MY TAKE ON THE INDUSTRY
Terence Fane-Saunders is Chairman and CEO of Chelgate. He spoke to Public Affairs News editor Jolyon Kimble about how his firm operates, the nebulous definitions that surround our business, Europe, and the intrinsic worth of gossip.

First off, we're not a lobbying firm. I suppose we are a public affairs firm, but that depends on your definition of public affairs. I say we're a public relations firm but that can be interpreted as a bit 'Through the Looking Glass', words meaning what you want them to mean, and in most people's minds public relations means something completely differentto from what we do. A lot of people think PR is just about media relations and communications. I don't. PR is the business of creating, shaping and managing the relationships that exist between an organisation and its different publics.

I believe that two things really shape relationships of any kind: first, 'two-way' communications, and it must be two-way, not one way propaganda. Secondly, and more importantly, relationships are built on what you do. If a young man meets a beautiful girl in a bar and she steals his wallet, it doesn't matter how attractive she is, or how sweetly she communicates, if she lifts his wallet that's the relationship gone. A lot of corporations don't really understand that, they think they can effectively mug the public, and that their PR department can communicate their way out of it. But the PR department doesn't 'do' the company's public relations, it carries out aspects of the public relations effort. It's the corporation as a whole that shapes its public relationships.

When we started Chelgate and started looking at our clients' most important publics, we weren't significantly involved in government relations. But this changed quite quickly. Many of our clients are blue- chip market leaders, and if you make a list of who their most important publics are, government is invariably right up there. Essentially, we are talking about local, national and European government.

At the local level, planning issues show how the importance of grassroots politics has grown. It used to be that property developers would simply employ planning specialists who would deal with the technical aspects of the application, in liaison with the council officers. The officers would then submit their recommendations, effectively to be rubber-stamped by the elected councillor. That's all changed over the last decade or so as local government has become much more political. You started to see the officers' recommendations more and more frequently being overturned by the politicians on the planning committees. Once that happened, and projects worth tens of millions were being put at risk, developers began to look for a different kind of service to supplement the work of their planning consultants. They needed to understand the political and community dynamics. They needed to engage with opinion leaders, local politicians and communities in a way that would enhance the likelihood of a favourable outcome in the planning committee. So, local politics and community relations has become an increasingly important part of our business.

Westminster and Whitehall, similarly, are tremendously important for us, and helping our clients address regulatory or legislative issues is a central part of our role. But a lot of the work we do there is not in fact aimed at influencing or changing legislation. We see political opinion as a crucial component in effective issues management, and that again is a very important part of our business. In good issues management you build alliances with others who are sympathetic to your arguments and who can help shape the debate, be they NGOs, think tanks, academics, journalists or politicians. Politicians are particularly important because they have exceptional platforms; they give interviews, they speak and write publicly, they shape public opinion. We are not Lapel-grabbing lobbyists, but we have a lot of good relationships with people in Parliament, and the reason we do is because they know we don't exploit them. We work with them and try to help them, and we play it straight. We never mislead.

Getting in early
Political intelligence is also an important part of our public affairs service, providing clients with early alerts about political and regulatory developments which could create opportunities or problems for them. The earlier the better. Our clients don't want to learn about an issue because we've read it in Hansard. They want to know if it's on the horizon. For example, if we become aware that a think tank that feeds into policy formulation for one of the major parties is about to come out with a strong position on an issue that affects a client, we need to be on top of it long before it reaches the political mainstream. We'll engage in the thinking process about an embryonic policy, and sometimes stimulate the think tanks and other opinion leaders on an issue before they've even started thinking about it themselves. So, you'll gather that we believe in starting our political work at a very early stage.

I don't ever want Chelgate people to be 'guns for hire': the kind of lobbyists who hang around Parliament waiting to pester politicians about today's batch of special causes. We believe the people who can advance the arguments best are the clients themselves. Industry and other interests need to understand the appropriate way to represent themselves to political audiences, and politicians welcome informed and intelligent representations. We'll help clients formulate their arguments, stay on track and, of course, target and reach the right people, and through that, clients may hopefully influence legislation for the better.

The future
Of course, as our Westminster work grew, it quickly became obvious that Brussels had to be an integral part of the mix. So we established an office there, and we also have people in the UK who virtually commute between London and Brussels. Today Brussels is vital: obviously because of its regulatory and legislative impact, but in a number of other ways too. For example, the sheer scale of its funding to nations and regions around Europe creates important commercial opportunities for our clients, and indeed for us. We've just set up a new office in Bucharest, and I'll be going out there soon for a few weeks to get that off the ground. Romania will probably join the EU in 2007, and the country is going to receive massive EU support as it upgrades its infrastructure. Foreign businesses will have a hugely important role to play in the process, so this represents a market of real interest and opportunity. We're really very excited by what is happening in Romania and other parts of eastern Europe.

I believe the arrival of so many vibrant and exciting new member nations - and even the possibility that the Ukraine may one day follow the same route - will have a huge impact on the socio-political balance in Europe. In fact, the public and political postures of these countries, from issues like religion and homosexuality down to debates around taxation and levels of government intervention, with more established western European member states. There is sure to be a period of very interesting adjustment, compromise and accommodation.

Risk and Opportunity
Political intelligence is a very important part of our work in Brussels. There are a lot of firms providing this, and now a lot of law firms too. But I believe what gives our service added value is the subjective, qualitative aspect of what we report. Of course, we cover the normal regulatory, legislative and parliamentary processes, and we track the paper trail. But we also believe in providing interpretation, identifying and reporting rumour, risk and opportunity, and offering opinions on likely future outcomes. Anyone can do mechanical intelligence gathering, but this kind of service needs experience, access and a high degree of perception. I like to think that's what makes us special.

Published in Public Affairs News, May 2005.

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