Chaos in the Public Square

Strategic Implications of the Rapidly Evolving Landscape of Corporate Speech

10-11 May 2005
The Metropolitan Club ● New York, NY

Need a hotel?

Produced by Harvard Business School Publishing
in collaboration with
The International Association of Business Communicators

Critical Business Challenges

• Creating a strategic approach to the new requirements for commercial speech;

• Understanding the evolving expectations of shareholders, customers, suppliers, regulators, and others relating to your communications, brand, social
  responsibility reporting, and reputation;

• Preparing your executive team for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Why Attend?

- Who better to tell you how prosecutors are thinking than the lead prosecutor of the Martha Stewart case and the Attorney General of California?
- Who better to help you understand how to navigate the new terrain than senior executives from Ford, ITT, Deere, and Johnson & Johnson?
- How better to understand the implications of Nike v. Kasky for transparency than to hear from senior executives from Nike and NASDAQ?
- Where else can you get insights on managing an authentic brand from reputation experts Charles Fombrun and Leslie Gaines-Ross?

Chaos in the Public Square brings together an unprecedented array of experts from the communications, legal, and policy communities to help you meet your challenges.
Register today.


Who Should Attend
Director and above management who are directly responsible for the public persona of the company: Corporate Communications, Corporate Legal, Government Affairs,
Investor Relations, Media Relations, and Public Relations.

Register today.


Overview

There has never been a more difficult time to be responsible for a company’s public speech: Disclosure requirements are becoming increasingly complex, NGOs and public oversight groups more aggressive, and the public – investors, consumers, and employees – both more cynical and more demanding of transparency. It has led many executives to wonder if it is safe to say anything at all anymore.

In short, the rules of corporate speech have changed -- and continue to change – making life turbulent in the executive suite.

How do you craft a strategic approach for navigating the new terrain? How do you gauge and meet the new expectations of your customers, investors, employees, and other stakeholders? How do you present a “glass house” to your constituencies without opening yourself to attacks by your competitors and critics? How can you best prepare your executive colleagues to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities that are emerging?

Timeliness

This issue is timely because confidence in corporations, essential in a free market economy, is at an all-time low and there is growing tension between two large and influential bodies concerning the best way to restore credibility and build consumer confidence:

On one side, public interest groups, consumer advocates, NGOs, Attorneys General at the state level, and the SEC at the federal level, are using the courts to hold corporations more accountable for what they say in public. This group claims that false and misleading statements erode trust and undermine the foundation of a consumer economy.

On the other side, the business and media communities claim that corporations have a right to free speech, just like individuals do, and it’s up to a discerning public make their own judgments.

The answer, obviously, is somewhere in between. A company that truly misleads its investors or customers will pay for it eventually; regulations that are so tight that they preclude a company from showing itself in the best light will ultimately stifle creativity, innovation, and growth. The question is: where “in between” is it prudent to be?

For years, corporations saw the protections for commercial speech grow. But after court cases such as Nike v. Kasky and several years of corporate scandal, consumer advocates and their brethren have the initiative and their momentum is building. The lines that define the grey areas are shifting sands in a desert dust storm.

In this forum we will tackle the contentious issues – not to advocate one side or the other but to define the parameters of the new reality and help you craft a strategic approach for your organization. Corporate speech should not be chilled and neither should those who criticize it be rejected out of hand. By arming yourself with a greater understanding of the agendas and objectives of the disparate stakeholders, you will be better able to build a framework for more effective communication.
 

Produced in collaboration with: