A New Reality: Opportunities for Public Relations

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A New RealityOpportunities for Public Relations

• Karen Breakell, APR
• Progress Energy
• Roy Reid, APR
• Consensus Communications

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What is the New Reality?

• Like no other time in modern history is strong,
  strategic and ethical public relations necessary
  in business and organizational management.
• Build and/or restore trust
• The whole world changed on September 11
• The dot-com bust shook the market
• The corporate scandals of 2002 ripped through the
  markets soul
• Succeed in a 24/7 news and information cycle
• Understand and effectively communicate with
  government
• Create a center for organizational ethics and
  values

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Presentation Overview

• Situation
• Whats happening
• Issues
• What are the results
• Opportunities
• What are the indicators of our future
• Actions
• What do we do

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The Situation

• Broken Trust
• Transcends business to many organizations
• Economic Backlash
• Stock Market - 8 trillion loss in 2 years
• Customer Loyalty - dispersed
• Workforce - mobile
• Social Backlash
• Employment / Contributions and Support -
  skeptical
• Political Backlash laws (Sarbanes / Oxley)
• Legal Backlash liability (communicators)
• Media Coverage
• 1Q 2002 more than terrorism / war
• Public Relations is still earning its way

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Issues

• Greater Total Scrutiny
• Snowball effect in society not limited to
  business
• More Criminalization of Business Wrongdoing
• Sarbanes Oxley / SEC rules
• Overzealous Enforcement
• Fortune Magazine feature on Elliot Spitzer,
  September 2002
• Higher Degree of Activism
• More watchdog groups feeling empowered
• Media Scrutiny
• Investigative
• Move from CEO to Board dominance through
  corporate governance laws
• The celebrity CEO may be a thing of the past
• Workforce Issues
• More volatile environment for employee relations
• Increased Liability
• What is our exposure?

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Opportunities

• CEO Perspective on Communications
• PR Week 2002 Survey
• Increased recognition and reliance on
  communications
• 61 Increased internal communication
• 66 More time on external communications
• 51 More concerned about reputation
• 66 increased appreciation of Corporate
  Communications
• Price Waterhouse Coopers 2002 International CEO
  Survey
• Corporate Social Responsibility is an increasing
  priority
• Defined from the inside / out read findings
• Company valuation non financial indicators

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The Perspective of the CEO

• CEO2CEO Summit
• Leadership Effectiveness Among Uncertainty
  panel looking at the CEO environment following
  September 11, 2001
• Peer-to-peer discussion
• Important Characteristics
• Authenticity
• Communication
• Accessibility
• Team player and leader
• Listening skills
• Holistic people management
• Flexibility

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Opportunities

• Employee Perspective
• SHRM / Council of PR Firms Survey
• Demand for more communication
• How the company may strengthen credibility
• 84 share news
• 78 2-way communications
• 70 meetings
• 72 involvement in decision-making
• 72 surveys

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Opportunities

• Government Perspective
• Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002
• Greater accountability
• Additional Board requirements / Audit Committee
• CEO accountability
• Stronger enforcement
• Additional SEC Rules
• Additional Legislation and Oversight
• Political Capital
• Creating leverage

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Opportunities

• Media Perspective
• Increased Investigative Direction
• Local
• National
• Decreased Role of Industry Analysts
• Access to the 24/7 news and information cycle
  continues to expand
• Empowering more people with information (good or
  bad)

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Opportunities

• The Market Perspective
• Consumers
• Donors
• Investors
• Impact on the indicators
• 8 trillion lost in the stock market
• 75 loss in the NASDQ
• Credibility
• Golin / Harris Trust Survey February 2002
• Of 25 business sectors, 14 were (-25) or less
• Participants recommended twelve actions to build
  trust primarily through improving communication
  efforts

