Communications in the times of polarizations: highlights from AxelMondrian’s CEO’s speech at EACD summit

In the last 5 years, 68.6% of businesses had at least one public crisis and 19.2% of these crises resulted in legal proceedings, shared the speaker, mentioning that only 16% of the companies that reported a crisis recovered their reputation.

This is a quote from the speech of Shushan Harutyunyan , Managing Partner, Chief Executive Officer of “AxelMondrian & Partners” was one of the invited speakers of the EACD summit held in Brussels this year.

Shushan Harutyunyan presented the growing precedents of “reputational laundering”. According to Shushan, there is no secret that litigation can harm a defendant’s reputation. However, litigation is often used by plaintiffs to enhance their own reputations in the court of public opinion.

“Contextually speaking, the court today is not only an official authority to make legal decisions, but yet another platform for directing public opinion, where businesses and leaders advance in the agenda of eliminating a competitor or restoring their own reputation. Moreover, in such cases, the court’s verdict is no longer substantial in its public relevance and the public discourse is mainly driven by the narratives and emotions”, – said Shushan Harutyunyan, adding that today professional ethics is rediscovering its importance.

This year themes of the EACD Summit included Purpose in a polarized world, the future of communications and the digital agenda, Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) topics, Communicating trust with different stakeholders, among others.

The EACD summit discussed the latest challenges in the communications industry and concluded that in the polarized times, now more than ever, public communication has an important mission. Founded in 2006, with representatives from 23 countries, EACD is one of the most trusted institutions in the European area, and this year’s summit was the largest after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Axel Mondrian & Partners” CJSC (AxelMondrian & Partners) is a qualified consulting company, a member of the European network, which opened its office in Yerevan in 2022. It is the first reputation management company in the region and provides services in public relations, branding and marketing communication, data processing and analysis and related fields.