New Media, New Language

Posted on April 28, 2008 | 1 Comments

At a recent dinner, co-hosted by the Council of PR Firms and the Arthur W. Page Society in Chicago, a discussion on the future of the Corporate Communications Officer (CCO) was the main course. Both corporate and the agency perspectives were well represented throughout the evening's panel discussion; highlights were captured in the Council's new weekly e-publication,The Firm Voice.

Being authentic, as we discussed that evening, requires more negotiation and courage from today's practitioner. The CCO's efforts on this front, which include the four mandates laid out in the

Read More

---

Managing Trust is Critical Challenge

Posted on April 25, 2008 | 2 Comments

If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.

So, how does one manage trust? One of the more difficult challenges put forth in The Authentic Enterprise white paper is the call to manage trust in all its dimensions. A great deal of work has been done in the last decade to measure the strength of relationships and the role of communications in building loyalty and trust relationships. (See the Institute for PR website http://www.instituteforpr.org). Yet when all is said and done, we may not be any closer to quantifying trust than poets and philosophers…

Read More

---

Everything is Being Connected, and Reputation is at Risk

Posted on April 14, 2008 | 1 Comments

In this week's New York Times Sunday Magazine there's a fascinating article by Sara Corbett - Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty? -- looking at the spread of cellphones in third world economies, and the social research being conducted by companies like Nokia into new technologies and delivery systems.

The article points out that "there are more than 3.3 billion mobile-phone subscriptions worldwide, which means that there are at least three billion people who don't own cellphones, the bulk of them to be found in Africa…

Read More

---

Three Authentic Enterprises

Posted on April 12, 2008 | 0 Comments

Yesterday, on day one of the Page Society Spring Seminar, I had the pleasure of leading a discussion about the "Authentic Enterprise" white paper. I'm proud of the paper, and of the team of wonderful colleagues who worked with me on it over the past year. However, to me, what's most important at this point is not to keep talking about the paper, but to put into action what it recommends.

This was confirmed by the results of a survey of Page members, conducted by Eric Braun of the Corporate Executive Board, ahead of the seminar.…

Read More

---

Globalization: The Future of Freedom

Posted on April 10, 2008 | 2 Comments

A highlight of the opening afternoon sessions of the Arthur W. Page 2008 Spring Seminar was a presentation on "Globalization: The Future of Freedom" from Dr Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, bestselling author and frequent TV commentator. Dr Zakaria's latest book, "The Post-American World," was just published.

In a wide ranging commentary he touched on a number of issues - the disconnect over the last few years as seemingly negative political news has had very little impact on the financial markets; the tendency of media in a 24/7 news cycle to focus on bad news just…

Read More

---

Arthur Page, Blogger?

Posted on April 08, 2008 | 0 Comments

Would Arthur Page have been a blogger if web 2.0 was around in his day? I have a hunch he would have embraced the blog. He was, after all, all about listening to the customer and making sure AT&T was responsive to the public.

In that spirit, we launch the Arthur W. Page Society Blog. We're calling it Page Turner, and we hope it will read like one. We're looking to start a robust conversation about the amazing changes buffeting global companies and the rapidly evolving role of the chief communications officer.

Read More

---