Communications as Ikor

기업문화(Corporate Culture)-PR메뉴의 고급음식  < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

어제 PR인은 꼭 요리사 같다고 말씀드렸습니다. 오늘도 하나의 이상한 비유를 할까합니다. PR이라는 “메뉴”속에는 많은 종류의 음식이름들이 있습니다. 그중 아마 가장 고급스럽고 희귀한 음식명이 바로 Corporate Culture(기업문화) 일껍니다.

 

그날 그날의 미디어 관게에만 코를 대고 사는 우리의 모습이 아니라, 먼 미래를 바라보고 자신의 기업문화를 꾸며나가는것, 웬만큼 여유로운 기업이 아니면 꿈도 꿔보지 못할 그런 PR적 작업입니다.

 

제가 Corporate Culture를 공부할때 이런 생각도 해보았습니다. 만약 내가 다시 태어나서 큰 기업가의 아들이라면 아버지의 기업-곧 자기의 기업이 되는-을 멋진 기업문화를 가진 고급기업으로 만들어 보겠다는 꿈이었습니다.

 

우리가 PR 및 사업에 대해서 많은 어려움에 봉착하는 이유중의 하나가 기업내에 이상적인 기업문화를 찾아보기 힘든때문이 아닐까 하는 생각도 합니다.

 

성공하는 기업은 그들만의 공식이 있습니다. 그 공식중의 하나가 멋진 기업문화 입니다. 그 기업문화를 이루는 요소들중 핵심이 예전에도 말씀드린것 같은 Mission, Vision, Value, Belief, Leadership등입니다.

 

“근데 그 것들의 의미가 뭐야?”하시는 분들은 아래의 글을 읽어 보시면 쉽게 이해를 하실수 있을겁니다.

 

만약 우리가 매일 접하는 Media Relation이 짜장면이라면, Corporate Culture에 대한 PR적 시각에서의 활동은 아마 스테잌정도가 되지않을까 생각해 봅니다.

한 피자정도 되는 위기관리(Crisis Management)가 요즘 화두가 되곤하는걸 보면 아마 몇년쯤 더 지나야 우리 PR인들이 Corporate Culture를 생각하게 될꺼라는 생각도 합니다.

 

젊으신 PR인들께서 이 이슈에 많은 관심가지시기 바랍니다. 좋은 기업문화는 좋은 사회를 만드는 초석이됩니다. 우리나라에도 멋진 기업이 탄생하기를 간절히 바랍니다. 우리손으로 그런 기업을 만들기를 바랍니다.또한 현재 벤쳐를 일으키시는 분들도 아래의 PivotPoint의 사례를 본받아 멋진 기업문화를 디자인 하시길 바랍니다. 지금이 그때입니다.

 

아래의 글이 약간 길어서 안상준님의 수고가 크실텐데.. 전문이 아니라도 요약도 괜찮을 것 같습니다. 안상준님 감사합니다.

 

저는 “홍보!!”

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ARTICULATING A VISION AND VALUES AT PIVOTPOINT

 

At many high-tech companies, the mission is to get the next product out the door as quickly as possible and the vision is the billion dollar pay off that awaits if they do it right. Pivotpoint’s new CEO wanted – and found -something a little more long-term on which to build the company’s culture.

 

In the realm of high-technology, where engineers rule and the product is king, vision is widely regarded as a luxury, an abstract ideal in a world of very concrete realities. In a universe in which a new product announcement from a competitor can completely revolutionize a company’s business, the definition of a long-term plan is often something the company hopes to do next month.

 

In reality, however, a vision can be a company’s anchor in this stormy environment. Although every other aspect of a business, from its products to its customer base, may be subject to change, a clear vision of the future can provide a constant reference point, a beacon to help management negotiate many sea changes. That, at least, is the belief of Darryl Wartluft, who joined ERM systems leader Pivotpoint last year amid massive change, and made vision and values his number one priority.

 

Pivotpoint was founded in 1987 as Spectrum Associates, and began as a service business, delivering customized enhancements to multiple application software packages in the MRPII market. The company expanded into other areas of information technology, from project definition through custom development, system integration and implementation. In 1992, the company acquired a former Powersoft MRPII product called GrowthPower, entering the product business for the first time. Its first in-house product, Point.Man – a dynamic ERP system designed to leverage client/server object-oriented technologies – was launched in 1994.

 

In November of 1995, three major venture capital groups – Goldman Sachs, TA Associates and Greylock Management – made a $32million cash investment in the company in exchange for majority ownership. As part of that agreement, a board of directors was established by a new CEO, Daryll Wartluft, was brought on board from Legent Corp., where he had been a vice president and general manager of the applications management division. Wartluft’s appointment was followed by other key additions to the company’s management team, including marketing vp Peter Berkel, who followed the CEO from Legent.

 

“To a significant extent, many of the changes in the way high-tech companies communicate, and in particular in attitudes at entrepreneurial high-tech companies, are being driven by venture capital,” says Maura FitzGerald, president of FitzGerald Communications, which was also hired at the suggestion of the venture capital partners. “Venture capital companies have been through all this before, and they understand the value that communications can add. They also understand how important it is for a company to differentiate itself, to have a vision that sets it apart from the competition.”

 

Daryll Wartluft had witnessed the power of a genuine vision at Legent, and one of the talents that attracted the venture capital group was his ability as a communicator. He swiftly came to the conclusion that Spectrum was at a critical point in its evolution, and that a relatively narrow window of opportunity existed to redefine the company’s mission and vision.

 

“There were two major changes taking place,” says Wartluft. “The first was obviously that the company had received an infusion of capital and a new management team, and all of that was fueling significant growth. The second was that Spectrum had started out as a service company, but was becoming more product-oriented. We wanted to become a total solutions provider. So from a cultural point of view, many things were happening at the same time. We needed to have a common view within the company of where we were trying to go, what we were trying to achieve.”

 

Morale was high among the company’s 200 or so employees, Wartluft says, because most people recognized the market opportunity that Spectrum had and the strength of the new management team. But there was also considerable apprehension about the rapid pace of change and what it meant for people who were used to, and comfortable with, the old paradigm.

 

Wartluft saw that kind of common vision as important for a number of reasons. It could position the changes as a positive. It could help differentiate Spectrum from other players in a competitive and still wide-open marketplace. It could serve as an aid in recruiting. Most important, however, was that it would bring people together, and in particular foster a sense of teamwork between the new management that Wartluft had brought in and those who remained from the previous regime.

 

******* 중요한 언급입니다.

Says FitzGerald: “We are in an era where every company has great technology, great R&D, even great people, but not every company has a vision, and it’s one of the things analysts are beginning to look for in making judgments about who’s hot and who’s not. They’re not interested in hearing, ‘I want to be the market leader,’ because everyone wants to be the market leader and they’re certainly not interested in hearing that you want to do $200 million in sales. They want to know why you’re in the business in the first place. Do you have a compelling vision?”***

 

FitzGerald Communications had just completed a similar exercise itself. Having grown from zero to about 60 people in three short years, the public relations firm had undergone some cultural upheaval, and needed to do something to give its culture some cohesion. Its focus on turning corporate vision in to market value resonated with Wartluft and others at Pivotpoint, and so he asked Maura FitzGerald and one of her senior people, Heather Robb, to help facilitate the process during a two-day off-site management meeting at the FitzGerald offices.

 

Twelve of Spectrum’s senior management participated in the process, beginning with what was basically a blank piece of paper. Wartluft’s first question to the assembled group was a simple one: “If you picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal in the year 2005 and saw a great article about this company, what would you want it to say?”

 

The first challenge was to draw a distinction between mission and vision. Many of the first suggestions focused on the company’s products, its desire to be the preferred supplier of dynamic ERP systems. Wartluft was looking for something more, well, visionary.

 

To some extent, Wartluft’s thinking of vision and mission echoes that of Stanford University business professors James Collins and Jerry Porras, authors of Built to Last. According to Collins and Porras, mission is the easier of the two to define. It should have a finish line, and that finish line should be attainable within five years or: President Kennedy’s mission for NASA, of putting a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth, is an example frequently cited. Mission, in other words, defines a company’s goals; vision, on the other hand, is a broader examination of why the company pursues those goals, of the values and beliefs of the organization and its guiding philosophy.

 

***중요”A mission statement is something that can and should evolve,” says Wartluft. “A mission should be flexible enough to change if our product set changes, but a vision should be permanent, an objective you can strive for regardless of the products or services you offer, and regardless of changes in your customer base. It’s the corporate equivalent of what do you want to be when you grow up?”****

 

The management team split into smaller groups of two or three, each of which came back with its own suggestions. Some were still too narrow, focusing on the company’s existing products. Others were too broad, vague statements about quality and excellence that could have applied to any company. But there was a common thread that focused on customer service. One person suggested that Spectrum should strive to be the benchmark against which other companies measured their suppliers; another suggested the company should be the best. There was some debate over whether it was better to the best or to be the benchmark.

 

“The important thing was that this was a dialogue,” Wartluft says. “This was not the CEO imposing his ideas, it was people sitting around, discussing ideas, working together. I honestly can’t imagine a better team building exercise.” In the end a consensus was achieved. Spectrum’s vision was: “To be the benchmark customers use to measure all other business relationships.”

 

Next, the group considered the values by which the organization would live and work as it strove to achieve this goal. It settled on five: teamwork, respect for each other, excellence, integrity and accountability, each of which was fleshed out to make it more tangible, less abstract.

 

The final challenge was taking the consensus the group had achieved and implementing it throughout the company. Wartluft says Spectrum enjoyed some advantages when it came to sharing the new vision and values with employees because of its size. At Legent, with more than 2,000 people, any change in culture took hold relatively slowly. At Spectrum, with 200, the process was considerably quicker. To ensure employee buy- in, for example, he was able to meet with people in groups of ten or 12, and over a two hour session to explain the importance of the new vision and values and how they would work.

 

“One of the things that we found to be extremely useful was the use of vignettes,” he says. “I would pose a question, a hypothetical situation. ‘Suppose you met with a supplier in a hotel room for a negotiation and after he left you found he had left behind a brochure with information about his costs, but the brochure is marked confidential. Do you look at the brochure, knowing it will give the company an advantage in the negotiations?’ If you’re being guided by the value about integrity, the answer is no.

 

“Some others are more complex, they really don’t have a right answer. If one of your biggest clients calls a meeting and demands that a certain individual be there, but that individual has planned to take her first family vacation in three years the same week, what do you do? Hopefully, you try to find some sort of creative solution that balances our accountability to the client with the idea that we must have respect for one another. What that kind of exercise does is help people figure out whether they can live with the values we have set for ourselves.”

 

Wartluft says it has been gratifying to see how rapidly the values have become part of the decision-making process throughout the company. Problems are now looked at through the prism of the values. Disagreements are resolved by using the values statement as a guidebook. “We had one meeting in which people from two different divisions were at absolute loggerheads, until the member of one team stood up and pointed out that the argument contradicted one of our values: respect for each other. Both sides left the room and came back in and started over in a much more cooperative mindset.”

 

Selling the vision and values internally was important, obviously, but Spectrum took the process a step further, letting customers know about the company’s goal. Says Wartluft: “Many companies post the vision and values on the bulletin board, and that’s it. We wanted to held accountable.” By explaining the company’s vision to customers, Wartluft expects to get some credit right now for saying all the right customer-focused things, but he also expects to get continual feedback – progress will be evaluated on a quarterly basis – that will tell him whether the company is any closer to achieving its goals.

 

“We believe clients will work with us,” he says. “We hope they will sense we are working in the right direction, and offer constructive criticism that will help us get there even quicker.”

 

The vision statement has helped the company come up with a new approach to marketing, one that gets research and development and sales and marketing people closer to the customer than they had ever been before.

 

“We found that by understanding how companies make and distribute their products, rather than what they make and distribute, we could help our customers be more competitive,” says Paul Hoy, the company’s vp for product management. “A generalized solution won’t work in today’s changing business world, where customers’ needs and wants change almost daily. Companies need a flexible system that can change along with their needs, this year and into the future.”

 

The final phase in the culture change process involved coming up with a new name. That process was led by marketing vp Peter Berkel. One of the problems with the existing name was the Spectrum was in wide use, both in the IT industry and in other fields. (One similarly named company, which had attracted former Apple CEO John Sculley to join its leadership ranks, was experiencing legal difficulties and the kind of media scrutiny most companies would prefer to avoid.) Says Maura FitzGerald: “Sometimes we would go to trade shows and there would be three other Spectrums on the floor.”

 

“The name Pivotpoint reflect the business environment of many of our customers, manufacturers and distributors who are at pivotal points in their business development and are looking for a client/server Enterprise Resource Planning system to help them streamline their overall operations,” says Wartluft. “The name Pivotpoint is also very a propos for our company as we go through some exciting changes to support our accelerated growth.”

 

The name change was formally announced in April. The culture change was complete. Says Wartluft: “We know our success is totally dependent on our customers’ success using our products and services. Over the past four months, we made significant enhancements to our infrastructure to focus on our customers, their specific business, industry and information technology needs. The new name reflects our dedication to their future and the pivotal business decisions our products and services enable them to make.”

VISION

 

To be the benchmark customers use to measure all other business relationships.

 

MISSION

 

To be the preferred partner of intermediate range manufacturing and distribution organizations, helping them achieve greatness by delivering innovative, world class business solutions and support.

 

VALUES

 

Teamwork – We work together across boundaries to generate exceptional value for our customers. We celebrate individual and team successes.

Respect for each other – We recognize and value the ideas, contributions, view and cultural differences of all individuals.

Integrity – We operate in an honest, ethical and fair way in everything we do.

Excellence – We always strive to exceed our customers’ expectations.

Accountability – We take ownership of our responsibilities. We meet individual and team commitments.

 

MPR의 효용성과 MPR의 미래  < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

과연 PR이 광고보다 효과가 있나?

우리 PR인들이 모두 한번쯤은 생각해보거나, 들어본 질문입니다.

아무도 모를겁니다. 너무나 질이 천차만별이라서… 효과측정에 있어서 질적 접근이라는것은 그 차이가 너무 다양해서 객관성이 떨어집니다.

모 일각에서는 몇 배가 더 효과가 있다라는 주장이 있는데, 제 개인적으로는 이해가 되지않는것이 사실입니다.

 

일반 PR프로그램에서는 이러한 논쟁(광고와 효과를 비교하는)이 일어날 소지가 많이 없는데, 이 MPR(Marketing PR)에서는 종종 그 논쟁이 재연되곤 하지요.

 

모르겠습니다. “알 리즈”같으신분은 브랜드의 창조는 광고의 역활이기보다는 PR 의 역활이 더 강력하고 알맞다고 하셨습니다. 그러나 이것이 지금 우리가 논하는 논쟁을 잠재울것 같지는 않구요..

 

아래의 참고 자료를 보시기바랍니다. MPR의 효용성에 대하여 담담히 분석해놓았고, 다음세기를 맞아 MPR의 미래를 예견하신 Northwestern Medill의 토마스 해리스 교수님의 글입니다.

