Posted on Seasoned Posts

Journalists support role of PR

The global automotive industry, and particularly the Big 3 US car companies, have been making the headlines regarding its future survival in the economic downturn.  What is interesting is the level of support for PR emerging from journalists who are actually considering the impact of losing players in this huge industry. Automotive News reports how Ford’s CEO, “Mulally has identified the public’s skepticism as a barrier to Ford’s long-term recovery” and goes on to state:...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Gorillas and the absence of altruism

Back in September, Heather Yaxley launched a fascinating and heated debate on the role of PR under the fairly tame title “A radical view of PR“. One thread of the debate centred on whether the PR professional should be representing external views to management or simply representing the organization’s position.  I would like to revisit the topic by introducing research from two other fields: visual perception and evolutionary biology.

Posted on Seasoned Posts

CCO’s from major global corporations discuss the path from sustainability to durability. A blind report from a secret summit…

Last week I participated to an exclusive and ‘secret’ summit of CCO’s from 15 major global corporations during which they discussed some of the major challenges facing their increasingly relevant organizational function assisted by a handful of ‘sparring partners’ from academia, ngo’s and consultants. I will mention no names nor location as per agreement, but will instead relate a few of the primary issues and how they were discussed. No intention here to ‘scoop’ anyone,...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Public relations “On The Edge”; offline in June ‘09, online right now

The Canadian Public Relations Society is holding its next annual conference, On The Edge, in Vancouver, British Columbia, from June 7 to 9, 2009. Its website is already up and running. It’s good to see that CPRS is making use of some interactive (i.e., social media) tools for this conference iteration, including a twitter account and online poll. (The current question is: Which professional development workshop stream is most useful to you?) Promised in January...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

The leadership role of Public Relations according to Mo.Ve’s 2008 report on Car Dependancy and Sustainable Mobility in Metropolitan Areas

“….Notwithstanding these examples there is growing recognition of increasing differences between opinion and behaviour in society today. If we are to be really successful in the use of social marketing in changing individual behaviour, we need to rethink traditional theories about how we use communications and marketing to achieve social objectives. We need to refocus on society. This need is emphasised by an increasingly fluid, mobile, society; an increasingly divergent set of public opinions on...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Who’s turn is to hit the coalface? The Swedes show the way in Professional Association Management and the results are impressive. Let’s take, for once, a glass half full approach.

In a recent exchange on this here blog Catherine Arrow wrote: … Somebody, somewhere has to hit the coalface first, and… (this) is the job of associations, so their members can chip away and follow through with the leadership, back up and support of the big guys….. our current situation has been apparent and evident for some time …. and … no preventative action has been taken.…..So, perhaps…… there should be a recognition and admission...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Facing this historic discontinuity. Two recently developed certainties for our profession: generic principles and specific applications and stakeholder relationship management

I submit that the paradigm of generic principles and specific applications and the practice of stakeholder relationship management constitute an effective integrated framework of reference for our professional community, capable of allowing our practice to fully benefit (or at the very least, suffer less) from this economic crisis, which will be with us for some years to come. Allow me to dwell on this statement, and explain the why and the how.

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Twelve hours of videobook on ‘In what sense: what is public relations?’. A narrative which summarizes some 400 years of professional experience. A dream, or a nightmare?

Bear with me and please visit www.lucasossellaeditore.it . Mind you, the sound is in Italian so it might be better to move quickly along the few minutes to get a grasp of what the contents, but more importantly the format, are like. Basically these few minutes are an excerpt of a good twelve hours (!) of videobook (3 dvd’s of four hours each) to which Joao Duarte referred to in his post here a few...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

My major takeaways from the Milano Euprera Congress. How our professional community can help bridge the gap between what is really happening in the global market place and what we think is happening.

While there were few remaining doubts in Milano for me that the institutionalization process of the public relations function is ‘a fact of organizational life’, especially after the presentation of the three research reports in the final plenary session, and the rooted impression that in other parts of the world besides Italy, Europe and the United States the process is even more pronounced, even if no figures were presented at the Euprera Congress…the substantial impression...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Lions or donkeys – is PR ready for the challenge of Institutionalization?

The recent Euprera congress in Milan advocated insitutionalization of PR as a strategic leadership function, where organisations value communications as a strength in the same way that they respect other expertise among the executive.  The impression was that PR practitioners are "lions" being led by "donkeys" who fail to recognise our courage and competence as they task us instead in fighting futile tactical battles.  (My analogy being the views towards the British generals of World...