in business, doing well can mean a great deal. Doing poorly can lose an election.

There is little doubt about the importance of doing well when the cameras are rolling and microphones are on. And in this day and age, if you are a business leader, an influencer, or a politician, being well prepared and keeping your composure makes all the difference in the world.

As a firm that utilizes effects-based public relations, much of what we do is preparation for the lights, cameras, and microphones. Whether its an ambush interview or a moment you’ve been waiting for all of your life, taking the time to train and prepare will have you watching on loop or cringing for years to come.

There is so much to be thankful for. We hope everyone has the opportunity to be with their loved ones and has time to hug, to talk. We hope that with the commercialization of the holiday season, before we get too caught up on what we don’t have, we stop and reflect on how much we have.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The latest from our friend and colleague Frank Salinger in DC. Follow Frank on Twitter @annapolislawyer

November 2011
THOUGHTS ON BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT
Behind the Budget

The New(er) Math

I’m no math wizard. I was not terrible at arithmetic—when I remembered to carry my numbers—but the wheels came off when Maryland public schools adopted what was then called the “New Math.” This short-lived experiment in educational faddism included using a base of 8 numbers rather than 10 and, as far as I recall, you could end up with different answers to the same problem. Worse yet, some numbers really meant other numbers. I never could figure our why a “7” was no longer a “7” and pretended to be a “9”. Didn’t we already have a “9”? Satirist Tom Lehrer even wrote a song called New Math that went “It’s so simple, So very simple, That only a child can do it” before concluding that “13-5=7.” Famously, even the Soviet Union rejected this scheme and taught traditional math. No wonder they were able to fire Sputnik into space. It’s the reason I’ve always been sanguine about school prayer. I prayed to every religion, monotheistic or not, before every math quiz, test or exam until I escaped 10th grade with a merciful (and passing) D in math.

Compared to federal budgeting though, New Math was almost rational. We all know that the GOP cut spending by $38 billion in 2011. We read that in all the press releases so it must be true. We’ve read Paul Krugman and other liberal economists claim all this austerity brought on by government spending cuts has been a drag on the economy. Vice President Biden’s staff chimed in to claim government spending cutbacks led to sharp losses in state and local employment.

Using real (i.e., Old Math), one can quickly see that both the Right and the Left are completely wrong. During the first nine months of this year, federal spending rose $120 billion higher than in the same period in 2010. That’s a 5% increase (for these purposes a “5” is really a “5”). Even worse, the deficit climbed another $23.5 billion.

The states haven’t curbed their profligacy either. Total state outlays in 2010 were almost 10% higher than in 2008, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers’ annual State Expenditure Report which also concludes that general fund spending — which makes up about 40% of total state spending — is expected to climb 5.2% in 2011 and 2.6% in 2012. Far from laying off teachers and public safety workers—the President’s standard camping trope—the number of state and local government jobs has fallen just 2.3% since 2007—far less than the beleaguered private sector.

The point I’m making isn’t to call for more spending cuts—although I think that is sound and necessary public policy—but to suggest that the half-truths from both sides of poach spectrum are one reason the American people find politics so distasteful and, to some extent, why a quintessentially establishment figure like Mitt Romney can’t close the deal with GOP voters. Not that any of this is his fault, but who can trust establishment figures of either stripe?

The anti-establishment (or perhaps new establishment) trends and tools are changing all manner of things including government relations and lobbying. In an era when a political ad showing Herman Cain’s campaign manager smoking a cigarette can go viral and everyone under 30 (including Capitol Hill staffers) are well versed in social media, I’m struck by the reluctance of many companies to engage.

It’s odd that the nonprofit world is so much more adept at social media. For example, the Chronicle of Philanthropy found 92% of charities linked their web site to a Facebook page and 90% link to Twitter feeds. The number in the for-profit world is nowhere near that. I expect some of this is due to corporate legal departments’ fear of saying anything. After all, it’s hard to attach a disclaimer to a 140 character tweet. Nevertheless, social media is an effective and inexpensive tool to reach lawmakers and to get your company’s message points into the public policy arena.

