2019 | Edelman

Multinational companies have benefitted from free trade, globalized media and the rising middle class in developing markets. Now populism, people’s fear of downward economic mobility, e-commerce and political tensions are turning the tables in favor of local brands. Business is caught in the crossfire of trade wars and hyper-sensitive social media is adding fuel to the outrage.

The importance of the home market has always been a debatable proposition. Is it a place for stock market listing and large investor presence or is it the font of values and spawning ground of top management? And can those values apply to markets that have a totally different set of societal aspirations?

In the past few months, we have seen this clash play out most prominently in the continuing tussle between China and the U.S. The leading Chinese technology company, Huawei, has been banned from the U.S., on the basis of breaking the ban on trade with Iran. Chinese AI companies are now excluded from the U.S. market as well, with alleged misuse of facial recognition technology.

Meanwhile, the National Basketball Association had to apologize for a tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey that expressed support for the protestors in Hong Kong. Then NBA commissioner Adam Silver backtracked in the wake of fierce criticism in home market, reassuring the public that he supported the right of players to speak their minds on issues. This summer Nike withdrew a new limited edition product from the Chinese market after the shoe’s designer (a Japanese designer) registered public sympathy for the strike in Hong Kong. This prompted outrage in the U.S., with The Washington Post accusing Nike of cowardice in the face of authoritarianism. A week later, the shoemaker also recalled a version of its Air Max 1 shoe decorated with the Betsy Ross-designed version of the American Flag after Colin Kaepernick, a Nike spokesperson, claimed that version of the flag was an offensive symbol because of its connection to an era of slavery.

Corporations need to balance the interests of their stakeholders, from consumers to employees to government. The first among equals should be the employee. Given the tight labor market, especially in technology, companies must respect the wishes of those who do not want to work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Marc Benioff, founder and CEO of Salesforce, has an important new book, Trailblazer, that makes the case for the Fifth Industrial Revolution, of technology in service of society. He acknowledges that he was pushed by his employees to get out of the contract with the U.S. government on border issues. The values of diversity, proper treatment of women, and participation in community should be universal and cross-border.

In the marketing world, national preferences must take priority over global matters. There will continue to be situations where powerful global organizations and icons take sides in national and regional controversies. But the tendency will be toward local spokespeople and influencers, meaning that global initiatives must be expressed in local terms, conscious of politics and historical sensitivities.

This will require more local management over centralized control of message, and more permission for local teams to respond quickly with action if there is an incident that inflames the local population. It means a greater overlap of public affairs and brand marketing. At Edelman we are now putting our crisis and public affairs teams members onto product PR teams, with the intent of preventing problems through relationships with public officials and thought leaders.

Local brands will attempt to play the nationalism card, using e-commerce and social media to emphasize local roots. The multinational will need to morph to multi-local to win in this new environment.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

We do research on trust in country brands as part of our main Edelman Trust Barometer. We also look at specific countries during the year, especially when there have been issues for important companies. We will be releasing a special report on trust in Brand Germany in two weeks, with data from eight countries collected in late summer 2019. Here’s the headline: Brand Germany, once the global powerhouse among country brands, has faded significantly in the face of a series of blunders by German companies. This can be recovered in the coming years through greater transparency, CEO visibility and an open embrace of the stakeholder model of business, which commits to improving society while delivering shareholder return.

Trust in Brand Germany has plummeted in the past five years by 19 points in developed markets (UK, U.S. and France), by 16 points in Germany, and by only a small amount (four points) in emerging markets (China, India, Brazil, Mexico). There had been a steady recovery until the revelation of further issues in the car business in summer 2018, then the massive downsizing at Deutsche Bank and controversial Bayer-Monsanto deal. The trust declines are across all industrial sectors, from financial services to chemicals to automotive. This decline in trust has a tangible aspect, with 41 percent of respondents in both developed and emerging markets saying that because of recent scandals, they are buying fewer German products.

The key to the devolution of Brand Germany is values or lack thereof. Only 35 percent of respondents in developed markets feel that the values and views of most German companies match their own. Under half of respondents in developed markets believe that German companies have sufficient internal controls and policies to uncover or prevent corruption (37 percent in the U.S.). Most shocking of all our findings is that only 22 percent of respondents in developed markets trust CEOs of German companies to do what is right (only 17 percent in Germany).