 

그럼 홍보!

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Marketing PR- The Second Century

 

As the millennium approaches, Reputation Management columnist Thomas L. Harris sees more opportunities than threats for marketing public relations, and the potential for MPR to take an even broader role in the communications mix.

 

Make a note in your calenders! The year 2000 not only marks the millenium but also the beginning of the second century of public relations. If we take public relations historian Scott Cutlip’s word for it, The Publicity Bureau, the first publicity agency in the country, was founded in Boston in 1900. Cutlip fixes the turn of the century as the point when the practice of PR as we know it began in America.

 

As we approach the second century, the practice of public relations is assuming an ever-increasing role as a vital business management discipline. Top management is recognizing corporate reputation as the most important asset an organization has and is turning to public relations counselors to manage this asset. Simultaneously, public relations is achieving unprecedented attention for the essential role it plays in marketing.

 

In his foreword to my book Value-Added Public Relations, Philip Kotler, professor of international marketing at Northwestern University, says that of the five major components of marketing, public relations and direct marketing are receiving the most attention and achieving the most growth at the end of the century. He attributes the growth of public relations to its great versatility, its aptitude for drama, and its ability to break through the information clutter to capture attention and interest.

 

Marketing guru Al Reis, who with his partner Jack Trout authored the landmark marketing books Positioning and Marketing Warfare says that in the past two decades public relations has eclipsed advertising as the most powerful force in marketing and branding. He says the rise of public relations is the biggest story in marketing and is amazed that the media has ignored it. We could, of course, tell him that reporters never reveal the source of their stories, especially if it would require them to admit that their sources most often have the initials P and R. In his latest book The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, Reis says that the birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising. Reis declares that “publicity is more powerful than advertising” because “what others say about your brand is so much more powerful than advertising.”

 

That said, even the most forceful advocates of the role of public relations in marketing cannot claim that PR is the all-purpose solution to every marketing problem or that PR can do the job alone. Public relations is more integral to marketing in some industries than others. There is a reason why technology, healthcare, and entertainment are the fastest growing sectors of public relations. Every marketing situation is unique. There are situations in which public relations drives the process. Conversely, there are others in which public relations plays a less important role and some instances where PR may be inappropriate altogether. In assessing PR potential of a given situation, it is important to realistically assess what MPR can be expected to do and what it cannot be expected to do.

 

As we enter the new century, it occurs to me that a SWOT analysis would help our marketing clients understand what contribution marketing public relations can realistically be expected to make in helping them achieve marketing goals.

 

The SWOT analysis is one of the most valuable analytic tools used in business today . The SWOT model enables companies to assess their corporate and/or brand Strengths and Weaknesses, identify Threats, and determine Opportunities. Strengths are what a company does best in relation to its competitors. Weaknesses are restrictions to what can be accomplished. Threats are situations that may adversely impact the company’s ability to address its problems. Opportunities are situations where the company’s strengths can be leveraged to address its problems. By adapting the SWOT model to public relations, we can more precisely redefine the role it plays in the contemporary marketing process.

 

While our strengths and weaknesses may be self-evident to us, we have all suffered through the experience of working with marketing clients who, for reasons we find maddeningly hard to understand, just don’t get it. Perhaps this scheme will help them evaluate the potential value of PR in context with the other components of their marketing plans.

 

There are times when we may even need to remind ourselves just what we bring uniquely to the party. Let’s begin with our strengths. Our underlying strength is our ability to bring a unique perspective to strategic marketing planning. This perspective is grounded in our understanding to all of the company’s stakeholders, not just its customers. It is a perspective that takes into account the total business and societal environment that impacts brands.

 

Our tactical strength lies in our ability to manage the communication process not only through the media but also in cyberspace and by direct person-to-person contact.

 

Strengths of Marketing Public Relations It is a cost-efficient way to reach target markets. It employs a spectrum of direct and indirect media to reach consumers and influencers. It uses technology to facilitate person-to-person direct communication with target individuals. It makes information available on demand around the clock. It benefits from endorsement of media, analysts, thought leaders, and other independent third parties with no commercial ax to grind. It has a great potential for drama. It achieves credibility through all of the above. It makes advertising messages more credible. It is not perceived as self-serving. It circumvents consumer resistance to salesmanship. It breaks through advertising clutter. Its reach is unlimited by budget constraints.

 

Weaknesses of Marketing Public Relations You can’t control the media. You can’t control words and pictures. You can’t control placement time and place. You can’t use slogans/other advertising devices. You can be bumped by breaking news. You can’t reach the same consumers in the same media with the same words and pictures. The Net is not as intrusive as broadcast media. Consumers don’t come across information. They must seek it out. There are no standard effectiveness measures.

 

Threats to Marketing Public Relations

 

Newspaper readership is declining, especially among younger consumers. The audience for network news is declining. There is declining trust in all news media. The Net lacks credibility as a news source. Consumers must distinguish information from misinformation, fact from fiction, truth from gossip and rumor. Unverified attacks on companies and brands will accelerate. The cyberspace jam will requiring consumers to cut through a chaotic cluttered information superhighway. Public relations could become subservient to marketing and advertising. However, trends in both the media and the practice of public relations are converging, creating exciting new opportunities for marketing public relations to gain in importance in the years ahead.

 

Media Opportunities for Public Relations

 

Around-the-clock news coverage optimizes opportunity to reach target audiences. Shift of audience from network to local news expands local coverage. Direct TV will multiply number of cable channels and expand the variety of targeted television programming. Business coverage will continue to expand on television as more consumers become shareholders. Proliferation of specialized print and broadcast media will be directed to special interest audiences. The Internet will grow exponentially as a major information provider. Online media will gain in importance as a supplement to, or replacement for, traditional newspapers, newsweeklies, and network TV. The convergence of computers and television will greatly strengthen the Net as a primary source for information.

 

Practice Opportunities for Marketing Public Relations

 

Public relations provides complete information that helps consumers make informed purchasing decisions. It can reach all key stakeholders with consistent complementary messages. It excels in building marketplace excitement, anticipation of products, and receptivity to advertising. It enhances and verifies advertising claims. It is a powerful generator of word of mouth. It can counter misinformation quickly and effectively. It can build relationships by using technology to connect companies and consumers. It enables instant and direct communication with consumers, thought leaders, and media. It can employ database technology to reach targeted individuals through E-mail, voicemail, and direct mail. It combines strategic counsel and crisis communications expertise to control damage and restore consumer confidence. It builds preference for trustworthy brands. It closes marketing credibility gap by substantiating salesmanship with information consumers want and need.

 

In the next century, a better -educated consumer will reject slick slogans and salesmanship. They won’t want to be sold. They will want to be told. They will have the tools to seek out information that will help them make informed choices. The explosion of information about products and the companies that market them will be driven by public relations .

 

PR프로그램 플랜및 분석방법< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

제가 일천한 PR 지식을 가지고, 케이스를 모아서 보여드린지도 벌써 두달이 되어가는것 같습니다. 여러분들로부터 많은 피드백을 받으며, 정말 제가 이일을 잘하고 있는 건가에 대한 생각을 해보았습니다.

 

제가 이 케이스들의 게재를 시작한 이유는 미래의 PR인을 꿈꾸는 무한한 가능성의 후배들과, 현장에서 지식적 정보가 부족하여 고민하는 도전적인 동료들을 위해서였습니다. 얼마나, 저의 케이스들이 그들의 고민을 해결하는 유용한 수단이 되었는지는 영원한 의문이 되겠지마는, 저에게 보여주신 많은 격려와 사랑은 제가 가슴깊이 고마움을 가지고 이글을 계속 하게하는 원동력이 되고있습니다.

 

제가 케이스들을 이리저리 뒤져가며, 가장 맛깔스러운 케이스를 고르려 애쓴다는 것을 아시는 분도 계실텐데, 이런 맛난 음식을 차려 놓고 여러분이 방문하셔서 드실때, 어떤 방법으로 드시고 계시는지에 대한 의문이 갑자기 생겼습니다.

 

케이스(영문)의 길이가 너무 길지는 않은지, 내용을 이해하기는 쉬우신지, 또 올바른 케이스 분석방법을 몰라 따분하지는 않으신지…

 

그래서 저는 PR 케이스 분석방법에 대한 유용한 참고자료를 찾았습니다.

 

제가 게재한 몇몇편의 케이스도 PRSA에서 개최하는 Silver Anvil이라는 유명한 PR프로그램 시상대회에서 성공적 사례로 뽑힌 것들이 있었습니다. 그 시상대회의 심판으로 계시는 Mr. Larry Chiagouris가 쓰신 좋은 PR프로그램 플랜및 분석방법에 대한 짧은 글입니다.

 

이글을 읽으시고, 과연 어떻게 세워지는 PR 프로그램 플랜이 완전한 것인가와 함께, 다음부터 계속될 여러 케이스들을 어떤 시각으로 분석해야 하는지에 대한 큰 그림을 얻어보시기 바랍니다. 이와 관련하여 질문이 계신분은 연락 주십시오. 친절히 알려드리겠습니다. Good Luck.. 홍보~!

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Confessions of a Silver Anvil Judge

 

By Larry Chiagouris

Reprinted from The Public Relations Strategist, Winter 1998

 

The Silver Anvil is the most prestigious award a public relations professional can win. But it doesn’t come easy.

 

This year, I had the privilege of serving as a judge for the PRSA Silver Anvil awards. As a marketing strategist and researcher with more than 25 years in the business, I have judged numerous competitions.

 

The Silver Anvil award selection process is as good as or better than any other professional awards program. And the winning entries were all worthy of the awards bestowed upon them.

 

What concerns me, however, is the quality of the entries that did not win Silver Anvils. In some cases, they were so far off in conveying a strong program, that one might conclude that many industry professionals need to revisit what constitutes a successful public relations program.

 

The entry criteria for the Silver Anvils is very specific, requiring documentation in four major areas -research(연구조사), planning(기획), execution(실행) and results(결과). To win an award, an agency must demonstrate that its entry delivered in all four areas.

 

WHERE IS RESEARCH?

Many agencies failed to quantify their entry’s contribution to each of the four areas. Research was clearly the area with the most room for improvement. Several submissions stretched the definition and in the process devalued the role that research can play in defining the goals and target audience of a public relations program.

 

For example, many entries seemed to support the notion that research consists of talking to a few editors about their perception of a company and its products. Other submissions relied heavily on what a top executive said was important to the progress of the product or company. While media soundings and senior executive interviews can be important factors in determining the parameters of a public relations effort, they do not begin to go far enough in terms of research.

 

A strategic public relations program will address the audience that is relevant to the public relations campaign. Many campaigns have multiple audiences, including endusers, employees, members, investors, suppliers, and government officials. Research, when properly utilized, will define the target audience of the campaign and help set priorities.

 

It will often delineate the existing perceptions, needs and opinions of the program’s target audience. Research initiatives should link this understanding to the marketing and brand situation of the product or company. In the process, it should provide a benchmark from which to judge the impact of the public relations program.

 

WHAT ARE THE GOALS?

Not every research effort has to be extensive or expensive. We have developed a number of quick and relatively inexpensive research tools to use when resources are limited. They include qualitative samples, in-house research panels and sophisticated analysis of existing data.

 

The planning stage is the second area addressed on the entry form.

 

Here, the most frequent problem was that the choice of goals and objectives was not justified against the client’s business goals. A public relations program should be developed to support the broader needs of the client, with emphasis on corporate reputation and brand building.

 

The program goals should be articulated in a manner that enables the client to easily evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Many of the entries did not provide any way to quantify progress made towards the program’s objectives – making it impossible to evaluate whether or not the program achieved its goals. The classic example is a statement indicating that a program was designed to “establish the company as a leader.” Again, the lack of documentation leads one to question the relevance of a program based upon poorly articulated goals and objectives.

 

WHERE’S THE SUPPORT?

The third area addressed on the Silver Anvil entry form is the execution of the public relations program. This was where the real fun began.

 

Copies of press kits, videotapes, audiotapes, and collateral of all kinds filled submission binders to the brim. The problem for many entries, however, was the lack of information regarding how promotional materials supported the program’s key messages.

 

Material generated by the creative team often demonstrated a complete disconnection between the creative and strategic elements of a program. The material looked slick but failed to convey key messages to the target audience. Lavish creative efforts on behalf of a low budget campaign points to a lack of planning and poor execution on the part of the staff responsible for the program. It may be hard to imagine, but it is possible overspend on production!

 

The final area on the Silver Anvil entry form is program results.

 

Stating that top management “liked the program” hardly constitutes results befitting a Silver Anvil award winner. To most professionals, letters received from the sales force or customers are also insufficient to be considered for an award.

 

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

After opening several submissions that included clip reports as proof of a program’s impact, I was forced to wonder how some public relations professionals are measuring success? Clips are an indicator of interest on the part of the media, not necessarily of influence on the purchasing behavior or attitudes of the public.

 

To be considered a successful public relations program, there must be evidence that the goals and objectives of a program have been met. For instance, if the stated goal of a program is to raise brand awareness, the public relations agency needs to provide documentation demonstrating that the goal was achieved. A brand awareness survey conducted before and after the public relations campaign would clearly illustrate whether the brand experienced increased consumer recognition or not.

 

Some other examples of quantifiable objectives are a 5% increase in sales, 10,000 new hits a month at the company Web site or one million dollars donated to a nonprofit organization. Not every public relations program is well suited to the Silver Anvil awards. Entries are intended to represent the best a public relations program has to offer in a given year. Submissions that are clearly lacking in one of the four entry criteria devalue not only the awards, but also the public relations industry itself.

 

Programs that win Silver Anvils almost always demonstrate a tight linkage between the goals of the business and the program results. Failing to do that, other efforts will remain nothing more than submissions.

 

PR Campaign< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

여러분들 중 심리학을 전공하신분은 아시겠지만, 미국에는 APA(우리말로는 아파~ 라고 읽나요?..)라는 유명한 심리학 협회가 있습니다. 이번 케이스는 이 협회의 사회적 이슈에 대한 캠페인 자료입니다. 협회 내부에서도 이러한 캠페인을 벌인 동기가 있었습니다. 미국은 아시다시피 정신질환에 대한 분류 및 영역이 굉장히 포괄적입니다. 약간 술을 많이 마셔도 관련 정신치료 프로그램 타령을 하고, 부인을 한대 치면..(물론 큰 일이지만) 또 이상한 치료 프로그램에 가서 이상한 정신 순화 치료를 받습니다.

 

한 발표를 보니, 미국에서 1000명당 정신치료 경험자가 한국인 1000명당 정신치료 경험자보다 약 10배이상 많은걸로 나타났다고합니다. 바꾸어 생각해보면 적절한 정신치료 시스템이 부족한 우리나라에서는 많은 (광범위한 의미로) 정신질환자들이 정상인들과 함께 일상생활을 하고 있다고도 해석이 되겠지요. 그래서 서울시내 거리를 걷다보면 그리 이상한 괴짜들이 많은가 봅니다.

