A New Model Centered on Corporate Relevance Social Radar – Developed by Ringer Sciences and NPG’s X Labs

We set up X Labs when we started NPG to embrace our view that we will continually create new models and services, provided that they meet what we call the rule of three.
In our rule of three, we have a standard that we will share a new idea with a client, based on their unmet needs and if at least three clients say, “I want that, when will it be available”, then we proceed.
Our next model is closer to meeting the standard for the rule of 30!
We are continually hearing a very clear problem (and opportunity) from C-Suite leaders. Here is how we play back what we hear, in aggregate.
“We are continually being asked what we are doing related to environment, society, and governance (ESG); diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); climate change and a range of other societal issues. There is too much incoming information, every firm says they can “solve” our problem and yet no one is figuring out what actually matters to our employees and key audiences on a global, regional, country and even town/city level by topic”.
In developing our answer, we realized the problem/solution statement is quite simple.
“We (companies) are having difficulty figuring out how we align with our wide variety of audiences worldwide and which topics are of most importance. The result is we need an ability to prioritize which topics are of most importance by audience, so that we can build relevance in the marketplace related to what we offer. And we need to know what is ok to not participate in, since we can’t add more value.”
Our first response has been to develop what we are now calling “Social Radar”. It is a new market-based taxonomy platform using equal parts software and analytics that can figure out what society desires and what a company offers (or can) at any level.
Our data scientists went to work. The first step we took was to build a new Fortune 500 analysis that shows exactly which social issues matter to companies, based on what they publicly feature (and how they feature this content). Our second step was to build an open-source analytics model (algorithm) to weight and prioritize every issue on a global, regional, local, sector, competitor, or town/city level. For example, if we use ESG, we now know the following:
Environment – there are 19 core topics common to companies, but within each sub-topic, it varies. For example, there are 3-4x the mentions of carbon vs. circular economy. There are about 3x the mentions of energy vs. climate.
Social – there are 25 core topics and within this reporting, inclusion is mentioned 10x more than corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Governance – there are 19 core topics. Code of conduct is mentioned over 3x as much as human rights, and nearly 2x as much as data management.

We are neutral about what is reported. Our job is to index what is being shared, since we want to know what companies view as important, then understand what their audiences view as important, and move forward to identify exactly what the top 1-3 priorities are by audience by topic.
Our goal is to cut through a relative blizzard of content to support how answers and solutions are developed for future narratives of companies.
The result is what we would call a “corporate relevance media plan” that shows what is important anywhere in the world for a company. These insights can then guide narratives and campaigns to increase their relevance. We know that when companies go too broad, they end up wasting valuable resources. We want to make it simpler to see how to become more efficient and focused.
The result is what we now call a “Social Radar” that enables a company to continue with their own unique listening platform that cuts the noise out and provides regular updates on what the company’s audience most cares about vs. what the company is delivering and/or stating in the marketplace.
Corporate relevance is a north star that drives much of what we do when building and sharing powerful narratives. What is often overlooked is how to clear out the noise, so we can focus on what matters the most, while we learn how the needs of our audience continue to evolve, so we stay aligned for the long term.
This is why we are jazzed to formally introduce our new Social Radar platform for our clients via Ringer Sciences and X Labs of The Next Practices Group.
Yash Gad, Ph. D Bob Pearson