Burson: A commitment to public relations at the highest level is necessary in today’s corporate environment
March 2, 2007
In a commentary published on Forbes.com this morning, Harold Burson, APR, Fellow PRSA, founding chairman of Burson-Marsteller, issues a warning for companies that ignore the strategic importance of public relations.
“No company can afford to ignore that a significant portion of its revenues, in one way or another, comes from public entities influenced by public opinion,” he writes. “The challenge for global corporations and their CEOs, especially those of U.S. origin, will be finding safe harbor from a series of circumstances that are the equivalent of a perfect storm.
He cites a BBC World Service poll of 26,000 people in 25 countries from late January that showed just 29 percent feel the United States has a mainly positive influence on the world.
How should today’s U.S.-based corporations respond?
“First, what’s required is a commitment to public relations at the highest levels of corporate management and governance. Both the CEO and the board of directors must understand that the modern corporation exists by public sufferance of its actions. Nor is passive support sufficient,” he writes. “The CEO must demonstrate a commitment to public relations, and the evaluation of public relations as it is translated into reputation should be the responsibility of a standing committee of the board.”
The uses of derogatory terms such as “spin doctor” or vague words such as “communications” have done nothing to help.
“This has had the result of debasing the breadth of what the corporate public relations function entails, i.e., working alongside the CEO and senior management in the development of policy that reconciles corporate goals with public expectations and communicating those policies, decisions and actions to relevant stakeholders,” Burson concludes “A better description of the task would be ‘public relations is doing good and getting credit for it.’”
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