When your business partner becomes the story, what happens to you?

Relationships can open doors for a business, but they also deserve a place in your reputation planning.

Manchester City is in the headlines for reasons that go well beyond football. The Premier League has found the club guilty of breaching its financial regulations over nine seasons, from 2009/10 to 2017/18. City denies the finding and is preparing an appeal. As the story has run, the scrutiny has moved outwards to the people and institutions connected to the club, including Andy Burnham, whose dealings with City have been reported on. Whatever the outcome, the pattern is familiar. When an organisation comes under scrutiny, the questions can quickly extend into its network of relationships as well.

You need to analyse and plan. You need to prepare for the unexpected. If a partner in your circle came into the spotlight for the wrong reasons, could you explain your position with ease? What checks and balances did you apply? How does the partnership sit with your own company's values? What's the scope and how has it evolved?

In good company?

Businesses work with other organisations for a number of different reasons - they bring in outside expertise, provide funding, distribution, access and credibility.

An investor can give a startup the credibility it needs for it's next stage of growth. A partnership with a bigger brand can give reassurance to existing customers and a sponsorship can introduce you to a new community. You are defined by the company you keep.

But that is a double-edged sword.

Those partnerships become part of how people understand your business - in some cases it becomes a key part of your story. Working with an organisation does not make you responsible for everything it does, but you still need clarity if something goes wrong.

Due diligence needs a second date

Decisions about partners and suppliers don't happen on a wing and a prayer. At the beginning of a relationship, due diligence will be done and everything will check out. Ownership, leadership, conduct, commercial pressure. But all of that can change.

The OECD’s guidance on responsible business conduct sets out an ongoing approach to identifying and addressing risks across operations, supply chains and business relationships. Some of this is clearly beyond the scope of communications, but the fundamentals apply - understanding a relationship takes continuous presence of mind.

For reputation planning, it's worth a conducting a periodic stop-start review.

Where are there financial dependencies? Who is named across your marketing, and external communications? Which partners handle customer information? Where have you publicly endorsed an organisation’s leadership or values?

Start with these relationships first.

Decide whether you'd still make the same decision to work with them

“If something happens, we’ll deal with it” leaves a lot to chance and a great deal of room for reputational damage.

[Box out] Here's the questions you should be asking:

• Who is responsible for the ongoing review of the relationship?
• Who is responsible for establishing what happened when something goes wrong?
• Who has the open line of communication to the partner?
• What would prompt closer attention to the partner's conduct?
• Who has the authority to make these decisions?

An allegation, a substantiated finding and a disagreement over values each need an assessment. Moving too quickly can be unfair and disruptive, a distraction without cause. And waiting can be just as hard to explain away.

Having a firm process in advance gives leaders room to use their judgement when facts are slim and the pressure is high.

Test the crisis communications response before you need it

Having a crisis comms plan is a good thing. It's a step, but sometimes your plan is only as good as the paper it is written on. Conducting a short exercise can show you where your plan falls short before you are challenged with a real scenario.

[Box out] Here's the scene: a partner in your supply chain faces an allegation of misconduct. A customer gets wind of it, joins the dots and emails their account team. The word spreads among your employees and they start to ask questions. A journalist then gets tipped off, calls your reception and demands a response by lunch.

It doesn't take long for fire to spread if it is allowed to.

Can your team quickly and reliably establish:

• What the relationship involves and who may be affected?
• What is known, what remains uncertain and who is checking?
• Who makes the decision and when it will be reviewed?
• What customers, employees and other stakeholders need to hear?

The exercise should test the decision as well as the communication. A carefully drafted statement has limited value if no one understands what it means.

Have an explanation you can support

Partnerships are an every day part of running a successful business. Understanding the risks makes those relationships more resilient, and it is far easier to do before a story breaks.

Reputation is built through every decision made, how it's recorded and how it is understood. You should be able to clearly articulate why you entered a relationship, how you oversee it and what you do when circumstances change.

At Resonance, we help businesses work through those questions, test difficult scenarios and prepare their leaders to respond with evidence and clarity.

If a key partner became tomorrow’s headline, could your team explain where your business stands?