They are almost age-old questions: How can PR provide the most value to an organization, and how can it become an important, strategic voice within the C-suite?
Answers to those questions run the gamut. Certainly better measurement standards and techniques can help prove value and ROI, but it’s clear that organizational structure and educational issues also play a part in preventing PR’s full access to the strategic decision-making process.
To explore the topic more fully, PR News recently asked members of its Advisory Board to participate in a roundtable discussion on C-suite access and influence, the effects of the economy on PR’s ability to provide value and more.
The PR News Advisory Board roundtable participants are:
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| Deborah Radman, Senior PR Consultant |
â–¶ Deborah Radman, senior PR consultant. Radman brings 30 years of experience in senior executive communications counseling, reputation management and marketing to the table. Over her career, she has worked with companies such as AT&T, General Foods, IBM, Coors and Ford Motor Company.
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| Mike Herman, Communication Sciences |
â–¶ Michael Herman, founder and CEO of Communication Sciences International (CSI). Herman has 40 years of experience in national and international management consulting, business development, research planning and implementation, crisis management, organizational communication and development, change management, PR and integrated communication/marketing.
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| Brenda C. Siler, Best Communications |
â–¶ Brenda Siler, founder, Best Communications Strategies. Siler specializes in nonprofit/association communications management, change communications, media relations and career management. Prior to launching her own communications consulting firm, Siler was VP, communications and marketing, at Independent Sector, a leadership forum for charities, foundations and corporate giving programs.
PR News: First of all, how has the economic situation affected PR executives and their ability to prove value within an organization?
Brenda Siler: From what I’ve observed from being out there consulting for the past six months, there’s been severe PR budget constraints that have resulted in the merging of PR positions.
Deborah Radman: The environment is unsettled, and we only have a few people in PR who get seat at the table and consistently play a role in influencing decisions. But even they are not at the center of discussion day in and day out, because upper management are combining resources to get more for less. In addition, many in upper management still consider PR to be a tactical bolt-on to other activities.
PR News: So it’s not just the bad economy that’s preventing PR from taking a more active role in the C-suite?
Radman: It makes me crazy, but I don’t know how you get the industry to talk about value and trust and the case for PR, and why this is important to have it be a position of its own in the C-suite. We’ve made progress, we just haven’t made enough.
Siler: Sometimes I call it the “faux feet at the table”—you get a job as a PR executive and are sold a bill of goods, and in the first month of job you realize it’s all about tactical. They want you to crank out product, and not spend any time on the strategy.
Radman: And then we get criticized roundly for not being strategic. I’ve been in an ad agency world for some time now, and we talk about the integration of messaging and business strategy—providing ideas that are going to transform business policies, but try to get into one of those meetings where there is a cross-functional planning activities, and you hear a lot of “we’ll call you if we need you.”
Michael Herman: I believe we’ve put ourselves in this position over the past 10 to 15 years by selling ourselves as a message delivery service, and every corporate communications department I’ve worked with has been created and exists for message delivery. And that’s because of our self-perception more than anything. We are trained to be communicators, but we’ve not trained ourselves to be businesspeople. There’s a dearth of PR people out there who can talk knowledgeably about the value chain of the organization and ROI, and how PR can build relationships—not just with the media, but within all business functions.
Radman: And CMOs understand that value chain. They are constantly under the gun for delivering more efficient processes and products at better prices, promoting them effectively and being more competitive. Unfortunately, part of the problem with that position is that tenure is, on average, about 18 months, because results aren’t being achieved in short windows of time. I believe that’s because they are not looking at the process that shapes an organization’s reputation.
It’s all about branding, branding and more branding, and in some cases I’ve seen branding used interchangeably with reputation. The whole notion of the value of our reputation asset has been hijacked by the marketing world, even though they are starting to increase the spend given the PR process. So while, Mike, what you say is right, I think there is also some real resistance in marketing discipline to acknowledge that PR has value. There’s even a disdain for it in some respects.
Siler: When it comes to a down economy in which everything is being cut, the C-suite looks at what returns the most to that investment that they’ve made, and we haven’t made the case for us being a part of creating those relationships, not with the media, but with suppliers, government agencies and with the public that makes a difference to the organization, whether investors or others.
PR News: If PR professionals are not up to speed on the business aspect, what can be done in terms of education?
Herman: For the past year and a half, I’ve been working with universities trying to figure out what is not being done in PR schools and PR department and training centers. One of the things I’ve discovered is cross-pollination between business schools and schools of PR just doesn’t exist for the most part.
People who are just coming into PR have no understanding of how business works and how various functions have to work together. Those that have it got it before they came into PR, or got it themselves after they came into PR, and not as part of a formal education.
PR News: What should PR executives be thinking about in the coming months in terms of providing value?
Siler: Concentrate on understanding the business part of your organization. The economy has forced companies to change the way they operate. Therefore we need to be there at the table as those discussions are taking place to figure out where PR can provide value to help the business survive. In the past we’ve been caught short because we haven’t been privy to major changes.
Herman: Perception becomes reality. We’ve struggled because of the way we’ve perceived ourselves. We now need to think of ourselves as change managers. It’s what we do in creating relationships. The only way you can become one is to start thinking of yourself as one, and sell and educate management on your ability to create meaningful change.
CONTACT:
Brenda Siler, [email protected]; Deborah Radman, [email protected]; Michael Herman, [email protected].
Pay attention business leaders, not only is business acumen the key to unlocking the boardroom door, it is also the key to putting all of your leadership skills in the context of making money.