 

아무튼 APA는 사회에서 등한시되는 정신치료에 대한 가치를 개선하고자 전략적인 캠페인을 디자인 했습니다. 이러한 캠페인은 자칫 고루해 보일수 있습니다. 뭐 요즘은 캠페인이 너무 흔해서~, 해봤는데 별로더라구~, 너무 시간도 오래걸리고 돈도 많이들어서~ 등등의 의견들이 계십니다.

 

그러나 쌈팍“한 PR프로그램도 좋지만 문제의 근본을 바탕으로 한 일반적 접근이 더 효과적일 때가 많이 있습니다. 캠페인이라고 다 같은 캠페인이 아닙니다. 그 캠페인을 누가, 어떻게 운영하느냐 하는게 문제이지요.

 

만약 Goal을 확실히 세워놓고 전략적인 캠페인을 효과적으로 운영한다면, 그 보다 더 좋은 Issue Management는 없을 겁니다. 이러한 케이스 스터디를 하는 이유도 항상 똑같은 PR프로그램들을 지루하게 감상하는 것이 아니라, 이 프로그램은 이게 잘못됬고, 이게 잘됬고 하면서 감을 잡는거지요. 똑같은 보도자료도 잘되고 못된것이 있듯이 똑 같은 홍보 프로그램도 우열이 있습니다. 쌈팍한 홍보 프로그램을 찾기전에 우수한 프로그램의 운영에 신경써야 할 필요도 있다는걸 말씀드리고 싶습니다.

 

밑의 APA 케이스도 지루합니다. 일반적이고요.

그러나 APA는 원했던 목적을 달성했습니다. 과학적인 서베이를 통해 사전사후의 목표공중 변화를 체크했습니다. 이것이 효과적인 홍보입니다. 쌈팍해서 할때는 그럴듯 하지만 끝나고서는 아무도 그 효과를 모르는 좀 웃기는 프로그램이 아니었다는 얘기겠지요.

 

토요일이라 그런지 더욱 글이 오락가락합니다. 이해해주세요.

추워지는데 건강 유의들 하시고 저는 그럼 먼저..”홍보!”

 

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Talk to Someone Who Can Help

The American Psychological Association (APA)

 

OVERVIEW

 

The American Psychological Association was faced with several challenges:

 

· Americans’ access to mental health services including psychological services was being curtailed by managed care plans.

 

· APA members were concerned that consumers and other important publics did not understand the value of psychological care.

 

· Mental health services and the people who use these services were stigmatized.

 

The Goal: to create more public awareness of the value of psychological services, to decrease stigma, to encourage appropriate utilization of care, and to lay the groundwork for efforts to increase consumer access to psychological services from insurers and employers.

 

RESEARCH

 

A five-phase research program was designed to gauge the public’s knowledge of and attitudes toward psychology. It provided the foundation upon which the campaign was created. Research represents 50% of the campaign spending for 1995 and 1996. Research included:

 

· Town meetings with APA members held in 34 cities to receive a “situational analysis” from the front lines and to earn member “buy-in” for the campaign and their future involvement in grass-roots campaign activities.

 

· Eight consumer focus groups in geographically diverse cities to explore public attitudes, needs and concerns towards health care, mental health care and psychology.

 

· A 1,200-household national telephone survey to further test public attitudes, needs and concerns expressed in the focus groups.

 

· Pre and post-campaign testing in lead cities: Denver, CO. and Hartford, CT.

 

· Two Final consumer focus groups to test campaign messages and creative materials.

 

Research showed that while Americans value good psychological health and understand its impact on physical health, they are unsure about when and how to seek psychological services and are also concerned about the costs of such care and whether their insurance would pay for it. Research also revealed that while Americans are feeling the negative effects of the threat of job loss, family pressures and the problems of physical illness, they did not always see psychological care as a potential solution to these problems. These findings built the underlying strategy of the campaign.

 

PLANNING

 

Based on what was learned in the research phase, key campaign strategies were:

 

· Target women as the primary health care decision-makers in most families.

 

· Use media relations to multiply the message in a cost-effective and credible way.

 

· Educate consumers about the value of psychological services, define when it’s appropriate to seek psychological care, and decrease its stigma by creating advertising that people could relate to–“real people dealing with real life issues”.

 

· Create more than one direct response mechanism for consumers to learn more about psychological care; each with direct links to appropriate referral services.

 

· Include some tactics that APA members nationwide would see and value so that they would be more inclined to support and implement campaign activities at the grass-roots level.

 

· Make the best use of campaign start-up funds by focusing campaign activities–media, advertising and consumer outreach–in two lead cities to demonstrate campaign effectiveness and build support for increased funding within the association governance and state associations.

 

· Provide APA members with a free campaign kit, a guide for conducting the campaign at the local level, and training to implement the campaign.

 

Campaign Objectives were:

 

1. Expand consumer awareness of the role of psychologists in helping people deal with job stress, health, and family issues.

 

2. Generate consumer responses to an 800-line and a World Wide Web site for more information about psychological services or a referral to a psychologist.

 

3. Generate support for the campaign among APA leadership and rank and file members so they would implement the campaign at the local level during campaign years 2-5.

 

EXECUTION

 

The campaign included:

 

· Media Relations –campaign launch press event in New York with satellite link to two lead markets; an audio news releasee national news feature distribution with an infograph.

 

· Television, radio and print advertising which carried forward the three campaign theme vignettes and told stories about average people finding help from psychologists in coping with real life issues. Ads included a consumer response 800#.

 

· The Help Center–a consumer information center on the World Wide Web included all campaign consumer information material and special features on campaign vignette themes–job stress, the mind-body connection, and family relationships.

 

· A consumer information brochure which answered the public’s questions, as identified in the research phase, about psychological services.

 

· Campaign activities focused in lead cites.

 

· A campaign kit included. technical advice and campaign materials which could be reproduced.

 

· Campaign training was provided in central locations across the country.

 

EVALUATION

 

· Post campaign survey research found increases in awareness in both lead cities: awareness of psychologists as mental health providers up from 52% to 63%; persons believing mental health coverage is important, up from 75% to 82%; Persons who said they would be likely to seek mental health care for family problems-a key campaign theme-up from 59% to 67%.

 

· Over 100 million media impressions were generated including AP, USA Today, Los Angeles Times syndicate, the Washington Post, CNN, local newspapers, and numerous health and women’s magazines, between February 1996 and January 1997.

 

· 223,308 “hits” were recorded by visitors to the campaign consumer help center on the World Wide Web between February 1996 and December 1996.

 

· More than 7,000 calls to the 800-line by consumers between February and June 1997–the months of most campaign activity.

 

· In Colorado calls to the state referral service QUADRUPLED during the months of campaign activity; calls to the referral service in Connecticut DOUBLED.

 

· 27 states have engaged in campaign activities or projects; 2,763 calls were received from APA members who wanted a campaign kit or other information about the campaign; 750 APA members attended grass-roots campaign training sessions.

PR의 효과 측정 2  < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

최근 IABC(Internationa Associate of Business Communicators)와 HR경영 및 커뮤니케이션 컨설팅 펌인 Watson Wyatt의 연구 보고서를 보면, 기업에서 행하는 커뮤니케이션활동(PR포함)의 효과 확인유무를 묻는 질문이 있었습니다. 미국의 많은 경영자들이 이 물음에 답한것으로 되어있는데, 그 한 부분으로 결과는 이랬습니다.

 

* 당신의 기업은 얼마나 자주 커뮤니케이션 효과 측정을 하십니까?

답변결과)) 계속 21%, 일년에 한번 17%, 가끔 34%, 정식 측정은 해본적 없음 28%.

 

무척 많은 기업들이 자신들의 커뮤니케이션 활동 자체에만 관심을 두지, 그 효과에는 별 관심이 없다는 얘기인것 같습니다. 이런 경우는 정말 많은 곳에서 그 증거를 접할수 있습니다. 수년간 정기적인 캠페인 광고를 기획하면서 효과측정은 단한번도 없었다는 분도 계시고요. 대화를 하다보면, “그때 그 PR프로그램 진짜 멋졌어요, 뭐 또하나 그런거 없을까요?”하시는 분들도 계십니다.

 

물론 사람들의 기억에 오래 남는 게 좋은 프로그램일수도 있겠지만, 당시 그 프로그램의 기획시 설정한 목표를 달성했었는가에 대한 의문은 남아있습니다.

 

PR프로그램을 자기 위안으로만 삼는 경우는 저에게도 무척 흔합니다.

일단 괜찮게 했으니까.., 주요 일간지 몇개에 이정도 나갔으니까..

 

IPR의 지난 자료를 보신 분은 아시겠지만, PR Output과 PR Outcome은 다릅니다.

그밖에 다른 여러 측정 분야가 있지요. 만약 우리가 애써서 기획 수행한 PR프로그램의 효과가 다양한 방면에 이렇고 이렇게 효과와 영향력을 행사했다”고 수치화된 자료를 윗분들이나, 클라이언트들에게 내놓는다면 이보다 더 우리 PR인들을 신뢰화, 전문화 하는 길이 어디 더 있겠습니까.

 

보도자료 배포 후 기사 게재량 측정도 물론 중요하지만, 일간지 10개에 기사가 실린것과 일간지 7개에 실린것이 보도자료 배포시 목적했던 결과의 달성에 어떤 영향적 차이가 있는지를 궁금해 하지 않는다는 건 이상한 얘기입니다.

 

기획 부터 실행, 그리고 효과 분석에 개선안까지 모두 책임지는게 우리 PR 업무 프로세스였으면 좋겠다 해서 말씀드립니다.

 

또하나의 연구 속 질문에 이런게 있었습니다.

 

* 무엇이 당신의 기업이 사용하고 있는 가장 보편적인 효과 측정 방법입니까?

답변결과)) 정식 기법이 없다 26%, 커뮤니케이션 오딧(Audit) 31%, 사원 서베이 51%, 경영적 판단 40%, 변화된 행동에 대한 객관적 측정방식들15%.

 

실제로 우리나라의 경영자 분들도 이와 별다르지 않으시리라 보고 있습니다.

기업의 커뮤니케이션적 활동과 노력에 대한 Visible한 결과 및 영향 제시가 있을때, PR에이젼시들은 진정으로 전문집단의 대접을 받고, 인하우스 인력들은 제 2의 IMF가 와도 “소비성향 분야 인력”들로 분류되지 않을 겁니다.

 

한번 이에 대한 깊은 전문인들로서의 고찰이 필요합니다.

 

지난 이슈에 약속 드렸던 IPR의 두번째 보고서는 용량상 게재가 불가능해 보입니다. 4-5개 정도로 나누어 게재도 가능하겠지만, 여러분들이 짜증 내실 것 같아서.. 이에 관심있으신 분들께서 연락 주시면 이메일 해드리겠습니다. 참고하시라고..

 

 

PR의 효과 측정 1 

 

이 바로 앞 이슈로 케쳠 사장님이신, Drobis씨가 하신 말씀 가운데 가슴 깊이 남는 것 하나가 (물론 모두 버릴것 없는 지적이셨지만) 바로 PR의 효과 측정에 대한 얘기였습니다.

 

어떤 기업도 눈에 보이지 않는 것에 아무 의미 없이 투자하지는 않습니다.

그러나 아이러니컬 하게도 많은 기업들이 효과가 측정되지 않는 PR에는 꽤 아까운 돈들을 투자를 합니다. “PR은 가랑비 같아서 장기간의 노력을 해야 겨우 소기의 목적을 달성할수 있다.” 맞는 말입니다. 이는 때때로 우물에서 숭늉을 찾으시는 분들께 적절한 명언이되고 있습니다. 그러나 가랑비도 어느정도 맞고나서는 젖은 옷을 짜내어 얼마나 많은 빗방울을 지금까지 맞았는지 확인할 필요가 있습니다.PR 은 상품이며 과학이기 때문입니다.

 

Communications은 Art다. 학부시절에 가슴 찡~하게 듣던 말입니다.

PR도 Art입니다. 그러나 그 시행 결과의 올바른 측정이 가능할때 진정한 Art일 수 있습니다.

 

제가아는 한 교수님께서 이런 말씀을 해주시고는 했습니다.

“Professional Service를 파는 너희들이 성공적인 결과를 달성하도록 클라이언트를 도왔다면 사람들로 부터 “전문가!”라는 칭호를 듣는다. 그러나 비관적인 결과를 초래했을때는 “사기꾼!”이라는 말을 듣는다.”라고 하셨습니다. 저는 이 말씀을 가슴 깊이 새기고 있습니다. 사기꾼이 되지않으려고…

 

PR인들은 결과의 측정이 없는 상품을 팔고있습니다. 소비자인 클라이언트들도 그냥 그렇게 넘어갑니다. 물론 효과측정을 하려면 참 복잡합니다. 귀찮습니다. 또 어떤 프로그램은 효과측정이 불가능하기까지 합니다. 그렇습니다.

 

그러나.. 저희가 Professional로 취급을 받으며, 명예롭게 은퇴하기 위해서는 꼭 필요합니다. 항상 하나의 서비스 팩키지 정도로 생각하면 그냥 쉬울겁니다.

 

앞으로 효과 측정에 대한 클라이언트의 적극적인 투자와 에이젼시의 능동적인 관심이 필요합니다. (경쟁력을 위해서..이전 이슈에서 언급된 것 기억하시죠?)

 

이번과 다음 이슈는 PR 효과 측정에 대한 이슈를 다루기 위해 미국의 가장 권위 있는 PR효과 측정 연구소인 플로리다의 Institute For Public Relations의 “Guidelines for setting measurable public relations objectives”를 싣습니다. 올해 5월경 쯤에 발표됬었습니다. 내일은 제작년에 발표되어 PRSA랑 도용 시비를 벌이기도 했던 또하나의 명작” “Guidelines and Standards for measuring and evaluating PR effectiveness”를 소개해 올리겠습니다. 기대하십시오.

 

한국 사회에서 PR인들이 최고의 전문가 집단으로 인정받을 때를 기다립니다.

그럼 먼저 “홍보!!!”

*************************************************************************

PR의 효과 측정 1 (자료) 

<<참고자료>>

 

GUIDELINES FOR SETTING MEASURABLE

PUBLIC RELATIONS OBJECTIVES 

c 1999, THE INSTITUTE For Public Relations Research & Education

 

This Booklet Summarizes The Ideas, Thoughts and Suggestions

Of An Institute for Public Relations Research & Education

Special Task Force Seeking To Set Industry-Accepted

Minimum Criteria For Evaluating PR Outputs and Outcomes

 

 

CONTRIBUTORS

 

 

Katharine Delahaye Payne

The Delahaye Group, Inc  Mark Weiner

MediaLink

Dr. James E. Grunig

University of Maryland Dr. Walter K. Lindenmann

Ketchum

 

————————————————————————–

This manuscript was prepared by Forrest W. Anderson and Linda Hadley

 

First Published, May 1999

 

WHY SET MEASURABLE PR OBJECTIVES ?