Let’s get started.

Frank M. Salinger

I have been lucky recently to have been invited to retreats and conferences at some of our country’s finest resorts. I’ve had a butler and a caddie for a couple days. It is nice to have a team on the road but I’m not getting soft. And don’t worry, like Joe Scarborough, I’m coming home.

These places do make doing business feel like a vacation. I am presently writing from an overwhelmingly beautiful suite at the Lodge at Sea Island as the Packers and Saints slug it out on my very large television. Before dinner I watched President Obama give an almost stemwinding speech to congress in hopes to pass his American Jobs Act with broad reaching business implications.

The President’s speech was timely as I have been able to discuss the macro economic condition for the last couple of days with a group of successful business owners. Even in the midst of the luxury of Sea Island, with private jets thrusting overhead every 15 minutes or so, it is clear to all, it hasn’t been a good couple of years. Growth is non-existent, progress is stymied, Congress enjoys a 6% good/excellent rating, lending isn’t happening despite rock bottom interest rates and Washington seems like a bad reality show cat fight. When a possible future President of the United States calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme, I believe its a good sign we’ve lost our way.

But I found an interesting conversation taking place with each of these business owners. Something every one of them were discussing. Schools. If you want to talk about where America is heading, head down to your local elementary school. Do you like what you see? While I did hear conversations about pricing and service and banking and golf, I also heard about people moving to neighborhoods just for the schools. I heard of Initiatives to support schools by businesses in their community. There is a focus on our future, and one has to wonder if we are looking to our younger generations for glimmers of hope as we lean on the ropes. Sure, its about our kids, our families. But it is also about our business and our economic future. Just today my golf partner today missed the awards dinner to rush home to his daughter’s magnet school open house.

If we can get passed ideological differences and roll up our sleeves and work together to improve our educational infrastructure we will be investing in America, something the President has included in the American Jobs Act. Throw out partisanship rhetoric and talk parenting and cultivating entrepreneurs and an educated workforce.

We’ve got catching up to do with the rest of the world, but more importantly than that we need to be creating jobs with innovation and forging new opportunities for the children of America. I intend to do more and be more involved, and I know I am not the only one.

(TA)

One of our great friends and colleagues Frank Salinger, is an attorney and government affairs consultant in Washington D.C.. He, like us, works a good deal on financial services issues, in DC and in states across the country. Our collaboration, which is frequent, is an unalloyed joy to me, and his wisdom and insights valuable both to us and to our clients. Frank writes an occasional newsletter which he circulates by email, and he has given us permission to reproduce it here for our clients and friends. Follow Frank on Twitter @annapolislawyer

AUGUST 2011
THOUGHTS ON BUSINESS & GOVERNMENT
The Debt Ceiling

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’. The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”

—Vice President Joe Biden

Watching the political class respond to the S & P downgrade—followed by the market swoon and end of week recovery—has, I’m sure, frustrated business leaders.

First, the downgrade was the least surprising news since the death of Amy Winehouse. For weeks, S & P’s sovereign debt unit telegraphed that a $4 trillion target long-term deficit reduction plan would be necessary to retain the now lost AAA rating. In fact, they made it clear they viewed a $4 trillion cut as a mere down payment for future cuts.

On notice that $4 trillion was necessary, Congress enacted a plan that reduces spending by $2.5 trillion over ten years. This is supposed to occur in a two-step dance. First, discretionary spending caps spread over ten years are supposed to generate $1 trillion in savings reduction from both defense and non defense spending.

Next, an uber-partisan “Super Committee” is expected to agree to the remaining $1.5 trillion more in cuts or tax increases with a process guaranteeing a vote by December. If Congress can’t agree, automatic cuts begin in 2013 split equally between domestic and defense spending. These cuts exempt big ticket entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.

