Stakeholder Engagement: Build Bridges Before You Hit Walls
Stakeholder engagement is a mindset as well as a specific business practice. Energy companies are gradually accepting that their ability to conduct business requires the consent of critical constituencies, including customers, investors, employees, communities, regulators, strategic partners and others. The term “social license to operate” includes, but is not limited to, stakeholder engagement. Over the […]
The Perils of Pursuing Profits Over Purpose
Craft beer is huge in Colorado, where I live and work, as well as many other places. When I travel, I always try to sample local craft brews. So it was with some dismay I read recently that one of Colorado’s largest craft brewers, employee-owned New Belgium Brewing, was acquired by an Asian beverage conglomerate. […]
Gifts for Energy Communicators: Our Best-Read Content from 2019
Gifts for Energy Communicators: Our Best-Read Content from 2019 EEC Perspectives gained dozens of new subscribers this year, many of them in the last few weeks after I hit the conference circuit. For that reason, and others, we’re re-gifting our best-read content from 2019. You don’t have to wait until December 25 to unwrap these […]
Changing Your Organization’s Culture One Minute at a Time
In last month’s blog, I discussed the wide gap between words and deeds among Colorado energy companies on the issue of stakeholder engagement, and how that disparity finally caught up with them in last year’s election. Sooner or later, I believe that same tendency to favor talk over action will hit providers of electricity. I’m […]
Earning, and Keeping, Your Company’s Social License to Operate
April 16, 2019 was the day that social license to operate (SLTO) became real for Colorado’s energy companies. That’s the date that Colorado’s governor signed into law Senate Bill 181, which is transforming the business environment for Colorado oil & gas companies. If you wanted to quibble, you could say the date SLTO became real […]
Energy Crisis Communications Made Easier
My blogs on energy company crisis communications have consistently drawn high readership, possibly because of the spate of crises that have hit energy companies, their communities and their customers in recent years. See here. And here. And here. And here. But after a summer of bad news for energy companies, it looks like it’s a […]
Environmental Communications: When Green is the New Black
In recent years, a growing number of electric utilities have added “sustainable” or “environmentally responsible” or “cleaner” to their longtime vision of providing electric service that is safe, affordable and reliable. That’s one part of their response to a shifting market. Even utilities operating in traditionally regulated monopoly markets, where there is no threat of […]
Media Relations: 10 Tips from Two Pros Part 2
This month’s blog post on media relations is a continuation of last month’s post, Media Relations: 10 Tips From Two Pros, Part 1, where we interviewed Jeff Lane and Randi Berris, media relations professionals for Salt River Project (SRP) and DTE Energy, respectively, for their tips on achieving media relations excellence. In that post, we […]
Media Relations: 10 Tips from Two Pros Part 1
The utility media relations function can help turn stakeholders into advocates, producing a wide range of benefits: lessened frictions, lowered costs, enhanced customer relations, increased customer satisfaction and improved brand equity. But when utility spokespersons have a tin ear or a heavy hand, they can create problems internally and externally: for executives, for customer service […]
One More Time: Why Do Utilities Need a Brand?
“Why do water utilities advertise?” my son Jack asked me the other day, more or less out of the blue. “I mean, it’s not like I have a lot of choice.” Since Jack doesn’t work in a utility marketing department, he’s not privy to internal discussions about a utility’s brand. I told him that he […]