The plethora of industry scandals has undermined the traditional German advantage in corporate citizenship. For example, there is a big decline in belief in German leadership in sustainability; under half in developed markets believe that German companies protect and improve the environment. Again, under half of respondents in developed markets see German companies creating programs that positively impact their local communities. It is stunning to see that under half of developed market respondents believe that German companies treat their employees well. German companies were among the earliest leaders in sustainability and community action. But as that image has diminished, they must now lean in strongly in areas like the retraining of employees and making commitments to the betterment of society akin to Unilever’s recent announcement of its pledge to halve its use of new plastics by 2025.

The other cornerstones of the Brand Germany advantage—high-quality products and services and top-class engineering—remain relatively unaffected, with nearly two-thirds of those in developed markets and 84 percent of those in emerging markets believing in German excellence. German products are also seen as offering good value for money.

It is time for game change for “Made in Germany.” This is a wake-up call for German CEOs: It is no longer enough to perform well for shareholders; you need to lead beyond your four walls, to be visible and vocal on issues of the day and to step in where government is failing. Companies should explain how and why they are acting, with public reporting on supply chain, product testing and diversity. The most visible manifestation of commitment to change has been at Siemens, buffeted by scandal a decade ago, now back to aggressive competitor with a visible CEO unafraid to buck convention in advocating for his agenda. The former World Cup champions can regain their historic first place position; no better time than the present to get a move on.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

There were three significant events in the past week that indicate severe stress in the marketing services business. Publicis announced that its revenue for the year would be down 2.5 percent, causing its stock price to collapse to the lowest level in seven years (a one-day drop of 13 percent). Omnicom’s PR agencies reported a nearly 4 percent decline in revenue for the third quarter, while the rest of the company grew 2 percent. The global CEO of MSL left Publicis and the global COO of Porter Novelli departed Omnicom; neither of them was replaced. Meanwhile, the public relations function at Ogilvy, which hasn’t replaced its global CEO, has seen a significant decline in revenue over the past two years operating as part of the overall Ogilvy offer.

The greatest pressure for the industry was in North America, where continued reductions in marketing budgets are taking a toll on agencies. It has been rumored that one of the advertising industry’s long-standing agencies is down several tens of millions of dollars in revenue this year alone in the U.S., while job cuts continue at other major ad shops.

It is time for those of us who manage PR firms to stand and fight. No more retreating in the face of budget pressures and cutting our way to glory. Our industry needs reinvention, and we can be the ones to lead instead of meekly accepting our fate. Here are the component parts of an effective strategy:

Promote and Protect—We have a vital differentiation in a time of populism and fake news. We understand how to turn difficult circumstance into learning experience. We also urge brands to do the right thing, to evolve the offer to increase sales of the product.
Earned Creative—Trustworthy content, fast as the news cycle, social by design, purpose at the core, open to the community. This is a far superior means of reaching stakeholders, who are using ad blockers and opting out for Netflix to avoid paid creative.
Data-Driven PR—We need to be able to target our content to those who will value it and enhance it. We just hired Yannis Kotziagkiaouridis from Wunderman JWT to build on our data and analytics knowledge, including our unique partnership with Cision and our capacity at Edelman Digital and Edelman Intelligence.
Blended Teams—Brand, reputation, creative, influencer and digital talent need to work together. We have operated a series of vertical business units focused on specialty. That needs to give way to a more modern inclusive structure to confront complex problems for clients.
Multi-local—We need to recognize the devolution of the global economy, which makes multinational brand positioning too static and vulnerable to disruption by smaller, national challengers. A global and local approach is necessary, for agility and relevance.
Senior Talent Runs Clients—Get out from behind the desk and work with clients directly, instead of managing and being administrators. We have much shorter cycle times, which requires judgment based on experience.
Employees as Most Important Stakeholders—With trust in “My Employer” outranking any other institution, there is a new expectation of CEOs to speak up on issues of the day. Employees want to be part of change; give them the information to speak credibly to their friends and families.
Compete Directly with Ad Agencies and Digital Firms—We have to be increasingly full-service as others are integrating forward into our business as their own stagnates. Come up with your own creative, based on insights that are uniquely societal or crowd-sourced. Morph your talent so that you can advise on transformation or do brand strategy.

We are doubling down, making astute investments in senior talent, broadening the aspiration to communications partner of choice for companies and brands making substantive change. We are reiterating our position as the House of Trust, with the 20th edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer due in January. We need to push ourselves to do better work delivering tangible benefit, moving from softer benefits of reputation to harder skills of sales, employee retention, engagement and trust. Follow the mantra of French revolutionary George Jacques Danton: “Audacity, more audacity, always audacity.”

