Seat at the Table

A recent Fortune Three-Minute Manager article (PDF here) poses the reputation question – how do I keep my company’s reputation intact when our industry has been tainted by bad news?  The most interesting answer addressed the Siemen’s corruption scandal:

Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic; and professor at the Harvard Business School

[Siemen’s] competitors should have come out and stated their own anti-corruption principles…CEOs need to face reality…CEO’s often go into denial, and that’s the worst thing they can do.  it’s a huge mistake to hire a PR firm and ask it to restore your image – Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic and currently a professor of management at Harvard Business School.

Mr. George not only provided some very good PR counsel, he also highlighted a reputation problem with the PR agency industry’s reputation (yes, ironically).   Hiring a PR agency is often seen as a way to order a good reputation.  As this quote shows, smart executives know that is not the case.  

PR counselors, and in particular agency based executives, need to be consistently clear that reputation is not a function of communication, but is a function of communicating business action.  Mr. George understands this, but obviously does not see PR agencies as a source of this type of business counsel.

The level of respect for an agency’s work always goes up when clients see that clear, specialized business counsel, not simply PR counsel, is being provided.   Bill George’s quote is a strong reminder of the importance of this approach.  

Of course, for this to happen agencies have to start hiring based on strategic business smarts and not simply tactical smarts.  But that’s or another post…

P.S., I was recently asked why, as an PR agency owner, I would post advice to other agencies.  Simple, these are PR industry issues which, if solved by more agencies addressing them, would result in more and better business for all of us.