The most successful corporate-agency relationships are built on principle--six principles of business conduct to be exact--that both the corporation and the agency can agree on
and follow. The principles were developed by Arthur W. Page, the first person in a PR position to serve as an officer and member of the board of directors of a major public
corporation.
Page practiced these principles as a means of implementing his philosophy that companies must operate in the public interest, manage for the long run and make customer
satisfaction a primary goal. The Page principles are:
- Tell the truth
- Prove it with action
- Listen to the customer
- Manage for tomorrow
- Conduct public relations as if the whole company depends on it
- Remain calm, patient and good-natured
At Allstate, I find that the Page principles have a great deal of relevance in everything we do, and are a useful touchstone on how we can best view and maintain our
relationship with our agency of record. They provide a kind of shorthand guide for how to work together and a rulebook for effective public relations and communications. Using
these six principles and acting as a unified force, even the most complex challenges and issues confronting our business become clearer, and we choose to take actions that foster
trust, transparency, credibility and corporate citizenship--all values that the principles support.
In addition to the Page principles, it has been our experience at Allstate that the most successful agencies recognize the inherent strengths of the corporate communications
team, and they have a strong desire to collaborate with -- rather than work apart from -- internal resources. When an agency builds on the strengths of a client's in-house team,
the disparate resources of the two teams can become very powerful. Both agencies and clients can talk partnership, and invest the time and care to actually achieve a true
partnership is harder, but a much better outcome for both.
At Allstate, we look to our agency to provide us with two primary types of help. On occasions, we will need extra hands to implement a program or deal with a crisis, and we
need to be able to rely on the agency to provide added resources. More important, we need the agency to be able to bring us solutions to issues and opportunities that we perhaps
could not achieve on our own. We look to our agency for fresh thinking, strategic counsel, new ideas, creativity, perspective and sound judgment. Together, we can create an agile,
proactive and responsive team that can get things done quickly, efficiently and with outstanding results.
Peter Debreceny is vice president-corporate relations, Allstate Insurance Company. He is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society and the chair of its marketing committee. He can
be reached at 847.402.3111; [email protected]