OK, let’s get real. First, any Congress cannot bind a future Congress. In other words, future Congresses can simply reverse this plan and enact something else.

We’ve seen this movie before. If you are old enough, do you remember the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985? Dan Rostenkowski’s Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987? The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990? All were well-intentioned schemes to cut deficits.

In fact, the 1985 law provided for automatic spending cuts (the oddly named “sequesters”) if the deficit exceeded a set of fixed deficit targets. Obviously, none of these laws worked.

So how much are the actual cuts in fiscal year 2012? According to the Congressional Budget Office, the cut will be $21 billion, or less than 1% of a nearly $3.7-trillion federal budget. Let’s put that in perspective: The super carrier USS Gerald Ford, still under construction, costs more than $9 billion (and that’s without her complement of aircraft). The US Postal Service deficit alone s $8 billion. In sum, not much.

It’s hard to take budget cutting seriously. Earlier this year, the House refused to cut the $50 million sponsorship of NASCAR and NHRA auto racing teams by the military. While I confess that I’m an auto racing fan, it’s hard to imagine this expenditure is really the tip of the spear for our national defense. Do taxpayers really need to spend $20 million to sponsor Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

As to the downgrade, I’m no economist—although it’s hard not to be cynical about the rating agencies which seemed to think Fannie and Freddie were just dandy almost until the moment they sank. I do like controversial Wall Street guru Martin Armstrong’s take: “The S&P Downgrade was about as stupid as if it were carried out by a trained chimp. I believe the S&P Downgrade was a market manipulation no different than when they rated mortgages AAA. They only saw the immediate profit from quick trade. I believe they were too stupid once again to realize they were pulling another foundation stone out of the pyramid we call the Global Financial System.”

Official Washington’s reaction to the downgrade was almost amusing. Some feigned shock and surprise (I guess they missed all the warnings).

Others, like Super Committee member John Kerry blamed the Tea Party. According to him, the downgrade because our debt is too high was the fault of the people who wanted to reduce the debt. Huh? To be fair, it wasn’t his fault. Politicians from both sides simply read from prepared talking points. Clearly the “Tea Party downgrade” trope didn’t test well because it disappeared within a day or so.

What does all this mean for business leaders? My advice, hold on to your wallet. Regardless of the outcome of the 2012 election, business will pay more. On the federal level, it won’t be from tax increases. It’ll be from “revenue raisers” (the tax that dare not speak its name) or “loophole closers” (someone else’s tax break).

On the state level, 42 states face revenue shortfalls in 2012—totaling a staggering $110 billion Worse, federal discretionary spending cuts are likely to impact federal support for services provided by state and local governments. These will worsen state budget problems and lead to increased state taxes and fees.

Look for renewed efforts to impose sales taxes on internet sales—although federal law precludes taxing pure internet transactions. California’s new law requires large, out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on Internet purchases by California customers. This “Amazon tax” has online retailers cutting ties with local affiliates.

Illinois and Tennessee are considering levying taxes on internet transactions if the vendor has a distribution center in state. States are also tinkering with their abandoned property “escheat laws” (the equivalent of rifling through the sofa cushions for loose change).

All this argues for additional monitoring and lobbying on the federal and state levels. Unlike the political class which was (or feigned being) stunned by the downgrade, involvement in the legislative and regality process means business will not be a surprised when government comes looking for money.

The prevailing wisdom is that Congress (and some states) are ungovernable due to the partisan divide. This is nonsense. There has always been a partisan divide (the nonpartisan “Era of Good Feeling” ended after President Monroe retired). I began my time in Washington as a law school intern for a member of the House Judiciary Committee during the Nixon impeachment. In 1974, the GOP lost 49 House seats giving the Democrats a majority above the two-thirds mark.

The class of 1974 was united, liberal and eager to take Nixon to task and remake America. Yet life—and government—moved on. Today is no different.

Let’s get started.

