Richard R. Mau
Senior Vice President, Rockwell International Company
1999

"The New Millennium's Threshold: Adapting Professional Constants to the Pace of Change"

I am honored and overwhelmed to be a member of the Hall of Fame. Those who have preceded me are role models for leadership in our field. They are friends, mentors and - to a person - public relations practitioners in the mold of Arthur W. Page. So, to be considered as one of them is a matter of great pride to me.

Of course, along with membership in the Hall of Fame comes the requirement to stand here before my peers and share thoughts about my career and the challenges facing our profession. As I began to prepare the remarks I once more reviewed the Page Principles. They represent sound logic, and call to task the discipline and judgment to communicate clearly, factually and concisely.

Not surprisingly, my observations today relate to the advent of a new millennium. First, I'll spend a few brief moments on how I happened to get here. It has taken me a large part of the 20th century to accomplish the feat.

It all started for me in a very small Iowa town in 1931 at the depths of the Great Depression. Our family was one of meager but adequate means. I came upon my interest in communications while spending a day making calls with my father, who was a traveling salesman for a wholesale pharmaceutical distributor. I was about 12 at the time. One of Dad's clients not only owned a drug store, but also a weekly newspaper in Adel, Iowa. On a visit to his publishing offices that day I developed what became a lasting interest in the news business.

I began as a part-time reporter on the daily newspaper in my hometown during high school. Even had my own column. A major portion of my college expenses, during the final two years at the University of Iowa, were earned as a stringer for the Chicago Tribune, Associated Press and Des Moines Register, and as a staff reporter for the Iowa City Press Citizen. I juggled all of these jobs at once. It wasn't so much ambition as necessity that motivated me. You see, we were married the summer before my junior year and our first child arrived the next summer. The threat of poverty, I discovered, is a great motivator.

The really good news came at graduation in 1954 when I was chosen to join the advertising and public relations management training program at General Electric in Schenectady, NY. It was here that my training in journalism melded with the emphasis GE placed on business management principles. From there developed what proved to be a rewarding career in corporate public relations and communications.

My 45 years in our field is a pretty good platform upon which to frame some thoughts about the condition of corporate public relations today. One thing is for certain - the implications of the term public corporation never have been more demanding for corporate leadership than today. The CEO of a publicly traded corporation has global public obligations every bit as comprehensive as elected government officials. Virtually any issue confronting a corporation is laced with public relations considerations. So, from where I sit, opportunities to apply your skills and business acumen at the highest levels of corporate management have never been better.

With this in mind I'll pursue a couple of premises regarding these opportunities.

First, there are constants in our work essential to serving our organizations effectively, and these constants have not changed materially over the past 50 or so years, and,

Second, the pace and nature of change in business today, poses complexities in meeting corporate performance goals that were incomprehensible not too many years ago.

The constants are largely those elements of our craft qualifying us for the positions we hold. I am referring, of course, to our capabilities as communications experts. In addition, you would not be sitting here among the leaders of our industry without an abiding interest in and knowledge of the business process, especially as it applies to the company you serve.

The "craft" piece of our accountabilities hasn't changed much since the days early in this century when what we know as public relations first came into being. The techniques and applications have evolved. The tools have undergone revolutionary changes. But if Arthur Page and his contemporaries were here today, they would feel right at home with the fundamentals of our work. Not so, though, with today's tools.

Another constant is one that I'm sure is on the minds of many of you. I'll characterize it as the disconnect between CEOs and us in respect to perceptions of the value of our function within the corporate management hierarchy.

This is emphasized in a study conducted by Fleishman-Hillard about five years ago for the Page Society. When asked about the impact of our function on company performance, 67 percent of the public relations officers ranked "strategic counsel" as their most significant responsibility. Only 25 percent of the CEOs felt this was most significant. Their priorities involved regulatory issues, technology and global competition. Seldom do I attend a meeting or discussion among peers and associates in communications that some manifestation of this subject doesn't arise. And, for good reason!

Are we counselors? Are we reputation gurus? Or, as I'm sure Arthur Page would ask, are we solid, sensible and knowledgeable senior executives? More importantly, are we members of the true inner circle of management? Do we understand that the CEOs see each member of their senior team as integral to moving the ball?

I have worked directly for six CEOs of three Fortune 100 companies. Each of them was overwhelmingly focused on outcomes. They surrounded themselves with the best group of executives available to them. With few exceptions they considered communications essential to reaching their goals for the corporation. The cornerstone of their goals was, of course, the financial component with ultimate emphasis on providing resources to serve our customers. Realizing these goals involved managing myriad issues reaching into every area of these large institutions.

There was a seat at the table for our function in each of these corporations. All of the executives at the table were considered counsel to the chairman. But, primarily, we were expected to show up with our pick and shovel.

