Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. It's guest time on the show, and I have a repeat guest because with me for the second time I have Ray Thompson, Principal with WPNT. Ray, welcome back to the Business Makers Show.

Ray: Russ, thanks for having me.

Russ: You bet. Now, I think it was about two years ago when you were on.

Ray: Yeah, it sure was.

Russ: Okay. And I remember you, sort of, came across my radar because I saw a story or something, and it had something to do with, you know, how to prepare your CEO if CNN shows up and has a microphone right in his face.

Ray: And we don't want that to happen to any of your viewers or guests, but yes, that's right.

Russ: Okay. If I remember at the time there was some, sort of, what seemed like very unique things going on in the economy that certainly needed your service.

Ray: Yeah, turbulent times, very intense interest in the Congress and other places about how people were behaving; that's correct.

Russ: Right, right. And I think it was our automobile guys were really being brought in at the time.

Ray: Right.

Russ: Quite interesting. So, for those that, perhaps, didn't hear your interview before, give us an overview of WPNT.

Ray: Russ, our small part of what we do in the communication space is help company's successful leaders be better communicators, whether it's testifying before Congress as we talked about before when the automakers were drug to Washington.

Russ: Right.

Ray: Or, you know, presenting to their board, that's where their communication skills, individually and collectively, really matter.

Russ: Okay. So, it's all about communications.

Ray: Yeah, it is.

Russ: Okay.

Ray: On a personal level, and you know, most of the people running companies today - your viewers are probably a good example. They build a successful business. They get in that because they're good on the marketing side, or technical side or management side. They may or not be gifted communicators, and we try to help those people present themselves better.

Russ: Okay. And, my goodness, with this economy in turbulent times, business must be pretty good.

Ray: It is. We're having a strong year and having a lot of fun, too, traveling quite a bit and working with companies here in Houston but really, literally, across the globe.

Russ: Okay. And so, how many principals are involved at WPNT?

Ray: Well, I opened our Houston office in 1999. There are four of us that own the company. We're four independent businesses. Below that banner, we share people and resources. I've got a strong presence here in Houston, Dallas, Brussels and just added a guy in the UK earlier this year.

Russ: Okay.

Ray: Yeah.

Russ: Wow, interesting. So, and I also know that you're probably - your area of specialty in communications is speech coaching; is that accurate?

Ray: Yeah, it is. We do a lot of that, Russ. The crux probably falls in a couple of areas: speech coaching, helping the C-suite is one part of it. The media side, as you said, when CNN shows up, or when the Houston Business Sheriff calls, helping the organization tell its story. Presentation trading, you know, increasingly the ability to work a room deeper in the organization, the ability to present to local government, business partners, customers, this matters so - and then the crisis side of it. We've also gotten a bigger space now in what we call stakeholder engagement and stakeholder communications.

Russ: Okay. There's such sensitivity in the landscape these days that it seems like a lot of the same things that you would want to be able to communicate accurately if suddenly CNN or Fox had a microphone in your face are almost the same things you want for your stockholders and your employees to hear, too, because you have to be environmentally sensitive in every regard and politically sensitive; is that right?

Ray: Absolutely, and consistently, you know, Russ, you're talking about consistency across these audiences. The stockholder or shareholder's gonna hear the same thing if he looks online, if he sees you on television, if he sits with you in a buy or sell side meeting or an investor road show. So, message consistency with those multiple stakeholders but we're also - you know, at the heart of what we work with people on is understanding the various and different perspectives.

Russ: Okay.

Ray: You know, we're working with clients right now who are expanding their business. This shale, oil and gas part is big.

Russ: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Ray: You've had people on talking about that. Going into new communities that aren't accustomed to having oil and gas exploration, you know, you need to sit down with county commissioners, or parish officials, or local businesses, or special interest groups and others, and earn the right to do business in that area, and that means good listening and letting their concerns influence the way you go about your operation.

Russ: All right. And so, I mean, you actually have, sort of, a course, a bullet point, "Hey, you gotta take these things into consideration," when you're talking about stakeholder communications?

Ray: We do, and we use a four-part stakeholder communications model, and you know, what we coach people on and the big part for us is those themes but then coaching on how you deliver them. The four parts that we recommend in our training programs are around showing concern and really genuinely caring about local stakeholder concern. With shale development it might be, "Hey, we recognize there's gonna be added truck traffic or noise. You know, here's what we're doing about it."

