The “Reputation: APAC Perspectives Report 2024” survey by the world’s largest professional PR body, the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), highlights important perspectives from the regional PR industry. The study was administered among the APAC region’s communications, public relations, and public affairs professionals.
The respondents were polled on many aspects. Though the survey was not “quantitative” and produced respondents’ opinions in percentages and numbers, it was qualitative revealing their opinions and intents, a simple “quantitative-analysis” of these qualitative opinions of PR leaders in the survey unravels interesting insights.
The stakeholder profile of a company molds its success. No stakeholders, No company…and no Brand.
When the survey respondents’ notions of the “most important stakeholder for them’” were asked, more than half (around 52%) would mention “Employees” followed by C-Suite (10%), Partners (10%), and others (29%). If we are to re-collate “Employees” with “C-Suite” and “Partners”, all of them together as “internal stakeholders”, then almost close to four-thirds (72%) of respondent PR leaders seem to position “internal stakeholders” as the most important stakeholder group, pushing external stakeholders-even the clients!- to somewhat of a secondary level.
Within this “internal stakeholders,” the most important stakeholder category is “employees” with 52% as they form the bedrock of resilience in tough times. Fiona Cassidy-Director, R R Consulting: “Employees, staff, co-workers, are always the first priority group I consider when doing any corporate communication. Well-informed, motivated employees are the biggest asset for any organisation. Their work determines the success of an organisation as they are the ones that produce the services/products, create the revenue, are spokespeople for the brand, and contribute to the reputation of the organisation..”
Still, some APAC PR leaders offer other compelling insights to indicate employees are important to them;
John Bailey-Managing Consultant, Global Communications Consulting: “…apart from the individuals or groups directly affected, the next most important stakeholders are invariably those closest to home (i.e. internal). Without the support and trust of your own employees, no organisation can effectively navigate its way through the volatile, uncertain, and complex (VUCA) landscape which lies ahead..”
Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) encapsulate what today’s world is facing. Though different analysts see VUCA to be somewhat outdated after it malfunctioned on COVID-19 effect assessments, and they even called for it to be combined with other models, VUCA is still used in the PR industry when it comes to achieving its main objective, the evaluation of predictability of the outcome of an action Vs knowledge of the situation. In executing a successful VUCA model for them, the APAC PR leaders correctly indicate that employee engagement for the industry is vital if not paramount.
As Jack Welch, the legendary late CEO of General Electric said: “No company, small or large, can win over the long run without energised employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.”
