GHOST in Action — and Where Public Affairs Teams Often Go Wrong

Internal Side of Public Affairs 66

By Alan Hardacre, PhD

Co-Founder Advocacy Academy, Advocacy Strategy

To make GHOST practical and more real it helps to walk through a single example end-to-end and show how the framework works when done well — and where it most often breaks down. Let’s take a commercially critical issue that should be familiar to many right now.

Our example

A government in Country X is preparing legislation that would significantly restrict the use of a core input critical to your company’s flagship product. If adopted as currently drafted, the regulation would:

• delay product launches

• increase compliance costs

• reduce competitiveness versus non-EU / non-local players

Working with your organisation you estimate an impact range of €120–150m revenue risk over 5 years. This is clearly material for short-term commercials and longer-term strategy. Here you have a real chance to showcase your alignment to the organisation and raise your visibility as a commercially relevant function.

G — Goal (Organisational, Long-Term)

A Good Goal

Secure and/or mitigate a regulatory outcome in Country X that allows the continued commercial sale and scaling of [Product], protecting €120–150m in forecast revenue over the next five years.

Why this works

• Commercially explicit

• Outcome-focused

• Stable over time

• Immediately understandable to leadership

This is what the organisation expects to be updated on. If a CFO cannot tell you why this Goal matters in 10 seconds, it is not a Goal yet.

Common Goal Mistakes

• Maintain a constructive dialogue with policymakers.

→ This is an activity, not an outcome.

• Influence the policy debate on sustainability

→ Too vague. No business consequence.

• Ensure proportionate regulation / Shape the policy environment

→ Proportionate to what? For whom? Shape what exactly?

O — Objectives (Organisational, 12-Month Outcomes)

Good Objectives

Objective 1

By Q4, secure an exemption for [Product/use case] in the draft legislation allowing continued market access.

Objective 2

Ensure any transitional measures provide a minimum 36-month implementation period to avoid supply disruption.

Why these works

• Time-bound

• Outcome-focused

• Clearly linked to the Goal

• Internally reportable

• The two work well together – one almost as a fallback to the other – which also helps manage expectations from the get go

These are what leadership should track quarterly. If your Objective can be achieved even if the legislation gets worse, it’s not an Objective. You need to think about this one!

Common Objective Mistakes

• Engage key ministries and regulators

→ That’s a tactic.

• Raise awareness of our concerns

→ Awareness is not an outcome.

• Influence the legislative process

→ Says nothing about how success is defined.

S — Strategy (PA-Owned, Not Leadership-Facing)

Now we move into Public Affairs team and function territory. Strategy defines how the Objectives will be pursued — not what will be done.

Good Strategies

Strategy 1: Coalition Strategy

Build a cross-sector coalition to reframe the issue as a competitiveness and supply-chain risk, not a single-company concern.

Strategy 2: Technical Credibility Strategy

Position the company as a trusted technical resource to regulators by providing data on real-world impacts and alternatives.

Strategy 3: Political Sequencing Strategy

Focus early engagement on the implementing ministry and technical agencies before parliamentary positions harden.

These strategies guide decision-making internally. If you remove the tactics and nothing meaningful remains, you don’t have a strategy.

Common Strategy Mistakes

• Listing tactics as strategy

→ Meet policymakers, publish a paper, run an event.

• Having too many strategies

→ Everything becomes “strategic”, nothing is prioritized.

• Strategy written for external audiences

→ Strategy is for internal discipline, not PR.

T — Tactics (PA Execution Layer)

Tactics are the actions that deliver the strategy.

Good Tactics (Examples)

• Commission an independent economic impact study

• Coordinate joint industry letters to the ministry

• Hold targeted technical workshops with regulators

• Deploy senior executive meetings at predefined legislative moments

• Use trade associations selectively to broaden reach

• These are flexible and adjustable. You should adjust them on an ongoing basis as things develop (and opportunities arise). Tactics are flexible. If tactics are interchangeable, unsequenced, and justified by habit rather than intent, you don’t have a strategy — you have motion without direction.

Common Tactic Mistakes

• Activity overload

→ Too many meetings, too little impact.

• Tactics driving strategy

→ “We have an event planned, so let’s build a strategy around it.”

• Reporting tactics instead of outcomes

→ Leadership hears what you did, not what changed.

• You focus your tactics on quantity not outcomes

→ You had 10 meetings and published three position papers – with no reference to any outcome

H — How (Ways of Working)

This is the glue that holds everything together. It is also the machine that keeps everything moving in the right direct, at the right time and at the right speed.

Good “How”

• Clear internal ownership of the issue

• Regular Objective-based reporting (not activity lists)

• Agreed escalation points when objectives are at risk

• Alignment with Legal, Commercial, and Comms

• Clear guidance and cascade to markets on what is fixed (G/O) and flexible (S/T)

Common “How” Failures

• No clear internal decision-making

• Markets running their own parallel strategies

• Leadership surprised by outcomes

• PA blamed for results it was never empowered to deliver

The Most Common GHOST Failure (The Big One)

The single biggest mistake I see is reporting Strategy and Tactics to leadership instead of Goals and Objectives. This leads to:

• Confusion on what you are contributing to the organisation

• Micromanagement as discussion centers on tactics

• loss of credibility because you are missing organisational context

• a sense of reactive Public Affairs

Leadership does not need a list of meetings. They need clarity on:

• Are we protecting revenue or not?

• Are objectives still achievable?

• What has changed in the risk profile?

Final Reflection

When GHOST is done properly:

• Goals and Objectives anchor expectations and create a shared platform with your organisation

• Strategies guide judgment

• Tactics stay flexible

• Public Affairs earns trust

When it is done badly, Public Affairs becomes busy, reactive, and internally misunderstood — even when the external work is strong. That difference is rarely about capability. It is almost always about structure.