Russ: Right.

Ray: So, the four parts are show concern. Secondly, talk about the responsible actions. What are you doing to address those concerns? So, you gotta be able to catalog, "Here's the steps we're taking to address those." Third, cooperation and working closely with others, transparency, you know, openness and cooperative. Usually, for our clients, they're overseen by regulatory bodies or are working closely with local officials, and lastly, resolve that, "Hey, we're committed to doing the right thing the right way." And most companies need to do a better job explaining, "Hey, we're gonna get this right. We want to be a good neighbor. We want to be welcome in this community." But that means telling your story well.

Russ: Well, I particularly honed in on that second one when you were talking about an energy play, and you know, let them know what you're doing.

Ray: Mm-hmm.

Russ: We also here - I think you know this - do the Energy Makers Show where we're interviewing innovators in the energy space, talk about them from renewables, to oil and gas, to shale oil, and generally speaking - and we've had some great influential guests. I'm thinking specifically of John Hofmeister of Citizens for Affordable Energy -

Ray: Formerly of Shell.

Russ: That's right. And he talks in depth about how poorly the energy industry has done at explaining what they're doing, and how they're doing it, and that message just keeps coming back, and it seems like they're all trying to move in that direction now, too.

Ray: Yeah.

Russ: Because simultaneously, we know the demand for energy is just going through the roof so we don't want to stop them, but they need to show how careful they are and how they're using technology to move things forward.

Ray: Yeah, you know, and John's right about that, Russ. The industry does a great job, I think, on a technical side and operational proficiency, that sort of thing. The industry wants to get it right, but they need to do a better job explaining the case, and also, engaging with stakeholders at every level. In the old environment, you know, when John was at Shell, he could go to Washington, talk to the Energy Department, and let them know we're gonna do things right. Well, now there's this attentive public. There's this, you know, socially active and very active set of stakeholders who are influencing Washington. Washington's listening, and so you've gotta be a good communicator at all those levels, from the landowner, to the neighbor, to the business partner, to your adversary. You need to be talking to all of them.

Russ: Right, okay. Talking with Ray Thompson, principal of WPNT, and we're gonna be back with more with Ray after this. In fact, specifically, I want to hear about how has social media impacted what you do, and then secondly, I might even want to get into that political realm a little bit, too; is that okay?

Ray: Yeah, small steps.

Russ: [Laughter] All right, great. We'll be right back after this. This is the Business Makers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.

This is the Business Makers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com, and continuing on with Ray Thompson, Principal with WPNT, the communications specialists consultants. Now, we were talking about, you know, how your world has, sort of, shifted to encompass all stakeholders, and we were just talking about that more which makes all the sense in the world, but elaborate a little bit more in that direction.

Ray: Sure. Well, traditional stakeholders, you know, your customers, you gotta do a good job talking to them, investors. That's a given, and most companies have put a lot of attention on that, but today, your success, we think, hinges on your ecosystem of stakeholders, you know?

Russ: Okay, okay.

Ray: Your company succeeds with this support, the participation of a wide range of - it's the suppliers. It's employees. It's your families. It's neighbors. It's business partners. It's competitors, industry, special interest groups, and that ecosystem, you know, supports you or pulls you down.

Russ: Yeah.

Ray: We look at - let's say you're working an issue, or your organization is trying to expand, or you're doing a merger or acquisition. We like to think in terms of think your way through who are the stakeholders who can help you or hurt you in that case. We think in terms of a concentric circles of influence. You gotta take care of the people most affected at the center, but who are some of those outer rings? You know, who are local officials, then state, then federal, perhaps international bodies, and we think in terms of take care of the center, and some of those outer rings will take care of themselves in a crisis, and this is typically where communication skills become very important.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

Ray: You've gotta take care of the people most affected. Maybe it's injured workers, or their families or neighbors, emergency responders, but you should also be thinking about state officials and your business partners longer term. Who's taking care of their concerns and perspectives?

Russ: Well, it definitely makes sense that that's the way we could look at it these days, and that is an evolution over what it was like just five years ago now.

Ray: I think you're right, yeah.