 

The goal of virtually all public relations (PR) is to help an organization achieve its “business or performance objectives.” How does PR do this? It begins by setting measurable objectives.

 

Measurable objectives in public relations do two things:

 

1. They facilitate and support business objectives, thus demonstrating that PR activities support the business or performance goals and are thereby “strategic”

 

2. They enable PR practitioners to show they have achieved what they set out to achieve, and thereby demonstrate accountability

 

The reason to state measurable objectives is that if you do not, you are likely to suffer the following consequences:

 

Where the process of goal setting and evaluation seems to have become perfunctory or sporadic over time, there seems to have been the greatest downsizing in [corporate communications] staff and activity. (Barlow 1993, 8)

 

 

Only one practitioner – a public affairs advisor for an oil company – said that his department has no written goals and objectives. He described a situation of great instability in which the business units of his organization are driving the goals of public affairs, while corporate public affairs is being downsized drastically. (Hon 1998, 118)

 

SETTING MEASURABLE PUBLIC RELATIONS OBJECTIVES 

 

Link PR Objectives to Business and Organizational Objectives

 

Getting a clear understanding of an organizations business or performance goals is the PR practitioners first step in setting measurable objectives for a communications program, yet it is probably the most often overlooked. When management asks what it is getting for its PR investment, it is asking for evidence that communications activities have advanced business goals. If public relations practitioners do not have a clear understanding of what these business goals are, public relations can succeed only by chance.

 

Business goals might include:

 

1. Increasing share price

2. Increasing sales

3. Increasing market share

4. Increasing productivity

5. Reducing employee turnover

 

How do we obtain this information? In the ideal world, senior PR staff has been at the table with the rest of senior management helping to set the organizations objectives. So senior PR staff knows. However, in some organizations, PR has not yet achieved this level of influence. If this is the case, other avenues for determining business goals are to engage senior managers in discussions of the organizations goals and the factors managers think will impact achieving these goals. Ask to see business plans and marketing plans. Talk with those involved in other communications disciplines about what their programs are designed to accomplish. Do your own research into industry issues and trends and your target audiences. Make this kind of situation analysis a routine element of program planning.

 

Of course, understanding the organization’s business goals is easiest when the public relations practitioners who develop the communications plan take part in setting the organization’s overall objectives as well.

 

To help ensure that PR objectives are linked to business objectives, ask the following questions:

 

1. What is management trying to achieve and what will help or hinder its success, from a communications perspective?

2. How are stakeholders likely to respond to management decisions?

3. What response would management like from target stakeholders?

4. How can PR programs help achieve these goals?

5. What is the most effective role for PR in relation to other communications disciplines? What can PR do more effectively than advertising, promotions, management consultants, etc.?

 

Answers to these questions will help identify business goals and guide PR efforts in the most productive directions.

 

 

Tieing Objectives to Measures of Program Success

 

The foundation for effective program evaluation is setting objectives. Program evaluation is the process of measuring progress toward objectives. If the objectives are unclear, the evaluation will be weak. Further, the creation of objectives is critical to managing expectations for the program, especially where specific targets for outcomes are set (e.g., increase awareness by 20 percent).

 

 

Creating Measurable PR Objectives

 

In the case of objectives, wishing (or simply calling something an objective) won&Otilde;t make it so. An objective must

 

1. Specify a desired outcome (increase awareness, improve relationships, build preference, adopt an attitude, generate sales leads, etc.)

2. Directly specify one or several target audiences

3. Be measurable, both conceptually and practically

4. Refer to “ends,” not “means.” If your objective outlines a means by which to do something, (often prefaced by the words “leverage” or “use”), you have a strategy, not an objective.

5. Include a time frame in which the objective is to be achieved, for example, by July 1.

 

In general, process goals, such as “get publicity,” “launch a product” or “create a brochure,” make poor objectives. They do not relate to broader organizational goals and are not measurable in any specific, concrete, or truly meaningful manner. (“I did it”/”I didn&Otilde;t do it.” does not count as measurable.) A useful way to replace these “process” objectives is to ask yourself, “What is the purpose of (insert objective).” The answer to this question is likely to move you closer to a clear, actionable objective.

 

Examples:

 

Publicizing A New Line of Women&Otilde;s Clothing

 

Let’s suppose the purpose of “get publicity” is to help sell a new line of women’s clothing. While PR cannot ensure sales, a sound publicity program can generate the awareness and possibly build the motivation necessary for sales to occur. So, “get publicity” could change into “increase awareness of our new line of women’s clothing within the next six months among women in the top 10 ADIs, between the ages of 40 and 64, with household incomes of $50,000 and up.”

 

Note: By spelling out the proposed publicity campaign in this very precise manner, all five of the requirements we had listed above are covered, and the PR effort now becomes something that can be specifically measurable.

 

Informing Motorists About Changes Pertaining To A New Toll Road

 

When a privately financed and developed toll-road first opened in a given location, it turned out that traffic was far below that which had been anticipated by the developers. The business objective of the agency that was responsible for managing the toll road clearly was to increase traffic as quickly as possible. Research showed that potential users of the toll road — residents of the nearby communities — did not like the look of the existing toll structures and also were concerned about noise and air pollution. The toll road authority immediately took steps to improve the look of the road’s toll structures and also erected barriers as a means of limiting and controlling noise and air pollution. The toll road authority set for itself an objective of seeking to increase traffic to 30,000 cars per week day within a six month time frame. The communications program that was developed and put into place, was directly linked to that objective — that is, within a six month period of time, the aim was to educate and inform a large enough proportion of residents of neighboring communities about the changes that had taken place, that would eventually lead to an increased number of motorists considering the possible use of the new toll way, as an alternate means of travel.

 

Note: By linking the public education program to the business plan, by adhering to the exact same time frame of six months, and by targeting community residents, a set of measurable communications objectives was put into effect.

 

Restoring the Reputation of A Distributor Of Computer Products

 

A distributor of computer products and services had achieved an enviable reputation among those in the financial community and in the business press, chiefly through the successful marketing of its products to four very specific audience segments.

 

In an effort to expand its market share, the company made a dramatic foray into a sales channel in which it was not at all well known. The venture failed, and this unexpected turn of events had an extremely negative impact on the manufacturer’s overall reputation on Wall Street. Even though the company was continuing to experience success in market areas in which it had dominated in the past, the unsuccessful venture left financial analysts and those in the media with the impression that perhaps the firm was no longer as successful an organization as it had been perceived to be in the past.

 

The organization’s management regrouped after the failed venture and began to not only meet, but also exceed, its sales goals among the other four target audience segments to which it had been selling its products and services in the past.

 

What management needed from the communications program was to increase the number of financial analysts with positive attitudes toward the company. Specific media placement and financial community targets were set and a one-year time schedule was implemented.

 

Note: The PR objectives that were set were very specific, very measurable, and were clearly tied to the organization’s business objectives

 

Determining The Value Of A Corporate Event Sponsorship Program

 

For years, a manufacturer and distributor of cellular phones had actively been involved in sponsoring and promoting a local golf tournament, which received national exposure one particular weekend each year. Although the company knew that linking its name to the tourney was generating a good deal of goodwill, the firm&Otilde;s business officers challenged the PR people to link the publicity effort to the sale of cellular phones to golf enthusiasts.

 

In this case, a long-term PR effort with only limited “business” objectives, suddenly was given a new mission: link the PR to possible sales. To do so, the PR professionals commissioned research “around” the golf tournament — conducting research with a sample of golf enthusiasts who were familiar with and likely to watch the tourney, either in person or on television, prior to the holding of the event to determine their interest in and possible purchase of cellular phone products, followed by a follow-up poll immediately following the event, to determine what impact, if any, the company’s sponsorship might have had in possibly generating sales interest. The before-and-after impact of the company’s publicity and promotional efforts relating to the golf tourney also were measured.

 

Note: As in the previous examples, the target audience was clearly defined in advance and the data that were collected were quite specific, and directly relevant to the organization’s business objectives

 

Should A New Product Be Promoted With Ads, Publicity or Both?

 

A distributor of meat products was planning to distribute a brand new product during a given period of time, but the marketing staff was not certain if it would be more effective to promote and publicize the product only with paid advertising, only with “free” publicity, or with a combination of both.

 

In an effort to resolve the dilemma, the company’s advertising and public relations departments both were asked to develop materials to be used in the promotional effort. In setting their objectives for their efforts, both departments clearly recognized that they ultimately would be judged not just on how much “exposure” they achieved through their communications dissemination efforts, but also by whether or not what they did actually “moved” product.

 

To precisely document and measure the effectiveness of their efforts, the departments identified four somewhat similar communities, then introduced the new product in the first community using advertising techniques only – introduced the product in the second community using publicity techniques only – introduced it in the third community using a combination of both – and introduced it in a fourth community with no advertising or PR support at all — in an effort to set up a “control” group.

 

Before and after research was designed and carried out in all four communities, to precisely measure consumer knowledge of and attitudes toward the company and its various meat products prior to the new product launch, and two weeks after the launch.

 

Note: This particular effort gave the companys marketing managers precisely what they needed: hard, measurable data pertaining to which approach worked best, which the company could then use for its marketing and communications efforts overall.

 

Developing A View Book For Use In Student Recruitment

 

The public relations officer of an academic institution was asked to prepare a booklet that could be used by the college to more effectively market and promote the institution to a certain segment of its prospective students.

 

Loads of materials about the college already existed — including a catalogue, various brochures that described different curricular offerings, and fact sheets that offered background information about different degree and non-degree programs. The new booklet was deemed necessary to enable the school to reach one special segment of the population with which the college had had only limited success in the past: representatives of a certain racial and ethnic minority group.

 

In planning for the development of the new promotional booklet, the PR department focused on such issues as the book’s eventual distribution to the audience that was being targeted – the desired receptivity to and interest in the contents of the book on the part of that segment of the public – and on the ultimate value that the book might generate for the school, by resulting in increased inquiries, possible applications (and eventual enrollments) by those in the target audience population.

 

Note: By specifically defining all of the functions that the new book was intended to fulfill, by focusing not only on its contents, but also on its possible means of distribution, the likelihood of it being received, understood and effectively used by those in the target audience group, and the ultimate purpose of the booklet as a means of motivating those in a particular sector to possibly consider applying to the school, the college public relations officer was able to set — in advance — very specific measurable objectives that the book’s creation was intended to meet.

 

Be Realistic

 

Be realistic when you develop PR program objectives. A common problem for PR program goal-setters is the temptation to over-promise or to fix on objectives like “drive consumer sales” or “build awareness of the product” without much attention to whether there is anything in the program that could achieve such an objective.

 

Proper attention to program evaluation can help ensure that objectives are realistic. Consider, for example, a $50,000 recipe service campaign. If the objective were to build national awareness of the food product featured in the recipe campaign, the most likely means to measure success would be a national survey to track consumer awareness of the product and the campaign. (Build awareness; measure change in awareness.) This kind of evaluation is unlikely to show measurable increases in national awareness simply because we are designating some 200 million people as our target audience. It might be better to promise something that can be achieved with $50,000, such as building the brand’s visibility among key food reporters and editors, a much more limited — and realistic — target audience.

 

Other ways to be realistic include checking industry benchmarks, comparing notes with colleagues who have done similar projects and reviewing secondary literature. One place to look for comparative benchmarks is in the award application archives of PRSA and CIPRA.

PR 컨설팅의 경쟁력에 대하여  < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

이번 이슈는 약간 일반적이지 못한 이슈입니다.

국내에서 PR컨설팅을 하시는 극소수의 분들께 국제적인 PR컨설팅의 경쟁력에 대하여 큰 그림을 보여드리려 이 이슈를 준비하였습니다.

 

요즘 몇몇 단체에서 PR 과정들을 잇달아 열고 있읍니다. 그많큼 PR에 대한 사회적인 관심이 커지고 있다는 의미겠지요.

 

사실 저는 현재가 PR의 Identity Crisis라고 보는 사람들 중의 하나입니다.

현재 우리 PR인들(독립 에이젼시)이 아웃소싱의 파도속에서 전문인으로 인정받을수 있는 길은 엄청난 자신에 대한 직업적 투자가 있어야 할 것입니다. 그리고 업무상 더이상 보도자료등을 충실히(?) 배포하는 “단순 용역”의 일상업무에 만족해서는 않되겠습니다. 많은 인하우스분들이 일부 PR에이젼시들을 비딩이라는 명목하에 가격 경쟁을 시키고, 그 시도에 또 충실히도 디스카운트 경쟁을 벌이는 우리 에이젼시들을 보면서, 이 PR 산업이 과연 우리나라에서 얼마나 이어질수 있을까 하는 의문이 듭니다.

 

요즘에는 PR컨설팅이라는 말이 또 업계에 일반화 되고 있습니다.

물론 우리 업계가 살아남을수 있는 고부가가치의 비지니스 섹터가 되겠지만,

우리나라 같이 지적 서비스에 대해 값을 쳐주지 않는 분위기와 그의 빌미가 되는 에이젼시 인력들의 평균적인 비전문성이(물론 저를 포함합니다.) 이러한 업계 비젼을 암울하게 합니다. 

 

그래도 나름대로 열심히 연구하시고,현 업무에 적용 시도하시는 여러 젊고 패기있는 우리PR적 형제들께 더욱 분발하자고, 지난주 추석 때 유럽의 알프스 근처에서 열린 세계 PR에이젼시 사장님들의 컨퍼런스 중 세계적 PR에이젼시 케쳠의 CEO인 David Drobis씨의 연설을 싣습니다.

 

그는 우리 PR업계가 점점더 경쟁적이어만 가는 시장에서 살아 남을수 있는 길을 제시하셨습니다. 인하우스 분들도 귀담아 들어야 하는 부분이 매우 많습니다. 현재 PR컨설팅을 수행하시며, 많은 벽에 부닥치시는 모든 동료분들께 이글을 소개해 드리고 싶어 이렇게 공개해 드립니다.

 

힘냅시다.

PR컨설팅의 경쟁력 편에서 말씀드린 연설문입니다. 홍보~~

************************************************************

Setting Standards to Move Us Ahead – A Significant Opportunity

Remarks by David R. Drobis, Senior Partner/CEO, Ketchum

 

 

Good morning. It is great to be here in the beautiful Swiss Alps with so many people at the top of the public relations profession  and at a time when the public relations business is also moving to great heights.

 

I’m honored to be part of this historic meeting  certainly the first time so many of the world’s leading consultancies have gathered to assess the state of the business of public relations as we look into the 21st century. For this pioneering meeting I want to congratulate ICO and, particularly, Peter Hehir and Jean-Leopold Schuybroek for their vision, perseverance and hard work.

 

As we prepare to enter the new millennium, globalization and technology are changing business and, certainly, the business of public relations. As the digital economy moves into high gear, our businesses are being transformed  to the point that today we may not even recognize who we will be tomorrow.

