PR in the Boardroom
Today, as recent news coverage has confirmed, we communications professionals find ourselves not merely in the trenches, but in the boardroom acting as valuable strategic counsel to corporate leadership. While our industry will continue to provide clients with the tactical help they need to execute communications programs, a real opportunity exists to add value by advising C-level clients as they struggle to handle critically important and wide-ranging strategic issues.
A number of factors are prompting corporate leaders to look to public relations firms, for counsel. These include:
- Public expectations of a dialogue: It used to be that companies could talk and stakeholders would listen. Now, largely because of the Internet, audiences expect to exist in a dialogue with individual firms. Being smart about conducting a dialogue is not something many business managers are broadly trained in, and yet it represents a major ingredient in corporate strategy today.
- Transparency: With trust in business still hovering at low levels, real organizational privacy no longer exists. Modern companies assume that nothing is going to stay private forever, and so they’re seeking counsel about how to manage flows of information past the firm’s borders. Transparency and ethics are no longer just a nice thing to do—they’re good business!
- Global Vision: With the US economy facing uncertain prospects, many companies are looking to developing markets for growth. Even if they have great brands in Western countries, they need boots on the ground to build local cachet. Above all, they need people with in-depth knowledge of local markets, consumer preferences, government practices and policies in order to form strategy well.
- Emphasis on Reputation and Brand-building: With the cult of personality around CEOs largely a thing of the past, global companies are focused on building long-term equity around their brands. In addition, companies understand that in today’s “reputation economy,” the “return on reputation” is reflected in their organization’s bottom line business results.
- Entrance of New Global Players: Non-Western companies from places like India, China, and Russia are pushing aside Western firms as leading global players. Because these companies have limited global experience, they’re in even more need of strategic counsel.
- A new Era of Regulation: The financial crisis of 2007 has ushered in a new era of government regulation. Companies in many industries are paying much attention seeking and obtaining “permission to operate” from governments, a challenge that requires expert knowledge and advice.
For all these reasons, companies today want help seeing around the corners and understanding markets better. They want local knowledge and insight that goes beyond what they can get from management consulting or operational business assessments of markets, and they want non-tangible assessments of things like political risk and reputational strategy in a market. Communications has thus become an umbrella concern that cuts across the management disciplines. We’re well equipped to provide counsel because we’ve been engaged all along with stakeholders, and because we’re trained to listen, anticipate, and engage.
If we want to move beyond increasingly commoditized tactical work and become full-fledged strategic partners, we need to be able to walk the talk. That means having people on staff with deep experience necessary to offer counsel. It also means aiming high and selling ourselves in with confidence. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Nobody makes you feel inferior without your own consent.” We should heed those words, feeling confident that when top executives in a global client firm see what we have to offer, they’ll be impressed.
To expand into more strategic roles, Public Relations firms should begin with the basics. Know your clients’ business. Build trusted relationships with internal advocates. And choose clients specifically to match your own strengths and weaknesses. Above all, embrace change. We can add strategic value, but only if we ourselves are ahead of the curve. Let’s put aside our traditional disciplinary boundaries and focus on understanding and delivering what will really add value.
- In: C-suite, Reputation, Transparency
This is an outstanding blog, Margery. I agree with each and every word. That said, the challenge lies in finding those internal advocates you mention. Far too many still maintain an arm’s length from their external counselors. Others perceive us as threats to their positions. Others still are content to wait for the next generation of internal advocates to gain a seat at the table. Firms such as APCO are changing the landscape, but I believe it’s incumbent upon the Council to help better educate internal advocates. We’ll all gain when PR finally does earn a seat at the table at most, if not all, major organizations.
I agree fully, and it’s a timely topic because I was just wondering recently how many corporate and nonprofit boards include board members with an education, accreditation, and/or experience in PR vs other functional expertise, such as finance. I suspect very few boards recruit PR professionals (or educators), but I don’t have any numbers on that. Do you or does the Council?
From entry-level staff to board of directors, everyone needs to know the importance of reputation and branding. Once a person realizes the long-term “return on reputation,” he or she will invest in brand-building today. Great article. Thank you!
One of the ironies is that many PR people (and firms) are seen as communicators — the term implies taking information and doing something with it. What this post contemplates (and I wholeheartedly support) is more the role of reputation counselor. In some respects, to be identified as a communicator is to be identified as a tactician by executive management and boards.
Thanks for the response to this blog. i will try to address some of the things that have been raised:
1. Steve Cody: I appreciate your comments and i think the trick is to offer ideas that make our internal client advocates be smart. This involves some investment but it also involves a deep knowledge and appreciation for what the client’s bosses face in their industry and the marketplace. Coming with ideas and information that don’t require charging for additional services (for the moment) but add value can make a big difference.
A good example of this is a recent client who was moving into the solar energy space with great commitment. We provided some ideas about how an investment tax credit could help them finance their longer term effort. They hadn’t really considered that and it turned out to be a very successful idea.
2. To Tim Penning, i would say that i don’t know the answer to how many PR professionals are Board members for major corporations. I proudly serve on the Board of trustees of Northwestern Mutual and know of only a couple of other people who serve. We should be promoting the value of this kind of expertise and it is something i will take to the Council.
3. Regarding the other posts on reputation, i do see the head of communications as the chief integrity officer as well. I think it speaks well of the profession if we can be the ones to remind ourselves and our clients of living by our core values and, in this age of transparency, seeing this as the only way to do business.
Thank you Margery for an absolutely excellent and timely article. I think that this sets an example for all PR practitioners who wish to “earn” a place in the C suite. I would like to add that corporations should also take note — those who seek out PR counselors for their vision and strategic thinking, yet put up barriers and resistance to change. Once in the “C suite,” corporations have to understand that trust is the kingpin to moving forward and allowing PR counselors the freedom to do what they were sought out to do in the first place — be visionaries for, and caretakers of, corporate reputations.
Thanks for touching this important aspect of global community. Things are moving very fast. In the new world like India, China, etc., many new bold corporate leaders are gradually emerging for whom sky is the limit. But public relations professionals would do better first to study the social and cultural mind-set of these corporate leaders before you can demonstrate your utility. Well written. Congrats.
Well said, Mr Bhardwaj. I would refer P.R. professionals to Geert Hofstede’s famous research on cultural dimensions in business.
http://www.geert-hofstede.com/