The old saw "The more things change, the more they stay the same" does not apply to Roger Bolton, the new president of the prestigious Arthur W. Page Society. Bolton,
the senior vice president of communications at Aetna in Hartford, CT, was elevated from Society treasurer to president this month and is already setting an aggressive and
imaginative agenda which he hopes will have positive effects on both his organization and the state of corporate public relations. PR News met with Bolton to discuss his
plans.
QUESTION: What possible changes can we expect from your leadership at the Arthur W. Page Society for the coming year?
Roger Bolton: We felt our basic mission and vision was correct, but we refined our goals. These are not radically different from the goals we had before. The first
goal is to provide multiple opportunities through forums, publications and the Page Society Web site for members to receive timely knowledge about issues that affect their role as
decision makers within their organizations. The second goal is to strengthen application and understanding of the Page Principles. The third goal is basically new: To enhance
the Society's role as a thought leader by using all appropriate channels to explain to senior corporate leadership, corporate board of directors, and other key stakeholders the
strategic role of the chief corporate public relations officer in helping the organization succeed, by operating in the public interest consistent with the Page Principles.
QUESTION: Is it rude to suggest that corporate leadership, on the whole, is still somewhat clueless as to what their PR people are doing?
Roger Bolton: Yes and no. There are clearly a lot of companies that really get it and the chief public relations officer is, indeed, as we envision in our mission, in
a central sort of management role and viewed by the CEO and other C-Suite executives as being part of the critical senior management team who brings special expertise to the table
- and is viewed as being indispensable to the operation of the business. Quite frankly, in many other companies, that is not the case. Whereas almost universally the CFO, the
general counsel and even in most cases the head of HR are seen as critical senior executives, there are some companies where the chief public relations officer is not seen that
way. We're envisioning an opportunity here to get CEOs and other C-Suite executives and Boards of Directors to have a broader understanding of the appropriate role of the chief
public relations officer. One of the things we might explore includes the factors that determine whether a company has the appropriate view or not. Is it industry dependent or
are there other factors that influence that?
QUESTION: You stated earlier that one of your goals is to enhance the Society's role as "a thought leader." What does it mean to be "a thought leader"?
Roger Bolton: I have to say: We don't know yet. One of the things I am preparing to discuss with the Board is how we can do that. We might, in fact, create cooperative
programs with organizations that represent CEOs or CFOs or other C-Suite executives. We might create programs or speak at their events. We might appear in publications that are
read by them, such as Chief Executive or CFO Magazine.
QUESTION: A lot of CEOs might be rather leery about getting too much in the way of media attention - CEOs from Kenneth Lay to Donald Trump who basked in the spotlight often
got burned, in one way or the other. What argument can you make to those CEOs who would prefer not to have such a proactive corporate communications campaign?
Roger Bolton: That's a great question, because you run into it all of the time. Corporate leaders don't always understand the role of the public clearly. They
understand the role of the shareholder and they understand the need for good financials. They don't always have as good an understanding of what Arthur Page referred to as the
need to operate in the public interest. That's why I think the Page Principles are so valuable here, because they illuminate the importance of operating in the public interest.
Public relations professionals bring to the corporate suite this idea that we have a responsibility not necessarily to do everything that any public interest group says we should
do, but to be open to the concerns of all of the constituencies, whether it is shareholders or employees or customers, but also public constituencies. And the press plays a clear
role in helping those constituencies understand the corporation's thinking, even if they don't always agree with them, and helping the corporation the thinking of the various
interest groups.
Contact: Roger Bolton: [email protected].