LexisNexis® Business Insight Solutions Blog

COVID-19 and global risk management: What we can see from the data

2020-04-15T15:50:00Z

The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, has already changed society. As governments worldwide struggle to adapt to the new reality, they are introducing measures aimed at preventing the further spread of the virus and increasing the resilience of their public healthcare systems. But with more than 2.5 billion workers and consumers on virtual lock-down, COVID-19 is also having an enormous impact on the global economy, disrupting production and trade worldwide. Companies face unprecedented levels of PESTLE risk as a result of travel restrictions and serious resource and workforce shortages that are disrupting supply chains and business as usual.

With COVID-19 set to dominate the world’s attention in the weeks and months to come, we’re taking a closer look at how PESTLE risks are surfacing in media coverage. The COVID-19 risk tracker, powered by Nexis Newsdesk, features interactive charts that provide insights into how coronavirus pandemic coverage exposes political, economic, societal, technological, legal and environmental risks in near real time. Explore the analysis here.

But first, let's have a look at some of the highlights

In looking at which risk categories receive the most media coverage, societal, technological and economic issues dominate the conversations, with legal issues not far behind. Wages and salaries, public health, manufacturing facilities, supply chain management, and layoffs represent the most talked about buzz words at the moment.

As the chart above shows, the issue of wages and salaries is clearly a top-of-mind issue. In addition to coverage of topics like hazard pay for essential workers, the coverage related to wages and salaries reflects the unprecedented number of people who are currently laid off due to the closure of nearly all public spaces, including restaurants and bars, non-essential retailers, and a host of travel and entertainment venues.

On a related note, layoffs are a trending topic in terms of COVID-19 and economic risk, however the impact on manufacturing facilities is also dominating in the media. Within conversations on manufacturing, we see both risk and opportunity. While some of the coverage focuses on the difficulties manufacturers face due to lack of available raw materials, parts, and workers, media attention is also fixed on efforts by some manufacturers to repurpose their production lines to address critical shortages within healthcare, such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators.

When all of the PESTLE factors are tracked in relation to company mentions, it’s easy to see that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic leaves no industry untouched—airlines and automakers, banking and finance, even the digital communication platforms that are enabling social interaction despite physical distancing restrictions. Apple and Amazon dominate in mentions, perhaps because these organizations have both suffered supply chain challenges as a result of COVID-19 and have turned their attention to addressing critical needs of healthcare workers and consumers during this time.

Capturing entity-level insights

While Nexis Newsdesk captures the big picture of PESTLE risk related to COVID-19, our solutions for entity due diligence and ongoing risk monitoring empower organizations faced with historic levels of disruption. Nexis Diligence and Nexis Entity Insight are platforms that risk management professionals can use to conduct due diligence or monitor critical suppliers wherever they are. We looked at 50 entities using Nexis Entity Insight and saw similar trends—elevated economic, societal and technological risk—related to those specific companies. For example, the High and Medium risk factors dominating economic media coverage in the past 30 days focus on the impact the shut-downs are having on businesses—with layoffs, business interuption, insolvency and bankruptcy all serious concerns.

The coronavirus pandemic will eventually come to an end. In the meantime, we’ll keep monitoring emerging issues on our COVID-19 & PESTLE Risk tracker and helping companies manage the risks they face with agility that comes from improved awareness. The charts update approximately every 15 minutes, so return often to see how trends shift as the world moves forward with addressing and overcoming the COVID-19 challenge.

What’s next:

Take an in-depth look at our interactive COVID-19 risk tracker
Learn how Nexis Diligence and Nexis Entity Insight help organizations stay agile in the face of disruption.
Keep the conversation going by sharing this article with your colleagues and connections on LinkedIn.

COVID-19 and the Global Media: A Real-Time Perspective

2020-03-25T15:07:00Z

The coronavirus known as COVID-19 has become a global media phenomenon. Not only has it captured the hard news headlines, but it has influenced every news segment, from business to sports and from entertainment to, of course, healthcare.

It’s not very often that unexpected events come to so quickly and completely dominate the global media landscape as COVID-19 is doing. As such, we thought it would be helpful to use the robust data and analytic tools of Nexis Newsdesk™ to illuminate how the virus is being portrayed in the news. You’ll find our interactive analysis, updated in real time, here. Below are a few highlights:

Is News A Predictive Indicator?

A comparison of the news and media coverage of COVID-19 reveals a direct inverse correlation with the stock market data. Perhaps the early waves of news coverage were a signal of tough financial times ahead.

A Rocket-Like Trajectory

The coronavirus generated 916 news stories in the week of December 30, 2019, the week the government in Wuhan, China confirmed they were treating dozens of cases. In the week of March 16, 2020, COVID-19 had over 10 million. That’s an increase of more than 10,000x.

A Clear Indication of Concern

As businesses and individuals are feeling the impact of COVID-19, many new terms are emerging¾ and are also seeing huge increases in media mentions.

An Impact Both Broad and Deep

The most talked about topics connected to COVID-19 provide yet more evidence of its wide and heartbreaking reach into so many aspects of our lives.

We will continue to monitor and analyze the media coverage of COVID-19 and share it on our tracker page. In addition, we have created a new COVID-19 search available in the free Human Rights version of the Newsdesk mobile app. More importantly, we hope that you’ll continue to do all you can to protect yourself and others.

Covid-19 global pandemic shows why supply chain risk monitoring can help companies stay resilient in the face of disruption

2020-03-23T11:34:00Z

Often, it takes a crisis to bring supply chain weaknesses to light. That's certainly the case with the Coronavirus, or Covid-19. Many companies have failed to adapt their risk management processes to meet the complexity of today’s global supply chains. As the Harvard Business Review recently pointed out, companies already faced serious disruption within this decade, following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan. "Almost nine years later,“ says the article, “it seems the lessons of Fukushima must be learned anew as many companies worldwide scramble to identify which of their “invisible” lower-tier suppliers — those with whom they don’t directly deal — are based in the affected regions of China.“ In this blog, we‘re taking a closer look at how third party risk monitoring helps multinationals identify emerging supply chain risks to achieve greater operational resilience.

Supply chain risk multiplies as Coronavirus spreads

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) conducted a special survey regarding the impact of Coronavirus and found that nearly 75% of companies in the U.S. have been disrupted and expect revenue losses as a result—and they aren’t the only ones. ForeignPolicy.com reports that calculations by Michael Essig, professor of supply management at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, found that “... a multinational company such as Volkswagen has 5,000 suppliers (the so-called tier-one suppliers), each with an average of some 250 tier-two suppliers. That means that the company actually has 1.25 million suppliers—the vast majority of whom it doesn’t know.“ The same article notes that the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in China, Wuhan Province, is home to first and second-tier suppliers for at least five million companies worldwide.

