Public Relations / Public Affairs Ideas To Use

In Lobbying, Harrah’s Seeks Better Odds

Harrah’s Entertainment has stopped betting all their chips on red.

Moving the odds closer in their favor, the gaming company has organized its employees into a grassroots force to backup the casino’s lobbying efforts.

Harrah’s Winning Together program, which has political affairs leaders at each of the company’s 40 properties, was created after passage of an Illinois law raising the gaming tax from 50 percent to 70 percent.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Rico Izaguirre, Harrah’s political director, says that the casino responded to the proposed tax only through lobbyists.

But since the enactment of Illinois’ casino tax hike, Harrah’s can now mobilize its employee activists within two hours of learning about a challenge to the industry.

Harrah’s received the Public Affairs Council’s 2005 Corporate Grassroots Innovation award for the Winning Together program.

The gaming industry seems to have learned that relying on lobbying alone can be insufficient to win.  Having both a lively grassroots organization and a robust earned media campaign can help casinos, and other industries, hit the public affairs jackpot.

Technorati Tags: lobbying

Technorati Tags: public affairs

Know Your Stakeholders

Every organization has stakeholders, but no more than a handful of organizations, I think, have compiled and maintain a written inventory of their stakeholders and their relationship with the organization.

Do you know who your organization's stakeholders are?  If a crisis breaks, will you be able to reach them all within minutes?

Some stakeholders are easy to identify, like stockholders, board members, legislators and regulators.  These stakeholders are individuals who actually hold some control and authority over the organization.

Other stakeholders are more difficult to identify because they have infrequent interaction with the organization.  When they do interact, it is usually during a crisis.  These stakeholders include the media, the community, activists, and other special interest groups.

Dr. Brad L. Rawlins of Brigham Young University's Department of Communications has written a paper that may help get you started inventorying and prioritizing your stakeholders.  “Prioritizing Stakeholders for Public Relations” (PDF) includes a simple description of the Linkage Model.  This model, which identifies four types of relationships stakeholders have with organizations, is a good place to begin in developing your own stakeholder management program.

Technorati Tags: stakeholders