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December 3, 2009
Personal Bookends
We unveiled a portrait of Dan Edelman at the Chicago co-headquarters of the firm earlier this week. The artist, Beth Rundquist, used a photo of Dan from his last trip to Asia three years ago (he was 86 years old!) when he delivered the keynote address on the history of public relations at a major Korean university, Ewha Women’s University.
Dan Edelman had a dream, to build a global public relations firm that would serve clients in a personal manner, deliver measurable results and provide entrepreneurial opportunity to employees who sought interesting careers. You can look at his career in two phases, constructing the base operation in the US in the first thirty years (1952-82), then moving to the global stage in Europe, then Asia, Canada and Latin America (1982-today).
Dan was most passionate about the potential of Asia, and especially about China. He spent three weeks a year travelling to each office in the Asian region, from the smallest (Kuala Lumpur) to the largest (Beijing). He had the confidence to acquire the largest independent firm in China, Interasia, in 1991, only two years after the trauma of Tiananmen Square. He loved the sense of optimism, the feeling of being a pioneer in PR again, the respect afforded to an older experienced executive compared to the youth culture of the West. Dan’s Asia perseverance on its most famous display when he came personally to open new Japan office in 2005 (at his age!).
He would come home with clippings from Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney, interviews with the father of marketing PR, a one man media tour.
When the portrait was uncovered, Dan spoke to the assembled group of 300 Edelman Chicago team members (video below). He said that our success was all due to them, the daily efforts of more than 3,200 employees around the world. He admitted that he never imagined being so large and so global.
He predicts that the PR field is still only at the beginning. “In the next generation the PR person will take his or her place as an equal to advertising, consulting, banking or legal professionals.” He urged the Chicago people to consider spending some part of their careers outside of the US, especially in fast growing markets such as China, India and Indonesia. Alan Vandermolen, our APAC president, read a letter from the China PR Association, which gave Edelman credit for helping to develop the profession in the market (hence Chinese characters in the portrait).
I have two quotes that epitomize my Dad that I took from a recently published biography of Louis Brandeis, legal genius, social reformer and ultimately Supreme Court Justice. Dean Acheson, who had been a clerk for Brandeis and later US Secretary of State, said of him,
Truth is less than truth unless it is expounded so that people can understand and believe. His faith in the human mind and in the will and capacity of people to understand the truth never wavered.
The other quote comes from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress,
My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage; my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me to be a witness that I have fought the battles.
Dan Edelman’s continuing legacy are his personal values that underpin his firm. I take every chance to provide employees with the opportunity to interact with Dan, such as hosting our annual Leadership Academy -- attended by the firm’s emerging leaders-- in Chicago since Dan, at 89, doesn’t travel quite as much.
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Posted by Edelman at December 3, 2009 2:00 PM |
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Comments
Richard,
Thank you for the inspiring and heart-warming post. The Dean Acheson’s quote regarding Louis Brandeis and the capacity of people to understand the truth, reminded me of the following passage:
According to Russell Ackoff, a systems theorist and professor of organizational change, the content of the human mind can be classified into five categories:
1. Data: symbols
2. Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions
3. Knowledge: application of data and information; answers "how" questions
4. Understanding: appreciation of "why"
5. Wisdom: evaluated understanding.
Ackoff indicates that the first four categories relate to the past; they deal with what has been or what is known. Only the fifth category, wisdom, deals with the future because it incorporates vision and design. With wisdom, people can create the future rather than just grasp the present and past. But achieving wisdom isn't easy; people must move successively through the other categories.
Undoubtedly your father’s prediction, that the PR field is still only at the beginning, is evidence of his wisdom.
Posted by: Hugh Campbell at December 3, 2009 10:20 PM