Richard Edelman is CEO.

Thomas Sroka

The tectonic plates have shifted profoundly for the insurgent born-digital media in the past two weeks. The pace of deal-making and executive change has accelerated. Among the moves are Vice Media’s acquisition of Refinery29, Group Nine’s acquisition of PopSugar, Vox’s acquisition of New York magazine, and the departure of founder Kevin Delaney from Quartz after it was acquired a few months ago by Uzabase. (It was reported that for the first half year, Quartz lost more than $16 million on nearly $12 million of revenue, despite having 20 million unique users). There were also significant reductions in force for media stalwarts such as Sports Illustrated (a 30 percent reduction in the number of journalists) under the new ownership of Authentic Brands Group.

I had a conversation with Steve Rubel, our media futurist, and Michael Wolf, CEO of Activate, about these developments. We conclude the following:

House of Brands, Not Branded House—The media company of the future will be a roof of the house with multiple rooms serving distinct audiences. There is a need for scale in order to afford a salesforce for advertising and sponsorship. The success formula is niche and neat; for example, BuzzFeed’s food-centered Tasty, which has only a light touch of its main brand.
The Disruptors Have Not Disrupted—Fox News has taken the traffic away from Breitbart and other more conservative sites. The Washington Post, The New York Times and MSNBC are all gaining traffic while some of the disruptors have flatlined.
Video Is Key to Success—Vice is a video producer, no longer a media company.
Digital Business Not Necessarily Profitable—Even companies that have gone public, such as Uber, continue to lose money. A handful, such as Facebook and Google, are hugely successful.
Diverse Sources of Income—Vox has B-to-C, B-to-B and conferences and is relying less on advertising. Look for more media brands to experiment with affiliate marketing as an additional source of revenue.

Many in the PR industry thought there would just be a dispersion of journalists from mainstream outlets to born digital platforms while maintaining the same numbers. Instead, the entire sector has shrunk, and platform business models built on advertising and sponsored content are failing.

What is the playbook for PR firms and communications professionals in the current context? We are more convinced than ever that every one of our clients need to become its own media company. We must create shareable, engaging content with influencers. We are partnering with clients to fill in the holes left by the winnowing of reporters, with massive gaps in important areas such as healthcare. We must recognize that a depleted reporter force will lead to bad reporting, leading to the spread of misinformation; we must ensure that our clients are equipped with a lightning-fast response mechanism. The NBA’s reaction to the China crisis this week revealed the dangers of insufficient crisis protocol. There is absolutely a premium on relationships with reporters and editors to ensure a court of appeals on facts. Finally, we need to direct readers to rivers of interest, which could be sub-verticals, chaining your story to adjacent topics.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

Neon Brand

Today we celebrate not only the 67th anniversary of Edelman’s founding by my father Dan in the Chicago Merchandise Mart, but more importantly we also celebrate all our employees—past and present—who have helped build Edelman into the leading global communications firm in the world.

In the spirit of celebration and of the dedication of our employees, I am proud to announce that Matthew Harrington has been named global president of Edelman. He will also remain our global chief operating officer.

Matthew, who has been with Edelman for 35 years, is only the third person, aside from my father and me, to hold this title. It recognizes the depth and breadth of his enormous contributions to our growth and success over the past three decades.

Matthew’s story is the best of Edelman. He started in our Columbus Circle office in New York in 1984 and would go on to run various offices and regions across the network, including our San Francisco office and the Western region. He moved back to the East Coast to lead the Eastern Region and then the U.S. before becoming our first-ever global chief operating officer.

In 1996, Matthew led the ground-breaking Odwalla crisis management effort, which marked the introduction of the Internet as a vital tool in crisis work. He has been key to the growth and development of many of our key clients, including Starbucks, Microsoft and Charles Schwab. He was a favorite of my parents. My family and I are appreciative for everything he has done for Edelman.

In his new role, Matthew will now oversee Edelman’s Digital practice and Advisory offering, while continuing to shepherd the firm’s four operating regions, oversee talent and the Client Portfolio Management Committee.

Matthew epitomizes our culture and our values. He is client-centric and deeply committed to excellence. He is dedicated to ensuring that our clients and our firm positively impact society and to creating a meaningful and rewarding work experience for every Edelman employee. In all that Matthew does, his spirit of optimism and integrity shines through. He is the ultimate professional.

