The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Interel Belgium and with the support of Flanders Investment and Trade organized a webcast on “The 7 pitfalls and the 12 most common errors of public affairs" on July 8, 2021.
Ms Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the participants and gave a brief introduction of the current state of EU-China investments. In the first quarter of this year, EU investments in China increased by 50% compared to last year, reaching USD2.35 billion. Investments mainly came from the automotive, basic materials and the healthcare sector. The value of completed Chinese investments in the EU for the first quarter dropped to USD500 million. The top sectors of Chinese investments were automotive, transport, infrastructure and IT. According to the IMF China's growth will be 8.2% this year, the highest in 10 years.
Mr Karel Joos, Partner, Interel Belgium, wrote a book in 2017 on public affairs and lobbying available as “Lobbyen” in Dutch and “Lobbying” in French. When lobbying in a public affairs campaign, there are considerable odds at stake, while there is this incredibly demanding eco-system of journalists, policymakers and activists. It makes companies struggle with advancing their interests and persuading stakeholders to take positive action. A lot of things can go wrong especially about government and politicians. Mistakes can prove to be costly because you don't get many second chances.
Mr Joos listed seven of the common errors, pitfalls or vices. Making these errors would lead to failure at worst or disappointment at best.
1. Tardiness: too late is almost always too little. Lobbying is about shaping the political agenda and decision making. This is much easier when the agenda is still malleable. Having to reconsider – for any human being but especially for a policy maker – is much harder than being open to debate. If your campaign is kicking in too late, you will be confronted with doors already closed and even worse, minds already made up. Many people are talking about a public affairs campaign as opening doors, which is only half the truth, but still, doors have to be opened. If you are late they might be locked. A timely outreach could even win the day without a fight. Lobbying is not about pushing and fighting, but winning without having to go to war. When are you on time, and when are you too late, is a question that is sometimes difficult to answer. It is one of the most important questions: it is better to start too early than too late.
2. Tediousness: the best story always wins. Many companies fail at making their narrative memorable and lasting. The challenge is to create mindshare through a compelling and resonating story which connects logic with emotion. Only then will your audience – and political decision makers – be moved and do something. You don't have to bring them to tears, but you have to incentivize them to take positive action. If they are moved, they will ask for more and share your story among colleagues and contacts. Don't only speak to the head but to the heart as well, because policy makers are human beings and politics is also about emotion. If you only talk about facts and figures, especially for multinational companies, then chances are you will not move your audience. Try to be memorable and lasting and don't only talk about reducing costs and increasing your profit margin. Many companies fail to interest policy makers. Be interesting, which is not the same as being the hero of the story.
3. Indistinctness: public affairs is not about the people you know but about knowledge you have. The idea that knowing people opens doors is close to nonsense. It is the case, the issue, the topic, which will be opening the door. Getting a meeting with a high-ranking policy maker is useless if one does not have a case which is politically relevant. Any company will be heard if its message is the right one at the right time for the right person. Otherwise, it will only be listened to out of politeness – or not at all. Even if you can call the Prime Minister but you don't have anything politically relevant, he won't be answering the second or third call. If there is no business case for lobbying, then do something else and don't waste time and money on it.
4. Self-centeredness: politics is a game of power while business is a game of profit. The idea that the Prime Minister is the CEO of Belgium and the government the Board of Directors is also close to nonsense because they are playing a completely different game. Companies who try to make policy makers act and think like business people will never reach their goal. Their games are as different as handball and volleyball or a cow and a horse. Any solution to a public affairs issue will have to be supported by both sides of the deal and will need to serve a common interest acceptable to public opinion. Because the public will ask the politician whether he is only serving the interests of the private sector. There will only be a solution if the private and public sector paradigms are respected. This is not weak, it is smart. Don't push your interests down the throat of a politician because it won't work and you will make things worse. Don't start a war until you are certain to win it.
5. Suggestibleness: interest and influence are not the same when analyzing stakeholders. Stakeholder behavior is easily misread. It is not because some people are very vocal about a certain topic that they will have an important and relevant stake in the decision to be made – and this goes for friends and foes alike. You need to analyze the interconnections between key players to have a view on the eco-system of influence. Who is listening to whom and are the big mouths really influential? What is a stakeholder's interest in your campaign and his or her influence on the outcome? This analysis has to be made beforehand to better understand the game you are playing and the theater you find yourself in. A lobby campaign is a narrative competition.
6. Feebleness: unity is strength. Multinational corporations are strictly organized, and for a reason. But for public affairs campaigns to exert a significant impact, an internal cross-functional working group should build and drive the effort, with a buy-in across the board. As such, commercial, technical, regulatory, marketing and communications aspects will be included in the discussions. This group should further coordinate all initiatives to external stakeholders, from a content, channel and timing point of view. The most successful campaigns are those where internally you are coordinating across the board because you assemble all the energy and put it into your public affairs campaign. To the outside world you speak as one.