Frank Salinger

We were approached recently by the Chief Communications Officer of a well-funded entertainment industry start-up. He had recognized early-on that a properly-resourced communications function was going to be essential to achieving his company’s initial objectives: to build a reputation for good work; to raise the profile and prestige of the new brand; and to drive interest in specific company products among potential customers, investors and employees. His plan was advanced, he had a staffing chart which showed how he planned to build his team. Then it occurred to him “can i get a better bang for my buck by simply outsourcing the function to an agency?” i.e. would his company be better served by spending the money set aside for salaries, benefits, training and payroll taxes on a good agency?

He approached us to discuss this. In the past I have worked at agencies in which this was not an unusual client arrangement. At Keymer, we have never officially been a wholly outsourced function, usually serving as a strategic asset to an integrated in-house team, though thinking about it, it is relatively common for us to end up as a de facto external communications department. I committed to weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing for him. The question I asked myself was could we provide an effective integrated team, reporting directly to the c-suite, for the cost of two mid-level executives and a single member of support staff?

I wonder what you think? Is this a wise strategy for a company that is able to staff and resource an in-house PR department? What are the pros and cons? leave comments here and I will follow up with the fruits of our deliberations in a future post. (SK)

Unless there is a drastic paradigm shift, like say, edible social media or telepathic status updates, the current framework of social networks is here to stay. Here for a while anyway. Sure, we’ll see some great advancements like video conferencing and virtual currency, but we’ll always have our “friends.”

Enter Google+. I have to admit as someone who talks on and about Facebook every day, the idea of the only company who can go after Facebook, going hard after Facebook, scared me. A little. But then I finally got my invite. What Google+ lacks in familiarity (we’ve only been in a few days right?) it makes up for in a beautifully simple interface, cool new tools, and (gasp) the lack of hard core marketing. Unlike Google Buzz, Google+ is coming out to steady, somewhat quiet and guarded, rave reviews. The integration with Google’s other services like Gmail will certainly be a big, ahem, plus. Is it a Facebook and Twitter killer? Only time will tell. And time on Google+ flies. It can be a bit addictive with only a handful of friends. I can’t imagine what it will be like in a year. Did you know Facebook has only been on top for a scant 3 years?

Since we are all part of a limited user group now, and since it seems to be relatively glitch free (I had trouble uploading more than one photo at a time from my phone. That has since been fixed) expect Google+ to be the fastest growing social media network in a short amount of time, probably August. Maybe you want some quick first impressions? Here are mine. Its clean and easy to use. I’m not quite used to all of the features yet but they look very simple, fast, and tight. If mobile is the future, Google+ is looking way more futuristic. Not sure about your phone, but on my android, Google+ is way faster and easier to use than my already tired old blue Facebook app.

So the big question is, how long will it be before Google+ starts taking real market share from Facebook? How long before it takes over, if ever? My initial thinking is that it will take a long, long time. Partly because of the head start Facebook enjoys, and mostly because of the pending Facebook IPO. Who wouldn’t be daunted by a 750 million customer competitor with the market cap of, say, Germany? You know what’s cooler than the GDP of Australia?

These titan companies, the unbelievable piles of money, and our mountains of precious data grow larger and larger by the day. The giants are bringing us together socially, seemingly making our work and our life easier. I’m glad there is more than one of them. And guess what? LinkedIn just passed MySpace for the current number two. Buckle up, it should get more and more interesting. And interesting is a plus.

(TA)

Image found at Geekword (which has some awesome Google+ vs. Facebook images)

One of the dreary aspects of the social media revolution is the constant debate about who “owns it”. This self-perpetuates as bloggers, tweeters and all the rest, seize on any hint of a “battle” between the public relations industry and our colleagues in advertising as an excuse to write a quick post in which to wax indignant. Most of these posts are simply snacks, tossed in the direction of a ravenous social media beast forever demanding content. In this way a dull debate is prolonged. I suppose this post is ironic evidence of this in action.

