Harold Burson
Founder and Chairman, Burson-Marsteller
September 1991

"Nothing Is New Under The Sun"

For me, it is a special privilege to be here tonight. Really, a very special privilege. It's special because of you. Who you are, what you do in carrying out your responsibilities, what I know to be your values and what you stand for.

Public relations people – maybe because they practice what they preach – create and receive lots of awards. Every week, Jack O'Dwyer reports on one honor or another. I have been privileged to receive some of those that are described as being the most prestigious.

But there's none I have received that I value more than this recognition by the Arthur W. Page Society. The reason is simply what I said earlier. I know who you are, I know your values, I know what you stand for.

In short, this is an honor that I feel has been bestowed on me by my peers, by men and women I respect, by men and women who represent the highest standards of performance in the practice of public relations.

I have been a close follower of the Arthur W. Page Society since its formation in 1984. I know, have worked with, and have profound respect for those former Bell System public relations leaders who were instrumental in its creation: Jack Koten, Ed Block, Gerry Blatherwick.

When I first learned that the Arthur W. Page Society would reach beyond AT&T and the Bell System regional companies, I was delighted. For a number of years now, I have felt that public relations needed an organization that brought together senior practitioners from the nation's leading corporations and consultancies to bring about a regular and effective interchange on professional matters.

The Arthur W. Page Society has made considerable progress toward this objective in relatively short time. Its programs have been outstanding. This meeting is one of the many that have benefited the Arthur W. Page membership. The Society's leadership has earned the support of its constituency and I salute you.

Again, let me tell you how proud I am to be here as the recipient of the Arthur W. Page "Hall of Fame Award" and how honored I am to deliver this year's "Hall of Fame Lecture." Before an audience of my peers, I am the first to recognize that many of you could be here in my place, delivering this year's address.

Tonight, I intend to share with you some of my own observations on public relations. I have discussed many of these observations over time with individual members of this audience. Other observations, I have developed and organized in preparing for this address. In the end, though, in reviewing the remarkable and as I found timeless words of Arthur Page, I came to realize that Mr. Page had foreseen some fifty years ago much of what I am to say today.

As the French say, "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose." The more things change, the more they stay the same. In other words, there's nothing new under the sun.

In my remarks tonight, I wish to touch on three points. First: The issue of what underlies legitimacy of the public relations function in a democratic society. Second: How society benefits from the organized practice of public relations. And third: The ultimate future of what we do for a living under the public relations rubric.

Over the years, I have given a great deal of thought to the philosophical and historical roots that give the practice of public relations legitimacy. Indeed, I have expended a considerable amount of time and energy trying to affirm that legitimacy.

As I have said on previous occasions, I believe strongly that the legitimacy of the calling stems from the Constitution, particularly our Bill of Rights. The First Amendment, as I view it, is at once the charter and the license for the practice of the discipline which has engaged my best energies for 40 years.

Listen to the language: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

To speak our minds freely; to petition the government when we feel we have been wronged. In our democratic society, these are powerful words, fundamental rights. With a government "by the people, of the people and for the people," it is clear that presenting one's position to the public is also critical to the functioning of a democratic society.

Our nation is founded on freedom. It is based on the idea that free _expression from all corners of society can effectively chart the nation's course. Our democracy embraces public opinion, articulated at the ballot box and through public debates, as the basis for public action.

In such an arrangement, the quality of our government, the quality of our society depends on the quality of the public opinion that directs it. And the quality or value of the public's opinion depends on how well that public is informed.

• In the words of Arthur Page:
• "… a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But while a little knowledge is dangerous, less knowledge is still more dangerous."

As public relations practitioners, we help provide the information on which decisions can be based. Our enemies are rumor, gossip and indifference. Advancing information in the public forum, for the purpose of contributing to public opinion. That is public relations. It's implicit to the democratic process. And, in my view, it's the "raison d'etre" for the organized practice of public relations.

As public relations practitioners, we provide society a valuable service. We have become, dare I say, and institutionalized part of the information flow in the United States and elsewhere. As our nation has changed, since the drafting of our Constitution, our institutions have changed. The practice of public relations has changed. Of necessity, it also has become more formal and institutionalized.

In fact, much of the news content of today's print and electronic news offerings has its genesis with public relations people. Today we recognize the interdependence of journalism and public relations. Each of our callings is essential to the workings of our free society. Each is protected by the free speech guarantees of the First Amendment.

Journalism, in the main, is dedicated to the reporting and presentation of that elusive element called objective truth. Public relations likewise upholds its First Amendment-based legitimacy in the communication of the truth. Yet we must never forget the key dividing line between journalism and public relations. We practitioners of public relations, like our brethren in Law, lean toward advocacy. We are advocates and we need to remember that. We are advocates of a particular point of view – our clients' or our employer's point of view.