Complex supply chains demand ongoing third-party monitoring

The 2003 SARS outbreak in China, as well as the earthquake and the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, had a lasting impact on a number of manufacturers and subsequently the global economy. Since then, supply chain management has increasingly aimed at strengthening the resilience of their operations. While often seen as a simple buzzword, resilience proves quintessential for successful operation of supply chains worldwide. The current global health crisis underlines the need for ongoing risk monitoring of suppliers and identification of possible alternative or backup suppliers to build greater resilience into your supply chain.

The cascading impact of the global pandemic is clear:

Critical suppliers operating below capacity due to quarantines and staffing shortages
Delays in moving raw materials, as well as loading and shipping goods at ports of entry
Inability to meet production schedules due to supply shortages
Lack of inventory to fulfill current and future orders
Sagging sales revenues due to quarantines, social distancing and increased consumer anxiety about potential financial impact of extended work stoppages

The faults, currently made visible by COVID-19, lead to one important conclusion; information is key. It is impossible to identify possible vulnerable links in a supply chain without a detailed picture of it.

How does third party monitoring work?

By making use of natural language processing, machine learning algorithms and data analytics, third party monitoring solutions help companies trace and monitor critical suppliers on a global scale. This allows them to identify possible disruptions earlier to enable agile responses when problems surface—whether due to financial instability of a single supplier or a viral outbreak like we’re currently experiencing. Companies who invest in t supply chain mapping and ongoing third-party monitoring will benefit from greater resilience and a comparative advantage over less proactive competitors.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, experts have seen a dramatic contrast between the responsive measures companies in the private sector have implemented. While a number of companies struggled to gather the crucial information necessary to swiftly adapt to changes and failures in their supply chain, industry competitors who had already mapped their supply chains and continued to monitor them were able to fast-track their responses. As the world fights to get control over Coronavirus, disruption remains in the foreseeable future. And it’s a good reminder that companies need to revisit their existing risk management practices and make third party monitoring a priority moving forward.

Next steps:

Read more about managing supply chain risk on our blog.
Discover how Nexis® Entity Insight helps you spot signs of emerging risk across your supply chain.
Access relevant COVID19 information with free business resources from LexisNexis

Bribery & corruption risk: Airbus reports €1.4B loss as enforcement fines soar to record heights

2020-02-24T11:31:00Z

This should have been a bumper year for Airbus, after rival Boeing grounded its 737 MAX aircraft following fatal crashes. Yet the multinational aerospace company reported a troubling loss of $1.5B earlier this month. A key reason for this result is a series record fines for bribery in many countries. The case is a stark reminder of the reputational, regulatory, financial and strategic costs when a compliance program falls short.

Airbus recently agreed to pay a record $4 billion in penalties to the U.S., France and UK. This roughly breaks down as $2.3B to France, $1.1B to the UK, and $582M to the U.S. to settle charges of breaching the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

The reason? Airbus paid bribes in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Taiwan and Ghana between 2011 and 2015, using used a network of agents to make large ‘backhander’ payments to foreign officials to land high-value contracts. This operation was run by a unit at its French headquarters.

Adding up the costs of non-compliance with anti-bribery & corruption laws

The Airbus case is a reminder of the significant costs of bribery and corruption. For Airbus, these included:

Substantial fines: The $4B in fines contributed to the company’s $1.5B annual loss. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury acknowledged in a press release that the bribery investigations are partly responsible.
Business disruption: Airbus was under investigation by regulators in France, the UK and the U.S. for four years, requiring a significant time investment by corporate leaders. In addition to paying fines, Airbus will enter into three-year agreements to improve its compliance practices, which will cause further disruption.
Reputational damage: Reputation is particularly important for companies in the aerospace industry at the moment, after Greta Thunberg’s campaign against the environmental costs of air travel and the fatal crashes of Boeing planes. The negative headlines surrounding the bribery scheme certainly had a dampening effect on the company’s reputation.
Growth stagnation: Airbus had a clear opportunity this year in the wake of Boeing’s own reputational crises. Instead, this bribery and corruption investigation means Airbus must focus on damage control for its own reputation and tackling the risk of bribery and corruption. Its CEO hinted at this focus when he identified “company culture” as one of three priorities for 2020.
Staff turnover: The Guardian reports that “scores of senior executives” were sacked during the investigation. Airbus also announced thousands of job cuts in late February, although it did not explicitly link these to the fines.

Enforcement trends to watch

This case also demonstrates a number of trends in modern anti-bribery and corruption work which companies should be aware of:

Cross-border cooperation among regulators: The investigation was an international effort involving three countries. The Financial Times said the level of co-operation on this case was “unusual”, especially for French prosecutors.
Investigations are going high tech: Technology is increasingly used in corruption investigations, making it easier for regulators to uncover corruption. Predictive coding software technology was used in this investigation to sift through millions of emails, contracts and other documents.
Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs): have become the new normal. Under its agreement with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, Airbus will pay the fine and improve its compliance program while being monitored for three years. If it cannot demonstrate improvement, it will face prosecution.
Enforcement efforts are improving: Globally, anti-bribery and corruption legislation and enforcement has increased. Prior to new anti-corruption legislation introduced in 2016 (known as Sapin II), France had never convicted a company of corruption. As the Financial Times wrote recently, “France long had a reputation for being lax on global corruption and outsourcing its juiciest cases to U.S. prosecutors—Airbus’ record settlement in an international bribery probe shows this era may be over.”

Until recently, the U.S. has led the world in enforcement, using its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) to prosecute companies across many industries when anti-bribery and corruption compliance falls short. But given the strengthening of anti-bribery and corruption laws globally, companies face even greater pressure to implement robust risk management processes—from mapping corruption risks for different jurisdictions and sectors to engaging in risk-aligned due diligence and monitoring of third parties . How confident are you that your current compliance program could stand up to scrutiny?

Keep exploring:

Learn more about risk management solutions and datasets available from Nexis® Solutions.
Share this blog with your colleagues and connections to keep the conversation going.

Robots for Risk Management? Here's what you need to know.

2020-01-24T11:24:00Z

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) investment and adoption is gaining ground globally. According to Statista, 2019 saw investment climb to 49 percent and adoption to 24 percent by large organisations, with medium and smaller businesses lagging well behind. One area of business seeing a jump in investment and adoption is in Compliance and Risk Management. In fact, Nexis® Solutions has just announced a partnership with Blue Prism® to integrate Blue Prism’s connected-RPA with Nexis Diligence™.

