Managing Outside Pressure: Strategies for Preventing Corporate Disasters [Hardcover]

Matthias Winter (Author), Ulrich Steger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 29, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0471979333 | ISBN-13: 978-0471979333 | Edition: 1

"The value of Managing Outside Pressure is that, not only is it a handbook on issues identification and issues management, but it provokes thoughts about the evolution into reputation management."
–C.A.J. Herkströter, Chairman of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies

"We have learned a that a company needs to establish and promote a dialogue with all its stakeholders. In brief: you can only realize what you can communicate. Against this background, I find this book to be very helpful in identifying and assessing issues that have the potential to develop into corporate crises."
–Jürgen Dorman, CEO of Hoechst Corporation

"You don't have to be a giant like Nike, Shell or Texaco to come unstuck as campaigners spotlight your real (or perceived) corporate weakness. Winter and Steger provide excellent advice on how to predict and manage external pressures. Remember, though, the real trick is to use such pressures to drive internal change."
–John Elkington, Chairman, SustaiAbility; author, Cannibals with Forks: The triple bottom line of 21st century business

"Brand and reputation are ever more important for value creation. Matthias Winter and Ulrich Steger launch a powerful new tool to manage reputation. It arms managers with a smart detector for potential public sparks or powder kegs. It offers options to keep them safely apart and rather design win-win solutions."
–Claude Fussler, Vice-President for the Environment, Dow Europe

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Managing Outside Pressure represents a careful and thorough treatment of a potentially highly volatile and emotive subject - that of outside environmental, health or social-related pressure issues on companies. Taking a holistic approach which looks at the issues from all sides, the book attempts to draw managers' attention to the potentially damaging effects that pressure can bring on companies caught in the middle of a campaign. The book helps managers to understand and forecast outside pressure issues, effectively determining which of the numerous demands of outside pressure groups need urgent, proactive attention and which may be treated reactively if the company considers them unjustified or exaggerated. This forecasting is accomplished with two checklists which help managers separate relatively non-urgent issues from potential public-relation disasters. Further, as Cornelius Herkstr?ter (Royal Dutch/Shell Group) states in his Forword, the purpose is also to help organisations "apply best practice all the time...(and)...move away from incidents-management to the building of relationships, from managing the most threatening outside pressures to establishing - in a proactive way - its corporate identity." There are a great variety of live examples and case studies throughout, including the experiences of such companies as ABB, Dow Chemical, Exxon, Hoechst, Mitsubishi, Monsanto, Nestl?, Novartis, Proctor & Gamble, Shell and many others.

From the Back Cover

"The value of Managing Outside Pressure is that, not only is it a handbook on issues identification and issues management, but it provokes thoughts about the evolution into reputation management." C.A.J. Herkstr?ter Chairman of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies

"We have learned a that a company needs to establish and promote a dialogue with all its stakeholders. In brief: you can only realize what you can communicate. Against this background, I find this book to be very helpful in identifying and assessing issues that have the potential to develop into corporate crises." J?rgen Dorman CEO of Hoechst Corporation

"You don't have to be a giant like Nike, Shell or Texaco to come unstuck as campaigners spotlight your real (or perceived) corporate weakness. Winter and Steger provide excellent advice on how to predict and manage external pressures. Remember, though, the real trick is to use such pressures to drive internal change." John Elkington Chairman, SustaiAbility; author, Cannibals with Forks: The triple bottom line of 21st century business

"Brand and reputation are ever more important for value creation. Matthias Winter and Ulrich Steger launch a powerful new tool to manage reputation. It arms managers with a smart detector for potential public sparks or powder kegs. It offers options to keep them safely apart and rather design win-win solutions." Claude Fussler Vice-President for the Environment, Dow Europe

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471979333
• ISBN-13: 978-0471979333
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,674,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Crisis management that understands politics, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Managing Outside Pressure: Strategies for Preventing Corporate Disasters (Hardcover)

I'm reading this book for an article I'm writing on crisis management. So far, this is the most helpful book I've read. Instead of being simply a list of prescriptions and platitudes, this book is very helpful in understanding the political dimensions of business crisis, particularly with respect to what the authors call "activist groups." I am very impressed with the even-handed treatment of corporate and activist group interests. Sometimes the authors do not seem as politically astute as they should be, but on balance this is a valuable book for any organization that must confront and responsibly respond to outside demands.