For the last several years, it's been the clarion call among some of the PR profession's most seasoned executives, including Tom Hoog, chairman of Hill & Knowlton
USA: Corporate America needs to embrace the idea of the chief communications officer and elevate PR managers and directors (who are worth their salt) to the C-suite so as to
better integrate marketing communications (see PR News, Sept. 28). For the most part, though, the calls continue to fall on deaf ears, with very few companies heeding the
advice.
Not so for Carlson Companies, a major player in the marketing, business, leisure-travel and hospitality industries that had sales (including franchises) of $26 billion
last year. The Minneapolis-based holding company, whose brands include Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Regent International Hotels, Park Inn Hotels and
T.G.I. Friday's, among many others, last week named Kim Olson the firm's first chief communications officer (CCO) ever.
"I'm heartened by the fact the board sees that PR should be at the C-level," says Olson, who is now finishing her gig as the director of brand public relations at General
Mills before moving on to Carlson Companies. (Doug Cody, vp/executive communications, will stay on board and will continue to work closely with Carlson Chair-CEO Marilyn
Carlson Nelson.)
Olson, a member of the Public Relations Society of America's Counselors Academy, says it's too early to tell what her priorities will be. However, she does say she'll
initially audit the firm's current communications and then huddle with all of the PR managers from the group's various brands. Asked why so few companies have a CCO, Olson says
it's because the vast majority of CEOs come out of B-schools - and most senior PR execs do not - and the communications function is not embedded in CEOs' "DNA."
But that's no excuse. "The PR profession needs to educate [decision-makers] about why it's important to have a CCO and the perils of not having one," Olson says.