Virnell A. Bruce, VP of communications at Lockheed Martin Corporation Space and Strategic Missiles Sector in Bethesda, Md., since 1995, joins the Boeing Company May 26 as VP of communications for government relations. Bruce will go from a one-man (or woman) PR shop to a communications department of eight. Boeing first approached her about making a move last year.
Bruce admits to having the second-best communications job at Lockheed Martin, but she wanted to assume a more strategic - rather than tactical - role in the next decade of her professional life and she felt the Boeing role offered that opportunity. Bruce considers the next decade the "best" in her professional life.
Bruce spoke to PR NEWS last week about the vicissitudes of corporate communications today.
PRN: How did you choose corporate communications?
Bruce:
I'm not sure that I made a conscious decision to choose corporate communications. I was working in the aerospace industry - since 1967 when I was a clerk - and then I decided to go to grad school to get a master's in journalism. Frankly, when I got out of graduate school, I couldn't find a job in journalism which would allow me to repay my school loans. So I hired back on at Ford Aerospace and I was a buyer [for connector/electronic components]. Then eventually I made my way into marketing and I did marketing communications and this was around 1979. I was doing things more suited to my education and my interests and my background. I liked what I was doing and I moved up quickly and got additional training. It just sort of evolved. I've had various responsibilities throughout the years and now I have a good deal of experience in a number of areas, such as media, employee communications and advertising.
PRN: What are some differences you see in corporate communications today vs. when you started out in your career?
Bruce:
Well, I'm not sure if it's changed or I've changed, but I think the whole role of communications, at least in the companies that I've worked for, now plays a greater part in the overall business strategy. And if you're with a good company, I think the communications function works hand-in-glove with every other function. In that sense, the role has become more sophisticated. It has become more integrated into the business of whatever the business is and maybe that's more of marketing communications, which is vitally important to more commercial companies.
PRN: But the fact is that companies still grapple with how they prove the worth of PR. How does the company that you're now with - or even the one you're going to or the aerospace industry at large - prove the worth of PR?
Bruce:
First of all, measurement is very difficult, and I don't have a pat answer for this. But there are ways from basic research, particularly in the employee communications arena. You can research projects through which questionnaires go out to your employees. You can hold focus groups.
I recently conducted (for my sector) a content analysis of the communications tools, written and electronic, to find out what we have. I took every newsletter and every electronic newsletter and looked at the content according to 39 categories. Those were grouped into seven major categories. I could see exactly the percentages of what we cover for our employees. In one case, there was an inordinate amount of administrative information going to employees. While a lot of this information is very important and it's what the employees want, you're using valuable space and the time of the employees when you need to make sure you're conveying the business of the business, as well. In my mind, it was skewed. They are in the process of looking at what they might want to change and revisit the issue in a year.
PRN: How do you see PR in the aerospace industry as different from other industries?
Bruce:
I think in some areas it's the same, especially in employee communications and community relations. On the media side, it's quite a bit different because a lot of the information we deal with concerning our customers is public information. That includes costs and a lot of things which aren't public in the commercial sector. We deal very closely with our government counterparts on government contracts. The value of a contract, the value of a satellite - it's all very open, so a lot of reporters are looking in terms of the value added to the taxpayer, too. We've experienced that kind of scrutiny with our recent launch failures, for instance.
PRN: Why do you think you moved up quickly - what was the proficiency you displayed?
Bruce:
A lot of it was attitude and willingness to work hard. I worked with an awful lot of good people and I've learned a lot, so that's helped me see the good capabilities and points in people. I try to emulate that. Another important element is to develop good judgment.
(Bruce, 301/897-6982)