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June 18, 2005
A Vision Achieved
I will read this at my father's 85th birthday party on Friday night in Chicago. I thought you would enjoy it!
There are business people who are visionaries but relatively few who are able to say they built institutions that will last. Even fewer can claim to have invented an entirely new way of doing business. It is in this context that I will talk about my father, before his family and friends who are here tonight to toast Dan Edelman on a life of achievement and personal fulfillment.
This is a journey from a small apartment in Brooklyn to titan of the public relations business. In this city that has bred so many superstars, Dan has become the Michael Jordan of public relations. In so doing, has helped to create a global profession that is essential to commerce. He has forged a firm that is the largest independent in the world, doing important work such as the 9/11 commission report, the revolt by the Gang of Eight against management at Morgan Stanley and the launch of such innovative products as XBOX and Halo 2 for Microsoft.
Dan has always been passionate about public relations in its noblest incarnation, which is telling the truth to consumers through the media, enabling them to make more informed choices. He has been a voice of ethical behavior in our industry, chastising those who would use front organizations to hide the true intentions of the campaign or its funding sources.
Dan has advocated a key role for public relations in the marketing mix. In fact, he is the father of marketing PR. One of his earliest innovations was the media tour, taking spokespeople on the road to promote a product. You would have heard of several of his programs, for the Toni Twins, for Colonel Harlan Sanders of KFC and for California Wines using actor Vincent Price.
He is a truly global thinker whose firm is now in 43 cities in 23 countries. He bought a firm in China in 1992, then insisted that if we were to be in the market, we would stop the practice of paying journalists to publish articles. He worked on several important cross-border campaigns, including work with the Anglo French consortium to secure landing rights in New York and Washington for the supersonic Concorde aircraft.
He is an incredibly well organized man who "sweats the details" and prepares intensively for every meeting. His "Dan-o-grams", messages to staff, are the stuff of legend at Edelman. He is blunt in his criticism and follows up on each outstanding matter. Yet no one at the firm can complain because they know his work ethic and his high standards of personal performance. He is much more interested in achieving top levels of client satisfaction and outstanding results than in making money. His motto is, "Teach, Test and Correct"--all of us at Edelman are indeed his students.
Few are as well read as Dan, who pores over five newspapers a day, then another dozen magazines on the weekend. He has an insatiable need to know everything that is happening at his company and in the world at large. He even listens to CBS News Radio while he drives to and from work so as not to miss the latest breaking stories, perhaps its the journalist in him unable to quench his thirst for news.
He has made his work and his life a seamless web. His wife, my mother Ruth, has been a true partner in building our company. She is the more social and out-going one, ever the life of the party, able to connect within seconds with even the coldest corporate executive. Together they have fashioned an exciting lifestyle, of book parties for authors, fashion shows for new designers, fundraisers for politicians, and events for important charities like the Weitzman Institute. Giving back to his community has been a central mission for Dan Edelman, from service on boards such as the Lyric Opera to volunteer assistance to SOS Kinderdorf in Europe. His firm carries on his good works through volunteer assistance to Save the Children on tsunami relief and to the Global Business Dialogue on HIV/AIDS.
It is Dan's personal style that is the key to his success over the past 60 years. He hardly celebrates his victories but deeply mourns his defeats, analyzing each to be sure such reverses never happen again. He is modest in all aspects of his personal life, in his dress, often wearing six year old suits, and in his cars which he keeps for at least ten years. He is a fierce entrepreneur, the last of the Mohicans, who jealously guards the independence of our firm. His passing of the torch to me eight years ago as the president and CEO, has been a smooth transition, though as chairman he is still very much at his desk every day, deeply involved in client counseling and new business development.
He is a true family man, who has always taken the greatest pleasure from spending time with his children and now grandchildren. Inevitably, though, the spheres of influence connect, for as any visitor to an Edelman family dinner will observe, we eventually come around to a discussion of the business. Once a legend, always a legend. Here's to another great 85 years to my father and business partner, Dan Edelman.
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Posted by Edelman at June 18, 2005 3:35 PM
Comments
For a public relations firm with a Jewish founder to take on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a client was an extraordinary step on Dan Edelman’s part. But the glue that has held the two organizations together these past years has been shared values.
Dan Edelman has always been a man of principle. His heart and his sense of right have caused Dan and his company to take on many causes that may not have been popular at the time. Values like honoring the memory of ancestors, love of God, strong family ties, integrity and honor are important to both organizations.
To the Mormon leaders in Salt Lake City, Dan Edelman is not just a highly respected public relations advisor, he is a trusted friend.
Dan, we salute you on this milestone, and hope for the benefit of many more years of your truly exceptional, professional caring.
We send our love to you, Ruth and each member of your family.
Posted by: Bruce Olsen at June 18, 2005 3:37 PM
Aside from the fact that I would compare Dan to Larry Byrd rather than Michael Jordan, that was a really great piece. I hope that Dan has a great birthday, thanks for sharing the speech.
The measure of what he has done is such that the Tony Twins campaign was so groundbreaking at the time. Hard now to appreciate, when we are spun to death.
I hope that we have a similar birthday blog ten years from now
Posted by: Ged Carroll at June 19, 2005 7:05 PM
I am in the interview process for a position with Edelman at its Beijing, China office and I cant express enough how comforting and exciting it is to think that I might have the privilege to work for a firm that was founded, built, and now entrenched in the values of a man of such principle. Even before I read Richard's most recent Blog, the reputation of his father's unquestionable integrity and ethics has always struck me as almost common knowledge among those in the professional world - this incredible accomplishment puts him in the company of very few. For aspiring young professionals (like myself) trying to make their way in this world, your story sets an example of how to do things the 'right way' ? an ideal that my generation sometimes needs reminding of. Thank you for your contributions, happy birthday Mr. Edelman.
Posted by: Adam Schokora at June 20, 2005 5:27 AM
Ged,
It was a wonderful event.
My dad does stand for the best of our business He has been a stalwart defender of PR as means of conveying truth, not spin.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Edelman at June 21, 2005 11:12 AM
Adam,
My dad will be touched to read this comment. He is a man of principle.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Edelman at June 21, 2005 11:13 AM
Happy belated birthday, Dan. Every now and then I visit the DJE site to keep abreast of the firm's remarkable growth and accomplishments since my years as a young AE in the New York office in the early '70s. It's good to know you're still behind the desk and will be for many more...God willing.
I fondly remember the Dan visits to the New York office and the quick, cheery hello at each staff member's door. Your guidance, direction, encouragement, and patience (And, oh, how I needed it!)during my tenure at DJE have taught me lifelong lessons in leadership. Thanks.
I come to the Windy City a couple of times a year--usually on a very hectic schedule--but would love to visit the offices. By the way, one of my cousins, Esther Lippman, works in your Atlanta office and loves it, I hear. Small world.
Again, all my best to you.
Brenda Katz Murphy
Posted by: Brenda Murphy at June 22, 2005 7:59 PM
Brenda,
I am copying my father on your note. You should come to visit us in NYC too. We now have 350 people at 1500 broadway. You would be proud!
Richard
Posted by: Richard Edelman at July 6, 2005 1:27 PM