RPA offers measurable advantages

What’s the appeal of RPA? In a survey on RPA adoption, reports The Enterprisers Project, respondents realized multiple benefits from implementing RPA:

92 percent cited improved compliance
90 percent cited a boost in quality/accuracy
86 percent cited higher productivity
59 percent cited lowered costs

And while technology adoption usually includes a few false starts, the organisations surveyed reported that their RPA implementations met or exceeded expectations. Yet Harvard Business Review says that organisations are missing half of all “automation opportunities.” But some processes are better suited for intelligent automation than others.

What does RPA involve?

Despite the name, RPA looks more like software than a sci-fi android. Leslie Willcocks, professor of technology, work, and globalization at the London School of Economics’ Department of Management, explains in a McKinsey interview that “RPA deals with simpler types of task. It takes away mainly physical tasks that don’t need knowledge, understanding, or insight—the tasks that can be done by codifying rules and instructing the computer or the software to act.” Repetitive, high-volume, rules-based…sounds like the definition of due diligence, doesn’t it?

Banks and other financial services organisations have led the way on RPA adoption for good reason. Take the credit application process. RPA enables banks to conduct thorough credit analyses in hours rather than days. “RPA can perform such analyses as much as 15 times faster, with almost no errors,” writes Harvard Business Review. By using RPA to perform due diligence—whether on customers, business partners, suppliers or other third parties—organizations make important strides toward digital transformation.

Automating the due diligence process, for example, empowers organizations to apply the superior accuracy and speed of RPA to perform basic due diligence—screening third parties, compiling a report on findings, and notifying the risk or compliance analyst of report availability.

Return on investment in implementing RPA varies by application. Professor Willcocks says that analysis of 16 RPA case studies revealed ROI ranging from 30 percent to 200 percent in the first year. But RPA has value beyond cost savings.

RPA can also deliver positive impact in terms of employee job satisfaction. Professor Willcocks suggests, “The evidence is that it’s not whole jobs that will be lost but parts of jobs, and you can reassemble work into different types of job.” Rather than spending time on repetitive, manual processes, staff members can focus on more interesting tasks that require emotional intelligence. And as you can imagine, a more efficient, timely process when onboarding new customers or vendors leads to more satisfied clients and business partners.

Are you ready to automate your risk management process? Contact us to learn how at 888-455-3947

ESG will be top of Davos agenda

2020-01-17T19:29:00Z

World leaders, CEOs and academics will come together in the Swiss resort of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) from 21 to 24 January. The summit’s program and participant list hint at a clear theme of this year’s summit: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues will likely dominate the conversations.

Looking through the 66-page agenda of panel discussions and briefings, the highlights will include:

Multiple sessions on the rise of sustainable investment. The program notes: “With over $30 trillion in assets under management across sustainable investing strategies, the public appetite for companies creating stakeholder value is increasing.”
A panel warning CEOs that air pollution causes seven million deaths a year, which looks at how policies and practices can combat pollution.
A session that makes the “business case for biodiversity”, calling on business to play a role in reversing nature loss and restoring the planet’s natural systems. Scientists estimate that half of all species face extinction by the end of the century unless urgent action is taken.

Discussions will not only focus on climate. Other social issues are also becoming more important:

Three sessions will look at how companies can support employees who are LGBT, who suffer from mental ill health, or who have faced sexual harassment at work.
A panel will look at modern slavery and how forced labor recruitment is facilitated by digitization.
An “SDG Lab” will be held all week at the Hilton Garden Inn in Davos. It will bring together representatives from the UN, the World Bank, the EU and the private sector to discuss why it is important for companies to work towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

ESG also represented on the guest list

The participant list for the World Economic Forum in Davos is as long as ever, stretching to 125 pages of representatives corporate, government, NGO and academic institutions. This year’s list has a different feel to previous years, with so many delegates’ job roles focusing in some way on the environment and climate change. This reflects the pressure being put on companies to commit to making a positive impact on ESG issues. Here are some highlights from the list:

Governments are sending their environment ministers, for example Sweden’s Isabella Lövin and the UAE’s Ahmed Al Zeyoudi.
Many companies are sending their ESG leads – for example, the German insurance firm Allianz will be represented by its ESG investment manager.
The media usually send financial correspondents, but this year the likes of TIME Magazine, the New York Times and Die Welt have sent environmental reporters. The media attention suggests clear reputational risks for companies who ignore ESG issues.
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old environmental activist, will attend. She represents a global movement of young people who are demanding governments and companies take action to stop climate change. The Davos program echoes this: “Young people are mobilizing and increasingly influencing today’s most pressing political and environmental issues.”

Companies under pressure

This year’s discussions at Davos are expected to put even more pressure on companies and governments to reduce their environmental impact. If CEOs do not heed the warnings, companies face losing investor and customer support. We’ll be reporting on this and other themes and trends emerging from the summit. Stay tuned for more here and on our Twitter and LinkedIn channels.

Check out our recap coverage from last year's forum.

Weighing in on the Value of Big Data and AI: A Chief Technology Officer's Perspective

2019-12-19T19:35:00Z

As Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Nexis® Solutions, Stephen Iddings has been closely involved in driving the Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategy at LexisNexis. In an interview, he shared how LexisNexis® uses AI and Machine Learning (ML) to innovate for customers and find operational efficiencies. But he warned that AI is only as useful as the quality of the data going into it and questions it is trying to answer.

What are the main ways in which LexisNexis is using AI technologies?

I would break this down into three big areas. The first is customer innovation—we are putting AI in front of customers through our products. The second is operational efficiencies—we are using AI to help us operate more effectively, either through fabrication processes or our business system processes. The third is that we are exploring new frontiers—this is work that is not in production yet, but we are working on it in labs or innovation areas to be ahead of the curve for the future.

Can you give us an example of each of these areas?

AI contributes to improving how customers interact with products. When a user types a query into a search box, AI predicts and auto-completes the query. Then the query is mined out for semantic parsing and phrase extraction so we can understand user intent. Then after the search is done, AI models apply relevance based on previous searches to make sure the most pertinent material is at the top, and where a user has searched for a particular company it might bring up the company card associated with that company.

In business systems, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is starting to play a role by automating menial tasks that use technology, and AI is being used in the business system space on customer retention models and identifying the likelihood of a customer to cancel. This gives sales representatives greater visibility prior to renewal time to understand the likelihood of a customer cancelling based on customer service calls or usage of the product.

One of the next big things is chatbots, or conversational agents which use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and ML to become smarter—they will be understand the user’s query, classify it by the type of question they are answering, know what they have researched in the past and what they are currently working on.

