The Best PR Has to Offer Managers

Written by Robert A. Kelly


Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Word count is 915 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2003.

The Best PR Has to Offer Managers

How cool is this? You’re a business, non-profit or association manager. You decide to get serious about your public relations and shiftrepparttar spotlight away from communications tactics. You implement an action blueprint that (1), helps you persuade your key external stakeholders to your way of thinking. And then (2), helps move them to take actions that lead to your success as a department, division or subsidiary manager.

It comes into sharper focus when that public relations blueprint helps deliver target audience behaviors like new waves of prospects buzzing around, more qualified calls about strategic alliances, a jump up in repeat purchases, a boost in repparttar 104859 number of engineering consultants specifying your products or services, and even increased membership applications and contributions.

What is that blueprint, anyway? Try this: People act on their own perception ofrepparttar 104860 facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-actionrepparttar 104861 very people whose behaviors affectrepparttar 104862 organizationrepparttar 104863 most,repparttar 104864 public relations mission is accomplished.

As I’ve said many times inrepparttar 104865 past about that fundamental premise of public relations, it shinesrepparttar 104866 PR spotlight directly on those outside groups of people with a large say about how successful a manager is going to be – namely, it targets his or her most important external audiences.

But you needrepparttar 104867 PR folks assigned to your unit to buy into repparttar 104868 program and shift their priorities from communications tactics to a workable, comprehensive plan like this one designed to deliver those key, outside audience behaviors.

Behaviors, byrepparttar 104869 way, that obviously help or hinder a manager in achieving his or her operating objectives.

The real work for you asrepparttar 104870 department, division or subsidiary manager starts by listing all your key external audiences in priority order so that you initially focus your resources on that number one audience.

Next step is answeringrepparttar 104871 question, what do members of that audience think about your organization? Short of spending big money on professional survey counsel, you and your PR team can/should/must interact with those members by asking questions such as “What, if anything, do you think about us? Have you ever dealt with our people? Were you pleased with repparttar 104872 experience? Have you heard other comments about our organization?”

Effective Risk Management

Written by Adam Park


Risk is embedded in every opportunity a business faces. And poor risk management can result in large financial costs, or even failure. Risk points can emerge anywhere: small scale project delays,repparttar misguided actions of an employee, or a fire in an inventory warehouse.

This article will help any small business owner or manager better understand what risks are out there, and more importantly, how to better control them.

First, I’ll explain why a systematic analysis of risks is important and illustrate a simple risk management architecture. Then, I’ll talk about how I helped companies better identify and manage a variety of risks.

What is Risk Management? Simply, risks are threats to your business or project. They are situations or events that can affectrepparttar 104858 outcome of your decisions and actions. Therefore, risk management isrepparttar 104859 identification, evaluation, and mitigation of risks to a business or project.

Why is Risk Management Important? All businesses exist for one clear reason: To make a profit. Poorly managed risks have tangible and dramatic effects onrepparttar 104860 bottom line. Therefore, sound risk management is important to ensure that your business can overcome any problems and continue to grow profitably.

Threats to a small business or project can come from a variety of sources. In 2002, The Risk Management Standard categorized risks into four areas: Financial, Operational, Strategic, and Hazard. Strategic risks can emerge from competitors, customers, or markets of a company. For example,repparttar 104861 technological features of a companies’ product may become obsolete. Operational risks can affect howrepparttar 104862 company operates internally. Systems such as IT, material procurement, and accounting responsibilities can be compromised by employees. Financial risks can hinge on financial market performance, such as foreign exchange fluctuations. The last type- Hazard risk- can berepparttar 104863 most damaging. Events like natural disasters, manmade disasters, and crime can permanently disable a company.

How to Build an Effective Risk Management Strategy An effective risk management strategy must be systematic and robust. It also must be straight-forward, and simple to implement.

An effective risk management strategy will have three stages: •Identify •Evaluate •Mitigate Duringrepparttar 104864 Identify stage, owners and/or senior managers need to thoroughly examinerepparttar 104865 business from many different perspectives. All risks facing all areas of a company need to be identified. This should be done with as many people involved as realistically possible to give a complete picture.

Duringrepparttar 104866 Evaluate stage, each risk is given a probability of occurrence and a severity of occurrence ranking (This can be done with a simple 1 to 5 scale; 1 being “rarely occurring” and “minimal damage”). This allows senior management to more clearly understandrepparttar 104867 extent of potential damage.

Duringrepparttar 104868 Mitigate stage,repparttar 104869 resulting risks are controlled through a variety of methods. For example, traditional insurance is one way to remove hazard risk. Financial risks can be managed through capital market hedging transactions. Operational risks are minimized by clear check and balance procedures and management oversight withinrepparttar 104870 company. Strategic risks can be minimized by better documentation, such as protecting intellectual property rights.

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