 

This Summit gives us the opportunity to work together to shape our future… to determine how our industry will adapt to the world around us… to define our markets and to set new standards for our success.

 

There are two reasons why this is so important.

 

First, public relations is becoming big business on a global scale  at least four billion dollars this year. If we are to continue growing at fifteen to twenty percent, we must learn to interact across our languages, cultures and time zones. We need to move towards more common ways of doing things so that we gain greater awareness and understanding for the universal importance and value of what we do.

 

The second reason is that other professional services also recognize the value of communications and relationships in an information economy and are challenging us like never before. Management consultants, accountants, lawyers and even executive recruiters will seek to diminish our role with clients?relegating public relations professionals to implementers of some far removed strategy developed by other business counselors.

 

We’re already seeing this in the advertising world. Management consultants have taken over marketing strategy discussions that were once the domain of the agencies. Now we’re seeing firms like PriceWaterhouseCoopers offering reputation awareness services. And the HR consultants like Towers Perrin are building communications strategy practices. All appear to take dead aim at public relations.

 

Yes, our industry faces a whole new range of competitors. But, just like us, our competition is equally exposed to shifting business trends. And their threats are our opportunities. We are quite capable of protecting our status and even expanding our sphere of influence with clients. We don’t need to overreact to this encroachment on our business.

 

What do we need to do?

 

That’s what this summit is designed to do. And I’d like to help set the stage by examining how other business advisors  particularly management consultants  match up against the public relations business. Let’s see what we can learn from their best practices… and from their failures. And then we have to decide what standards we should set forth to fortify our core business and to expand our market share of the professional services industry.

 

For this presentation we looked at four categories of standards critical to successful professional services firms. They are:

 

Professional Development. How do others go about attracting and developing talented individuals? And once aboard, what types of career paths exist?

 

Business Practices. What is expected by the clients in service agreements  in new business engagements? What are they really paying for?

 

Process and Measurement. How good of a job do we do at measuring our “success” compared with management consultants? Can we  or should we  validate our results with more numbers and statistics? How do we standardize our services and still retain our creativity?

 

And, finally

 

Ethics and Public Service. Do other professional services have different ethical standards, either through regulation or professional codes? Is the public relations industry more susceptible to ethical challenges?

 

As we studied these four categories, it became quite apparent that professional development drove the standards of the other three. That’s not surprising because we’re all in the people business. The talents we bring to the client are the real product of professional services. Later several speakers will talk in greater detail about recruiting and professional development, but I want to set the stage with a few observations.

 

Qualification standards and recruitment are perhaps the most significant points of departure between public relations and other professional services. All have better defined academic credentials or professional accreditation for entry. Consider, for example, that lawyers and accountants can move into public relations without meeting defined professional standards, which public relations professionals would need to satisfy if they moved in the opposite direction. Even management consultants, who have no accreditation requirements, have made the MBA an essential qualification.

 

And the major consulting firms have perfected the art of college and university recruiting. Andersen Consulting will hire roughly thirteen thousand college graduates this year. And McKinsey & Company remains the most preferred employer among business-school graduates, according to a recent survey by a Swedish university research company.

 

We’ve heard the stories about how the consultants cater to graduates, wooing them with six-figure salaries and sizable signing bonuses. Some of it is true. Some of it is hype. On average, consultants do offer better compensation packages than public relations. But more importantly, management consultants have made campus recruiting a top priority across the entire organization.

 

We may not compete with management consultants on quantity and salary today, but certainly we can compete on quality of life and excitement and creativity of assignments. Consultants are already losing some of their money-motivated talent pool to business start-ups and other “dot com” companies.

 

Consider where we are  at the forefront of communications and technology. We can offer college and business school graduates equally exciting opportunities  the ability to effect change through communications. We are in a terrific position to offer young people opportunities they’re looking for to influence the way companies operate in the public arena, while also satisfying their idealistic nature. Public relations encourages social responsibility and contributions to the public interest in a way management consultants cannot.

 

The key is exposing people early to the challenging business of public relations. That means expanding our internship opportunities, nurturing students as they continue their studies, and expanding our visibility on campuses.

 

And now our training programs are beginning to rival those of the large management consulting and accounting firms. Within the past five years, most of the major public relations consultancies have made substantial commitments to training. As an industry it would now be useful for us to consider training standards that we can all agree to and then implement as needed within our organizations.

 

The next area I want to look at is business practices. This is another defining measure of professional service firms, particularly management consulting which, like public relations, is basically an unregulated industry. The marketplace, not some government agency, defines good business practices. New ideas create new opportunities. That’s the way it should be.

 

Like management consultancies, many public relations firms have started to define their services along industry or practice groups that emulate their clients’ business. But we have a long way to go to create the industry and specialty knowledge base of the McKinsey’s and Andersen’s that will give us the authoritative position they enjoy.

 

This commitment to research and process gives management consultants tremendous competitive advantages. It promises the opportunity to counsel a broader array of entities within a corporation, choosing the client with the stature, power and budget to work with for each engagement. It increases pricing of services and facilitates selling new business.

 

Each of the major management consulting firms  and most of the minors ones  have invested millions of dollars in knowledge sharing systems. The objective is the same: consultants “dump” core knowledge into best-practice databases. Remember that most of these firms have adopted an industry focus. These databases reflect that same structure.

 

The power of such knowledge is far-reaching. Tapping into past case studies allows consultants to “get smart” on different industries quite rapidly  professionals are billable from day one and they use their industry knowledge to grow their business with clients.

 

In new business development, the major management consulting firms take a very pragmatic approach: thirty percent of new business should come from existing clients  what we all call “sell through” business. Another forty percent should come from direct client referrals. The remaining thirty percent can be characterized as true “new” business development. Management consultants rightly believe that concentrating most of their business development on satisfied customers leads to higher profitability. It’s simple but true.

 

Cost-of-sale remains the most difficult measure in professional services  and most firms will pay an exorbitant price to get new business. But they will not give away strategic counsel.

 

PricewaterhouseCoopers has embarked on a “global relationship” selling effort. The goal is to make PwC the professional services firm of choice for Fortune 50 companies. PwC expects at least $75 million a year in fees from these clients. And they’re investing heavily to get it.

 

The point is: professional service firms in the future won’t just walk away when an engagement ends. From day one, they will aggressively pursue new opportunities with existing clients.

 

We’re now seeing other innovations in selling new services. Ernst & Young launched its popular “Ernie” online consulting service two years ago. The premise is fairly straightforward: Ernie targets mid-sized companies that wouldn’t normally buy E&Y’s higher-cost consulting services. For a flat rate of about $20,000/yr, clients can “ask Ernie” anything about their business or industry: What’s the best leasing arrangement for office space in New York? How do we expand our distribution channels in Germany? The list goes on.

 

A core group of consultants use technology to pull answers from E&Y’s existing knowledge base. Tougher questions are posted to 21,000 E&Y advisors  accountants, consultants, everybody. Answers are delivered via email in two days or less. Resources on best industry practices are archived on a members-only web site.

 

The business generates a few million dollars a year. More importantly, Ernie allows potential clients to sample E&Y’s brainpower. Some Ernie clients will ultimately buy higher-value  and higher-margin  consulting services. The rest are quite satisfied with their “consultants on call.”

 

E&Y has figured out a way of turning some of the marketing costs back onto the client. It’s a novel form of up-selling. Even better, E&Y is able to tap an otherwise inaccessible market  mid-sized companies  by leveraging technology and knowledge.

 

The public relations industry needs to devise more aggressive solutions to deliver value while still maintaining profitability. As we all know, value is perception  the “eye of the beholder.” We can increase our value by defining our processes better, showing clients we have a formula for success and a way for measuring our success.

 

Management consultants have an advantage in this area. Figuring dollars-gained to dollars-spent is simpler in the cost-cutting business. Consultants wrap results around exclusive processes. Five forces. Re-engineering. Value-based management. Some of the larger consulting firms spend millions of dollars showcasing their processes and thought leadership.

 

The McKinsey Quarterly often challenges Harvard Business Review in presenting leading management theories. Seven of the top ten consulting firms publish journals that directly address clients’ needs.

 

Public relations can be equally thought provoking. But outsiders perceive public relations as not having a defined process, a commitment to research, or a standard measure of results. We certainly need to correct that perception. We should be promoting our own industry’s ability to solve crucial business problems. Research on management communications needs to demonstrate linkages to business performance and stock price defined by process tools that we brand. This goes to our third area  process and measurement. Certainly we need to standardize our measurement processes.

 

More importantly, public relations firms must commit to measuring results, whether the client pays for it or not. Despite all the current discussion about measurement, this is not a new issue. My colleague, Dr. Walter Lindenmann, has written extensively on measurement tools for public relations. The highly respected textbook, Effective Public Relations, by Scott M. Cutlip and Allen H. Center  first published in 1952  covers the topic.

 

In the U.S., the Institute for Public Relations established a Commission on Measurement comprised of the leaders of PR research in corporations, agencies, academia and research firms. Our industry also benefited greatly when the IPR, PRCA and PR Week took the leadership in the U.K. with the public relations research and evaluation tool kit.

 

Measurement tools aren’t lacking; commitment is  and, so, to a degree, is funding. Many consultancies, on their own, and a few corporations, individually, have already allocated funds to begin to build models for PR measurement. But for greater credibility in our field, this needs to be done as an industry. We, as an industry, need to explore ways to raise funds so we can develop truly credible public relations measurement models that we can all support.

 

Calculating success must be meaningful to the client. Management consultants have perfected the art of value creation. My management consulting friends impress clients with heady return-on-investment ratios of one hundred to one  for every dollar spent on consulting, clients will realize one hundred dollars in revenue or profitability.

 

Ridiculous? Not when you back up your claims with results. The examples are numerous:

 

 

Bain & Company has compiled the “Bain Index,” which measures the stock performance of current and past clients.

 

Andersen Consulting delivers nearly a 150% increase in supply chain process improvement for worldwide retailer Best Buy. If Andersen fails, the firm immediately knocks 20% off its fees.

 

Cambridge Management Consulting will instantly offer prospective clients at least 32 specific case studiesacross multiple industries  that detail millions of dollars in cost savings or revenue increases.

 

 Public relations should be able to make comparable dollar comparisons.

Now let’s talk about pricing our services.

 

The ability to derive value has a direct effect on pricing for our services. All too often, the public relations industry gives away its most valuable asset  knowledge and experience. Our strategic advice shouldn’t be perceived as an add-on to our implementation services.

 

We’ve set up our business in a way that clients pay about the same rates for vastly different products. Crisis communications strategy versus product announcements. We charge the same hourly rates yet these are hardly interchangeable services. Executive recruiters grouse about the same problem. Their percentage-of-salary fee for executive placements rewards transactions, not advice. It’s frustrating, particularly for high-end recruiters like Spencer Stuart, who counsel CEOs and senior executives every day.

 

To combat the problem, Spencer Stuart recently launched a stand-alone research and advisory service that helps CEOs and boards measure executive leadership compatibility within proposed mergers. It works on retainer.

 

We need to take a page from other professional advisors. We should separate our services  implementation from strategy, knowledge development, creativity  and charge accordingly. Management consultants compete on price for commodity services. But most will not discount for significant strategic advice. It devalues the service ?and the advisor.

 

In the Internet age, brands are precious. And we’re at the center of brand management and awareness.

 

We help clients sustain their reputation. And we are at the heart of relationship building  the foundation of public relations.

 

What is the value of the third party endorsement we bring to communications? This is the area of the communications business we own. Our business is built largely on influencing infomediaries so our messages are delivered more credibly.

 

What’s that worth? Let’s stop leaving it up to our clients to guess.

 

Finally, I want to turn to ethics and the ethical standards that can really define our profession and enhance its credibility. A recent survey by the U.S. trade publication, Inside PR, noted that ethics is being taken very seriously among the major firms with most including ethics training in their professional development programs and with many requiring their employees to sign codes of ethics. There are many ramifications of ethics from client service issues to client conflict issues to human resources initiatives and actions.

 

But, as editor Paul Holmes points out, the practice of public relations  our goal to help organizations understand their publics and then align themselves with the public good  is ethical in and of itself  and sets us far apart from other professional disciplines. Our commitment to openness and accuracy in the media is no less high than journalism’s ethic.

 

Other professional services are struggling with ethical debates. The executive recruiting industry is a good example. Four years ago, the Association of Executive Search Consultants  the headhunter’s best-known trade group  set out to rewrite its ethical code. The old charter mixed business practices and philosophies, creating an archaic “do’s and don’ts” list that didn’t reflect the times.

 

After an eighteen-month study, the group adopted a separate, high-minded code of ethics, and another, narrowly focused set of “best” business practices. It was a compromise that acknowledged reality. The group lost a couple of members who thought the two-pronged approach skirted firm ethical boundaries. Others wondered how far a trade association should go in telling members how to run their businesses.

 

The public relations industry doesn’t even need to go that far.

 

Professional services like executive recruiting, management consulting and public relations should be self-regulating industries. No single trade group can  or should  impose ethical standards or best practices over the entire industry. We’re a business-to-business industry. We have to police ourselves. Our industry’s morality is based on how we operate, not what we say.

 

That’s why I’m not advocating a worldwide code of ethics, an accreditation or “quality” program or enforcement “courts of law,” which would be chaotic for the public relations business. What we do need to do as an industry is to agree on the value of promulgating and enforcing ethical behavior within our organizations and making sure that ethical self-regulation is a major differentiator for us. We need to make sure that each of our firms has a written code that our employees know about, understand and agree to. It is not enough just to say that our people all know ethics is important. They don’t know it unless they see it, live and breathe it as part of the culture.

 

We’ve talked a lot about other professional services today. How we compare as an industry, how we can learn from others. Looking to the future, we asked our closest competitors  the management consultants  the same question that we are attempting to answer: What is the greatest threat facing your industry, as well as the greatest opportunity?

 

For management consultants, the dizzying pace of technological change is the most vital concern. Three years ago the term “e-business” would draw a blank stare. Now everyone is clamoring to claim the “e-guru” mantle.

 

On a grander scale, many consultants agree a sudden drop-off in the talent pipeline concurrent with a drastic increase in size is probably the biggest threat facing their industry. Some of these larger consulting firms rival their clients in size  Andersen Consulting will likely surpass $10 billion in revenues next year. Building additional services to drive growth will prove taxing and, perhaps, self-defeating. Sophisticated buyers will demand superior  not just adequate  services.

 

Consulting firms must also like us address work-life issues and develop career paths at all levels to control turnover. Even a five-percent decrease in incoming consultants would severely affect the business. And retention can’t be ignored. Fifteen to twenty percent attrition is healthy ?more than that can be painful.

 

You’ll be seeing more consulting firms go public as a way to compete with the dot.coms and investment bankers for limited talent. Stock options may prove attractive, but the quarterly pressures of public ownership present its own problems.

 

As far as opportunity, that’s a loaded question. Management consultants thrive on change, and we’re certainly living in chaotic times. As one managing partner pointed out, “we’re in the solutions business; demand is unlimited because there are always problems to solve.” While management consultants see a continuing need for their counsel, they also recognize the requirement to complement that counsel with strong execution. And this is why they are beginning to develop more communications services.

