When your industry is needed but not wanted
Some our biggest industries are tackling eroding social licence and stakeholder engagement challenges and it’s impacting their ability to operate.
Let me explain:
Mining
- Need: Digging stuff out of the ground to provide raw materials for just about everything that needs to be built ever.
- Not wanted: Where to start??? The impact of digging tons of stuff out of the ground has resulted in a dramatically diminished social licence to operate. It’s been compounded by people not wanting to think about where things come from.
Professional Services
- Need: Expertise (that doesn’t exist within businesses) to develop strategy, inform decision making, drive growth, transformation and outcomes.
- Not wanted: Costs are under the microscope and the industry’s had a terrible time over the last 2 years. Consultants are often seen as an expensive and businesses have been trying to do more with less… until they can’t.
Property Development
- Need: Infrastructure, thousands of houses, high-density accommodation, data centres, warehouses, shopping centres.
- Not wanted: In places where there is no similar existing infrastructure ie. high rises and multi-storey carparks sticking out like sore thumbs across cities, more congestion in the burbs.
AI & Data Centres
- Need: Vast amounts of affordable, or better still, cheap, cheap, cheap energy to fuel business operations.
- Not wanted: Environmental impact of such huge energy requirements amid energy transition and supply crisis.
Retail & Fashion
- Need: Clothing, household materials and equipment needed to live our daily lives.
- Not wanted: Enormous mountains of landfill and cheap labour necessary for production to be commercially feasible.
See what I mean?
The question is – if you’re in these industries along with many others – what are you going to do about it if you’re to survive, let alone grow or achieve your targets?
The solution boils down to humility, advocacy, education and communication.
You need to listen to what people are saying and adjust your go-to-market strategy, communications and stakeholder engagement accordingly.
Telling people they can’t live without you is arrogant and will only get their backs up further.
You need to bring people with you.
Walk the talk and get the messages right with what you say and how you say it, then show people you’re addressing the issues.
Make sure you also highlight the good you’re doing. In some cases this can offset concerns.
Here’s One Approach
For example, if I was a mining company with a strong track record in community management, biodiversity and environmental rehabilitation, ethical standards etc.
I’d be talking about it.
Often.
I’d also be talking to Education Ministers to address the anti-mining bias that’s entered classrooms, with kids being taught to write essays on how bad mining is.
Find ways to get school kids into mines so they can see how they work and start imagining how they might solve some of the massive challenges and innovations the mining and resources industry is involved in – Lunar exploration, AI, automation, feats of engineering, turning rocks into gold etc.
There is so much incredible work going on here, but no one is talking about it outside the industry.
Companies are on the back foot, worrying about why people hate them so much.
If you focus on the obstacles, you’re pretty sure to hit them.
And if you just put your head down and try to barrel through, it’s going to be a hard slog all the way.
Try looking at different ways of communicating and think about how you might feel if you were one of the stakeholders who was throwing up roadblocks.
Find out what’s at stake and what they REALLY want and need.
People need to feel seen and heard, not heard and ignored.
You and your team need to fully appreciate the benefits and outcomes of your proposition, unless it’s a dud product, which is a story in itself…
Think about what you would want to see achieved that would bring about an outcome where everyone benefits, even if it’s only in a small way.
Finally, start early and be consistent. You won’t see change overnight but you should be able to compound your efforts to shift the dial over time.
What do you think? What else can be done? I’d love to hear from you.
Nina
PS. If you’ve been thinking we’re in for more uncertainty this year, I invite you to grab a copy of my eBook. It’s packed with practical strategies for building relationships, engaging new markets and motivating teams. Download it here – Thrive When Others Survive – Strategies for Growth in Uncertain Markets
PPS. We’ve had a little brand refresh. I hope you like it.