What area(s) of the business has AI and big data affected most, and how has it changed or improved the way you did things before AI?

AI has introduced a lot of opportunities for savings by offsetting or replacing manual efforts. In 2009, we put in place our first massive scale named entity recognition and named entity linking solution which was able to recognise people, places and things in content and link them to an authority.

When we first did this, people had to manually tag attorneys and in a three-year period we did 3.5 million attorneys and spent maybe a million dollars. But when we implemented our first big data solution to recognise entities, we tagged 24 million attorneys in our content in one 24-hour run. We did a comparison with human-tagged entities and found the quality was on a par and better in some cases.

That was the first really big, compelling realization that we can use AI to augment editorial tasks. These developments have allowed staff to take on higher value jobs. In the editorial space, RPA has freed up human intellectual property and resources to focus on things that are of higher value to the business.

What is the role of data in the effective use of AI technologies?

There is no AI without data, you have got to start with data. You need training sets and content to help train your Machine Learning models. You have got to have content to train your image recognition models. So, data is what drives it all and content is king.

We have spent a lot of money as a company to collect a large corpus of content and quality data. We have content from 47,000 different sources and licensed publicly available web content which we can normalise into a structured or semi-structured format like XML. A lot of companies have their own data on customers. When we start applying enrichments and knowledge graphs that span our data and theirs, customers gain valuable context for research, media intelligence and entity due diligence.

What advice do you have for companies considering using AI?

Think of your customer, who they are and how receptive they are to AI functionality. I have been involved with the due diligence in a lot of acquisitions and the pattern I have seen with successful start-ups that we acquire is not about how good they are at AI. Everyone pretty much uses the same stuff; I haven’t seen any secret sauce out there. But the best are not those who are best at answering questions, but the best at coming up with the questions that need answering.

You can typically solve anything with AI and a data scientist’s role is to start with asking: ‘what is the question I need to answer, what content and features are needed to answer the question and what does the model need to be to answer the question, iterate and refine.’

What advice do you have to for companies looking to acquire more data and do data integrations?

With software development, there are a lot of open source technologies, enabling companies to get hold of AI code and tap into available data scientists’ skill sets. But what I see is that getting access to big data in training sets is still a barrier and a lot of start-ups are making massive investments to buy the data or partner with a big company like ours. The reason that Nexis® Data as a Service is booming is that it’s an easier barrier to overcome for partners to get access to the data to add value to their business.

Interested in learning more?

Learn what Nexis Data as a Service can do for you

New Names Showcase Flagship Research Solution

2019-11-01T19:00:17Z

New Names Showcase Flagship Research Solution

As November approaches, new signs of the changing season appear every day. The air is a little crisper. The trees are a little more colorful. And here at Nexis® Solutions, another change is taking place—our product names are being updated. What’s behind the transition?

Nexis: A Name Worth Remembering

At the beginning of 2019, we announced that LexisNexis® Business Insight Solutions—a business unit of LexisNexis Legal & Professional—was becoming Nexis Solutions. The name change served several purposes:

It highlights our flagship business research platform, Nexis®.
It distinguishes us from the legal side of LexisNexis with its own flagship legal research platform, Lexis® Advance.

Most importantly, the name change speaks to our commitment to supporting a nexus of ideas and innovation in our solutions and for our customers. This includes a future vision of continuous improvement through artificial intelligence, including:

Advanced enrichments and machine learning algorithms that lead to smart data and more relevant search results
Turning that smart data into actionable insights with predictive analytics and visualization
Intelligent search based on use cases and search behaviours that will enable our platforms to predict searches, provide search strings and suggest answers

These efforts are supported through our people and our partnerships. In addition to investing in technology professionals to build in-house expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive and prescriptive analytics, Nexis Solutions is teaming up with best-in-class partners across RELX and across the industry to ensure we continue to evolve to meet the current and future needs of our customers.

What hasn’t changed, however, is our commitment to the organizations that depend on our incomparable content universe and technologies that help companies:

Increase productivity while saving time and resources
Gain critical awareness with information and analytics
Comply with global and national regulations
Improve decision-making to grow their businesses

And now, we’re taking the next step on this journey.

Indispensable tools for data-driven insights

Our product line-up is poised to go through a name realignment beginning November 1^st—and it’s easy to remember: All our product names will now reflect the same flagship product that inspired the Nexis Solutions name change: Nexis.

As we have introduced new or enhanced products over the past two years, we’ve connected the name back to Nexis.

2017 – LexisNexis Academic becomes Nexis Uni®.
2017 – LexisNexis for Development Professionals becomes Nexis® for Development Professionals.
2018 – Multiple data-as-a-service offerings relaunched as Nexis® Data as a Service.
2019 – Lexis Diligence moves to a new platform and becomes Nexis Diligence™.

November 2019 marks the last of these name transitions:

LexisNexis® Dossier is now Nexis® Dossier to reflect its alignment with Nexis news and company content.
Our automated risk monitoring solutions, LexisNexis Entity Insight, is becoming Nexis Entity Insight.
Our award-winning media monitoring and analytics platform, LexisNexis Newsdesk®, is becoming Nexis Newsdesk™.
LexisNexis® Social Analytics (powered by Talkwalker) is becoming Nexis® Social Analytics (powered by Talkwalker).
LexisNexis® Media Contacts Solution (powered by Agility PR Solutions) is becoming Nexis® Media Contacts Solution (powered by Agility PR Solutions).

If you’re familiar with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, you’ll recognize a quote that’s has flitted through our minds since we began considering how we could introduce the new product names.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Despite having been written 420 years ago, the quote feels especially relevant to our current situation. Yes, our product names are changing. But the promise behind our products remains unchanged—and just as sweet: Deliver our unmatched content in ways that quickly address your organization’s evolving needs for actionable business research, enhanced risk management, comprehensive media intelligence or the data to power machine learning, predictive analytics and other artificial intelligence applications.

Bringing artificial intelligence into the risk management process

2019-10-16T12:54:00Z

Are your financial risk management decisions informed by artificial intelligence? Increasingly, organizations face significant challenges when it comes to managing risk, but AI can help. What do you need to know? We tackled that topic recently when we teamed up with Gary Moore, Ally Bank’s Director of Data Security Options & Vendor Risk, for a webinar on “Embracing Disruption: How AI is Transforming Risk Management for Financial Services”—now available on-demand.

Addressing AI’s pitfalls

If you’ve held off on fully embracing AI, it’s understandable. AI is not without its own challenges. Take concerns that AI will impact jobs. While AI-powered risk management reduces the need for manual processes, when it comes to decision-making regarding risk, people bring emotional intelligence to the table, so they aren’t about to be made obsolete. In fact, the shift to AI will also create the need for new positions.

