How are leading European energy companies reacting to stakeholder pressure by addressing sector challenges?
The energy sector is facing a period of radical transformation, driven by the urgent need to curb emissions and accelerated by innovation. External regulations, geopolitics, security of supply, surging prices and of course a growing environmental movement are all shaking the industry.
These challenges are putting companies’ resilience, confidence and culture to the test. So how is the sector adapting their communications to the rapidly-evolving landscape?
How are companies using purpose to guide strategic ambitions? What actions are they taking to open themselves up to new stakeholders? How is leadership being exploited to narrate key corporate messages? And above all, what stance do they take when it comes to meeting the global challenge of the energy transition?
These are just a few of the questions that have guided us in a new analysis of the energy sector through our flagship .trust research programme – the third in a series of sector-specific studies – in which we examined the performance of leading institutions in many of Europe’s biggest economies.
With .trust we have created a strategic framework and analysis that is perfectly suited to interpreting these shifting times, but also a practical tool to guide companies in navigating new communications challenges, a playbook for generating trust with stakeholders that brings together emerging trends, future strategy and digital communications.
Companies included
BP, Centrica, EDF, Edison, EDP, Enel, Engie, Eni, Eon, Equinor, Erg, Falck Renewables, Fortum, Iberdrola, National Grid, Naturgy, Neste, Nordex, Orsted, Prysmian, Red Electrica de Espana, Repsol, RWE, Schneider Electric, Shell, Siemens, Snam, Sorgenia, SSE, Terna, TotalEnergies, Vattenfall, Vestas.
Key Findings: purpose-led organisations lead the way
Stakeholders are increasingly seeking for organisations to take a stance and provide direction about how they are handling contentious issues. In effect, stakeholder expectations surrounding social and environmental issues have shifted the communications agenda. Best practice companies are agile in their communications and responsive to the external agenda (increasingly that means consumers); that they leverage topic-specific communications to show – even visually – what their commitment means in action; and that purpose-driven communication is a mechanism to connect cold, dry strategy to the real-world impact of an organisation. Surprisingly, some areas, such as transparently displaying targets, or integrating key themes such as digitisation and innovation, are lagging.
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Don’t see your company? Get in touch and we can provide an ad-hoc analysis to see how your company performs compared to peers and provide concrete actions to improve communications.
Want to find out more about .trust or have any questions? Get in touch with Rosanna Campbell-Gray at rosanna.campbell-gray@lundquist.it
