Corporate and Government Affairs

In many circumstances, the actions of governments or regulators are critical to the future prospects of a business transaction or project.

In these cases, it is important to understand the motivations of the governments and regulators, which may depend on an individual bureaucrat or politician.  Public organizations can have radically different priorities to commercial players, and these differences must be considered in any effective strategic action plan.

Political and regulatory power can cause significant challenges for individuals firms. However, by leveraging common interests with third parties, commercial entities can still often influence governments and regulators effectively.

Open Options has crafted strategic action plans that enable organizations to anticipate and influence government policy and regulatory decisions both in developed and developing countries.

Below is a selected list of some of our success stories, in helping our clients manage their joint corporate and governmental affairs. Please contact us to learn more about our process and review a relevant case study.

• Managing Schedule Pressure and Regulators – “Course Correction” Show more

  A large natural resources company required a series of approvals for a multi-billion dollar project from government and project partners in a short time frame. The government and its regulatory agencies were pushing their preferred local contractors, and the client and its JV partners were not aligned on how to respond.

• Conflicting Legislation – “Foreign Government Challenges” Show more

  The Client, a mining company, was faced with changing and conflicting rules at several levels of government in a developing country. Legal challenges could potentially lead to the closing of the mine. They needed to know what they had to do to keep operating profitably.  The Client was being battered by local, state and federal government organisations, environmental non-government and government organisations, local unions and competitors.

• Civil Unrest – “Under Attack” Show more

  A large oil and gas company was facing challenges to its ability to operate in a politically unstable country due to insurgency and crime that was inadvertently being supported by other foreign firms. The Client wanted to know what actions to take to preserve its assets in this militarized and politically unstable environment.

• Geopolitical Developments – “Enemy in the Ranks” Show more

  A large project managed by a mining company was threatened by international political positioning, as strong neighbors tried to gain influence in a developing country. At the same time, the Client was being undermined by an undisciplined joint venture partner.

• Slow Legislative Change – “Lobbying for Change” Show more

  A large resource company needed a legislative solution to develop a valuable field. The interactions of the politicians were the important drivers for legislative success and the potential actions and interests of individual senators, the state governor, the party leaders and other critical politicians were modeled.

Open Options has experience in the following aspects of corporate and government affairs:

• Political / commercial interactions
• Dealing with foreign governments
• Lobbying
• Zoning
• Government funding
• Corporate alignment between divisions
• HR issues
• Subsidies
• Land acquisition
• Industry associations
• Civil unrest
• Indigenous people’s land claims