7. Oneness: two can accomplish more than twice as much as one. Why fight alone if you can find allies to help you? Mobilizing support can be one of the most effective strategies in public affairs. The pooling of reputation, resources, talent and strategy can foster an impressive campaign to influence policy decisions. But coalitions are hard work and in order to succeed they need trust, leadership and a give-get ratio acknowledged and understood by all members. In Belgium we have a very diverse and extensive landscape of sector federations. Use them as much as you can. The leverage you can create through your sector federation is not to be underestimated.
Next, Mr Joos turned to the damaging dozen, the twelve common mistakes made by lobbyists.
1. Not reading between the lines. Governments in Belgium are always a coalition of several parties. When negotiating legislation politicians have a habit of making agreements sentence by sentence. As every word has its meaning, simply reading what is written is most likely to produce an incomplete picture of the political reality. You will need intelligence gathering to understand what is written between the lines and what was the story before the decision was made.
2. Doing something when doing nothing is better. In politics, doing nothing can be extremely intelligent. And yet many lobbyists are afraid of the void and would rather do anything at all (which could prove to be detrimental) than simply prepare for a new political momentum. It is a challenge, because you want to fight for your interests and be active but when the political momentum is not right, why push for it? Some things take time, you have to be patient.
3. Not knowing what persistence really means. Politicians are quite capable of grasping the relevance and urgency of an issue. They really can do without repeated interventions about the same topic. Sooner or later, undue pressure on policy makers will backfire in ways many lobbyists cannot even imagine. Don't push politicians to do something they are not ready to do.
4. Not balancing persistence with patience. Lobbying is all about perseverance, which in turn is composed of persistence and patience – in equal measure. Politicians can evolve very slowly for a long time but never forget that things can switch to the speed of light in a single day.
5. Ignoring the lesser gods. Of course, only the top brass make the big decisions. But downstream they are surrounded by a fine-grained ecosystem of people who prepare advice and sometimes have more influence than meets the eye. The problem in Belgium is that the average level of policy advisers is not necessarily increasing. If you are confronted with a policy adviser who lacks competence you might have a problem because you have to get your message across.
6. Not telling the truth and thinking you can get away with it. In lobbying, coloring the truth or downright lying is by far the most dangerous tactic to use. Policy makers may be fooled some of the time, but certainly not all of the time. The day of reckoning will come and it will destroy the campaign and the corporate reputation completely. Be very careful about hiding part of the truth or coloring it too much. Trying to blackmail policymakers is a dangerous game. In future they will take it into account.
7. Making poor background checks. Convincing policy makers of your interest is also about human interaction. Even more so when a solution needs to be found through negotiations. Being successful will be much easier if one knows the opposite side better than one's own self. Assemble as much intelligence as you can. Understanding the people on the other side of the table will be valuable information. Gathering information has gotten more complex however with the GDPR regulation.
8. Acting without coverage by the higher level. Having a voluntarist state of mind is not an advantage for a lobbyist. It might result in engaging in conversations and even negotiations with policymakers without coverage on the content of those who have responsibility for managing the campaign. If a deal is close and you don't have coverage from headquarters, you might get into trouble. When things move fast there might not be time to ask for permission.
9. Thinking a compromise is a defeat. Politicians are professional deal makers used to the fact that in all things political, the winner never takes it all. Trying to leave them empty-handed will never yield a solution, even if they are completely wrong and the lobbyist is completely right. If you expose the Minister publicly that he is wrong, you will bear the consequences later on. It is better to make a deal and preserve the quality of the relationship.
10. Coming out of the gates storming. Do not start a war without being certain you are going to win it. Lobbyists who aggressively try to advance in a campaign will end up in misery as policy makers have far more instruments to embark on in an endless guerrilla war – time for example will be mainly on their side. In politics, they wait till the very last moment to make a decision, when there is no other option. On the other hand, if time is on your side, then you are the master of the game, but again the winner never takes it all.
11. Sending the wrong messenger. A solution for any policy issue is always reached through dialogue. To make this kind of interaction fruitful, both sides need to feel comfortable and in tune to enter the process. It is rarely the best idea to send in a lawyer as this will suggest legal action. Neither is putting forward the CEO at the start of the campaign, because you cannot escalate if things get worse.
12. Thinking people will go your way because you invited them to lunch. Lobbyists adhering to the habits of the past, are bound to be made irrelevant by the new generation of politicians and the rising pressure on ethics and transparency all around. Moreover, thinking a lunch or a present might do the trick supposes that policy makers are either stupid or corrupt – which is quite a gamble to make. Do I really need food and drink to advance my interests? Do I need to meet somebody in a restaurant instead of a meeting room? How will he or she feel? You can do it to get to know each other, but not to talk about a specific topic. It is not necessary.
The personality characteristics of effective and successful public affairs professionals are listening; observing; relationship-building; courtesy; honesty; integrity and credibility.
