Several years ago, we coined the phrase ‘retailer as gatekeeper’, to describe the growing trend for public policy issues to be impacted by the decisions of retailers and other brandholders, as opposed to regulators (to read more on the subject, click here). The trend continues, and will play a large role in many debates [...]
HLC cartoons: retailers as gatekeepers
February 20th, 2012‘What makes people tick’ – The secrets of NGO success?
November 23rd, 2011Many of the people with whom we work in the corporate world seem honestly bewildered by the effectiveness of pressure group campaigns. The purpose of this blog is to draw your attention to two books that go a long way to explaining why the best pressure group campaigns are so successful. Read more…
No need to talk to them; they don’t have the support anymore
November 2nd, 2011What can oil and gas executives learn from the collapse of the credit bubble? That no matter how good the situation looks now, and how friendly politicians act: they have already thought who to blame in case something goes wrong. A good lesson to keep in mind before turning the back on environmental and climate change groups. Read more…
EuroFish TV: “TV about fish, for fish, made by fish”
September 22nd, 2011EU Commissioner Damanaki tweeted our first episode of EuroFishTV to over 2000 people this week.
There are few policy areas more complex than the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy. Hence, the public rarely pays attention. Here is our effort to make it simple – to make the message travel further. Read more…
I say oil sands, you say tar sands
August 23rd, 2011On the Comment Visions series, HLC chairman Simon Bryceson discusses Canadian oil/tar sands, Europe’s fuel quality Directive, and the intensifying battle between the energy industry and the environment movement. Simon argues that both parties will invest more into competitive communications on this issue than is currently expected, because neither side can afford to lose. Read more…
FDR and lobbying…
July 19th, 2011In Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words, the importance of communicating messages which resonate with the public in addition to talking to policy elites with long words.
Energy battles ahead
June 30th, 2011The driver of energy policy in Europe is public opinion. In Europe, the public opinion that counts is national public opinion. There is no European Union energy policy, no matter how many times Commission officials and others may urge that there should be. Read more…
The Marine and Forestry Stewardship Councils – Putting the Price Up
April 1st, 2011In two important areas of natural resource conservation a radical private sector initiative has been established. These organizations are both now large and have been operating for sufficient time for us to ask whether they are working.Read more…
Politicians are not judges
March 10th, 2011Lobbyists assume that regulators and policymakers act as judges: listening to the case of each side, sifting and weighing the evidence, and coming down on the side of ‘who is right’. It is much better to think of decision-makers not as judges but as politicians, which many of them are. Their focus is not on which side is right.
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Have We Built a Majority?
January 14th, 2011‘Have we built a majority?’: Lobbyists often overlook this important question. Early in their careers, politicians learn to establish their positions according to…Read more…
