Harmony with Local Communities

In this context, by a ‘local community’ I will mean the population of the city or a similar location where your company has significant presence – a major office, manufacturing or logistical facility, etc. In this section I will talk about relations with population in general – I will cover relations with NGO and local community leaders in the next section.

It is common knowledge that the right relationship with these communities can make your company and your employees quite happy and the wrong ones can cause a lot of damage to employee comfort and your bottom line.

Your relationship with your local communities has two aspects. The first one is ultimately a component of your relationships with your government stakeholders. And not necessarily just local – your local communities in our more and more globalized and connected world can easily influence government entities at state/provincial and central/federal levels.

Therefore, the first thing that you would want from your local community is to influence government entities in a positive way. Positive for your company, that is. You would want local communities to help you motivate your government stakeholders make decisions, pass legislation and so on that will create financial, functional and emotional value for your company described in the section on government relations.

And you would definitely want to avoid complaints, protests and the like that might cause negative reaction from government entities towards your company. As well as direct protests and other negative interference of local population into your company operations.

From the emotional standpoint, you would want your employees to feel comfortable in these communities – both at work and at home. Because a comfortable employee is a productive employee – in terms of generating aggregate value for your company.

What will you have to give in return, as there is no such a thing as ‘something for nothing’? For one thing, donations. Of your money (to help with financial problems in your local communities) and time/effort (to help with functional problems).

Again, there is no such a thing as a charitable project in business. Only investment. With the usual KPI – payback period, NPV, IRR/MIRR and so on. As well as financial and operational planning. Nothing immoral or unethical here – as everyone wins.

The second very important thing is respect. Everything that your employees say and do in and for the community, must be said and done with the utmost respect for local customs, values, beliefs, principles, traditions and overall behavioral patterns.