What We Do

Our strategic, collaborative approach is designed to help decision-makers who operate in complex, dynamic, sometimes technical or secretive environments think critically and creatively about their challenges. Our ability to understand the political, legal, and regulatory environments, craft and communicate a vision, and imagine your risks enables our clients to adapt and respond to both anticipated and surprising challenges.

Strategic Services

Strategy is the starting point for everything we do. We probe, question, think, analyze and act. Our team’s diverse experience allows us to see connections and patterns that can help drive winning strategies.
In addition to relevant experience, our collective relationships, judgement and intuition also accrue to the benefit of our clients. Ultimately, we believe in putting strategic thought behind every communication.

Public and Regulatory Affairs

Our experience in government, in both the executive and legislative branches, along with decades of media relations, messaging and issues management work, gives us a broad perspective on the public affairs needs of our clients. Seeing the issues clearly and being able to chart a path to a desired outcome are both critical to success in this arena.

Alternative Analysis

Our firm has a unique toolkit, developed and deployed in the U.S. military and intelligence communities, that informs sound decision-making in complex, dynamic and bureaucratic environments. These Alternative Analysis Techniques (AATs), increasingly employed in the corporate and not-for-profit spheres, mitigate organizational and cognitive biases while allowing you to anticipate challenges, navigate complexities, and think more strategically. The AATs are designed with a careful balance of rigor and creativity to challenge assumptions, consider alternatives and fully appreciate the perspectives of employees, executives, board members, competitors and stakeholders.

Visual Storytelling

Anyone can create content. And we know there are many content producers for you to choose from. What sets us apart is our ability, through strategic communications and newsroom experience, to tell a story with content that will captivate an audience. What’s more, it takes a strategy and proper research to create content that will captivate the right audience, at the right time, with the right message. Doing so will not just gain video views or website clicks. It will foster an emotional response about the message, and consequently about you. Emotion, as much as reason, is a powerful tool in bolstering success.

Strategic Communications

Our team includes an Emmy-winning journalist and a PR professional with more than 20 years of experience. This informs our efforts to build your narrative frame, messaging and perception management. It enables us to understand what does and doesn’t make for a compelling story. Moreover, we understand the demands and complexities of the media, as well as the mechanics of how it actually works.
We plan and execute proactive and reactive PR, pitching, building, reporting and producing stories on issues that matter in our community. We use data and exercise our collective judgment about what the public and stakeholders will reasonably expect to know and when they will expect to know it, balanced against any legal or strategic constraints. We work to build relationships and create media opportunities that make sense for all parties.

Crisis Planning and Communications

We work with clients to create and test Critical Incident Communications Plans and to stand up Critical Incident Response Teams to manage such events. Our experience training public and private sector officials on CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) critical incidents, along with our first-hand crisis management, will allow us to create a plan to manage potential threats to your reputation in what may be a condensed or extended schedule.

Stakeholder and Public Engagement

We have designed and conducted dozens of engagements, ranging from small stakeholder groups to large-scale public engagements. We design programs with the right mix of in-person and digital components in order to meet our clients' needs. We have created robust stakeholder engagement groups with sustained participation over many years and short-term platforms for time compressed projects.

Media and Presentation Training

We have conducted media, presentation and crisis training, among other programs, for hundreds of participants in North America and Europe in various industries. Our in-person and virtual training sessions are customized based on our clients' particular needs and level of proficiency. Many of our sessions draw on our experience training with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) training to prepare for chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear threats. CERC training draws from past emergencies and relevant research in public health, psychology, and communication theory to provide tools, resources and practical exercises to health communicators, first responders, and other leaders.