In addition, AI goes hand-in-hand with data, and with more data, comes more responsibility. Data security and privacy are top of mind concerns at financial institutions, doubly so when introducing AI into the risk management mix. Ally Bank’s Gary Moore speaks from experience.

He notes in the webinar that when it comes to leveraging AI for risk management, we have to “make sure we’re not introducing new risk as well.”

Approaching new technology with trepidation isn’t unusual. A FinExtra blog last year noted, “If we look at the AI and machine learning today, it seems that it is no different from graduating from the horse driven carriage to a car.” Sure, some were skeptical when horseless carriages were first introduced, but there’s no disputing that cars are the king of the road today. Likewise, the positive potential of AI is gaining speed across industry, especially when it comes to more proactive financial risk management.

Using AI to enhance risk assessments, due diligence and ongoing risk monitoring

During the webinar, some key factors were seen as drivers for adopting AI to support risk management. At the top of the list was globalization. As the global economy has grown, the spread of products, technology, jobs and consumerism around the world means that organizations are expanding as well. With this growth, comes more risk. While globalization is largely seen as the rising tide that lifts all boats, it has created a more complex regulatory landscape. In addition, because organizations are so reliant on these global connections, an economic downturn or political instability in one region of the world is more widely felt than ever before.

AI can help organizations untangle risk in numerous ways. During the webinar, we look at two areas that are benefiting from AI already:

Automated risk monitoring that uses machine learning capabilities to surface potential risk red flags in near real-time
Robotic process automation to accelerate risk assessments and third-party on-boarding due diligence

Curious? Keep exploring:

Watch the full on-demand webinar for more on what’s influencing financial risk management.
Take a closer look at AI-powered risk monitoring with LexisNexis Entity Insight.
Share this blog with your colleagues and connections on LinkedIn.

Conference Wrap-Up: International Federation of Library Associates Conference

2019-10-09T13:56:00Z

Near the end of August, we headed to the 85th IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Athens, Greece. As a bronze sponsor and exhibitor, we were excited to meet with current customers and introduce Nexis Uni and Nexis to many others from around the globe.

Our own Marco van Gennip presented an informative session entitled, “Ensuring Trust, Credibility and Influence in Your Library: A Look Into the Importance of Search Relevance in the Digital World.” During the presentation, he focused on three key areas:

How the four most-used search engines globally—Google, Bing, Yahoo and Baidu—have conditioned students, faculty and business professionals to rely on quickly retrieved, skim-able results
Why search engines like those mentioned above yield less than reliable results because the search algorithms draw sources from the entirety of the internet—good and bad—leading to poorly filtered search results that lack the quality and accuracy needed
What the implications are when quick results are exclusive of relevant, reliable and clutter-free results

We also had some learning moments during IFLA:

IFLA is truly an international event with nearly 3,500 attendees who came from 140 different countries.
Language isn’t a barrier when it comes to librarians showing their passion and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge—although we try to help with that.
Next year’s IFLA event in Dublin should be even bigger. Apparently, a Dublin bump is a ‘thing’; so —planners expect 4,000 attendees to descend on the Irish capital in 2020.
Tabby or Ginger kittens are the top pick for bookmarks—though they all went flying off of our sponsor table.

Last, but not least, we must say that despite the August heat, Athens welcomed everyone with their welcoming personalities and extra tasty food!

How Universities Earn Top Marks for Big Data Use

2019-09-26T18:54:00Z

In some ways, academics’ methods of teaching and research have hardly changed since Plato and Aristotle were discussing philosophy and mathematics in the Academy in Ancient Greece. Students still learn from a tutor in small discussion groups and lectures, and many scholars still study physical manuscripts in libraries. But in this blog, we will explore a recent change that has revolutionized academia: big data analytics

AI-powered research

The application of big data analytics has generated new and innovative partnerships between universities and companies on research projects. Companies have access to a lot of data on their customers, and universities have data science experts who can interpret and analyze that data. The result is mutually beneficial—companies get better insights about their customers and products, and universities get new research ideas and much-needed funding from partner firms. For example, earlier this year the pharmaceutical firm Novartis announced a partnership with the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute. The Oxford experts are using machine learning to analyze data from Novartis’ clinical trials to identify patterns in how patients respond to different medicines.

Academics in virtually every academic discipline are exploring how AI and big data analytics could change the way they do their research. A study in the journal Nature found that ‘big data’ and AI were the third and fourth most-searched terms on a scholarly database in 2018. LexisNexis attended Dubai’s Global Education and Skills Forum earlier this year and found many examples of academics who were using AI to do research that would otherwise be have been impossible. Milo Comerford, a senior analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said that AI and machine learning have “changed the game” for academic research. He gave the example of his own research which uses AI to trawl through thousands of extremist propaganda documents and come up with new insights. “I wouldn’t have been able to do [this] manually and through my own study,” he said.

Personalized teaching

Universities’ core purposes to research and to teach, and big data analytics are changing the latter as well as the former. Teachers and lecturers in universities are using big data to gather data on their students and then customize their lesson plans. Lecturers no longer have to wonder whether their lectures are going over students’ heads—now they can use data from e-learning software to work out which parts of the course students struggle with, and give extra support to those who find a particular area difficult. Back in 2015, in a paper in the journal Procedia Economics and Finance, Logica and Magdalena argued that big data offers teachers “a chance to refine the educational process”. “If [teachers] want relevant insights on their real efficiency and the progress of their students, they need to integrate this kind of solutions,” they wrote. In the four years since this paper was published, more and more educators have followed this advice.

The next step could be for some of these lecturers to be replaced by AI—indeed, some universities are already employing AI in their teaching process. In 2016, students on Georgia Tech University’s online master’s in computer science who asked questions on the course’s online forum were often answered by Jill Watson, who was apparently a teaching assistant at the university. When the course finished, it was revealed to them that Jill was in fact an AI bot based on IBM’s Watson platform. Most students had had no idea. AI and big data offers universities a way to save money on teaching, and reach a greater number of students.

Automated admissions

Universities are even using big data to help them decide which students to admit every autumn. Traditionally, universities have employed a large team of admissions officers who weigh up thousands of applications before deciding who to admit, but big data analytics allows them to automatically sort candidates by test scores and other admissions criteria. Universities rely on attracting large numbers of eligible students to enroll, and data analytics expert Eric Spear says big data analytics “holds the key to solving the problem of declining enrolment numbers”. Analytics allow an institution to track which courses are more popular with students from different demographics, and which courses have a problem with drop-outs. Removing the element of human judgement in the admissions process could also benefit universities’ reputations—earlier this year, top U.S. colleges were alleged to have accepted donations from wealthy Americans in exchange for university places. An AI-driven process would likely have prevented that from happening.