A recent survey, though, stood head and shoulders above the usual claptrap. It was a joint effort by Worldcom and Transworld, significant PR and advertising holding companies respectively. The worthwhile Social Media Influence site carries perhaps the most interesting assessment of the story, leading with the headline: Social media: ad agencies “falling behind” as PR pros cash in.

Take a look at it and let us know what you think. Are the Big Beasts of the advertising industry going to overrun PR’s strong position, as they divert money from their enormous TV budgets toward online means of communication? Or will social media, with its focus on relationship building, continue to be a below-the-line discipline, better suited to the softer, subtler and more flexible programs of the PR community?

Conversations with people who want to learn more about public relations and our agency are always welcome, but can, if we are not careful, turn highly complex. Most people understand that we build relationships between organizations and the people that matter to them; many realize that we speak with the media and other influencers to help build those relationships; and some know that the social media revolution is being driven by the PR industry as a means to foster hyper-effective two-way communication.

But there are the questions. Questions like:

“You just manage crises for big businesses? You’re spin doctors? “BP-style?”

“You’re lobbyists, right? In DC? Like that one guy from Thank You for Smoking ?

and most hateful of all:

“You do advertising, don’t you? Like Mad Men?

To answer all of these questions and give a generic overview of our services, methods and experience, we have developed an agency capabilities presentation. The presentation supplements the information on this website, giving a complete overview of what it is we do and how we do it:

Keymer Agency Overview

If you want to know more, call 904-434-3186.

In January I was asked to speak at Creative Company – a day long summit for small and medium-sized business intended to give attendees a handle on how they could use strategic communications in general and social media in particular, to move forward their business and personal agendas. I always jump at the chance to address hometown audiences and spoke on Public Relations Done Properly – the value of public relations in addressing business challenges of all kinds. I outlined our effects-based planning model and suggested some ways in which small businesses might harness media relations, direct communications and freely available technology to good effect. It was a great day and the Facebook page which it spawned should become something of a go-to resource for small businesses. Take a look at it – lots of great hints and tips on social media issues and more.

If you want to see my presentation, we filmed it, and its available on Youtube

This is the final post in our explanation of the process that we use to meet the strategic challenges of our clients. Planning is complete, now we have to earn our fee, achieving effect through our outreach and demonstrating that effect to our clients.

Stage 5: Multi-Channel Outreach

Our planning has identified who we must speak to, the effect we want to have on them, what we are going to say and how we are going to make sure they hear us. It has also revealed the multiple channels we must use to achieve the consistency and repetition of message – crucial to achieving our effect on our target audiences.

We speak to traditional media, placing news and opinion pieces, arranging interviews, reaching out to trade press and special interest publications and putting spokespeople on TV and radio. We harness the power of the web, building in social media outreach into every one of our programs. We might mobilize supporters through grassroots, grasstops and third-party programs, as well as by leveraging satisfied customers. We might speak to business or financial analysts and investors, think-tanks, community groups, trade associations and business groups.

Phase 6: Measures of Effect

All of our clients rightly demand that we demonstrate program value over time, so we build in measures of effect at the planning stage against which we gauge success. This means we do not simply hand over a wedge of clippings and pat ourselves on the back. We make realistic assessments and weigh them against planned influence or marketing effect.

It is a no-nonsense procedure that allows us to recalibrate where necessary and show our clients that our process works. It also allows us to optimize programs over time.

So, that’s our methodology. I am planning a post that will go into more detail on effects-based planning and another that will illustrate this process in action through real life case studies. I hope you all get something out of them. Comments are welcome. (SK)

With a clear idea of the nature of our client and its target audiences, we move into the meat of the planning process – stages 3 and 4 which often run concurrently. This is the point at which we decide what we must say, and work out how we get people to listen:

Stage 3: Effects Based Planning

Effects-based planning is the rock upon which we build our temple. We take our defined audiences and plan what marketing or influence effect our communications must have. The effect is the switch that must be flicked in the minds of individuals to achieve our aims and objectives. To use a simple example, if our strategic challenge is to sell more in an existing market, our communications must have the effect of convincing potential buyers that our product is a better option for them than the products of our competitors. Once we have identified the effect we must have, we can then work backwards to tie down the ways in which we can achieve it. We add a creative element to devise a narrative around our client’s strengths into which we can embed our key messages. We also pare down the communications channels (media, digital, third parties, grassroots etc.) to our audiences that are likely to be most effective.

