We have created a suite of cost-effective, bite-sized services designed to protect and build the strength of your organisation’s brand and reputation in these testing times. Sometimes it makes more sense to take small actions that show an organisation cares and deliver results that make a difference. Choose from the flexible service options below to ensure you’re match fit, fighting fit and future fit! Get in touch to discuss your needs at [email protected]
Reputation: Your most valuable asset
In today’s hyper-connected world, your reputation is everything. Customers, partners, and stakeholders expect you to uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and social responsibility. But how can you ensure that your positive actions and values are effectively communicated and perceived?
The best first step is our profile reputation assessment that delivers a clear, data-driven snapshot of how your brand is perceived across relevant channels, including social media, traditional media, and online platforms.
We can help you benchmark your current reputation and gain valuable insights into your online presence, sentiment, and influence, enabling you to identify areas for improvement and capitalise on strengths. These insights are used to amplify your brand’s voice and establish you as a trusted authority in your industry through strategic content creation and distribution.
Don’t leave your reputation to chance. Take the first step by investing in a proactive approach that safeguards your reputation and positions your brand for long-term success.
What do your stakeholders really think?
Most organisations have a diverse range of stakeholders in their ecosystem and their views carry weight and importance for shaping a business’s strategy. Incorporating varied perspectives from customers, employees, investors, and communities ensures decisions align with the people who have an influence on your success.
Whilst you might think you have a handle on what your stakeholders really think, this is rarely the case in our experience. Gems of insights, helpful strategic ideas and really valuable pearls of wisdom can be sought from stakeholders if you know how to ask.
Anthem’s proven qualitative audit process goes beyond metrics, fostering deep conversations to uncover nuanced insights which inform communication strategies, enhance authenticity and relevance, and build a positive reputation grounded in empathy, engagement and facts. Annual audits create a benchmark to test progress over time, and essentially, if they are timed with the annual planning cycle ensure stakeholder expectations are baked into business strategies.
By prioritising stakeholder perspectives, we enable businesses to navigate challenges with foresight and confidence, driving sustainable growth and positive societal impact.
Taking the pulse of stakeholder mindsets
Time is often of the essence in the desire to move fast due to change or to test the water at a strategic point of a project. Gauging stakeholder sentiments, concerns, and expectations at pace can be invaluable to stay tuned to the evolving needs and views of people who have influence on the outcomes you seek. This approach helps build stronger relationships, identify issues early, and align strategies with stakeholder interests.
Routine stakeholder pulse checks or “mini audits” are essential because perspectives can shift quickly due to the rapidly changing market conditions, opportunities, or challenges. Anthem can capture real-time insights and views quickly by talking with a tight group of high value stakeholders to flush out critical feedback and themes. The outcome is often enhanced stakeholder satisfaction by valuing their opinions, uncovering insights for improvements, and fostering an agile organisational culture.
Are you getting value from your memberships?
- How many organisations is your business a member of? Do you know?
- Do all these memberships have relationship owners in your company?
- Are your people showing up and standing out at events and forums put on by the organisations you are members of?
- Is your industry association well connected to the Government’s agenda and advocating effectively for members?
- In these tough economic times, are you getting measurable value from the fees you pay for your memberships?
As businesses reevaluate their priorities, some are questioning the value they are getting from their portfolio of memberships, and are pulling out of those that don’t serve their current business interests.
Anthem can conduct a quick audit of your spend on memberships and review value for money against your strategic business objectives. We’ll provide you with a short report of recommendations and do a presentation to your executive team.
A little bit icky?
Small talk, big talk, building rapport…. but can we be bothered?
Networking is a much-maligned word. Some people refer to it as “schmoozing”, and see it as disingenuous, even sleazy and used car salesman-esk. Others are just plain terrified and white knuckle their way through business events.
Anthem’s Executive Chair and consummate networker, Jane Sweeney, hates the word too. She doesn’t see it as something you go out to do, but what you do as you go. She feels like a kid in a candy store at events and sees “networking” as surviving and thriving in a room full of strangers.
There are a huge number of benefits to networking, both business and personal. Networking can help you expand your business contacts, increase revenue, and ultimately help you live a more fulfilling life.
In Jane’s view networking should be about enjoying the opportunity to meet new people and learn about them and their goals. It shouldn’t feel like work and the people with the most success are the ones that are truly interested and sincere and understand “the law of reciprocity”.
We are running regular 90 minute sessions on Building and nurturing your professional relationships. Please register your interest at [email protected]
Nailing your pitch
Do your big asks always land well? Are you confident presenting what you do and need to any audience, anytime, anywhere? When an event moderator throws to you and asks you to respond with a succinct, thoughtful and meaningful commentary, do you have it licked?
If this is you, that’s great, but many people struggle to nail their ask, get tongue tied when impromptu comments are sought, and waffle through business case presentations.
Anthem can assist you with your stump speech you can repurpose on any occasion or with a specific pitch you must nail. We’ll wordsmith your content so it sounds natural and have you presenting like a pro.
Taking your climate risk temperature
The frequency and severity of recent climate driven crises in New Zealand and globally have been unprecedented, and provoked scrutiny of business leaders’ roles and responsibilities in climate risk evaluations and responses.
New Zealand company directors have a legal and moral duty to exercise reasonable care, which includes identifying and addressing foreseeable and material climate-related risks that could affect their organisations. Robust risk analysis is the first step in preparing and being able to implement and effective crisis communications response.
Anthem can help your board and executive team review existing crisis management and communications plans for potential climate risks, and enhance your level of preparedness by refreshing or developing a bespoke climate crisis plan and toolkit.
Crisis communications readiness
When a crisis hits it typically happens suddenly or unexpectedly, and it requires an immediate response to get the situation under control and the organisation and people out of danger. Communications must be involved from the outset.
Trying to “fix it first” without well-planned and tested communications, places an immediate and sometimes irrevocable handicap on the work needed to inform regulators, stakeholders and shareholders, and mitigate reputational damage.
Anthem has deep experience in evaluating organisations’ crisis communications preparedness – and designing bespoke plans that effectively guide boards and management teams when the pressure is on to demonstrate care, competence and clarity.
Putting your crisis response to the test
A crisis plan that is not regularly tested can lend to an organisation having a false and potentially catastrophic sense of complacency. When a crisis hits, every minute lost to confusion is a minute lost to recovery – and potentially puts lives and an organisation’s reputation at irrecoverable risk.
That is why Anthem offers half or full day crisis simulations – each one tailored to the specific business or organisation – that are designed to put a board, senior executives, and crisis and business recovery teams through their paces. Moving through the four typical stages of a crisis, from the initial indication that something is wrong, through to recognition that a crisis is likely, the subsequent confirmation of a crisis and full activation of a crisis response, and the action taken to remediate and recover.
Participants undergo a thorough debrief, and the learnings are documented in a report that includes recommendations addressing any failings or opportunities for improvement.
Communicating effectively with your Board
Does your executive team struggle to deliver board papers that meet directors’ expectations for clarity, concision, and accuracy? Board packs that are long on content and short on recommendations supported by relevant data risk boring your board, delaying decisions, and undermining trust between the executive team and directors.
Anthem can help you reclaim the respect of your board by assessing past board packs, gaining feedback from directors, and providing a report and recommendations for improvement, as well as ongoing coaching and advice to ensure that the content and quality of future board papers with your board are maintained.