What should you do?

Big data analytics can make your life easier, whether you’re an academic, a university president or a corporation considering a research partnership with data scientists. But the insights available from this analysis are only as good as the data being fed into them. LexisNexis’ Data as a Service provider helps universities by integrating data with flexible APIs that deliver normalized big data in a semi-structured XML format. This enables universities to add bespoke tags and other enrichments to meet the unique requirements of the research being undertaken. Additionally, when retrieving data, researchers can take advantage of our own robust topical classifications to identify and retrieve highly-relevant result datasets, ensuring a faster time to insight.

Next Steps:

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3 reasons to add ongoing monitoring to address third-party risk

2019-09-20T20:05:00Z

How confident are you that a supplier you vetted two years ago hasn’t seen a change in financial stability that might lead to supply chain disruption? Or that a reseller isn’t putting you in danger of an FCPA violation? Or that a disgruntled customer’s online tweet hasn’t been picked up by mainstream media and turned into a reputational nightmare?

The days when a company could protect against financial, regulatory, strategic and reputational risk with a one-and-done process are long over. The global nature of business, the speed of communication and reliance on extensive third-party networks means that companies need a more proactive approach to risk management—and for many, ongoing risk monitoring is the answer.

What’s Third-Party Monitoring Got to Do with It?

Recently, we partnered with RIMS to talk about how a risk management workflow can be enhanced by continuous monitoring. It starts with understanding the influence that third parties have on your organization. We’re not talking about employees—the people inside the four walls of a business. Yes, they can expose an organization to risk, but most companies set clear ethical and compliance standards to manage internal workforces. Instead, we’re using the ISO definition of third parties which classifies them as persons or entities that are independent of the organization.

Customers
Vendors and Suppliers
Shipping Companies
Business Partners
Sales Agents
M&A Targets

So, what are the three reasons you need ongoing monitoring of third parties?

Regulatory landscape is broad and complex.

Some industries are more alert to the potential risks posed by third parties. Banks and other financial services organizations, for example, must address Know Your Customer requirements to meet anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws. Likewise, companies in the extractives industry are well-acquainted with the need for the third parties they rely on to adhere to a variety of regulations—from sanctions or anti-bribery and corruption compliance to environmental standards.

However, you need only look at recent FCPA enforcement actions to see that regulatory risk has become more prevalent across many industries and companies of varying sizes. And the same holds true for other types of risk. No business is immune in the digital age, where bad news can spread like wildfire.

The world has gotten smaller.

Another factor that should be considered is location—whether it's the location of the third party or where the location where a transaction will occur. High-speed travel and communications have empowered companies to expand into emerging markets and build out global supply chains. But operating across borders means companies need to stay alert to a variety of Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental considerations.

The more you depend on third parties, the bigger your exposure.

Think about the money a company may spend with a third party. If an organization is highly-dependent on a third party—doing a large volume of purchasing from a vendor, for example—then the risk exposure is higher because the potential for disruption if the third party fails to deliver as promised due to financial instability or violates regulations while conducting business on your behalf.

Ready to learn even more about third-party risk? Check out the on-demand recording of the RIMS webinar for an informative look at the current risk landscape and how LexisNexis Entity Insight makes it easy to continuously monitor for threats that could impact your business.

Expert Q&A: Dechert’s Caroline Black on the Changing Landscape of Anti-bribery and Corruption Compliance

2019-09-17T12:46:00Z

Caroline Black is a partner in the white-collar crime team at the London-based law firm Dechert LLP. She has worked on several large multi-jurisdictional anti-corruption and bribery cases and advised major companies on putting in place adequate compliance and due diligence procedures. Speaking to LexisNexis from Dechert’s slick, modern offices near Fleet Street, she tells us that legislation against bribery and corruption around the world is getting stronger, and regulators are more willing to take enforcement action against non-compliant companies.

Is anti-bribery and corruption regulation and legislation getting tougher?
It is the case that around the world, there is a rise in enforcement actions and also legislation which is being passed to assist prosecutors to take action against breaches of anti-corruption standards. In terms of enforcement and regulation, we have seen a globalization of the fight against corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing. We have seen increasing numbers of coordinated corruption investigations in recent years such as the joint Rolls Royce Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) between the British, the Americans and the Brazilians, and Odebrecht between the Brazilians, the Americans, and the Swiss.

The trend for that global coordination will continue with the US and the UK playing lead roles but also increasingly with other jurisdictions being more fully involved in anti-corruption and anti-money laundering efforts.

Interestingly there is also a drive at the moment to give prosecutors more tools through the use of DPAs. DPAs were brought into force in the UK in 2014 but have recently been increasingly used by the SFO. Similar powers have been given to the authorities in France in the form of a CJIP, and there is similar legislation being passed in Canada, Australia, and Singapore.

What do DPAs mean for companies?

There is an increased awareness and desire by the authorities to prosecute companies for anti-corruption breaches. But the use of DPAs also show that prosecutors are thinking about how to incentivize companies to cooperate, to self-report and to be good corporate citizens. The DPA format provides the authorities with greater tools in their armoury to not only incentivize companies using a large stick but also with a carrot in the form of a DPA.

How do companies benefit from being ‘good corporate citizens’, as you put it?

The main benefit is the ability to really market yourself as a company which is ethical, that does business in the right way, and will hopefully attract more work from like-minded firms. Increasingly companies around the world are looking for ethical third parties to do business with. More companies are looking to ensure that the people they do business with are ethical, that they do business in the right way, and are not ultimately going to attribute liability back to them under the very wide anti-corruption laws which are in place.

What are some of the principles of a good due diligence process?

What is really key is having a risk-based approach as a starting point, because completing the same level of due diligence for every third party which a company might engage is unworkable and unmanageable, especially in a large business. But it is also essential that companies are properly identifying those third parties who are the highest risk to their business and ensuring these entities are thoroughly checked and managed.

Another important point is to ensure that reliance is not placed on only one source of information. Information should be sourced from the third party itself, from within the business (the managers and the sales force who proposed the particular third party). Information should be considered from sources available in the public domain or through public records searches and sanctions lists checks. Then depending on the assessment of the risks of the particular third-party consideration could be given to using a reputable due diligence firm or agent. Finally, a company could also make local in-country checks with the chamber of commerce and follow that up with references.

