The four ‘must haves’ in any Public Affairs plan: #3 Position
As many Public Affairs professionals will know, the PA department can have many different tasks to handle, some which may not even be core for a PA function. This depends of course on the organization, the raison d’être for the PA function and how many people will be working to execute the tasks. However, every good PA department starts with a plan - and in this extract from his book “The Public Affairs Engine” Ulobby CEO Anders Kopp Jensen gives his two cents on the four essential parts of such a PA-plan, continuing with step number 3:
- Position
We touched upon this in chapter 2, but focused more on the organization as a whole and the environment it finds itself in. This exercise in particular is more focused on each of the specific issues the organization has defined as priorities. But the overall position of the organization of course still plays a pivotal role in defining a position on each of the issues. So if you are pre-dominantly a producer of toys, but also have indirect issues related to, for example, the climate debate, you should consider these factors. The important factor is of course to behave in a consistent and credible way.
Which role you take on the different issues depends on the political situation of the specific issue and obviously the market situation. Inspired by Collins and Butler, five typical roles can be depicted in the following way:
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