Stage 4: Message Development and Testing

Message development is one of our two core functions at Keymer, the other being media relations. Message development must be rigorous, utilizing the findings of phase one research, with a clear understanding of our planned effect. We also have the option to test our messages, through informal or formal polling. We end up with a usable message platform upon which all communications are based.

To take stock, at this stage in the process, we have:

- Identified our strategic challenge

- Developed a clear understanding of our client’s strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations

- Identified and fully researched the nature of our target audiences

- Clearly identified the effect our communications must have on target audiences to achieve our aim and manage our strategic challenge

- Developed a creative narrative and developed clear, effective messaging

- Identified optimal communications channels in to our target audiences

With the planning complete, it is time to begin our outreach. Part 5 of the process will be posted tomorrow, detailing multi-channel outreach and what comes after that…

Tackling strategic business challenges is what we are all about. We help businesses enter new markets; cope with significant change; launch new products; prepare themselves for sale; or find a competitive edge in a commoditized marketplace. We help trade associations and other interest groups manage the political, regulatory and social issues that worry them. We help clients of all kinds deal with damaging crises.

Whatever the strategic challenge, the way we build and execute a public relations program to address it remains broadly the same. This is the first of three posts which briefly outlines our unique 6-stage process. I hope it gives you a glimpse inside our minds, underscores the solid foundations upon which our programs are built, and goes some way to demystifying the process by which we bring value our clients….

Stage 1: Research and Investigation

Upon beginning a new project, we start with C-Suite meetings to identify and define the strategic business challenge or challenges. We support this as needed with communications audits, brand positioning studies, issues analysis, competitor comparisons and customer polling. Only when we have a thorough understanding of our clients, their history, their bugbears and their aspirations, can we begin the process of enabling their success.

Stage 2: Target Audience Analysis (TAA)

We take time to identify and define the groups and individuals that we must affect to achieve our aims, and then we chart the potential communications channels to them. We assess human and group factors to ensure we have a thorough understanding of each client’s stakeholders. We move to the next stage knowing who we must speak to, how to reach them and a basic understanding of what we might say.

The graphic below illustrates the entire process. Look out for Part 2, on Monday, in which we build on our research to develop the strategies and messaging needed to run a successful campaign.

I once had a long conversation over lunch with Frank Luntz on the subject of influence. He is smart – very smart, so I was not surprised to learn that he had been hired to feed into the debate around financial regulatory reform. His memorandum on how the financial services industry should push back against the prospect of wholesale regulatory reform – particularly the establishment of the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Agency (a well-intentioned but potentially disastrous new government bureaucracy) – was shared with the world on the Huffington Post. The memorandum gives an interesting glimpse into the workings of the message development process – with which, in one form or other, we are involved every single day. Check it out at The Luntz Memorandum

Learn more...

A few weeks ago, Simon was interviewed by Jacksonville’s Small Business Advantage magazine for their After Hours section. The story is now live on their website and will be in January’s print edition. Many thanks to Brian Barquilla (Founder & Publisher) and Linda Segall (Editor) for their interest in the story and for the great piece. If you would like to view the article on their website, you can link to it here.

The BABE Rally continues to interest people, and we are thankful to all those who supported us in our endeavor!

Most people know that after taking my degree and attending RMA Sandhurst I spent some years as an officer in the British Army. I served without particular distinction, but it is a period in my life of which, like most ex-soldiers, I am inordinately proud. I left to marry and emigrate and though I completed some reserve service in 2005, I have not really looked back. The funny thing is, I think of those times every single day.