It is also vitally important to ensure that whomever is receiving that information within the company can understand it and ask appropriate follow-up questions, because one failing I’ve seen in the past in some of the companies that we have worked with is that compliance or legal may receive information about red flags that really warrant following up, but the people receiving it do not understand the significance.

How should firms use technology in this process?

Technology is an increasing part of business around the world and it should be part of any due diligence or compliance program. RegTech is really focusing on the use of automated systems and analytical techniques where suspicious transactions may be identified across a business through a big data sampling tool, so a lot more information can be processed than by any one individual. That being said, you still need an individual to review the findings and ensure that they understand the information coming out. But I think technology is useful to highlight red flags or issues which may occur within a company.

How else is technology being used in the field?

In the field of investigations, technology is also becoming much more accepted and more widely used by the authorities. For example, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office used technology-assisted reviews in the investigation leading to the DPA that was reached with Rolls Royce, so it is a much more acceptable standard to allow the review of a lot of data in the most efficient way possible.

How important is the leadership of a company to a successful anti-bribery and corruption program?

Tone from the top is absolutely essential. No anti-bribery, anti-money laundering or anti-financial crime system can work without the buy-in from senior management. I believe it is something the authorities will continue to want to see, from those companies who ultimately end up in trouble, but also more generally to demonstrate that you do business in the right way.

Increasingly, information is being made transparent by companies, including publishing policies, procedures and leadership steps taken by CEOs and other senior members of the board or executive management team. That transparency is not limited to bribery and corruption - with the new Gender Pay Gap reporting, Modern Slavery Act reporting and other initiatives, it’s something that will continue as companies push to transform the way that business is done. It’s important that leadership is seen to endorse that transparency across the board.

What advice would you give companies that come across evidence of financial crime?

If a company decides that there is substance to an allegation, it is very important for it to be seen to be reacting in the right way. One of the key first steps that we would advise our clients is to preserve and secure evidence including paper documents and e-data and the various sources of other information that may exist. Companies should then consider whether there is an issue which could lead to a large enforcement action and which authorities may have jurisdiction as different standards may apply.

To have any chance of persuading the authorities in the UK that a company is qualified to receive an invitation to participate in a DPA, there has to be early reporting, consultation, and cooperation. This practice has become apparent from the recent DPA case law in the UK. The most striking example is Rolls Royce where a large fine of nearly £500m was levied against the company. Notably the agreement made it clear that this was a 50% discount on the penalty which it could have expected had the company not gone into the cooperative process. So, it really is financially important for companies to consider cooperation early on in the process.

It is also beneficial for a company’s corporate compliance image to be able to say, “yes we are reviewing this issue, we’ve reported it to the authorities, we are cleaning up our internal processes, we have taken disciplinary action and we have removed those wrongdoers”. This enables the entity to try to manage the process as best it can while also providing positive messaging to the market and any shareholders that the problem is historical and under control.

How can this transparency approach help during an investigation?

What the authorities are really looking for is transparency and cooperation and to approach and deal with the authorities in a way that is respectful and open. Any attempts to cherry-pick or hide specific behaviour or protect individuals is not something the authorities will want to see from a cooperating company. So, I think transparency, disclosure and cooperation are really the cornerstones of the process.

Even outside of an investigation process, transparency is what the authorities want to see. They are looking for commitment to ethical behaviour, to ensuring that reports are made through relevant money-laundering systems if required, proper disclosures to the markets, proper reaction to an adverse event that might happen within a business, and other step such as publishing gifts and entertainment registers and policies on the company’s website. Companies must demonstrate that ethical business is not just a statement that is made, it really is lived within the organization.

Actions You Can Take Now

See how Lexis Diligence® and LexisNexis® Entity Insight enable companies to implement robust due diligence and risk monitoring processes to mitigate ABC compliance risk.
Find out about additional ethical expectations—from investors and consumers—that companies must address in our newest eBook.
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How mining became a global CSR Achilles' heel

2019-08-27T20:27:00Z

Our globalized society relies heavily on highspeed communication, made possible by the continuous innovation in the global electronic industry. Everyday electronics like smartphones, tablets and laptops, along with the rapidly growing market for Internet of Things (IoT) technology, require a vast amount of resources, particularly rare earths and other metals such as gold.

Recently, the Guardian—in collaboration with a collective of investigative journalists led by Forbidden Stories—uncovered ongoing human rights abuses as well as environmental failures in the Tanzanian North Mara goldmine, whose extracted deposits are also part of the supply chain of global hi-tech giants like Apple, Canon and Nokia. These recent findings make it necessary to take a closer look at why identifying possible supply chain risks is particularly important for the electronic industry and how corporations could best comply with the ethical expectations for responsible sourcing in line with their own Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitments.

Mining, a high-risk factor for the global tech industry

Valued at approximately USD 1.75 trillion, the electronics industry is one of the largest industrial sectors in the global economy, generating more revenue than any other goods-producing sector according to recent estimates published by the World Bank. Through the high consumption and utilization of rare earths and minerals such as gold, which is mainly used for conductors on circuit boards during the production process, global tech-giants are increasingly dependent on resilient and stable mineral sources.

Currently, developing countries especially in South-East Asia, Latin America and Africa are facing an increased growth in the tech-related mining industry and while environmental standards for emission, effluent and groundwater contamination exist, the mining industry often falls short on compliance. According to the United Nations, this can be traced back to a variety of reasons:

Weak law enforcement
Lack of monitoring capabilities
Shortage in skilled human resources

As a result, tech companies in particular face increased pressure to implement comprehensive due diligence and proactive monitoring to assess and identify possible mining-related risks in their supply chain to meet both regulatory requirements and their corporate social responsibility commitments.

Identifying the supply chain risk of the hi-tech industry

But what exactly are the risks for a company’s ethnic liability and how can these supply chain and third-party exposures be best monitored, identified and prevented?

The recent findings, with regard to human rights abuses and environmental wrong doings in a Tanzanian gold mine have brought these issues into the public spotlight again and underline how neglecting an approach to responsible sourcing procedures can lead to increased media attention and scrutinization by the public eye.

Corporate initiatives such as the Responsible Minerals Initiative, a network of more than 380 companies and associations have committed their work to improving the flow of information regarding responsibly-sourced minerals by providing companies with a variety of supportive tools and resources.

The recent report of serious misconducts in Tanzania is only one of numerous examples of how the tech-related mining industry has come under scrutiny. Environmental and worker rights abuses in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malaysia have become a common feature in the media.