We must be clear about who our client or employer is, about what we do, about what our function is, and what our responsibilities are and to whom. And as advocates we provide society a valuable service. Like journalists, we must convey the truth. But unlike journalists, we seek to use the truth to affect behavior—

• ....by creating an opinion where there is none,
• ....by reinforcing an opinion that already exists,
• ....or by changing an existing opinion.

In seeking to affect behavior, we must maintain the delicate balance between our professional credibility and our role as advocates of our clients' or employer's interests. Our obligation to the news media is to demonstrate absolute respect for the facts, for accuracy. And the media certainly have obligations to sift through and to go beyond the information that we provide on behalf of organizations, large and small.

And throughout this process, we must be mindful of what we believe to be the public interest. We must recognize – be ever mindful – and so counsel our clients, that no action in a democratic society can succeed without public understanding and support.

Our mission is to bridge the gap – where there is a gap – between our client's needs and objectives and what the public perceives to be in its best interest.

That, today, is a daunting task. It is daunting because there can be no absolutes. We no longer live in a world of blacks and whites or easy-to-come-by rights or wrongs.

Instead, we live in a world of tradeoffs—of compromise, of conciliation. Our role is to serve as a catalyst that brings about agreement.

In our complex society today, even mighty corporations need help getting their messages across, exercising their right to free speech. A corporation, after all, doesn't possess a voice. Only people have voices, and the people who give a corporation its public voice are its public relations people.

Public relations should be recognized as a vital function to which any organization regardless of its popularity is entitled. As a public relations practitioner among public relations practitioners, I am sure you join me in recognizing that approaching the public forum today is much like approaching the courts, requiring specialized expertise.

The manager who ignores the public relations function, is somewhat akin to the lawyer who hires himself as his own client. Often blinded to the obvious and often in over his head. Ironically, the stakes may be too high to leave public relations to just the public relations officer, as this society noted with its seminar last Spring.

Implementation of a public relations strategy is a matter of commitment for the whole business, from the highest levels on down.

More than 50 years ago, at a public relations conference for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company where he was a guest speaker, Arthur Page recognized this. Here's what he had to say about public relations and business:

• "All business begins with the public permission and exists by public approval. The public permission takes the form of charters, licenses and legal authorizations of one kind or another. Public approval is generally represented by reasonable profits, reasonable freedom of action and a few kind words. A lack of public approval is expressed in a good many ways – laws, regulations, commission rulings, investigations, public hostility, and most vital of all, by a lack of patronage….
• "The history of the growth of liberty has been chiefly the struggle of human beings to limit the power of their government, for governments have been the most arbitrary agencies of humanity and the most powerful. But fear of big business is based on the same emotions as fear of government….
• "We may as well accept the fact that the public will be fearful and suspicious of big business unless it clearly proves that it operates in the public interest."

Arthur Page's words strike me as being as powerful and succinct today, as they were decades ago. And no doubt as we look to the future, his remarkable words remain prescient reminders of what lies ahead for us as public relations practitioners.

What is the ultimate future of public relations a management function? This is a question that many of us in this room have pondered at some time.

In my view, the modern public relations officer has a dual charter. First: to help the CEO in his operations role vis-à-vis producing, marketing and servicing a product. And second: to provide advice and counsel on how corporate policy impacts corporate audiences and to provide advice on corporate policies that accord with public expectations and acceptance.

Yet, public relations is today still perceived by many to be entirely a staff function, which, of course, it is to some degree. On further reflection, though, I have come to view the future course of public relations as much as a line function as a staff function. In researching this, imagine my surprise to find that this is not a new thought, but one espoused by Mr. Page years ago, at a time when I myself was just beginning my career.

Arthur Page foresaw that the real relevance of public relations in a competitive environment that measure its expenditures in cost/benefit terms, is for it to become an integral part of line operations.

Back in 1939, Arthur Page was saying that public relations is the job of all those people at AT&T who faced the public. At that time, this meant the telephone operators, the business representatives, the installers and the repairmen, even the linesmen who worked in customer neighborhoods.

This is what Arthur Page had to say:

• "Public relations, therefore, is not publicity only, not management only: it is what everybody in the business from top to bottom says and does when in contact with the public. Anybody in the business can help sell his livelihood down the river or help build it up."

The central idea of Mr. Page's philosophy, as one of his successors, Ed Block, has so clearly pointed out, is that public relations is a continuing process of adapting the behavior of business to the ever-changing demands and preferences of the public in a democratic society. To Arthur Page, wise policy – not rigid rules – is the essence of good public relations. He insists that public relations is the sum of the character of the enterprise, not a "department," and is, therefore, at AT&T, everyone's job from CEO to operator.

