John Doorley has a knack for influencing tomorrow's business leaders.
"I always like developing young people," says Doorley, a corporate communications professional-turned-professor/director of New York University's nascent MS in public
relations and corporate communications program. "I was always told I was good at that."
When Doorley decided a career change was in order in 1999 after 12 years of bolstering Merck & Co.'s corporate communications department (during which the company
was named a seven-time "America's Most Admired Corporation"), staking a podium in academia was a no-brainer.
After arriving at NYU in 2001, Doorley became an adjunct professor and was tapped to spearhead its MS in PR and CC curriculum for fall 2005. "With a university like NYU, you
work on a master's degree with a lot of thought and care," he says.
Within a year, Dooley and colleagues picked the brains of focus groups - Pfizer, New York Life, GE - for curriculum objectives to tailor a "very attractive graduate
program." The groups' perennial message: "Bring us graduates who can write!"
Writing well is only half of the core curriculum; practitioner-oriented courses focusing on social academic principles (i.e. history and theory) is the other half. "PR has
history," says Doorley. "We talk about mistakes and failures, so people can learn from these things."
A luminary on reputation management, Doorley credits Merck's aggressive media outreach campaign (meeting with reporters, building relationships, distributing accurate
financial reports and press releases) that was "above reproach" during his tenure. "We took an issues-management approach and faced them in a strategic way," he says. "We really
focused on public relations more than marketing or advertising. PR by its nature is not controlled, and when it's working, it's working much more effectively."
Doorley says companies mistakenly think reputation management is ephemeral and intangible, and should treat it like any other asset. "If a reputation is an asset, shouldn't an
organization set out a formal program to monitor it just like any asset?" he asks. "It should be thought as with great tangible value. If a reputation can be measured, the idea
in an organization is it has to do that. You make sure reputation and liabilities have been identified and prevent liabilities from turning into crisis."
Doorley co-authored the book "Reputation Management: The Key to Successful Corporate and Organizational Communication" that is scheduled for release in October. The book
features chapters written by PR industry leaders. Will this be required course reading? "Oh, indeed," Doorley says, reflexively. "Indeed."
Contact: John Doorley, [email protected].