Communication with External Stakeholders – Media and Investors
External stakeholders for an organisation may include customers, suppliers, shareholders, funders and citizens at large. Companies interact with group of external stakeholders on a regular basis and these interactions impact the company’s businesses directly, depending on the quality of communication.
It is not only important to identify and profile the important stakeholders of an organisation but also critical to cater to the different needs of each stakeholder group with different skill set and expertise.
Communication with the media and investors is critical for reputation and monetary health of a Company. Consistent and correct messaging to them especially in time of a crisis is extremely critical. Incorrect, varying information on the Company negatively impacts the company's revenue, brand value, trust, goodwill etc. It also affects it’s standing as an organisation in other quarters as well, for example as an employer, as a responsible corporate for government, within the international community etc.
Our Code of Conduct sets clear guidelines for communication with media and investors. It states that in order to maintain and retain the Company’s reputation and to ensure that information to media and investors is accurate and properly presented, only the Chairman or Co-Chairman and Managing Director or the designated representatives such as CEO or Group CFO / CFO of the respective entity would give interviews or make statements to media / investors. Any Employee receiving requests for information from media, investors, analysts, brokers, or any external agency should promptly refer all such requests to Corporate Communications.
The recent past has shown us several examples, of media causing monetary and reputational damage to big corporations/companies like Tesla, Victoria’s Secret, United Airlines etc. Hence it is vital that the employees and companies understand the criticality of correct and streamlined communication to these stakeholders.
Awareness is built on a regular basis amongst employees to take cognizance of these sensitive issues and act responsibly. Emailers, posters, articles etc on the key aspects of the Code of Conduct is shared/disbursed regularly.