Founder’s Day is also a time to remember and reiterate the principles that Edelman was founded on:

Everyone is an account executive
Clients and the work above all else
Stay humble and loyal
Invest in our people
Always strive to deliver great creative
Edelman is a place to build your career

These tenets drive the bold and creative work of our 6,000-plus employees around the world. Let’s continue to demonstrate these principles as we carry on Dan’s work every day. And as always, I am grateful for everything you do day-in and day-out for our clients and for Edelman.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

Matthew Harrington, Richard Edelman and Dan Edelman pictured at the New York office opening, September 2009.

This is United Nations General Assembly Week in New York City. Heads of state converge on the city to discuss the environment, immigration, collective security and economic growth. I had the opportunity to hear leaders from the UK, Holland, Greece, Estonia and Chile in the past few days. Here are highlights:

UK—Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated his commitment to Brexit on October 31. He dismissed any calls for a new referendum. He explained that Britain is better off on its own. He said that his country will be able to conclude a trade agreement with the U.S., pending resolution of farm issues. He said that his country has the best trained, most committed work force, rule of law and regulatory simplicity. His funniest line was: “We have been looking at trade opportunities with the U.S. We make the best measuring tapes in the world. Now there is a Pentagon rule that limits purchase of tapes to U.S. suppliers. We know that you have a problem with British rulers, but come on, that was a long time ago.”
China—Kai-Fu Lee, a top technologist who has worked at Google and Facebook and is now a venture capitalist in China, said China has the best entrepreneurs for speed, execution, results, tenacity and ambition. There is now a robust VC crowd, funding advances in mobile payments; there is no need for cash or credit cards in China. U.S. policy is based on the idea that China steals intellectual property. The ban on U.S. exports of semiconductors or mobile operating systems (Android) will force the Chinese to develop their own. You could well see a bifurcated system of technology, with China dominating the developing market.
Netherlands—Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that the global nations need small-town simplicity, honesty and decency. In short, he called for government trust to be restored through values, transparency and straight talk. He wants the Germans to open up the budget, to spend more in order to counteract the recessionary pressure in that export-led economy.
Chile—President Sebastián Piñera noted that in the past 100 years his country has been poor in energy supply, dominated by hydrocarbons. But in a world of renewables, Chile is rich because it has a long coastline for wind power and a large desert for solar power. He said that he is insisting on the transition of automobiles to electric and, similarly, the conversion of buildings to renewable energy supply.
U.S.— The move by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to launch a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump sent a shudder through the business community, as it portends the possibility of more instability around the economy.

We are in the midst of an accelerating and unprecedented trend of government unpredictability, populism and trade issues. Smart global companies must be ready to address problems that arise out of nationalistic sentiments and call out those that aren’t true. I predict that our upcoming Edelman Trust Barometer data will show government once again becoming the least trusted institution. The void in global governance will have to be filled by business, especially by CEOs, because My Employer is now, by far, the most trusted institution.

Business’s willingness to answer that call was evident in the three panels I participated in at Advertising Week. There was a strong commitment to purpose by brands and their agencies. Matthew McCarthy, CEO of Ben and Jerry’s, talked about the need for his company to continue its societal activism, for both customers and employees, with products such as Pecan Resist. I made the case for CEOs speaking out and not waiting for dysfunctional government to act. I also said that those in the audience had to make a choice, to pick an employer whose values were consistent with their own; specifically, to walk away from agencies that work for tobacco, guns or coal. We have a responsibility to use our power of persuasion for good.

Richard Edelman is president and CEO.

I am deeply honored to be nominated for the PR Week Hall of Fame. It is especially gratifying to be following in the footsteps of my father Daniel, founder of our firm, who received the award posthumously in 2014. As I stood on the stage that night to accept the award on his behalf, I made a little gesture skyward to the big man and to my mother Ruth, always his right hand, knowing that they were smiling down.

It is a huge responsibility to succeed your dad as CEO of a family business. There were competitors who cast doubt on the decision. Longtime Edelman people wondered whether I had the right stuff. Clients were supportive but wary, especially those on the marketing side where I had less exposure. My parents and siblings were all in.

It has worked beyond my wildest dreams. We are the largest communications firm. We have a business equally divided between brand and corporate reputation. We are truly global, with over 40 percent of revenue outside of the U.S. We continue to do excellent creative work. We have become a communications partner of choice in digital and experiential for some of the world’s leading brands. We are agile and hungry, never resting on our laurels. And we remain a great place to work for entrepreneurial, ambitious people who believe that clients should do well and do good.

