Services

Corporate Communications

Communications done well can help achieve business goals. Orr Strategic Communications helps develop communications strategies that compel critical audiences to take action. This includes getting customers to buy, investors to invest, and employees to remain loyal.

Services include: strategy development, press release writing, material creation, media relations, website development, social media campaigns, executive media coaching, investor presentations, script and speech writing, and internal communications

Investor Relations

Connecting with new shareholders and nurturing relationships with existing shareholders is paramount for public companies. I help clients engineer strategies to target new shareholders, and gain insights from existing shareholders, as well as managing the day-to-day IR demands of a public company.

For public companies I help develop earnings packages (release, script, presentation), engineer non-deal roadshows, organize investor days, develop reports (annual, ESG, etc.), and conduct stockholder/analyst surveys. I have relationships with a wide range of industry service providers that can help make your IR programs run smoothly.

Crisis Management and Communications

Companies are exposed to multiple significant, reputation-altering risks that can blossom into multi-million-dollar, reputation damaging crises in the blink of an eye. These include the long-standing risks of fires, storms, and accidents, but they now include a growing list of new crises, including cybersecurity breaches, social media missteps, short-seller attacks, active-shooters, and terrorist threats.

Our approach to managing crises helps ensure that few people ever hear about the incident, and that the crisis quickly vanishes from public view. It also means that the organization’s most important audiences are well cared for and that steps are taken to mitigate expensive liability claims.

Our work begins with the development of a solid crisis plan or the refinement of an existing plan, and extends to boots-on-the-ground management of communications during an incident.

Services include: Plan creation, refinement of existing plans, strategy and philosophy workshops, executive crisis response training, crisis drills, 24/7 response assistance for clients

Project Examples

Corporate Reputation

A company's reputation can be worth millions in corporate value, enable premium pricing on products and ensure a company's license to operate in their community.

I help companies implement corporate communications strategies to achieve goals across the spectrum of reputation development and management. Projects range from developing messaging and news releases, to creating comprehensive communications, social media and content marketing campaigns.

As an example, my team completed a project for a technology company in the cybersecurity space that entailed identifying a differentiating product and/or company attribute that would set them apart from competitors, strengthen the company's messaging and become the backbone of its thought leadership efforts.

By auditing the communications and messaging of their five top competitors, we were able to identify a "sweet spot" that could be solely owned by the company. The messaging became core to all communications and collateral, and it led to an upsurge in trade show and sales performance metrics.

Crisis Preparedness

Crisis plans are an important tool for almost every company. My work has included refining existing plans, inserting communications protocols into operational plans and enterprise recovery protocols (ERP), and writing custom crisis plans.

One recent plan was developed to protect a fast growing micro-cap food company with dozens of employees and thousands of customers relying on them. This company has a fantastic culture that is extremely valuable and a critical part of the fabric of the company. Destroying it by poorly responding to a crisis could cost them millions - if the company was able to survive.

I interviewed key players to identify potential crises and the impact each could have on the company, customers and employees. We then built crisis response strategies and template materials to enable their team to quickly and effectively respond to any crisis in a manner that was completely aligned with the company's culture and business objectives. With luck, they will never have to use it.

Crisis Response Communications

I have helped dozens of companies manage media relations, customer outreach, employee communications, and community engagement after crises that range from chemical spills, to catastrophic injuries on property; and from missing earnings projections, to attacks by short sellers of the company's stock.

Recently, I helped a restaurant company manage media engagement and communications after it learned from an online reporter that its credit card payment systems had been hacked by a criminal. After conferring with the CEO, head of marketing, and their outside counsel, a strategy and supporting materials were developed to help them navigate the issue with customers, franchisees, and employees.

Managing media was paramount. Reporters and some internal advisers pushed for "full transparency." I urged restraint, instead counseling to communicate directly to those most effected. This meant developing CEO talking points to share with franchisees, creating one-pagers for use by restaurant managers in discussions with customers, and coordinating talking points and emails to all effected customers. Media was held at arm's length until the facts of the case were determined and a recovery strategy developed. The company came through the firestorm unscathed.

About

Philosophy

Enterprise value and communications are inextricably linked. Communications is a business tool that, when well executed, can grow the value of an organization, and when executed poorly - especially during a crisis situation - can erode millions of dollars in value, ruin corporate and personal reputations, and jeopardize the viability of the enterprise.

About Me, Glen Orr

As the principal consultant, I have more than 20 years’ experience helping organizations use communications and public relations to achieve business objectives, fortify the reputation of their enterprise, and activate internal and external stakeholders. I have a bias for action and have developed an expertise leveraging a wide range of communications tools to achieve communications objectives and corporate business goals.

As a consultant, I have advised clients such as Texas Instruments, Purina, Dow, Ikea, Baker Hughes, and many other organizations.

I have gained unique experience coaching senior executives and working hand-in-hand with heads of corporate communications, investor relations leaders, and legal teams during times of significant corporate change including, mergers and acquisitions, asset sales, physical and financial crises, shareholder incongruity, and executive succession.