Question: Do you think the CEOs of the nation's major corporations are genuinely concerned with how the public perceives their executive compensation packages?
ANSWER: This won't win us many friends in the C-suite, but the truth is they are concerned to the point of being a little too defensive. That may explain the
release of a new study conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting on behalf of the Business Roundtable, an association of 160 CEOs.
The most interesting aspect of the report, from a PR perspective, had nothing to do with the financial figures (which claimed CEO salaries and bonuses from 1995 to 2005 grew
more slowly than corporate revenue and net income). Instead, the report turned fairly hostile in considering media coverage of the subject.
The press release announcing the survey used words such as "inaccurately" and "unfairly" to describe media coverage of executive compensation. John J. Castellani, president of
the Business Roundtable, was quoted in the press release as saying: "Misleading reports that large numbers of CEOs make hundreds of millions of dollars every year are simply
untrue."
Adding to the bash-the-media tactic was Fred Cook, author of the new report and founding director of Frederick W. Cook & Co. The press release quoted Cook's recent
testimony to the House Financial Services Committee as such: "The media has been flooded with a multitude of distorted, misleading and oftentimes erroneous statistics to
portray U.S. CEOs and board governance in a negative light. The purpose of business reporting should be to inform, not inflame, public opinion."
Actually, corporate America isn't the only sector making a public issue of executive compensation. Over on the nonprofit side, the American Society of Association
Executives and The Center for Association Leadership issued their own report on what CEOs at the nation's professional associations and philanthropic organizations are
being paid. That survey found the median total compensation for CEOs with staffs numbering more than 100 earning $362,000, while those with staffs of 10 or less received a median
of $103,000.
The survey also found male CEOs brought home more bacon. The median total compensation for male CEOs in this sector is $160,000 while female CEOs registered at $106,000.
Paging Gloria Steineim?
Recycling Ethics Reports
Question: We were just cleaning the office and we found a whole pile of old internal ethics and compliance surveys. They served their purpose for our internal
communications needs, but it seems like a waste to throw them out. Would anyone be interested in them? ANSWER: As luck would have, the Ethics Resource Center in
Washington, DC, recently put out a call for companies to contribute the data accumulated from their internal ethics and compliance surveys. Under the new "Donate Your Data"
program, this information would be used to further the ERC's research and benchmarking efforts.
All donations are handled with full confidentiality agreements, so no information will leak out to the public or to competitors. And there's even something for the folks in
accounting in this deal: The data donations are considered tax-deductible.
DHS Doozies
Question: Here's a crisis communications question: Should I be worried that my company or special event is going to be targeted for a terrorist attack? ANSWER:
The Department of Homeland Security might be doing the worrying for you, and then some. The federal agency made public its National Asset Database on July 11 and
immediately earned a wave of harsh press coverage as reporters began to review the 77,069 entries in the database. While major and significant landmarks and events across the
U.S. were listed, most of the media attention fell on targets that al-Qaeda probably never considered.
Among the events, organizations and companies getting a DHS red flag were Old MacDonald's Petting Zoo in Woodville, AL, the Frontier Fun Park in Fairbury, NE,
the Mule Day Parade in Colombia, TN, the Apple and Pork Festival in Clinton, IL, and Amish Country Popcorn in Berne, IN. Furthermore, 718 mortuaries and 163
water parks were cited as being possible terror targets.
Needless to say, the announcement created a PR mishap for the DHS, and agency spokespersons sought to share the blame by insisting the state governments gave them wonky
information - Indiana, for example, offered twice as many potential terror targets for the database than New York and California.
PR, Vatican-Style
Question: Who is the most powerful public affairs officer in the world? ANSWER: Apologies to Tony Snow, but our vote goes to the Rev. Federico Lombardi, who was
appointed papal spokesman by Pope Benedict XVI on July 11. A member of the Jesuit order, Rev. Lombardi gets our nod because he is the first man to single-handedly manage all
Vatican media operations: He is also the head of Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Center.
Not unlike many PR professionals, Rev. Lombardi began his media industry career as a journalist - in his case, for Civita Cattolica, one of Italy's oldest publications,
where he served as editor and later as deputy director.
Rev. Lombardi replaces the retiring Joaquin Navarro-Valls, a Spanish journalist who was appointed by Pope John Paul II as the Vatican spokesman in 1984 (hey, 22 years as a
public affairs officer is an uncommonly good tenure).