What Arthur Page was saying was that it was not enough for AT&T public relations professionals to limit their audiences to the media or the financial community or "other influentials" who would transmit messages to customers and others who had contact with AT&T. The primary AT&T audience, Mr. Page maintained, is its customer base and the public generally – and they could be most effectively influenced by the quality of service they received from AT&T employees. From all AT&T employees – not alone from what they read in the news media of that era.

This is a lot different from what many public relations professionals perceive to be their "turf." Admittedly, AT&T was a regulated monopoly, but Mr. Page believed it constantly had to "earn" its right to have that place in society.

Though there are few real monopolies doing business today, regulated or not, business, for competitive reasons, must continually prove itself to the public in order to retain its franchise. The global marketplace has narrowed differences in product quality, performance, price. Increasingly, nowadays, "service" is the principal value-added differentiator.

Nordstrom, a Seattle-based department store that has expanded nationally, for example, has won wide praise and a solid place for itself in the retail market through its emphasis on service. Senior management, not just at Nordstrom but at service and manufacturing industries across the nation, are placing a higher premium on quality control programs, customer satisfaction programs and productivity programs. Last year, more than 100,000 companies entered the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award competition.

In such an environment, who is better qualified to have direct input into these programs than the public relations staff? Yet, public relations participation today is still more likely to be limited to publicizing such programs in the company magazine and elsewhere. My vision of the future of public relations – and I believe it is a vision that Arthur Page would have shared – is one in which the chief public relations officer has earned a permanent seat at the management table.

Ours must be something more than a communications role for employee programs or marketing programs or customer satisfaction and quality programs. Our link to the customer is not limited to what he or she reads in the newspaper or hears on TV or radio.

The customer is an ever more important audience while in the process of buying or declining our product offerings. There's a public relations component in that buyer/seller relationship and we must be able to influence and impact that relationship.

This is wherein our future lies. As CEOs begin to place more emphasis on answering the query "what should I do?" instead of "what should I say?" we practitioners can play an invaluable role by keeping our finger on the pulse of the public and communicating what we know to those who employ us.

As Mr. Page presciently observed, public attitudes are anything but static:

• "The public is one of the most whimsical masters that anyone ever saw. The business must be prepared to meet new aspects of public opinion which arrive at any minute. Not only that, but the public may have three or four opinions at once.
• "We have been questioned by one group for having too much debt; by another for not having enough; by one group for not hiring enough old people, and by another for not hiring enough young ones. At one the public would be censuring us for building ahead in the depression, and another for not doing so.
• "In other words, there is no possibility of perfection in this matter, but people who are watching it with care can be more clear about the dominant trends of public thought than those who are paying no attention to it, and to keep in tune with even the dominant trends of public thought mean eternal vigilance."

Eternal vigilance. These are the watchwords that go hand-in-hand with the maturation of public relations. Only within the last few years, we have seen advances in public relations scholarship and research, allowing us to better gauge the vagaries of public thought. We have seen greater movement in business toward the acceptance of public relations as an important part of management's decision mechanisms. This shift must continue.

Today we are witness to the fact that the practice of public relations grows and matures in importance and complexity when societal problems and communications media become more intricate. We can understand our historic role and our Constitutional heritage that has brought us to our present position. We can understand all of that, but we must also understand the future and its possibilities for us practitioners, in light of the ongoing growth of public relations as a business function.

Today, what a company decides to do dictates what it can say. Words are merely words. They are purely cosmetic if they aren't backed by convictions, actions and policies. In the philosophy he preached, Mr. Page showed us that if you didn't get all the other things right, communications is worthless.

The ultimate future of public relations will be decided under intense scrutiny. If we are to claim our place at the management table, our qualifications will be put to the test. Our actions, as are those of our clients and employers, will be placed under the magnifying glass. If public relations is to become an increasingly strategic function that translates into action where it's important to have action, so must our ways of thinking. Otherwise we are merely pretenders to the throne.

Strategy and execution are complementary components of our practice, and they will always continue to be so. But as Mr. Page foresaw years ago, there will continue to be a growing importance placed on the strategic component of public relations. Greater emphasis will be placed on our providing input that produces the most effective decisions – first about what to do, then about what to say and how to say it.

As we look into the future, let me close with a few additional words from the past. Quoting Mr. Page:

• "Adjusting a big business to a democracy is operating it in the public interest with good humor, reasonableness and politeness. If this is done with some skill and some luck it ought to work out.
• "There are hazards enough to make it exciting, rewards enough to make it worthwhile, and always the chance that if it succeeds we may be helping to make a little better country to live in, as well as a more satisfactory life for ourselves. For after all, one of the great satisfactions of life is to serve the public in one's time and generation in a way that commands its respect and liking."

These are timeless words to live by, indeed. And words that can guide us in the practice of public relations, no matter the changes that time might bring.

Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you. Tonight I find myself truly among my colleagues, my friends.