Dear Visitor,

The present systemic economic crisis has opened many eyes to the fact that the purpose of business should be to serve the public good. Management thinker Peter Drucker wrote this decades ago. However, more recent reductionist thinking failed to see that beyond the economic market there are complex social and ecological realities and value systems.

For a very long time now, lobbying has been the instrument companies use to influence public policy and manage the risk regulation can pose to business. According to a McKinsey publication a few years ago, regulation is a CEO’s second most important preoccupation, after globalisation. Not surprisingly, since regulation can significantly affect a company’s long and short-term commercial prospects.

Having a long history in European public affairs and having witnessed numerous lobbying campaigns, it is my personal opinion that most lobbying is ineffective, sometimes even socially damaging or unethical. The reason is that it fails to take into account the socieal context and the objective needs which public decision-makers have to manage. The defensive and manipulative nature of traditional lobbying is an anachronism in the 21st century business environment.

Innovative lobbying simultaneously seek to solve social problems and to build business opportunities. It focuses on the social context and needs, anticipates developments and enters into a permanent dialogue with all the stakeholders. It works with proven diplomatic methods, calls upon the same management techniques used to obtain commercial successes. It’s about harmonising the private and the public interest.

The objective of this website, and of my advisory work, is to promote a new approach to business – government cooperation that is constructive and strategic. It will help companies understand how to gain long term competitive advantage through new ways of managing their political and societal environment.

I thank you for your interest and I hope you will find the ideas stimulating. I look forward to your feedback.

Stefan Schepers.

Brussels