Russ: Okay. And when you were talking about that earlier, it made me think that everyone is so much more in tune and knowledgeable that social media definitely could be causing a lot of that to happen and wondering what has that done; how has that impacted WPNT?

Ray: Well, lots of conversations with the stakeholders, you know, we were actually running with a semiconductor company earlier this week. In fact, we're doing some training with them on analyst relations and trade media relations, and in there they have what they call Conversation Agents, and this is they're empowering their employees, with some boundaries, to engage in conversations through Twitter streams, and through Facebook, and through YouTube postings and Flickr. This conversation is happening; whether companies participate or not, it's happening.

Russ: Right, right.

Ray: So, I think in five years it'll be a mute point that, yes, we want our employees participating in that social media conversation, but they need to do it with some boundaries, and some instruction or some help on what to say and what not to say. You know, there are cases where, you know, you say something you think is in a private Tweet. It turns out to be, ope, I've logged into the company Twitter stream and I've created a crisis.

Russ: Right.

Ray: So, you've gotta be careful. This stuff has legs online, can bounce and get a lot of attention.

Russ: Well, so do you guys sometimes advise companies to hold in the reins on their employees?

Ray: Yes, you do have to have guidelines. You know, what are the rules? And you can't prohibit people from participating. You want to encourage that, but they need some help on what they can talk about. Traditionally, our counsel is employees should be encouraged to talk about their areas of expertise, projects they're working on that don't have commercial sensitivities. You've gotta be careful that what you say online is gonna go everywhere, potentially, but we encourage the proper use of these new, emerging mediums to improve the discourse, the dialogue.

Russ: Right.

Ray: Now, too many companies, Russ, see it as a broadcast-only mode. You know, I'm here. I'm taking my annual report and putting it online. That's not conversation. You need to be a good listener, too. So, do you have feedback mechanisms to receive and pay attention to what's being said about you?

Russ: It seems to me you're, sort of, target customer base has expanded exponentially with social media. [Laughter]

Ray: Yeah, It has.

Russ: Nice problem. [Laughter]

Ray: Yeah, it's not bad for us, but for our clients and customers it's being strategic in their conversation, picking and choosing where to participate. You know, first do no harm. You want to play good defense, but we think there's some offense to be played in better strategic communications. One of the things we always work with our clients on is what's your business objective for participation, and who's the audience you're trying to reach? Once you've decided these are the stakeholders that are important that can help me, then we get into, well, let's talk about their perspective and then develop some messages to help you be more successful.

Russ: Okay, real cool. Now, I can't help but want to get into this category, too. I mean, with the way the world communicates nowadays, it seems like does WPNT take on, you know, political clients?

Ray: Well, not in the large and public way. There are communications consultants and speech coaches who work on the debate performances and these other things. We tend not to get involved in political candidate coaching. I've done a lot of that over the years, pro bono or support, but we really are focused in technology, energy as you might imagine here, healthcare. We do a lot of work in professional services. So, the politics of this, you know, can get a little dicey.

Russ: Well, it seems like nowadays - I don't know if this is good or bad, but politics can overlap in business like the Cylindro mess.

Ray: Yeah, right.

Russ: I mean, I guess you could find yourself, you know, representing a client who happens to be qualifying for some federal money that has turned sour, and that could be an interesting situation.

Ray: It can be, and we've worked with a lot of clients who are involved in government affairs activities. I've coached people for five-minute meetings with the president.

Russ: Wow.

Ray: I've coached folks testifying. We've got a great team of people who spend a lot of time on the government affairs. In Brussels, we've got a guy who works a lot with the EU and helps companies and organizations -

Russ: Well, he's probably pretty busy. [Laughter]

Ray: Yeah, he's busy right now, not so much Greece but...

Russ: Right, right.

Ray: The government footprint is significant today, and companies, you know, we saw that center of power in industry move from New York and the financial capitals to Washington and the political capitals. And so, you better have a good government affairs team. You better have a good communications strategy with those many layers of government that are gonna be in your business.

Russ: Right, all right. Well, Ray, I really appreciate you stopping by, updating us on WPNT, and I think we have some viewers and listeners who probably picked up a few pieces of wisdom in your presentation so thank you very much.

Ray: Hey, Russ, thanks for having me on, and I look forward to coming back sometime.

Russ: All right, fantastic. That's Ray Thompson, Principal with WPNT. This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.