Seminar: The Stakeholder Engagement Imperative

Speaker: Terence Lyons, Managing Director of TSC, The Stakeholder Company

Centre for Corporate Reputation Deputy Director, Jeni Giambona, welcomed Terence Lyons to a seminar at The Saïd Business School. Focusing on the demands for companies managing and engaging effectively with a multitude of stakeholders, the seminar provoked lively discussion.

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Presentation summary
No one expects deep sea oil rigs to blow up, accelerator pedals to stick or toxic ingredients to show up in baby milk formula, but they do. Those may be the most visible of issues but every major company can expect more demands to engage with a multitude of stakeholders over issues as diverse as the environment, accountability, consumer and human rights, labour and supply chain to name but a few.

Managing diverse stakeholder perceptions is critical to maintaining a positive corporate reputation and the strategic and financial reward of proactive stakeholder engagement is growing exponentially in this business cycle. Issues can quickly become flashpoints and unforeseen incidents can spiral
badly in an atmosphere of declining levels of trust in business. With stakeholders on all sides eager to sound tough or gain some advantage this is creating a perfect storm of increased regulatory risk, increased media exposure and increased interest group pressure which has bottom line implications on reputational ‘good will’ and market share.

Biography: Terence Lyons
Terence Lyons is Managing Director of TSC, The Stakeholder Company. Based in Singapore he oversees the company’s global work supporting corporate reputations with cutting edge technology, data and consulting solutions. He has 16 years experience in corporate communications and public affairs working across Asia, Europe and the U.S. Terence previously headed Microsoft’s global stakeholder engagement strategy and has worked with many Fortune 500 companies such as Nokia, Disney, HP and GSK to help them better manage their reputation and engagement programs. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Murdoch University and is a graduate of various professional programs at the Kellogg School of Management and University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business. He is admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.