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December 21, 2004
Living in Color
In the late 90s,, Washington Post columnist Michael Schrage wrote an article on technology PR people. He described them as "sitting astride the nodes of influence in technology." He said that all parts of the technology food chain, from venture capitalists to investment bankers to customers to technology analysts to investors were linked by the magical hand of public relations. It was a rare acknowledgement of the central role of PR in connecting to the world of multiple stakeholders.
That wonderful period of innocence is past, as the tech bubble imploded and the interconnections of banker and analyst are legally proscribed. But the importance of the PR person in the global knowledge economy should not be one of the relics of that bygone age. In fact, we are central actors in a world lacking trust based on perceived ethical violations by institutions ranging from government to media to business to baseball players using steroids.
Here are a few reasons why we are entitled to a seat at the management table. We are uniquely positioned to understand the uncontrollable world of blogs, the ultimate immediate feedback mechanism. We are in touch with dissonant voices such as non-governmental organizations. We can balance the needs of global marketing and local culture. We value the input of employees as partners in building great companies. We have a different mindset, in which relationships and listening are more important than selling and marketing. In short, we are the soft power advocates (to use a phrase invented by Prof. Joseph Nye at Harvard), who believe in attraction and persuasion rather than the hard power attributes of force and compulsion.
For PR people to really earn this place at the table, we have to "Live in Color." What I mean by this phrase is that we have a responsibility to live in the real world, to observe and report back to our colleagues so that they can offer the best advice. We should each commit to working with a philanthropic organization so that we are exposed to a variety of viewpoints while giving something back to society. We should be taking advantage of a wide range of cultural offerings, from film to theater to art to dance. We should volunteer for political campaigns. We must recognize that there is a responsibility to have continuing education in our field that is dependent on getting out of the office, beyond the small world of billable hours, into a big world of imagination and social contribution.
That is why Edelman will take a dramatic step on January 1, 2005. Our firm will contribute $250,000 of time to the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS ( http://www.gbcaids.com ), to help fight this global scourge by persuading business that it is in their economic interest to safeguard their employees and protect their consumers. Our 41 offices around the world will work with GBC member companies to tell stories of innovative cause-related marketing, of voluntary testing of employees and their families and cooperation with government to alert them to outbreaks. We are proud to have our 1,800 people mobilized in this fight. We will continue to volunteer on a local market basis in hundreds of acts of Living in Color, but our alliance with the GBC will bring us together to combat ignorance and promote safer behavior. I encourage others in our business to make similar partnerships with important global causes.
I am off to Hershey, Pennsylvania with my children for a little bit of Living in Color and a great deal of consumption of chocolate. I wish all of you and yours a wonderful holiday season. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.
Richard
Posted by Edelman at December 21, 2004 12:40 PM |
Comments
What a fantastic idea! Here's wishing you every success with your campaign.
Posted by: Piaras Kelly at December 21, 2004 2:07 PM
In combating HIV/Aids, strongly affected countries are obliged to reinvigorate health-related state apparatuses, revamp public health financing systems and effectively engage the civil society to promote better health outcomes. These problems can be further complicated as the involvement of multiple actors with different priorities could politicize and/or limit the effectiveness of anti-Aids programs. For example, ideological differences among constituencies within a donor country, if left unchecked, may place divergent demands on host governments and their international partners.
Itīs great that Edelman is engaging worldwide in the Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids. Itīs even better if 3rd world countries, suffering the most from the disease, might profit from the rich North.
The intriguing question, however, is to me how the above mentioned political issues can be negotiated while trying to effectively deal with this sensitive topic? What polictical sensivities have to be regarded? What would a worldwide strategy look like? This would be a fascinating case study.
Posted by: Gudrun Herrmann at January 2, 2005 7:54 PM
Gudrun,
We hope that the positive stories on business involvement with the HIV AIDS issue will push government to be more open on disease incidence and prevention. It will create a positive cycle in which government is benefited and not criticized for transparency.
Posted by: Richard Edelman at January 4, 2005 5:54 PM