Partly this is sentimental. It was my good fortune to serve alongside literally dozens of real characters, at regimental duty and on what, in those pre-Iraq/Afghanistan days, passed for operations. The mere recollection of those guys brings a smile to my face. It is sobering to think that some of them have spent the time since I saw them last shuttling between the fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some have been injured, some badly. Some have been killed.

Even when I was in the army, Veterans’ Day (called Remembrance Day in Europe) was more about my grandfathers’ generation. Both of my grandfathers fought in World War II, one in Europe, one in the Far East, but for me, nowadays, the focus has shifted. Now I feel a deep responsibility to remember the sacrifice of serving soldiers and veterans of my own generation.

And, of course, the dead.

I’ll be keeping my meager medals in my sock drawer today…. but I’ll be wearing them in spirit. And my dangerous black beret…..! (SK)

Immediately prior to the November 2008 Presidential election, Simon was asked to put our experience and expertise in financial services issues to work as a guest columnist for Accountancy Age, a trade magazine for accountants and financial staff in the United Kingdom. The full text of the article is below or you can link to it here.

AccountancyAge, 30 Oct 2008

US election special: a mandate to reform and regulate

Simon Keymer explains why a former chairman of the federal reserve will help Obama

Two weeks ago, democratic pundit James Carville delivered a verdict on the 2008 presidential election.

The man who is nowadays known as much for his partisan rhetoric and Cajun accent as for running Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 campaign, said that, barring some unforeseen circumstance, Senator McCain could ‘…call the dogs in, wet the fire and leave the house. The hunt’s over’.

If Carville’s prediction comes true, then it is certain the New Year will see the accounting profession facing a US regime with a clear mandate to reform and regulate. Predicting accurately the form this will take is more difficult.

This is partly due to senator Obama’s meagre voting record – of his three years in the Senate, more than one has been spent campaigning for president. His platform too, gives little indication of his attitudes to accounting issues, or indeed to wider corporate governance, less some populist efforts to curb CEO pay.

The difficulty inherent in predicting an Obama administration’s behaviour can be illustrated by taking the example of US GAAP convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Senator Obama has appointed Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman as one of his top economic advisers, and it is expected that he will play a role in any administration.

Volcker is a man who has unequivocally expressed an ‘interest in encouraging international convergence to a single set of global accounting standards’. One would imagine that this would be a clear indication that convergence, or outright adoption of IFRS, would continue unimpeded under president Obama.

Other indicators, however, point elsewhere. Most expect Obama to make good on promises to move toward a more protectionist position, rejecting what could be seen as international interference. This, allied to the dangers of IFRS being seen as de-regulatory, could slow the process.

Some dismiss charges of a protectionist mindset in the Obama camp, and it is true that some of the more strident ‘USA first’ language has been toned down since the need to appeal to the democratic base in the primaries ended. The broader point remains, however. The potential for a democratic controlled congress pressuring a democratic president to dispense with free-trade orthodoxy has implications for the profession that go further than IFRS, extending to the US-UK tax treaty, the debate surrounding auditor consolidation, and, indeed, on efforts to manage the extra-territoriality ramifications of Sarbanes Oxley.

For accountants seeking a ray of sunshine in all this, it is possible that a democratic administration may shy away from the prevailing republican notion that the Wall Street meltdown would not have been nearly so bad were it not for the influence of mark-to-market accounting.

Unfortunately, even that possibility is likely to fall foul of the likelihood that president Obama and his top-dollar advisers will find their room to manoeuvre significantly limited by the reality of economic circumstance.

Simon Keymer is the lead consultant and CEO of the Keymer Group, an issues management consulting firm specialising in financial services, based in Washington DC

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One of our core competencies has always been crisis planning and handling. Here is an article from the Jacksonville Business Journal quoting Simon and proving our expertise in this area.

Strategies, May 25-31, 2007, Page 19

In Case of Emergency…

As hurricane season approaches, crisis planning is best offense


By Dolly Penland, Correspondent

The theft of critical inventory, the death of a key manager, a natural disaster – all companies, large or small, will face a crisis at some point, but those with crisis management plans in place can handle whatever life throws at them better than companies that do not.