As I think about my career, I would cite the following important moments:

The Edelman Trust Barometer—This has become a vital piece of intellectual property for the business community. It was recently cited in a Business Roundtable commitment to a stakeholder approach. Our most recent report on trust moving to “my employer,” with corresponding expectations of CEOs to speak out on issues from LGBT rights to gun violence, has prompted several companies to move into the void left by government.
First Mover in Digital—We started in the mid-90s by taking the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line online. Then we had our first digital offer, which we called the Me2Revolution. But the big spike in business coincided with the rise of Facebook and other social platforms, when we moved from web development to social content creator and community manager.
Purpose Leader—We did the first environmental program for Star-Kist in 1992 with Dolphin-Safe Tuna, partnering with Earth Island Institute. This led to assignments for Walmart, Starbucks, Unilever and Mars. We do not accept work from tobacco, firearms or coal companies. This mindset applies to our pro-bono work on behalf of the Gun Safety Alliance and other non-profits, ably overseen by my brother John, as part of our commitment to community.
Creative Force—We have hired 600 creatives, planners and paid experts. We intend to compete with ad agencies and digital firms. We have also acquired UEG, a top-class experiential, sports and entertainment firm. We have staked out the ground of Earned Creative, fast as the news cycle, social by design and earned at the core.
New York Office Manager at 27—It started as a temporary assignment, until my father could search for a manager. I did not know what was impossible. I did cold calls on companies; one of them was Unilever, which awarded us Surf detergent, then Snuggle fabric softener, and now is one of our largest global clients. We did insane stunts, such as flying a motorized hang glider wired for sound from snowbound Central Park near the St. Moritz Hotel for the launch of Blue Stratos Men’s cologne. We were the kiddie corps, doing Fuji Film’s sponsorship of the LA Olympics and Ortho’s 25th anniversary of the birth control pill.
European Manager at 37—I never moved to Europe; I just commuted every other week. We turned around the UK office after losing three major government accounts in the Thatcher privatization push. We opened in Brussels and Hamburg. We began to get cross-region clients such as Ericsson.
Favorite Client Moments—I happened to be visiting my parents for Passover when a dredging company poked a hole in an old tunnel under the Chicago River, causing a flood of the downtown area. We held a Saturday AM press conference to show that the City of Chicago had maps with the tunnel but had failed to provide those to the dredging company. From the merger of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young to create Ernst & Young, to the launch of Advil with baseball star Nolan Ryan that propelled the brand to No.1 in its category, to all of the accounts I am currently involved in, client work is the best part of my day. Thank you for believing in me.
The People—First to my dad, who had the confidence in my ability and the patience to see me through the first few years as CEO, most notably a failed accounting system implementation, and my mother, who arbitrated any disputes while offering her points of view like it or not. Then to Mike Morley and David Davis, mentors of the first order about our global business. To Pam Talbot and Leslie Dach, invaluable partners in building the U.S. business, plus David Brain and Alan VanderMolen for the European and Asian business. To Mike Deaver and John Scanlon who taught me the art of crisis management. But most of all to my long-time associates who have given their lives to the dream that is Edelman, including Matthew Harrington, Vic Malanga, Russell Dubner, Lisa Sepulveda, Katie Burke, Barby Siegel and Kristine Boyden. It is an honor to have worked with you. Plus both of my siblings: Renee, who oversees our alumni network, and John, who runs the Edelman Foundation and sustainability. Thank you.

It is my intention to continue as CEO. This is my life’s work. There has never been a more important time for our profession. We are helping the CCO to guide the CEO in taking public positions on behalf of employees with heightened expectations of business. We are partnering with CMOs on brands with purpose, knowing that trust is the new force in marketing. We are working to make every one of our clients its own media company to cope with the drastic reduction in the journalist force, prompted by adverse economics of newspapers and magazines. We can do so much more with employees, giving them information first and enabling them to be advocates. I wish for my three daughters the same fulfillment that I have had in my career, hoping that they can succeed me in carrying on the tradition of this proud family business.

Richard Edelman is president and CEO.

The much-awaited book “She Said” by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times is a sordid tale of abuse by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Through an elaborate web of lies, threats and well-paid protectors, Weinstein was able to get away with his horrific behavior for years after rumors began to circulate.