The consequences of human rights and environmental malpractice can be severe for the involved companies. A brand’s reputation is highly dependent on consumers and investors, who increasing assess companies’ performance in terms of human rights and environmental protection. By demanding insights into companies’ supply chain and third-party agreements, responsible sourcing can also constitute a commercial incentive for businesses to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

A Nielsen study found that more than 55 percent of global respondents favored products form companies that are committed to a positive social and environmental impact. Amy Fenton, the Global leader of public development and sustainability at Nielsen concluded that,

“Consumers around the world are saying loud and clear that a brand’s social purpose is among the factors that influence purchase decisions. This behavior is on the rise and it provides opportunities for meaningful impact in our communities, in addition to helping to grow share for brands.”

The positive effect of increased consumer awareness has led to several improvements and increased due diligence by leading tech companies such as Apple, which removed 10 smelters and refiners from its supply chain in 2017 because they failed to comply with audits.

Besides the important factors of investor and consumer contentment, countries around the globe are beginning to adopt or amend legislation aimed at expanding transparency in supply chains. In the case of the European Union, for example, Regulation 2017/821 requires companies to publicly share their supply chain policies and report their auditing reports to their member states. As these requirements are strengthened, companies will face increased risk of fines, civil and even criminal liabilities.

Can mining be sustainable?

Tech-related mineral sourcing is often located in ecologically sensitive, less-developed and remote areas that partially also includes indigenous territories and land. A 2016 collaborative work, conducted by the UNDP, the World Economic Forum, the Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network with regard to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, has concluded that mining effects on regional development are ambiguous at best. When managed appropriately, it can help create sustainable jobs, increase innovation and foster investments in regional infrastructure. At the same time, poor management can lead to devastating environmental effects, displaced populations, rising inequality and violent conflicts.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a guide on how due diligence should be carried out for minerals supply chains from high risk and conflict-affected areas.

While experts agree that tech-related mining is not likely to transform into a complete sustainable industry, the re-evaluation of supply chains and third parties after recent reports of environmental and human rights abuses in the Tanzanian North Mara goldmine can not only prevent electronics companies such as Canon, Apple or Nokia from regulatory breaches and possible legal consequences but also from a damaged reputation.

Keep exploring:

Check out our eBook on Ethical Sourcing and Everyday Electronics.
Take a closer look at our platforms for due diligence and ongoing risk monitoring.
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Good Idea/Bad Idea: Tips for a Successful Rebrand Announcement

2019-08-20T17:49:00Z

The rebranding of a company is an exciting time. Not only does it allow an organization to introduce a new visual identity (updated logos, a new color scheme and fonts, etc.), it also represents a fresh start. A rebranding creates a unique opportunity for a brand to communicate a renewed focus or a new strategy to employees, investors and customers.

Creating this sort of inflection point has clear business appeal, but a rebrand’s ability to drive media attention should not be taken as a given. While a rebranding can be a strategic pillar to launch a new integrated marketing communications strategy, in many cases, the announcement may not be alluring to members of the press.

We’ve talked before about the importance of expectation-setting in media relations, and this is especially true when heading into a rebrand. Those expectations—and how you approach your strategy—will vary based on the scale of the rebrand and which audiences are most important to you.

When it comes to making the official announcements and introductions, there are some good ideas … and some that aren’t as strategically sound. Here are a few.

Good Idea: Inform Investors

When the announcement of a new brand corresponds with a change in business strategy, media relations offers an effective way to quickly and clearly inform current and potential investors of the changes. Brands carry value and equity, and modifying that formula can have a positive or negative impact on how investors feel about the future of an organization.

Mostly relevant to publicly traded companies or start-ups seeking venture capital investment, a media relations campaign targeting investors will have a much narrower focus than a national one. Rather than highlighting the aesthetic nature of the new brand, focus on the substantive changes that correspond with the visual update. Investors—and, in turn, financial reporters—will care more about expanded product or service offerings, recent mergers and acquisitions, or new geographic targets than a new logo or website design.

Before launching, do your research. Use media monitoring tools to investigate past coverage of similar announcements to identify the right reporters and outlets to pitch. Rather than casting a wide net to general interest outlets, focus on business publications and industry sources that will find the information most relevant (more on that later).

Bad Idea: Bragging about Beauty

Have you ever had a coworker enter the office with a new outfit or hairstyle? It’s likely you didn’t spend more than a few seconds thinking about the change—and you almost certainly didn’t pore over in-depth written or video analysis of his or her trip to the stylist or mall. This is somewhat analogous to the aesthetic side of rebranding.

A new look might garner a second glance, but likely won’t inspire reporters to invest valuable resources into a pronounced feature. While the select few iconic brands like Apple, Amazon, Starbucks or Ikea may earn major coverage for a makeover, the average organization won’t. Plan your messaging accordingly.

Good Idea: Know your Niche

Most industries have multiple publications that analyze the broad trends and daily minutiae of changes within the sector. Each of these outlets is likely to be interested in a rebranding announcement—especially if your organization is a relatively prominent figure within the industry.

When sharing branding news with these outlets, it’s still important to focus on what’s likely of most interest to them. Be prepared to highlight how the announcement may fit into larger industry trends and/or the ways the new brand may correspond with changing business behaviors or consumer habits. Understand that the audience for this type of media coverage will be colleagues, competitors and business partners, and tailor the information you share with those people in mind.

Bad Idea: Chasing Bad-Fit Big Fish

Media—whether print, digital or television—that cater to a mass, general audience aren’t the place for most brand announcements. These outlets are concerned with major news of the day, and their reporters and producers receive hundreds of pitches on a daily basis.

Again, only the largest and most prominent of companies are likely to secure coverage of a rebrand in these outlets. Even then, it might not be the kind of coverage they like. New brand designs, after all, aren’t always so popular and can create as much consumer backlash as brand benefits.

Good Idea: Focus on Your Family

Employees are built-in brand ambassadors, and getting your internal audience excited about a rebrand is a great way to organically influence the external audiences around them. According to brandwatch, the average Facebook user has 155 friends, while Twitter users are connected with an average of 707 followers. Enticing employees to share your company’s news on their social media channels will expand the reach of that story in a real way.

There are a number of ways to hype the news internally and encourage employees to share with their networks. Host internal gatherings to share key messaging around rebrand. Give your employees/ambassadors new branded products to take out into the real world. You might even consider creating a digital resource library with social media optimized images and templated posts that employees can easily personalize and share. Just be sure to avoid making them feel like it’s a requirement.

No matter the size or timing of a rebrand, the keys to making the most of the announcement are sharing your excitement and vision with the right people and avoiding tactical executions that aren’t likely to net positive results. By following these tips, you should be able to count your rebrand announcement as the first major success of a newly redesigned organization.