A 1997 Oxford University study found that while all catastrophes have an initial negative impact on a company’s value, those that manage a successful recovery from a crisis actually gained an average of 5 percent in net stock as opposed to corporations with an ineffective response to a large-scale emergency. Those companies lost an average of 15 percent in net stock value in the months following the crisis.

Small businesses are especially vulnerable to sudden upheavals. “The kinds of clients we work with are robust enough to rebound, but if [smaller companies] don’t handle a crisis effectively, you can lose everything for the sake of a little planning,” said Simon Keymer, CEO of the public relations firm, The Keymer Group. “You might lose your entire livelihood.”

The institute for Crisis Management reports that natural disasters, white-collar crime, class-action lawsuits, labor issues and mismanagement are the top causes of crisis. Poor management is responsible for more than half of serious problems at companies of all sizes, with employees – at 28 percent – and outside forces – at 19 percent – causing the remainder in 2005.

“Whether it’s a natural disaster or a man-caused disaster, recovery still involves the same steps,” said Doug Wilder, president of coaching firm, Wilder Business Success. “If you have a plan, you can quickly find out what [needs to be done to] salvage the situation and try to make it better.”

Wilder speaks from experience. In 2001, fire raged through his home and home office. “After that, we worked out of the La Quinta hotel,” he said. Being able to work under any condition is important to recovering from a crisis. “It’s fascinating because everything that was important the day before was no longer important after the fire, yet I still had to focus on my business” despite circumstances.

The foundation of any crisis plan is solid communication. That means being able to reach and be reached by employees, customers, vendors, suppliers, bankers, accountants, insurance agents and even the public, if need be.

Patsy Underwood, president of Atlantic Laser Office Products, lost everything in 1996 when a fire razed her business. She credits good communication with keeping her business going. “We made deliveries the day after the fire,” she said. “We didn’t miss a beat.”

Underwood said it is critical to work with professionals who understand your business, to not only help it run better in good times, but when problems arise. “We had excellent professionals who helped us recover,” quickly. She added it is critical to have all the company’s data backed-up and stored off-site. An emergency reserve account isn’t a bad idea either.

Any crisis plan should include several detailed potential scenarios. “It should be very specific on what happens and who does what,” said Zelda Fraden, president of Fraden’s Produce, which was slammed by a tornado caused by Tropical Storm Bonnie in 2004. The company was making scheduled deliveries the day after the storm.

“In an emergency, sometimes people panic and they don’t know what to do,” Fraden said. “If you have a written plan, everyone already knows what their responsibilities are. Have your staff help write that plan.”

Once a plan is in place, simulations can ensure things run smoothly in an actual crisis. “It’s like a fire drill,” Keymer said. For clients, “we can do everything, even hiring actors as hostile media; we try to be as realistic as possible. But it can be done at the desk, just to make sure the information goes to the right people. It doesn’t have to take a whole morning. They don’t have to take their eye off running their business. It’s just making sure everyone understands their priorities and how they act together as a team.”

Should disaster strike, don’t be afraid to ask for help from family, friends and even competitors. “We had an incredible outpouring of assistance,” Fraden said. “Our competitors allowed us to stay in their facilities as long as we needed. Establish good relationships with your competitors and practice the Golden Rule.”

Fraden’s Produce turned its crisis into an opportunity for growth. “We didn’t lose any customers and we’re now in a fantastic facility with room to grow, and we have expanded what we do,” Fraden said. “We feel lucky that we have survived and thrived.”

Atlantic Laser has also not only rebounded, but continues to grow as well. For Underwood, the most important element of a recovery is a positive attitude. “We adopted the tag line of ‘We’re all fired up,’” she said. “My daughter, Lisa Moore, our marketing director, [re]-designed our logo with flames coming up through it. You have to laugh and suck it up and move on.”

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