"A Passion for Winning: Fifty Years of Promoting Legendary
People and Products" by Aaron D. Cushman (Lighthouse Point Press,
2004; $21.95)
This is the perfect book for PR execs to curl up with at night
after a long day: entertaining, informative and funny. Though
retired, Cushman offers a variety of timely lessons, tackling spin,
PR ethics, crisis communications and creativity. Cushman, an Air
Force combat bomber pilot in Europe during War II, started his own
PR firm after returning from active duty. (Aaron D. Cushman and
Associates, now Cushman/Amberg Communications Inc.). He admits in
the very first line of the book that he "knew nothing about PR" and
was angling for a career in advertising when he decided to try his
hand at PR. Readers will be glad by Cushman's decision. He started
in show business, representing some of the biggest stars of
mid-20th century America, including Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis and
the Three Stooges. Anecdotes abound about these relationships. But
PR was not just a laughing matter for Cushman, who, after returning
from a second tour of duty in the Korean War, built up his firm to
represent several Fortune 500 companies, including Century 21,
Marriott Hotels and Motorola. Cushman also worked closely with
Harry Truman and the late Bill Veeck, president of the Chicago
White Sox and one of the all-time great PR minds, who introduced a
midget player (Eddie Gaedel), Bat Day, fireworks, exploding
scoreboards and player names on backs of uniforms. Through all the
ups and down, Cushman has kept a keen sense of humor and, perhaps
more important, a "passion for winning."
"Corporate Conversations: A Guide to Crafting Effective and
Appropriate Internal Communications" by Shel Holtz (Amacom, 2003;
$27.95)
Here's the nitty-gritty on internal communications, the mother
of all challenges for senior corporate communications executives.
Holtz, principal of Holtz Communications Technology, whose clients
have included Bank of America, IBM and Sears, relies on numerous
case studies to demonstrate the best strategies for making sure
everyone in the company is on the same page. He places PR
situations in two fictitious companies: Amalgamated Pulp &
Papers is a "clueless company, making classic mistakes with
deleterious results" while Allied Gate & Fence "has its
communication act together, taking advantage of the fruits of
effective internal communication," Holtz writes. While the
companies are not real, the case studies ascribed to them are.
Holtz, a five-time winner of the International Association of
Business Communicators' Gold Quill award, painstakingly covers the
four major types of corporate communications - human resources,
business-related, legal and informal --and shows readers how to
deliver both positive and negative news openly and sensitively.
"The Leader as Communicator: Strategies and Tactics to Build
Loyalty, Focus Effort, and Spark Creativity" by Robert Mai and Alan
Akerson (Amacom, 2003; $24.95)
In just the last couple of years the advice has been hammered
home to PR execs: If you want to keep your seat at the marble table
you have to learn to speak the CEO's language. And part of the
language is learning to lead. Mai and Akerson, both former vice
presidents at PR powerhouse Fleishman-Hillard, examine the many
communications-based roles needed to be an effective business
leader. The roles include "Trust Builder" (Can you create strong
bonds in an era of layoffs, bankruptcies and ethical lapses?),
"Critic" (Do you have the courage to probe that status quo, and to
ask the necessary questions at the right time?) and "Learning
Advocate" (Can you foster the dialogue that generates continuous
improvement across the organization). Case studies from General
Electric, the U.S. Army and the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team
help to show the leadership skills required to keep your company
rolling. Perhaps most useful for PR pros is an 'Assessment'
chapter, which runs at the end of the book and allows readers to
gauge their leadership skills.