Issues Management in Strategic Planning

Anticipating and managing emerging issues has become a major new responsibility for senior management over the past decade. Failure to perform well on the field of public issues has prematurely ended the careers of many corporations and their leaders. Renfro charts this mine field, carefully marking the dangers. He describes the four stages of issues management--environmental scanning, researching issues, evaluating priorities, and developing strategies. More importantly, Renfro describes how to build an issues management capability into an existing organization. Finally, he addresses the changing nature of the public issues process and the evolving role of the issues media.