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Opportunities

• Education Perspective
• Our opportunity to better understand the
  technical business issues and the relationship
  matrix between other forces
• Political
• Economic
• Social
• Better integration of Public Relations/Corporate
  Communications into the business schools and
  education
• 93,000 MBAs graduated last year
• Only four percent had any communications classes

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9 Actions

• These actions are
• General and specific actions for practitioners /
  industry
• Crossing all areas of the career spectrum
• Entry-level to senior practitioner
• Strategic and tactical concepts
• Not an exhaustive list, but a starting point

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Action 1

• Become a Trusted Advisor
• The expert for hire moves to a steady
  supplier of service and then becomes a trusted
  advisor.
• Andrew Sobel, Clients for Life
• Trusted advisors do not chose the role, they are
  chosen.
• Irving H. Buchen, The Power of Influence
• Become the independent thinker
• Establish credibility through performance
• Transcend the boundaries of your specialty
• Flexibility to change as the organization demands

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All levels of the career
X Factor
Trusted Advisor
Senior Team
Strategist
Manager
Generalist
Competent Specialist
Tactician
Entry Level
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Action 2

• Focus on the Inside/Out Principle
• Start your plans and efforts with audiences
  closest to the core of your business
• Board
• Employees
• Shareholders
• Stakeholders
• Use this model in all planning

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Action 3

• Advocate and Own Values and Ethics
• The core of trust begins here
• Do not just create the statements and lists, but
  walk the walk
• Darden Restaurants
• Interviewed stakeholders to determine the
  corporate values
• Value Shift

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Action 4

• Create Transparency
• Two-way communication initiatives
• Interpretation of the financial condition
• For investors
• For regulators
• Proactive efforts in communication

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Action 5

• Evolve from Building Relationships to Building
  Trust
• Identify the opportunities to improve the brand
• Build on the transparency concepts
• More open communications
• Honest communications
• Understandable communications

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Action 6

• Crisis Planning and Issues Management
• The environment is more ripe than ever for an
  incident to become a crisis
• Audit your plan - regularly
• Find all internal and external issues
• How do our relationships influence our
  organization / business?

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Public Relations
Spheres of Influence
Education
Government / Regulators
Local Offices
Employees
CLIENT
Business Sections
Neighborhoods
Referrals
Faith Service
Business Associations
Major Community Partnerships
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Action 7

• Build Corporate Responsibility
• Non-Financial Indicators (As stated by Pat
  Jackson)
• Brand Awareness
• Employee Engagement
• Management Connection
• Customer Loyalty
• Community Loyalty
• PWC survey

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Proven Business Concepts

• Balanced scorecard
• Benchmarking
• Continuous Improvement
• Core Competencies
• Customer Relationship Management
• Learning Organization
• Mass Customization
• Mission and Vision Statement
• Reengineering
• Total Quality Management
• Entrepreneur Magazine, May 2002
• 10 Movements Withstanding the Test of Time

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Action 8

• Environmental Scan / Research
• Know the landscape internally and externally
• Research knowing todays issues and tomorrows
  concerns
• Provide information regularly
• Be reliant on data for decision-making

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Action 9

• Become more knowledgeable of your organizations
  / clients business
• Know your role
• Perceived value
• Expected return
• Impact of government and how it works
• Learn the language and culture of the
  organizations leadership
• Understand proven business practices (previous
  slide)
• Become more process oriented

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Public Relations Planning Model
Client Conducted Interviews Compiled Data
Discovery Research
Internal (Staff Interviews)
External (Client Interviews)
Process
Sort, process, analyze data Create report for
marketing planning recommendation
Evaluate
Strategic Planning
Process
Implementation
Messaging / Creative Workplan / Branding /
Marketing Program Development / etc.
Refine Plan
Adoption
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Good Books

• Clients for Life
• Andrew Sobel
• How to Become the CEO
• Jeffrey J. Fox
• Value Shift
• Mary Sharp Pain
• Good to Great
• Jim Collins
• The Tipping Point
• Malcolm Gladwell
• Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt
• Harvey MacKay