 

That’s good news and bad news for public relations. It means we have more competition, but it also means the value of our services should rise as those who are used to far higher pricing structures provide them.

 

Our future depends on increasing the value of our services and credibility of our business so we can attract better people, pay them better and keep them in public relations.

 

And now is a good time for us to accomplish that. Technology  and the Internet  specifically  offers us unlimited possibilities in the way we run our agencies as well as the way we practice public relations. Communicating during organizational change and crises has become a highly valued management discipline that we own and must continue to own.

 

How do we take advantage of this opportunity?

 

We need to provide exciting and rewarding challenges for highly talented individuals, develop recruiting programs to attract them, and invest heavily in professional development to help them throughout their careers.

 

We need to invest in the development of business processes and consistent measurement protocols and commit to them. We need to be valuing and pricing our services differently. We are giving too much away in the process of generating business. It is devaluing the strategic and very important advice we deliver.

 

We should make ethics a competitive advantage, built into the cultures of each of our organizations so that ethical behavior is known as a key value in our business.

 

And, finally, we need to understand that our vulnerability lies in complacency, that it’s in our hands to fail꿳ot the market, or the media, or our competitors, or our clients.

 

I’ve seen our profession and the business of public relations evolve in many ways over the last three decades.

 

Perhaps the lines between professional services were a bit more distinct back then. Maybe we recognized our boundaries too much  boundaries between public relations counselors and management consultants, boundaries between international markets.

 

This is no longer a U.S. business or a U.K. business or a European or Asian business. It is a global business that can be very rewarding for all of our firms and the people within them. And it is no longer a business that has any disadvantages in competing for a larger share of the professional services market. The 21st century should be an exciting one for all of us  if we make it so. And if we do it together.

Internal Communications  < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

지난번에도 말씀드린것 같이 Change Management의 핵심은 Employee Communications 또는 Internal Communications입니다.

현재 미국에서 널리 공유되고 있는 Internal Communications의 패러다임을 아래글에서 구경하실수 있습니다. PR인들이 이제는 그들의 고유한 업무들을 넘어 더욱 조직 발전을 위한 Momentum이 될수 있다면, 과연 그 같은 PR프로그램의 실행 목적은 무었이어야 하는지, 어떠한 새로운 시각을 가지고 자신을 개발해야 하는지, 또 어떠한 자질이 우리들에게 필요한지를 잘 설명해 주고 있는 아주 깨끗한 글입니다. 문장하나한가 버릴말이 없는 좋은 글입니다.

 

바로 이전 글에서 말씀드린 전략적 PR 컨설턴트 Grates씨의 뉴스레터에 들어 있던 글인데, 새삼 그 명쾌한 비젼설정에 감탄하며, 이렇게 여러분들께 나누어 드립니다.

 

아래의 글의 깊이와 범위는 대학원 1학기의 강의로도 소화하지 못할 거대한 것입니다. 잘 프린트 하셔서 출퇴근이나 등하교시에 음미 바랍니다.

 

어지러운 제글을 읽으시느라 수고들 하십니다. 그지만, Grates씨는 다르더군요..

 

그럼 전 “홍보!”

***********************************************************************

 

Moving Beyond Employee Communication…

Making the Quantum Leap from Crafting Messages to Maximizing Organizational Effectiveness

 

Internal communication is no longer about monthly newsletters, quarterly update videos, intranets, themes, events and employee suggestion boxes. Internal communication is evolving to a new level, where the focus is on accelerating decision making, challenging people’s knowledge, and providing information that leaders, managers and employees need to make decisions and launch initiatives. Going forward, strategic internal communication will be about improving organizational effectiveness, starting with leadership behaviors and managerial actions, not employee messaging…

 

When did the notion of employee or internal communication become “chic?”

 

In a recent article, a respected public relations trade publication lamented the fact that the “largest public relations firms have failed to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the burgeoning importance of internal communication.”

 

That neglect seems to be waning as evidenced by the recent spate of announcements by large public relations firms that effective internal communication is in fact an important component to organizational success.

 

Pretenders vs. Contenders

Interestingly, this new found “discovery” of employee communication as a critical management tool by large public relations firms has resulted in the formation of a “strata” in terms of type, scope and thinking associated with delivering counsel, advice and services.

 

“There is now a strong distinction among the many firms touting employee communication as a practice,” explained Gary F. Grates, President of GCI BoxenbaumGrates, a unit of GCI Consulting, the recognized leader in strategic internal communication and change management. “While we welcome the additional emphasis on internal communication, it is safe to say that what is currently being delivered is, in fact, almost a decade behind the times,” Grates noted. Employee communication has evolved into maximizing organizational effectiveness. It means that professionals in this field need to have a strong knowledge and appreciation of business and organizational behavior including management theory, management models and behavioral psychology. Against this backdrop is an understanding of leadership and its intersection with organizational communication,” Grates stated.

 

Grates, who has been personally practicing internal communication since the early 80s, and the firm, which has been at the forefront of progressive internal communication practices since the early 90s, states that savvy clients must discern between those that profess an understanding and expertise in this area (Pretenders) and those that legitimately have the interest, credentials, experience and base of knowledge (Contenders).

 

“The litmus test is the firm’s ability to view internal communication as a management philosophy,” Grates concluded. Successful internal communication efforts are focused on management development and attention and integrated with other important functions of the business including marketing, sales, product development and production.

 

A Look Back

First and foremost, internal communication practices within agencies have long been viewed primarily as a stepchild;a view that was repeated at most corporations. With a charter that included “fostering goodwill and creating understanding of leadership’s objectives among employees,” the internal communication function was typically relegated to producing events and parties, distributing trinkets, celebrating anniversaries and other milestones, producing messages, publishing monthly newsletters, writing executive speeches, and implementing other “feel good” activities. In other words, it was the official propaganda machine for the organization.

 

This was in keeping with the times. From the 60s to the early 80s, internal communication reflected the organization’s bent on producing enough products to meet demand. As Tom Peters has said, “management during this period could not screw up if it tried.” In that post-World War II environment, the focus was on production, manufacturing, efficiency and distribution.

 

Of the same genre, yet on a somewhat different level, was benefits or HR communication. Practitioners of this type of internal communication focused on disseminating specific information, including instructions and updates related to benefits, pension plans, insurance, wellness campaigns and other company-sponsored programs. In both cases, the focus was on distilling information from the top level down and using a variety of vehicles to disseminate it to employees. While these types of communication helped to maintain employee awareness and understanding of certain messages and information, the internal communication function did little to increase understanding, affect behavior or otherwise direct people’s attention to the future.

 

For some, this is still the reality. Depending on whom you talk to, traditional employee communication is still being practiced, in more and less sophisticated ways, at many companies and agencies.

 

Yet, as today’s savvy business leader now knows, yesterday’s idea of employee communication is no longer plausible in a world where technology and the hectic pace of business are redefining how companies communicate both internally and externally and where people are more sophisticated (e.g., mature and immune to corporate speak). As a result of this pressure, communication has been changing accordingly, particularly during the late 80s and 90s, when communicators began to shift the focus from message delivery to message development albeit against a backdrop of corporate initiatives, strategic goals and financial targets.

 

The early 80s have been described as the undoing of the deals which formed the conglomerates in the 60s and 70s. Spurred by the oil crisis, the influx of foreign products, services and investment and a new instrument, junk bonds, which gave rise to a new breed: the raider.

 

Junk bonds and leveraged buy-outs provided new financial instruments and strategies that forced poor management’s out and organizations to determine the real value of their enterprises.

 

Reengineering, restructuring, M&A activity and the like began to dominate the business headlines as leaders scurried to eliminate waste and improve shareholder value.

 

This resulted in the need to recruit, retain and motivate talented employees so as to produce the value inherent in the organization. It is during this time that internal communication began to transform itself.

 

Internal Communication as a “Critical Organizational Priority”

Now, as we stand on the brink of a new century, the true transformation of internal communication &#8211; from necessary function to critical organizational priority is already underway.

 

As Alvin Toffler, noted futurist and author has stated, society is moving from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. In this new environment where information is abundant, competitive advantage lies in an organization’s ability to affect the behaviors, attitudes and actions of its employees. The end result is a workforce that can make decisions quickly, accurately and consistent with the business strategy.

 

At GCI BoxenbaumGrates, we believe a more accurate depiction of internal communication can be described as the concept of improving “organizational effectiveness.” In this framework, communications is practiced in a strategic manner &#8211; accelerating decision-making, challenging people’s knowledge, and providing relevant and timely information.

 

From this perch, internal communication is focused on understanding the true underpinnings of operational and performance including:

 

* Through what operations is structure actually designed?

* Through what operations does a leader impact a manager, employee and customer?

* Through what operations do rewards and consequences affect change?

* How are decisions made in the organization?

* How is strategic planing defined and used in the organization to effect change in operations and behavior?

* How is risk managed?

* How clearly is success defined?

* What are the interactions of individuals within the corporate environment?

* How is information generated, shared, interpreted and used?

* How is the organization contributing to self worth, self-actualization?

* What are the values of employees throughout the organization? How do they match with organizational goals?

* How much of the marketplace customers is part of the internal dialogue?

 

Another characteristic of this environment is that people are constantly reevaluating their skill sets and reinventing themselves. In terms of credibility, it’s experience that counts, not words, and people are judged by their deeds, not just their intentions. Importantly, leadership does not exist solely to lead; rather, leaders are there to assist and facilitate others in getting results.

 

Put succinctly, organizational effectiveness, or the institution’s ability to operate profitably, functionally, socially, strategically, innovatively and humanly, is the next management frontier. This new management model brings together the right mix of communication, leadership and team building to create an openness and an exchange that’s fostered by the right technologies and the right skill sets.

 

What’s more, organizational effectiveness is a behavioral-based model, embedded in a belief that sharing the right information with the right people will result in decisions being made for the organization. The concept is so powerful, in fact, that savvy corporate managers recognize organizational effectiveness as the foundation for distinct and sustainable competitive advantage of the future.

 

Institute for Excellence Think Tank Formed

In 1998, in an effort to help lead a new generation of communicators, leaders and managers into this new frontier, Boxenbaum Grates, Inc. formed the Institute for Excellence in Employee-Management Communications, A Think Tank on Organizational Effectiveness. The Institute was designed as an umbrella entity for continuous learning, improving organizational effectiveness, and meeting business objectives through strategic internal communication.

 

Based on its initial work, the Institute recently reported that organizational effectiveness is a function of eight key considerations, all of which intersect with strategic internal communication:

 

Talented employees;

Motivated employees;

Sound business strategy;

Competent leadership;

Clear-cut decision-making;

An ability to communicate clearly;

Customer/marketplace focus; and,

Progressive systems to monitor the prior seven considerations.

The key variable in this new model, however, is leadership. Leadership is responsible for ensuring that all considerations are in place and appropriate. Consequently, the linkage between leadership and strategic communication is direct and especially profound. For leaders to be successful, they must build relationships and here is where strategic internal communication can make or break the paradigm.

 

A Distinct Difference

Establishing itself as the leader in this category, GCI BoxenbaumGrates has developed a proprietary methodology for delivering valuable counsel and services to strategic business thinkers seeking unconventional solutions to business issues.

 

This methodology comprises four areas:

 

Leadership: Through its actions, style and decisions, leadership can instill the appropriate mindset around the organization’s strategy, set the managerial and operational tone and provide continual focus on the future.

 

Management: This group is charged with making the organization successful through the behaviors, actions and attitudes of its people.

 

Structure: This is the design for the organization’s strategy and the roadmap for employee understanding and decisions.

 

Communications: Is the enabler of leadership, the dialogue of management and the oxygen for employee existence within the organization.

 

Approaching almost any client assignment from this vantage point provides GCI BoxenbaumGrates with the proper frame-of-mind and the ability to discern between problem and symptom, providing clarity and focus to leadership planning and decision-making.

 

New Research: The Missing Link

While employee opinion studies and internal newsletter readership surveys have long been tactics of employee communication departments, resulting recommendations could only be crafted against what was measured. A key component to practicing strategic internal communication is relevant, targeted research and analysis. It is at the core of leadership credibility, planning and activity.

 

Now more, than ever, business leadership must discern between problem and symptom as it relates to organizational performance. Oftentimes, incredible amounts of time, energy and resources are spent dealing with symptoms and never attacking the root cause.

 

“Such misguided efforts have plagued managerial effectiveness since many initiatives and communication campaigns were based more on intuition than fact,” said Dr. Robert Berrier, president of Berrier Associates, Inc. (Narbeth, PA) one of the country’s leading research firms. “This laissez-faire approach can no longer survive in today’s competitive environment.” In an exclusive partnership with GCI Consulting, Berrier Associates employs primary and secondary research in order to gain compelling insights, impactful programming and measurable results.

 

Through progressive, state-of-the-art proprietary research designed to obtain the deep insights and understanding needed to engage in meaningful communications and managerial behaviors, GCI BoxenbaumGrates has set itself apart from the professional service firms who have claimed to have expertise in this area.

 

Strategic Internal Communication & “Organizational Ability:”

It’s How You Think vs. What You Do

There’s no doubt about it, strategic internal communication can and does enable organizations to effectively and efficiently deal with a changing environment by engaging a highly-skilled workforce to assimilate and interpret new information quickly for competitive advantage.

 

Yet, as we look out today, few professional service firms are practicing this new level of communication. Indeed, most still package their tactical experience under a “strategic” banner in hopes that this one-size fits-all approach will generate the results needed to drive an organization. To move beyond this narrow definition of internal communication and practice this new model, firms must bring a varied and deep understanding and appreciation for a variety of non-traditional disciplines and backgrounds, including business strategy and trends; management theory and models; opinion formation and influence; research; organizational architecture and structure; credibility; relationship building; organizational imprint or genetics; organizational decision-making; power of symbols; behavior; reputation and image-building. But what will it take to create this type of necessary sea change?

 

As Peter Drucker, the noted management guru recently observed, “the new information revolution is about…redefining information; what is needed is new concepts. In one enterprise or another, top management people during the last few years have begun to ask, ‘What information concepts do we need for our tasks?’” The implication for public relations, according to Drucker, is that the function must evolve to become the ears not the trumpet of the new organization. In the future, the focus of communication will be on explaining and interpreting and on determining new ways for managers and employees to connect and keep the dialogue going. Instead of worrying about their grasp of the organization’s mission and vision, leaders and communicators will work to ensure employees’ awareness and knowledge of customers, the company’s positioning, the organization’s health and their daily contribution.

 

A Look Ahead

The advent of Toffler’s Third-Wave Information Society has produced an economy that is challenging everything we have grown accustomed to relationships, management models, expectations, services, products, wealth-creation. From a strategic internal communication standpoint, providing context, direction, information and sound management decisions are essential to helping organizations thrive in this ever-changing landscape.

