Jared Chaney
Medical Mutual of Ohio
VP/corporate communications & advertising
[email protected]
2060 East 9th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
Hometown & Early years: San Francisco; Lowell High School; University of Nevada, Reno
First job: Grocery bagger at the commissary in Berlin, Germany
First job in career: Public Affairs Officer, Fort Gordon, Ga.
Hobbies: Basketball and piano and guitar, music, especially Delbert McClinton's
Last book I read: "Be Cool" by Elmore Leonard. (Elmore befriended my brother and I got an advance copy of the book.)
Person who influenced my life the most: My wife.
Your company recently brought all the communications functions (marketing, advertising, media/community/employee relations) under one umbrella. What kind of impact has that had? Enormous. Having a consistent look, feel and message in an industry as competitive as health insurance is essential. In just two years we went from out-sourcing nearly all communications to controlling it all. The impact has been felt as much by employees as customers. It doesn't hurt that we're also saving the company a ton of money.
The biggest challenge in corporate communications today: Overcoming insecurity, starting with the annoying phrase "PR professional," or worse, "seasoned PR professional." What other business has to remind itself that it's a profession? Most people in the PR business say their biggest challenge is getting a seat at management's table. They're going to wait forever to have someone pull that chair out for them. You have to do it yourself, sometimes even when you're not invited.
A career mistake (misstep) I wish I never made, but admittedly learned from: I don't drive looking through the rearview mirror, so I don't spend a lot of time thinking about "what ifs?" But since the question is posed and I'm compelled to answer, I'll say that I should have had a few more employers in my career, and I probably shouldn't have stayed in agencies as long as I did. But it was easy to do, because I had a lot of great accounts and made many friends and contacts that still count today. I didn't make much money, though. But, hey, I'm here now and I dig it the most. So things have a way of working out.