By Joe Curley, APR, CPRC
PR is Not Always Loved by Management: Here’s How to Get the Romance Started.
- Don’t wait to be asked. The CEO won’t come to your office for help because they don’t understand the resources of the PR office, hence don’t know how PR can help. Education, example and action must come proactively from us.
- Know what keeps the CEO up at night. What vexes the CEO, vexes the organization. Focus your PR activities to support these issues and you’ll align yourself with top management.
- Analyze the big picture not just the snapshot. Present the CEO with tomorrow’s issues, not yesterday’s news clips. Anticipate and prepare for what’s ahead that may affect the organization and how PR can factor into the solution.
- Get involved in the company’s policy making process, don’t just apologize to your audiences for bad management decisions later.
- Lead the function of “Environment Scanning” to detect early signs of emerging issues/trends that may affect the organization. Then bring the CEO solutions, not problems.
- Serve as the conscience of the organization to preserve established relationships and forge new public alliances. PR is the only department with the resources to protect the company’s present position and reputation during crisis/conflict.
- Develop and present action-oriented “decision-making” information and forward-looking strategy rather that activity status reports. CEO’s expect it and manage by it.
- Know everything you can about your company’s operations. We’re the storytellers for the organization, if we don’t know it; we can’t communicate it or plan for it.
- Monitor the direct competition and the marketplace. We can’t develop plans without factoring in the outside world.
- Focus all of your PR activities with objectives that clearly support the organization’s business plan and contribute to the bottom line.
So, given all this, what’s the real value of being a card-carrying member of the boardroom hierarchy? It gives you five absolute advantages to excel at your job:
- It gives you instant access to top management. And that’s invaluable when time is of importance in issue resolution.
- It gives you opportunity to help create company policy –tied directly to the company’s business and community goals—thus avoiding hasty or “snap-shot” bad decisions or actions.
- It gives you credibility as a planner and strategic thinker with top management, your co-workers and peers.
- It makes top management members of your PR support team — a critical element for success.
- It elevates the role of PR to the proper executive level to allow PR to “do the right thing” … and that benefits all the company stakeholder audiences.
About the Author:
Joe Curley, APR, CPRC, has practiced public relations in Florida for more than 40 years and is now semi-retired. He was the co-founder and president of one of Florida’s largest PR firms, Curley & Pynn Public Relations Management in Orlando, which he sold in 2004 and is still in full operation.
Joe’s PR experience spans nearly all business market segments including aerospace, travel & tourism, real estate, professional services (law/accounting/medical), as well as urban development, construction and housing. Joe has extensive PR planning, crisis and international PR experience, is a requested speaker and has won countless PR awards.
Currently a public relations and marketing consultant at his own firm Stingray Solutions, Inc., Joe was retained by Universal Studios Parks & Resorts as Senior Corporate Communications Counsel, international marketing & PR, for the last 30 years and retired in March 2018 to an on-call status to support special projects. He was directly involved in theme park projects in Orlando, Los Angeles, Japan, Singapore, Dubai, South Korea, Moscow and Beijing.
Joe now lives in Bradenton, Florida, where he is an avid recreational boater, and collects, restores and shows classic “muscle” cars, many of which were featured in national automotive magazines.