 

This means professional service firms must move quickly to understand and apply new thinking to traditional management concepts. New ideas and techniques must be explored and applied to handle today’s and tomorrow’s issues and opportunities created by the information-based economy.

 

A glimpse at the organization of the future reveals that strategic communication will facilitate a culture of learning, where people share their best (and worst) practices; performance appraisals are used to assess learning activities; flexibility and risk taking are rewarded and people are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning, budgets and opportunities.

 

Granted, the new frontier may represent a brave new world for the internal communication function, yet only if communications professionals recognize the need and accept the responsibility for making the quantum leap from necessary function to critical organizational priority.

Change Management (Transformation Communications)3  < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

며칠의 휴식을 지내고 다시 이렇게 Change Management의 세번째 글을 올립니다.

오늘은 연휴중 하루이기 때문에 간단히 하나의 글만 소개 할까 합니다. 미국의 커뮤니케이션 컨설턴트 중에 Gary Grates라는 분이 계십니다. 그는 전략적 커뮤니케이션의 다양한 방면에 대한 전문성으로 “권위”를 인정받고 있습니다. 현재 미국전역에 커다란 컨설팅 펌을 경영중이며, 거대한 기업군들에게 강력한 영향력을 행사하는 저희 같은 조무라기 PR인들에게는 큰 선생님이자 선배님입니다.

 

저도 학교에 있을때 그분에게 몇번 어렵사리 연락을 취해 겨우겨우 그의 비서로부터 자료제공을 받아 본적이 있습니다.  저의 Strategic Communications컨셉은 많은 부분이 Mr. Grates로 부터 왔다고 해도 과언이 아닙니다. 저의 글을 읽어 오셨던 분들은 오늘 그분의 글이 제가 주장해 왔던 것들과 얼마나 흡사한것 인지를 아실수 있으실겁니다.

 

약간 길지만, Change Management에 관심을 가지신 분은 잘 읽어 보십시오.

Change Management는 확실히 떠오르는 PR분야의 신천지입니다. 수요도 많고, 그 영향력도 엄청납니다. 관심을 가져보시죠.

 

오늘 Grates선생의 글은 Momentum에 관한 글입니다. Change에 있어서 Momentum은 Change의 존재 유무와도 관계가 있습니다. 과연 Momentum은 무었일까요..

어떻게 우리 PR인들이 조직내에서 변화를 위한 Momentum을 창조할수 있을까요.

Take a look…

 

그럼 “홍보!” in 추석

*******************************************************************BUILDING MOMENTUM: A PRECURSOR TO BUSINESS GROWTH  

by Gary Grates

 

For today’s leading corporations ; and for every would-be leader ; constant growth is imperative. Yet growth can’t be sustained without a deliberate corporate-wide strategy to build momentum. For communications professionals the opportunity has never been greater to link strategic communications to a company’s growth plan.

 

It’s the force behind nearly every business decision, from mega mergers like Disney & Capital Cities/ABC to dramatic downsizing initiatives like Sunbeam and headline-making executive appointments, like AT&T’s John Walter. It’s the mantra being chanted in boardrooms, on factory floors and during annual meetings of companies worldwide. “It” is the relentless quest for growth. But while growth may be every company’s number one priority, many chief executives and management teams are still uncertain about how to achieve and sustain the growth needed for leadership ; or even survival ; into the 21st century.

 

Consider two specific problems that hamper the corporate pursuit of growth and the leadership position. First, many businesses are still suffering from the effects of the “downsizing decade,” including lost expertise, sagging company morale, and in some cases, customer concerns about the company’s reliability. Second, the increasingly competitive global economy means that growth in itself will not be enough to secure or defend a leadership position. Any company developing a strategy geared to maintaining its current pace will be left behind because the pace is constantly accelerating.

 

What many of today’s CEOs are discovering is that growth is merely a measure of where their company is at a specific time in relation to its past performance and the current competition. A more relevant measurement ; what Boxenbaum Grates refers to as “The Momentum Factor” ; helps to determine whether the company aiming to capture or keep the lead position is not only growing, but has the built-in momentum to carry itself to the head of the pack as the pace speeds up. Building and sustaining this momentum is where strategic communications has the greatest opportunity to play a significant role.

 

Defining Momentum

 

Momentum begins with an attitude. It starts at the top and then spreads throughout the organization to impact everything from product development and employee compensation to customer service and supplier relationships. In physics, momentum is defined as the force of motion. In business, momentum becomes a key measure of whether a company is growing. This key to corporate survival is hard to grasp because it’s a soft concept made up of feelings, beliefs and even perceptions. That’s why momentum is often considered fragile ; it can be created or destroyed by the fleeting thoughts and actions of dozens of different constituencies, from shop floor employees to top management, from suppliers and customers, from the media and the general public to competitors and government regulators. On a more positive note, momentum can also be harnessed and directed by a carefully orchestrated strategic communications program.

 

It’s easy to spot companies with momentum ; and those without it. Take for example the case of Coca-Cola and IBM and their sponsorships of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Twenty corporate giants, including Coke and IBM, each spent $40 million as official sponsors. Yet, IBM, in particular, very likely lost ground because its widely touted expertise and equipment couldn’t track results and other data as promised, triggering internationally publicized complaints from Olympics officials.

 

Many experts believe that this highly visible ; and very expensive ; incident represented a loss of momentum for a company who was on the upswing. Coke, on the other hand, used the Olympics effectively to continue to fuel its momentum. The company’s all-out “fans-oriented” publicity campaign not only sold lots of Coke, it also created the sort of positive experience that helps to build momentum for Coke Chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta’s commitment to “adding strength to the world’s strongest brand” and “making Coca-Cola the preferred beverage everywhere.” The momentum built by Coke was a result of a fully- integrated, coherent communications strategy that worked together to support Coke’s standing as the world’s strongest brand.

 

Creating Momentum

 

If momentum is the precursor to business growth, how can a company create momentum? By its very nature, it’s possible to manipulate momentum to achieve the desired effect ; in this case, growth. As many successful organizations have shown, the most effective way for a company to create momentum is to use strategic communications to define and disseminate the core message and then, foster an ongoing dialogue with key constituencies to make sure the message is working and enabling the company to move forward.

 

As a company in dire need of a dramatic turnaround in the 1980s, Goodyear provides an excellent example of a company that used communications to build momentum and fuel growth. While Goodyear’s Aquatred tire was a breakthrough product with the potential to revolutionize the marketplace, a closer look reveals that it was the way in which the company chose to market the tire that helped to change the tide for Goodyear. In lieu of a multi-million dollar advertising launch campaign, Goodyear opted to use a strategic communications campaign to create word-of-mouth excitement for the “wet traction” tire among its employees, dealers, automotive manufacturers, the automotive press, the financial community, and ultimately, consumer demand for the tire.

 

This powerful strategy enabled Goodyear to increase its brand equity, enhance its reputation with multiple audiences, and best of all, increase sales. As Goodyear CEO Stanley Gault noted during a post-launch debrief, the Aquatred launch helped to prove to everyone from the investment community to the automotive media to the financial press to dealers and competitors that Goodyear was “on the go.”

 

For any company poised to move into a “growth phase,” there are several considerations to keep in mind. First, there must be an understanding that a well-designed and carefully managed strategic communications program will be vitally important at all times, particularly for companies pursuing rapid growth and market dominance. Second, even during periods of calm, an effective communications program will earn dividends in the form of knowledgeable, more productive employees and more loyal customers. And finally, communications is essential to creating momentum, which in turn is essential to building and sustaining growth. For companies looking to create a pro-growth environment, top management’s pro-communications stance must be replicated throughout the ranks. This includes taking to steps to re-educate management teams whose mindset and compensation are linked to downsizing and cost-cutting, and instilling the new wave skills of growth management. These leadership-focused skills include a better way of dealing with customers, employees, suppliers, communities, media, and products themselves, and focusing on the positive values of communications, momentum and growth.

 

Top-down corporate strategy should include activities that will grab attention, build excitement and commitment, and generate measurable results within the organization and externally in dealing with customers, suppliers, and other groups such as government regulators and the general public. Successful implementation requires a growth plan with measurable goals; a company-wide communications program that aligns internal and external messages with company goals, and a continuous monitoring and evaluation system that incorporates weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual planning, goal setting and results measurement.

 

Setting Momentum in Motion

 

It may seem spontaneous to some, but momentum is the result of a well-planned and well-focused communications effort. Typically, momentum starts at the top, and if it’s communicated successfully, it permeates every aspect of an organization. The case of the turnaround of Continental Airlines offers a powerful example of how President and CEO Gordon Bethune used communications to fuel momentum and ultimately, growth, when he took over the ailing airline.

 

By proclaiming a simple, yet meaningful, message for all target constituencies ; “Continental flies on time,” Bethune was able to reenergize employees and customers and initiate an ongoing dialogue that helped to propel Continental back to the black. As part of his communications campaign, Bethune walked the picket lines to talk to pilots, set up an 800 number for employee complaints, instituted a profit-sharing plan, started paying bonuses based on the airline’s on-time record, replaced the “customer-complaint” department with the “revenue-protection” department, and visited 15 cities to hand-deliver the message. Committed communicator Bethune quickly made it clear that he knows where the buck stops;and where the dollars start. He initiated the process of reviving a moribund Continental by making a personal and corporate commitment to putting the customer first in every way from flying on time and handing out aspirin to delivering bags to the right airport;every time. Just as importantly, Bethune recognized that to generate the ideas and focused energy needed to make this happen, “We have to rely on the judgment of the people who really run this airline;the gate agents, the baggage handlers, the flight crews, the reservationists.” There’s ample proof of the rewards for Continental and its stockholders. An Air

 

Travel Consumer Report from the Department of Transportation on the seven largest U.S. carriers ranked Continental #1 for on-time arrivals, #1 for baggage handling and #1 for fewest complaints for both the fourth quarter of 1995 and the first quarter of 1996. A J. D. Power/Frequent Flyer magazine independent survey in June ranked Continental tops among the nine major U.S. airlines in customer satisfaction on flights over 500 miles ;making Continental the first airline to jump from the bottom of the list to the top in a single year. Now earning record profits, Continental has moved from near bankruptcy to posting five straight record quarters and a tidy $750 million in cash.

 

Regaining Momentum

 

As noted earlier, another characteristic of momentum is its fragility ; for many of the world’s most admired companies, momentum is easy to build and even easier to lose. Take for example the case of the Walt Disney Company. By the early 1980s, the tremendous momentum created by Walt Disney had almost come to a halt. The Disney brand had been allowed to languish until Michael Eisner and Frank Wells teamed up in 1984 and decided to leverage the brand through an aggressive and highly effective communications program ; internally and externally. The effort served to refuel the company’s momentum and ultimately, helped to transform Disney into one of the world’s fastest growing and most exciting business empires.

 

When it comes to rebuilding momentum, Coca-Cola’s Chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta is another dedicated disciple of using orchestrated communications ; and an unorthodox approach ; to fuel growth. Challenged by competition externally and by the risk of complacency internally, Goizueta took the unusual step of bypassing Madison Avenue in 1991 and turning to Creative Artists Agency, Inc. (CAA), the Hollywood talent agency in 1991, in an effort to reenergize the Coke brand and infuse the Coke “experience” with the excitement that had been lacking. Throughout his tenure, Goizueta has been very successful in developing a simple, energizing message and delivering it using a focused, non-stop strategy. According to Goizueta, it’s a three-step approach: State expectations. Meet or exceed those expectations. Repeat.

 

Goizueta isn’t alone. Several top executives are using strategic communications to manage change and capture growth. In today’s competitive environment, the formula for a successful growth plan includes:

 

Crafting the original vision statement ; such as on-time flights in the case of Continental Airlines ; based on working closely with core constituencies such as employees and customers

Using a simple message as the foundation for action

Maintaining open communications by listening and responding to employees and the marketplace

Creating excitement and energy surrounding new products, new initiatives, new ways of doing business to build the commitment ; and momentum that will fuel and sustain growth

In terms of regaining momentum, there is perhaps no better example of a company that effectively communicates a simple message than Chrysler. Whatever Chrysler does is designed to be consistent with the company’s desire and strategy to “focus on its core automotive business.” Chrysler’s sharp focus explains the more than $1 billion the then cash-strapped company paid to create the Chrysler Technology Center that was a key to Lee Iacocca’s plan to reinvent Chrysler. The “cars-are-core” focus explains why Chrysler sold off Thrifty Rent-A-Car, Electrospace Systems and Chrysler Technologies Airborne Systems. It’s also the driving force behind Chrysler opening up its previously off-limits Design Studio to show off the cars of the future and position Chrysler as the manufacturer with the foresight and vision to build them.

 

But the most important change at Chrysler was attitudinal. Overall direction, in the form of a clearly and repeatedly stated focus, came from the top. And in a move considered radical for the automotive industry, Chrysler instituted a company-wide two-way communications program to ensure that ideas could flow freely and quickly in all directions. The result of this momentum? Chrysler ended the second quarter of FY’96 with $8.8 billion in cash and 16.2 percent of the car and truck markets (up from 14.8 percent the previous year). Industry analysts and car buyers agree that Chrysler simply builds better cars today. Yet at the same time, Chrysler’s success drives home three obvious, but often overlooked, lessons: First, building better products begins with linking communications to a management mindset; secondly, integrating communications to a company’s growth strategy; and third, best products in the world will fail to achieve their full potential in volume and value without a communications program to deliver regular and credible information about them and the organization to the world at large.

 

Sustaining Momentum

 

Today’s leading companies win because they have successfully integrated strategic communications into their corporate culture. Their leaders realize that there are no longer two separate worlds ; the internal company world and the external customer, investor and supplier worlds. All must be handled as parts of a whole where partnering has become not only a reality, but a necessity for competitiveness and growth. Unless there is an established pattern of excellent communications within the company, there will not be adequate communications with customers, suppliers and investors. The competitive world of tomorrow necessitates an ongoing dialogue involving many people and many interests. This is how great companies create momentum and maintain growth.

 

So, how’s your business building momentum?

 

((부록))

 

Chrysler’s CEO on Momentum:

 

Robert J. Eaton, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer

 

“In 1991, Chrysler Corporation did something no other company has done before. We took the entire company apart from top to bottom and restructured it to focus on one thing;the customer.

 

We understand customers will leave for the competition for any number of reasons, big or small. That’s why we started our Customer One Program… Customer One involves training every member of the Chrysler organization about customer focus. The results have been tremendous and continue to form the backbone of our success.

 

Another way to hold on to our customers is to offer a superior product. So we got rid of old traditional production methods and developed integrated platform teams. Designers, marketers and engineers work together from the conceptual stage of a new vehicle all the way through actual production. This saves time and money and most important, eliminates mistakes before production. We’re also empowering our teams so they can feel true ownership in their work and be proud of their accomplishments.

 

“Customer feedback is also vital. We ask customers what they like best about particular competitors’ models, like trunk space or seat comfort. We then benchmark our cars with the best of the best and then go one step further. In addition, our Customer Advocate Program allows dealers to get in instant contact with engineers here at the Tech Center if any problems should arise. This way problems are addressed quickly and correctly the first time.

