Neal Cohen, winner of PR News' Public Affairs Executive of the Year Award, may be among the cream of the crop in the PR field, but he draws his inspiration from a
seemingly unrelated professional: the jazz pianist. It may sound like a non sequitur, but he highlights the uncanny parallels between the two creative processes.
"When you manage people, you have to be willing to improvise. You have to enable people to move outside of their structure so that they can be creative and empower
themselves," Cohen says. "You give them a structure like a song, and then you allow them to move within it. I've always thought that jazz was a very good tool to learn by so
that you can go with the flow."
The need to go with the flow in PR today is more present than ever, and Cohen's philosophy behind doing so has been a successful one. It's been an uphill battle for an
industry plagued by issues of integrity and that dirty four-letter 's' word - spin - but Cohen strikes a chord with his peers in the way he communicates his message as CEO/North
America at APCO Worldwide with clients like the American Tort Reform Association:
"You want to communicate based on something that is authentic and honest," he says. "That should not be about spinning. That should be about communicating in a way that can
be understood."
Contact: Neal Cohen, 202.778.1000