As a PR executive, I am appalled by the behavior of legal counsel in the role of communications advisor, violating nearly every part of the Page Principles, which demand transparency and truth. Instead there is bullying, deals for access, black operations including spying and shocking “positive reputation management.” Here are a few choice items that will outrage you:

Lisa Bloom, a so-called “Defender of Women,” proposed a campaign to blacken the reputation of an accuser of Weinstein’s, Rose McGowan. Among the ideas: In a December 2016 memo are a counter-ops online campaign to call her out as "a pathological liar…a few well-placed articles about her becoming unglued…a pre-emptive interview where you talk about women’s issues prompted by the death of your mother…this will be headline grabbing if you express genuine contrition for anyone you hurt, while emphasizing it was always adult consensual behavior. Start the Weinstein Foundation focused on gender equality in film….”
Star attorney David Boies negotiated a contract between Black Cube, an Israeli black ops firm, and Weinstein with the express intent of stopping The New York Times investigation of Weinstein. The tactics include use of avatar operators to create false identities on social media, and use of a freelance journalist to dig up dirt on women Weinstein “feared would go public with damaging information on him.” A fake philanthropist offered one of the reporters a speaking gig on progressive activism to ensnare her in a conflict of interest.
Lanny Davis, self-professed crisis counselor, goes to The New York Times with the proposition that Harvey Weinstein “has started to see his previous behavior in a different light. Powerful men of an older generation were changing their understanding of the meaning of consensual and why women don’t feel it is consensual even if a man convinces himself it is. There is a story to be told here about the evolution of men and in particular Harvey Weinstein.”

I have had many heated discussions with lawyers in crisis situations, most often about the wisdom of allowing clients to speak to reporters. But the interactions have been constructive and principled. The best of the lawyers recognize the urgency of getting their CEO and leadership out in front during a crisis to address the issue at hand, apologize if necessary and demonstrate a tangible change in policy.

There is and should be a healthy dynamic tension between lawyers and PR counsel that leads to best outcomes. Clients need to beware of lawyers not staying in their swim lane and pretending to be a one-stop solution in a crisis. It is simply PR malpractice that blackens the reputation of our industry.

Richard Edelman is president and CEO.

Samuel Zeller

In recent years, several studies have demonstrated the close relationship that U.S. Hispanics have with technology. Latinos are considered early technology adopters and a mobile-first audience. A Nielsen report showed that 35 percent of Hispanics say they are usually among the first people in their group of friends to try new gadgets.

With such a passion for tech products and favorable attitudes towards the tech space, one might assume that U.S. Hispanics trust technology. But the relationship between Hispanics and technology is complex and, at times, contradictory.

On one hand, we have young millennials, a generation of digital natives – Latinos account for one-fifth of the U.S. millennial population, according to the Brookings Institution. On the other hand, we have second and third generations of Latinos who still have an affinity with technology, but whose use of it and focus are different.

I believe that people tend to trust what they recognize and value as helpful, reliable, consistent and beneficial for them. The same goes for technology.

So I wasn’t surprised when the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer report on Trust and Race/Ethnicity in the U.S. demonstrated that the Latinx community is concerned about the impact of technology, with 54 percent of Latinx employees worried that automation and other innovations can take their jobs away, compared to 44 percent of non-Hispanic white American employees.

One of the reasons why this data point doesn’t surprise me is because according to a study by the Brookings Institution, the 20 most popular occupations among Latinos in the U.S. are in sectors like agriculture, construction, hospitality and housing. These jobs are, generally speaking, mostly manual, labor-intensive and repetitive, which are the kind of jobs that can be replaced by technology.

As a result, although 78 percent of the general population trust the technology industry, technology companies looking to engage with the Latinx audience must act. People fear what they don’t know; companies that educate and guide us through this constant digital revolution will have a chance to make a lasting impact in our community.

This year’s Trust Barometer also shows that 62 percent of Latinx employees believe are worried that they do not have the training and skills necessary to land a good job, followed by 57 percent of African American employees and 50 percent of Asian American employees.

However, as the saying goes: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” It is up to us to educate ourselves and be ready for the inevitable digital revolution, which is happening everywhere around us.

It is a fact that without digital skills, we Latinos can be automated out of jobs. So why wait? I truly believe that technology can change our lives for the better. It has happened in the past; it is happening today, and it will continue into the future. Explore, ask, read and learn. Be ready and open to accept technology and seize all the wonders it brings.

Erika Souza Cruz is a senior account supervisor, Brand and Media, Miami.

Clem Onojeghuo

Edelman conducted a study about Americans’ attitudes towards companies that speak out on gun violence.

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