A Conversation with Chip Felkel, President of The Felkel Group

By Alan Cooper
March 5, 2014

 

UpstateBizSC:
Where were you born and raised?

Chip Felkel:
I was raised in the small town of Kingstree, South Carolina.  I graduated in 1986 from the University of South Carolina with a degree in political science.  I planned on attending law school; but I married an attorney instead.  

I did a lot of campaign work during my first six years after graduation. Right out of college, I had a chance to work in the Campbell for South Carolina Governor campaign, and that is where I first met Lee Atwater. After Governor Campbell’s election in the fall of 1987, Atwater went on to become Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC).  I learned a lot from him.  

I also worked on the 1988 Bush-Quayle Campaign, the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney Presidential campaigns and a number of state and local races.

UpstateBizSC:
Were you always interested in politics and public policy?

Chip Felkel:
Yes, I have had this bug for a long time. I was the kind of kid that always tried to engage my friends’ parents in political debate.

I started out in college intending on majoring in journalism.  During my early years at Carolina I had the privilege of studying under two great political science professors at the University of South Carolina, Don Fowler and Ray Moore. They influenced my decision to major in the political sciences.

Between 1992 and August of 1998, I got out of the campaign business and became an investment advisor.  During that time, I married and moved to Greenville.  I did pretty well as an investment advisor.  Though I did read the research reports on companies, most of my investment decisions were based on politics.  A company can have a great product, but if they can’t get a bill passed, they may not have a market.  My heart was always in public affairs.  So, 15 years ago, I started The Felkel Group.

UpstateBizSC:
What is The Felkel Group?

Chip Felkel:
We perform critical, strategic activities related to crisis management, issues management, advocacy, political strategy, public affairs, economic development, and reputation management for our clients.  The easiest way for a layman to understand what we do is – the communication and the messaging on public policy issues.  We don’t do lobbying.

We work for companies, large and small, on issues that need to be brought to public awareness and to the policy-makers either in federal delegation or at the state level.  We represent national, regional and South Carolina organizations, associations and corporations. One example of an issue that we have been involved in is whether pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) should be prescription or not. Another is our lead role in the Don’t Dump on SC Campaign, where we developed the media and messaging on stopping an influx of out-of-state trash.   

Initially, our roots were in political campaign work, but eventually, as was part of our business plan, The Felkel Group moved into doing more issue-based campaigns and consulting for a variety of clients and helping large corporations softly land in South Carolina

My focus has been devoted to what we believe is good public policy in South Carolina and this nation, finding ways for people to work together for a greater good. That means finding a common ground on sometimes controversial issues.

UpstateBizSC:
What are the top trends in public policy and political campaigning right now?

Chip Felkel:
Digital and social media are obviously big trends in all campaigns right now– they have taken on a huge role in effective campaigning.  Remarkably, the presidential campaigns that I worked on in 1988, and even 2000 for that matter, both pre-date the major technological advances of today.  It used to be that the most import thing for a campaign to worry about was their daily message.  Now, because of technology and the Internet, campaigns have to be more reactive and manage multiple messages every day.  

Technology is great and important, but the most important thing in politics, and in life in general, for that matter, is relationships. I don’t disagree that number of Twitter followers, the number of Facebook friends, and the number of people that you are LinkedIn with are becoming increasingly important.  But just because you are LinkedIn with someone doesn’t mean you actually know him or her.  Personal connection with someone that you trust – that is what is most important.  At the end of the day it all comes to relationships.  

That is really what led us to develop the RAP Index.

UpstateBizSC:
What is the RAP Index?

Chip Felkel:
The RAP Index is our proprietary advocacy solution that qualitatively and quantitatively identifies the best, most credible messengers for a particular policy-maker.

The RAP Index is SaaS software that we have developed that enables entities to find potentially valuable relationships that they might not know exist.  It may be with a Member of Congress, a councilwoman, a county councilman, or a U.S. Senator.  It may be a result of having gone to college with them, or you are their wife’s first cousin, or the congressman was your son’s football coach, or you have sat with the Senator at church for the past 20 years.  We strongly believe that it is precisely those relationships that get your phone calls returned.  The RAP Index identifies those relationships and allows an organization to put its best foot forward in terms of messaging their issue.  

From our own experience, sending out an email blast to your stakeholders and saying, Click here and we will send a letter to your congressman, is not particularly effective. Most of those letters end up in the garbage or the trash bin of your computer.  The RAP Index offers organizations the opportunity to shift advocacy from a grassroots 50,000 letters approach to one that is influencer-based, otherwise known as a grasstops approach.  It’s a much more credible and impactful approach.

The RAP Index can identify not only people who are willing to be advocates, but also ones who might be willing to give money to political action committees (PACs).  It makes advocacy more efficient and effective. One of nine of us within society is an influencer — the RAP Index is all about identifying influencers.

UpstateBizSC:
Is that grasstops—and what does that mean?

Chip Felkel:
Grasstops has traditionally been defined as top-level influencers such as a Mayor, a Congressman, a CEO running a company with 2,000 employees etc.  We maintain that there are also many other very well connected, respected, and engaged people within an organization who can make a huge impact.  

UpstateBizSC:
Who are your clients?

Chip Felkel:
We work with some of the top companies in the Fortune 500—from retail and healthcare to transportation and manufacturing. We also work with some of the largest and best associations, universities and non-profits in the country.

UpstateBizSC:
What does RAP stand for?

Chip Felkel:
R is for Relationships – who you know, how long you have known them etc.;  A stands for Advocability – your willingness and ability to be an advocate; and P is for Political Capital – your sphere of influence including involvement in Chambers, Rotary, trade associations, Boards etc.  Those three areas all get scored to come up with a number, an index that rates your degree of credibility as an influencer.   

UpstateBizSC:
Who will use the RAP Index software?

Chip Felkel:
Every Fortune 500 Company is affected in one way or another by public policy. There are about 40,000 associations and  groups in the country that are engaged in advocacy and who could benefit from utilizing the RAP Index. We know the market is huge.  Long-term, we think there is a huge opportunity for us not just in the United States but also across the globe.  We are already receiving interest from overseas companies.

UpstateBizSC:
What is your involvement with the University of South Carolina?

Chip Felkel:
I am the Chair Elect for the Board of Advisors, the advisory council to the Board of Trustees.

UpstateBizSC:
How many employees do you have?

Chip Felkel:
We have about 10 employees and consultants, and we are looking to expand.  We also have a network of people that we engage for projects in all 50 states.

UpstateBizSC:
What is the best takeaway from working on political campaigns?

Chip Felkel:
No matter your politics, it’s a great experience working in campaign politics. Young and old, rich and poor, volunteers, staffers, famous people, people involved in logistics and secret service agents. It teaches you to work with all shapes and sizes of people.  It was great training for me in growing these companies.