When Kathryn Collins, director of communications research for General Motors, needed to improve her company's internal communications program in 1998, she called some atypical
sources: Her counterparts from 13 internationally-known companies.
Using professional acquaintances as a starting point, Collins invited worldwide players from vertical industries, including telecom, computer and banking. Among them, AT&T,
IBM, Ritz-Carlton, and the Royal Bank of Scotland made their way to Detroit to participate in a two-day benchmarking symposium at GM's headquarters. Attendees schmoozed and gave
informal presentations revealing their own best practices in internal communications.
"Essentially we had people from around the world sit around and talk about the cool stuff that they do," Collins says.
The benefits for attendees weren't temporary: Collins says although it's been nearly three years since the symposium, attendees continue to call each other for advice.
"We made great business contacts," she says. "If I had a question about reputation management, I would have no problem calling up [my contact at] IBM."
And, she adds, symposium attendees now have contact with colleagues overseas who can provide perspective and advice on international issues.
"You're not going to bump into the PR guy from the Royal Bank of Scotland at an association meeting," she says.
That's not to say that professional associations aren't valuable resources for PR professionals. It's just that players like Collins realize the value in a more broad-reaching
approach to networking. Corporate communications folks tend to be a lot more isolated than their compadres on the agency side. For example, agency folks usually have rigorous
personal development programs, and feed off each other for ideas and contacts. Corporate folks often are small cogs in a big wheel, and tend to interact less with others in their
profession.
Plus, you have everything to gain when you bring together players from across non-competing industries - and therefore don't feel obliged to hold back their smartest strategies.
Lessons can be learned in issues like recruiting, technology and crisis control, whether you make computers or run hotels.
Time Is Money
As the pace of business quickens and the responsibilities of PR professionals become increasingly more complex, Edie Fraser knows there's little time to learn the latest buzz.
"The whole discipline of corporate communications is interdisciplinary," says Fraser, president of the Public Affairs Group, a Washington-based communications consultancy.
"We're getting away from old subjects like media relations and getting into areas like change management."
Fraser's firm hosts monthly conference calls that bring together roughly 40 to 50 companies to discuss these new areas. Participants are corporate communication executives who
are also members of the Public Affairs group (memberships cost $10,000 yearly and feature a variety of conferences, seminars, and resources.) Participants offer insight, ask
questions, or listen while contemporaries discuss everything from branding to retaining employees.
Participants are more likely to be forthright and candid about their issues in this closed environment. For many, real-world conferences and association meetings can be hunting
grounds for private agencies looking for new business. To avoid this dynamic, transcripts of Fraser's monthly conference calls are posted in a password-protected area of the Public
Affairs Group's Web site.
"Learning from corporate colleagues is the way to go, especially when you're bypassing consultants," Fraser says.
Associations Still Players in the Networking Game
If grassroots informal networking is the "essence of change," does this mean associations like the PRSA and IABC have become old hat in the eyes of PR professionals? In a word:
No.
Sure, IABC and PRSA may be having financial woes, but those woes aren't a result of decreased membership. In fact, numbers remain steady and IABC President Lou Williams says the
association is keeping step with the cutting-edge topics PR professionals want to discuss. For example, up-coming seminars focus heavily on communications technologies, and the
organization recently spent a million dollars on a Web site that allows members to interact.
"We're keeping to our mission to make our members better equipped in their careers," he says.
PRSA President Catherine Bolton says informal benchmarking is a terrific - albeit temporary - benefit for professionals looking for advice.
"The problem is these small groups meet only once," she says. "Once you do it you realize how much you need to do it again."
She points out that the PRSA has its own informal networking resource for members on its Web site. The "Sections" area invites PR professionals from across 16 industries to talk
shop by setting up conference calls, face-to-face meetings, and Web chats of their own.
"It's unbelievable how these relationships grow," she says. "It's especially helpful to the professionals on the corporate side, who tend to be lone wolves."
(GM: Kathryn Collins, 313/665-3125; Public Affairs Group: Edie Fraser, 202/463-3766; IABC: Lou Williams, 415/544-4706; PRSA: Catherine Bolton 212/460-1400; Delahaye
Medialink: Paine, Martesen, 800/926-0028) If you have expertise in one particular area of business, it can't hurt to offer it to others free of charge - and open
a dialogue in the process. New Hampshire-based communications research and measurement firm Delahaye Medialink hosts monthly conference calls targeted to corporate PR executives on
one topic and one topic only: measurement.
One month it might be measuring effectiveness of your media relations, the next it might be measuring online branding. The calls start with a presentation by President Katie
Paine or other experts in her organization, and then participants swap best practices and ask questions. Past clients even show up to trade war stories: Compaq and Xerox have been
featured guests.
"We initially hoped to get 15 corporations to tune in," says marketing coordinator Jens Martesen, who also organizes the calls. "Now we have up to 100 people showing up at a
time, and the feedback is positive."