 

“Don’t get the idea Chrysler is content to be where it is, because it isn’t. In fact, we’re giving employees “stretch goals:” an improvement in some aspect of production by at least 50 percent. This is a huge commitment and, when achieved, adds incredible value by reducing the number of steps it takes to get things done. We’re also working more closely with our suppliers, sharing new ideas, and improving production methods.

 

“So, where is all this change taking Chrysler Corporation? Well, if you ask any Chrysler employee, you’ll get the same answer;to the top. That’s right, our goal is to be the number one car maker in the world by the year 2000! We’re on the right track. It’s just a matter of maintaining the momentum.”

Change Management (Transformation Communications)2  < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

오늘은 두번째 시간입니다.

 

Change Management의 핵심은 어떤 분야가 되겠습니까?

Employee Communications입니다. Change의 핵심이 인간이기 때문이지요.

Structure를 바꾸는 이유는 그 Structure자체가 경쟁력을 생성하는게 아니라 그 Structure에서 일하는 사람들(Employee)을 더욱 경쟁력 있게 일할수 있게 분위기를 만들어 주는 겁니다. 조직이 Downsizing을 겪어 기름기를 뺀 Slim한 조직으로 다시 태어낳다면, 그 조직속에 남아있는 생존자들에게는 더욱 잘 일할수 있는 환경을 만들어 주어야 합니다. 그러나 실제로는 생존자들에게도 더욱 더 허리띠를 졸라매라는 식의 다운사이징 형태가 많지요.

 

이런방식은 성공키 힘듭니다. 생존자들의 충성심을 이끌어 내기위해서는 이상적인 업무 환경과 더욱 폭넓은 Empowerment와 나아진 봉급을 제공해야 합니다. 그래야 그들에게서 이전 보다 향상된 생산성과 업무의 효율성을 거둘수 있습니다.(중소기업 사장님들 명심하시죠.. 구조조정이 사람을 짜르고, 남아있는 봉급자들의 봉급을 줄이는 것 만은 아닙니다.)

 

많은 구조조정의 노력이 실패를 하는데, 그 원인을 분석해 보면 많은 퍼센테이지가 변화의 시기에 Employee들과의 커뮤니케이션 실패에 그 원인이 있었습니다. 구조조정을 윗사람들이 칼을 휘두르는것으로 이해하던 시대는 지났습니다. 구조조정은 조직의 발전을 위한 미래지향적, 발전지향적인 조직 변화활동입니다. 그리고 이는 단편적이거나, 일회적 활동이 아닙니다. 끊임없이 연속되어야 하는 조직의 운명같은 겁니다.(흔히들 구조조정이 완결됬다는 말을 쓰는데, IR을 하면서 투자자 및 주주들에게 투자에 대한 확신을 주기위한 달콤한 말은 될찌라도, 진정한 의미에서는 거짓말입니다.) 보십시오, 앞으로도 우리나라의 기업들은 외국기업들과 경쟁하며, 더욱 많은 사람들을 다운사이징(구조조정적 의미내에서) 할겁니다. 그들의 조직구조 자체도 계속 개편 또 개편될거구요. 그래야 삽니다.

 

이렇게 변화하는 조직속에 가장 중요한 Employee들은 충분한 커뮤니케이션적 지원을 받아야, 그 해당 변화를 성공적으로 이루어 낼 수 있습니다. 그들이 불필요한 인식과 두려움을 갖는다면 이 변화의 결과는 뻔한거지요.

구조조정에 있어서 Employee들이 가지는 감정으로는,

해직에 대한 불안감

미래에 대한 두려움

회사에 대한 충성심 저하

생산성 저하

업무 효율성 저하

회사에 대한 화(Angry)등이 있습니다.

 

이러한 Employee들의 반 변화의 감정은 정직하고(Honest), 시의적절하고(Timely), 정확(명확)한(Clear) 커뮤니케이션적 노력을 통해 통제(감소) 해야 한다는 게 일반적인 이론입니다.

 

이러한 기본적 커뮤니케이션적 자세는 강력한 비젼을 향해 있는 “조직 발전지향적 기업문화(Corporate Culture)”를 바탕으로 전개 될때 그 효과의 극치에 도달할수 있습니다.

 

강력한 비젼이 사원들에게 공유되어 있고, 업무 하나 하나를 통해 기업의 Value를 구현하며, 그들의 마음속에 공통적인 Mission이 존재할때 그 조직은 불멸한다고나 할까요..

 

이러한 기업문화적 요소들이 조직발전적인 방향으로 정렬되어 있으면, 구조조정이라는 것은 너무나 쉽고 효과적인 조직 변화 행동이 될겁니다.그래서 평소에 바람직한 기업문화를 창조해야 하는 이유가 바로 여기에 있습니다. 변화에 쉽게 적응할수 있는 기업 문화, 그러나 변화에 걸림돌로 작용하는 기업문화가 매우 많은게 현실입니다.

 

이글을 읽으시는 인하우스 홍보인 여러분은 한번 Corporate Culture Audit을 해보세요. 과연 우리회사의 기업문화는 변화친화적인가, 얼마나 변화시에 적응을 잘 할수있게 디자인 되어있는가를 살펴보십시요.

앞으로 더 큰 변화를 대비해야 하니까요.

 

구조조정의 단계별로 Employee Communications은 다음과 같은 역할을 합니다.

 

구조조정 이전: 불필요한 Employee들의 감정 통제(Honest, Clear,Timely), 변화에 대한 교육, 비젼에 대한 정렬작업, 기업문화 분석,변환,강화작업

 

구조조정 중 : 불필요한 Employee들의 감정 통제(Honest, Clear,Timely). 변화에 대한 적절한 정보 전달, 생존자들에 대한 적극적인 감정 통제

 

구조조정 이후:  불필요한 Employee들의 감정 통제(Honest, Clear,Timely). 생존자들에 대한 Special Care(생산성 향상, 회사에 대한 충성심 고취)

 

*** 그러나 가장 중요한 구조조정 이후의 Employee Communications의 역할은 Survivor들에게 어떤 형태의 업무방식, 사원 자질, 지적 수준등을 조직에서 필요로 한다는 암시 및 교육을 하는 것일겁니다. 이는 하나의 큰자극으로서 Survivor들에게 조직을 발전시키는 추진력 그자체가 되게 하는 방법이지요.

 

그러나 이러한 통제 및 관리적 시각만 있는건 아닙니다.

Survivor들에게는 또한 환상적인 업무 환경을 제공하고, 각자의 업무에 대한 강력한 Empowerment를 보장하여, 자율적인 생산성 및 업무의 효율성을 고취시켜야 합니다.

 

해마다 Fortune잡지에서 미국에서 가장 일하기 좋은 회가 100개를 뽑는데, 그들 기업들이 꼭 높은 봉급만을 제공하는 회사들의 랭킹은 아닙니다. 봉급은 그저 그래도 업무 환경에 있어서 환상적인 곳이 더 많습니다. 환경이 곧 생산성과 직결 된다는 것을 경영층이 알기 때문이지요. 그리고 그 기업들 중에는 재미있고, 의미있는 기업문화를 가진 기업들이 참 많습니다. 생각해 볼 일입니다.

 

미국에는 심각한 구조조정의 물결을 넘어 이제는 변화가 생활이 된 조직의 행태 속에서 직원들이 구조조정의 물결속으로 가라앉기를 거부하고, 그 물결위에서 서핑을 즐기고 있다고 할 수 있습니다. 다이어몬드 서핑보드와 골드 칼라로 무장한 신 변화의 직업인들이 바로 그들입니다. 이는 조직의 구조조정이 인력 자체의 구조조정이라는 훌륭한 연계 효과를 이끌어 냈다는 의미가 되겠습니다. 인간은 언제나 변화에 재빠르게 적응하게 되어있다는 얘기도 되겠지요.

 

오늘의 글은 Change Management의 핵심인 Employee Communications에 대한 Sandwick USA의 사장과 부사장의 글입니다. 약간 무게(?)가 있고, 이전 글들과는 다른 형태이지만 배울게 있습니다(Electronic Communications와도 연계하여 설명을 하였습니다.) 즐겨보시죠.

 

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NEW RULES FOR EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS

 

In the wake of a wave of restructurings, and the emergence of new communications technologies, the ways in which American corporations communicate with their employees need to change. Richard Kline and Betsy Buckley of Shandwick USA have some suggests.

 

The times are changing. The people we need to communicate with today are different from those we were responsible for communicating with even three years ago, let alone ten years ago. The computer, the fax, the Internet, other forms of electronic communications have forever changed the tools of communications. And the changes in the structure, the missions, and the systems of today’s workplace have definitely changed the messages we are conveying.

 

Major companies in America today are facing confusion and difficulties in communicating with their workforce in a meaningful way, according to a survey of Fortune 500 companies conducted by Shandwick USA to evaluate the use and value of employee communications methodology and to explore executives’ expectations for future communications programs. The findings reveal that corporate executives today are concerned about the changing times and the changing makeup of the workforce, and that they recognize the need for enhanced communications systems.

 

So, how can corporations do this? In order to make change work for us, not against us, as we communicate to the workforce of the future, we’ll need to explore four areas:

 

the real causes of all this change;

today’s “best practice” tools;

the message we need to deliver;

the lessons learned from looking at this new model.

 

The context we are all living in – and trying to communicate in – is very, very different. What causes those differences?

 

Many of us come from organizations that were organized vertically. There was a relatively traditional hierarchy, and it was through that hierarchy that communications flowed. The CEO communicated with his (yes, he was male) senior management reports; they communicated with theirs, and so on down the line. Several people describe the new approach as “cascading communications.” The difference is that now the cascade flows like a raging river, in terms of timing. Communications is scheduled on the hour, replacing the more deliberate and methodical systems of the past.

 

Many of today’s organizations still retain parts of the hierarchical model but have added some horizontal relationships. This often requires simultaneous communications at both the corporate level and the operating company/division/business unit level. Timing may be parallel, and key messages may be similar, but tone, pacing and details need to be very different.

 

A new “wrinkle” in organizational structures, as we have moved into global communications, involves “the regions.” Some companies now have this third group as a diagonal line, and when trying to communicate simultaneously with them, we run directly into the 24 -hour-day phenomenon.

 

Even our sense of “internal” communications has changed. Our workforce definition may no longer include just our 40-hour workers. Many companies are using contract employees as partners; others are outsourcing whole staff functions to various service- providing entities. Accessing these people through traditional workforce communications procedures may not work.

And finally, where are the employees? We used to be able to link strategic business units to specific locations. It was easy to convey one set of messages to one place. In the changed environment, these people could be many places, and if some of them don’t have a mail stop, they aren’t going to be able to receive your four-page employee newsletter, especially if they aren’t yet hooked up to e-mail.

 

There are also demographic factors creating change. Our workforce is more female, and as we turn the millennium it will be more Asian American, more Native American, more African American, more employees of different cultures, different backgrounds. These demographic changes are matched by psychographic changes: lifestyles so fast that they dictate soundbites and long-distance commutes that offer opportunities to digest information which may be best received through suggest audio-tapes for one group, print materials for another, and discs or CD-ROMs to be read on the laptop for a third.

 

A newsletter that used to take three weeks will now become old news in three days. The fax, the cell phone, and the pager have all contributed to speedy communications and speedy expectations. The workforce of today expects their information now, and that means change for us.

 

Electronic communications – e-mail and voice-mail, for example – are terribly useful tools, but only when people are taught to use them. In our survey, only 15% responded that they had any communications training for use of either of those tools.

 

Think of the promise, the opportunity – and the challenge – of communicating via the internet. Yes, fire walls can be created. Yes, intranet communication is here for some companies. Thirty-seven of the companies we interviewed had a web site, and 17 had some form of employee communications to the site, but only seven specifically said they had Intranet operations. These tools work, but they, too, take training, especially for segments of the workforce who haven’t quite arrived at the digital age.

 

Whether it’s new tools like the Internet or old tools like a newsletter, it’s so clear that the changing workforce requires a “less is more” mindset. Sixteen-page, text heavy documents are a thing of the past. Visual communication through graphs, charts, interesting and engaging graphics is critical if we are to reach today’s workforce in a meaningful way.

 

And the good news? There’s an employee communications audit that can review all existing print and video materials, analyzing how well the pieces convey key messages and at what cost per employee. One of the companies we surveyed reported doing this type of analysis, and reduced the number of newsletters from 83 to ten, at a savings of $1.5m.

 

And, the audits that drove these changes showed over and over again the employees desire for more face-to-face time with their direct managers, as in 360 degree reviews and executive lunch briefings, which were mentioned in 16 of our interviews as a tool, with four offering them via video-conferences at multiple sites.

 

Repeating information is critical. While many of us learned the rule of seven – “it takes seven repetitions before something is “heard” – one company president reported his rule of 22… that it takes 22 times before someone both hears something and will act on it.

 

Probably most critical, however, is that we no longer can function totally using “mass” approaches to communications. It’s niche&#8212;not mass. While we cannot&#8212;nor, in most cases, would we want to&#8212; change the message, we do need to be thoughtful about the translation of that message and, most importantly, we may need to reach different segments in different ways, using different tools, and with differing amounts of repetition and integration.

 

From the 42 interviews and Shandwick USA’s experience, we have found four lessons to be learned:

&#8226; Strategic focus. In order to communicate with the workforce of the future, we must be very clear about channels that will work for them. We must be strategic about how we create our tools. We must, we absolutely must, analyze what we have and streamline it… both to ensure better “reach” of our audience segments, and to identify cost savings in current tools that may be needed as we move into the digital age. Solid, action-focused, outcomes-based plans are clearly required if we are to effectively reach the workforce of the future.

&#8226; Role of the CEO: The antidote for too much change is more stability. And, in most organizations, the perception is that stability can be provided by a strong CEO. But, for strong CEO’s to be effective communicators, effective “senders” of the message, they must work at it. Hard. One of our CEO interviews (and this is typical of many of the clients we work with) said: “I spend 15-20% of my time on communications. It is the most important work that I do. And, it is the one place where I must – and do – continually refine my skills.”

&#8226; Communications training: Just as few employees are born knowing how to design a strategic plan or how to develop an effective cash management system, most employees are not born with strong communications skills. As we move to more real time, more abbreviated communications, as we get into heavier use of charts and graphs, as we intensify the pace of our communications, we must train both senders and receivers….and this absolutely must become part of the required supervisory and management training programs inside our organizations.

&#8226; Feedback: In enhancing the ways we give out information, we must also ensure that there are ways to give back responses to that information. 360-degree reviews need to be broadened into 360-degree feedback for all communications.

 

Times are changing, the workforce is changing. Our communications systems, styles and approaches must also change. And that means we ourselves must change.

 

As Bob Dylan said….

 

“There’s a battle outside and it’s ragin’. It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, for the times, they are a changin’.”