We were there because each brought knowledge of the business, and, very importantly, unique perspectives on the subjects at hand. We were integral to planning, execution and measurement of actions on behalf of the corporation.

We had an active role in making decisions., We knew what alternatives had been considered, and why one course of action was chosen over others. In many cases the course chosen wasn't unanimous. As one of these CEOs often reminded us, "I didn't say this was a democratic process!" But when the decision was taken we all moved ahead with full knowledge of why we were heading in the direction selected.

I'm sure the issue of public relations' role as a senior management position will be present for years to come. But as more and more CEOs feel the often sudden and damaging effects of critical public issues, they will see the wisdom of Arthur Page's sage observation, "All business in a democratic country begins with public permission and exists by public approval." We are all aware of past and recent examples of corporate managements who, ignoring this fact, engaged the wrath and damaging effects of adverse public sentiment.

My final note on the constants, then, involves your role in management and relationships with the CEO. You should be regarded as the senior public policy official in the corporation. This assumes that you are involved from the start in developing response to policy issues of concern to any corporate audience. You should be engaged in planning and conducting all communications required to insure appropriate public understanding of the values, goals and commitments of the corporation to its various global publics.

In that respect, in my opinion, you are to the CEO's cabinet what the Secretary of State represents in the President's cabinet. No public corporation should be without an able senior corporate relations executive at the inner table. Those absent this chair are courting potential public trauma, and are overlooking the enormous value of optimizing the company's communications process.

So, those are some of the more obvious legacies you will carry into to the 21st century. And it is with these you engage the wonderful opportunities provided by the robust global economy, amazing new technologies, vast and effective new tools of communications and added corporate stature.

Adapting these constants to rapidly changing elements of marketplace will be the measure of your success as you engage the challenges in this next millennium. The you face make your future prospects both exciting and unpredictable.

One continuing area of change will be the composition, strategic purpose and stability of our business institutions. The intensity of competition within virtually every industry is transforming what we have as the traditional management template for U.S. corporations. The dual pressures of Wall Street and demands of global competition create a difficult balancing act for management.

There is intense pressure to improve productivity, reduce costs, increase margins, deal with pricing restraints and maintain pace with revolutionary new technologies. One result has been, and will continue to be, severe reduction of corporate staffs. Demands are ever present to get the job done through more out-sourcing with increasingly limited resources. I know you feel the pinch in public relations but, to be sure, it is occurring in other key staff functions.

There was a day when the importance of your function was measured by its size. That day has past. The challenge is now, from your seat at the table, to plan even more carefully and adapt the available resources more creatively than ever. You must accept leadership as the corporation's premier public policy authority. It is your job to see that the priority strategic messages of your corporation are carefully interpreted so as to engage constructively the differing perspectives of each of your primary global constituencies. Your policy focus within the corporation should span every discipline having any public policy implications. At issue is your range of accountability.

A second element of change is one you understand better than I. It is the incredible explosion in the technologies of the tools we use in communications. The enormous flexibility, speed and precision available through telecommunications and computer-based technologies have expanded your options for communications unimaginably from not too many years ago.

New opportunities for maintaining contact with your stakeholders are abundant. Of course, the speed with which news moves around the earth can be a two-edged sword. A corporate issue in Tibet or India -or elsewhere in the world -reaches home-base media in an instant and often with no warning. I must say, though, I'm envious of your access to these amazing technologies. However, it is always wise to avoid confusing the quality of the tools with the ingredients essential to creating a quality communications product. But applying these new technologies to our trade will give you opportunities to employ the Page Principles among your stakeholders with increasing precision and clarity.

Another challenge is an audience close to home. It deserves, in fact demands, added emphasis. It is your employees. They represent management's greatest pool of resources to improve productivity, strengthen customer relations, build competitive leverage and achieve ambitious financial performance goals. The employee population of most companies is more diverse, thankfully, than ever before. They are better educated. The workplace is more informal and widely dispersed. More and more of your people will operate in virtual working environments. There is a growing shortage of able, well-trained workers. Yet, unfortunately, downsizing and other management actions have diminished traditional employee loyalty.

Communications leadership must serve up a comprehensive strategic and tactical menu to assist in motivating this essential band of stakeholders as never before. Creative use of the new communications technologies offers new and engaging access to your employees.

And of course, corporate resources to accomplish this task must be made available. In the absence of a long-term commitment to internal communications, no corporate organization will maximize its potential in the competitive marketplace.

Another rapidly changing piece of the corporate communications matrix is the management of global public policy. Few U.S.-based corporations face up to the realities of managing their public communications on a global scale. This, I know, is a subject for a much broader discussion and I'm glad to see a segment of the program tomorrow is devoted to it. I was involved in managing global public relations, advertising, financial relations and other communications accountabilities for many years. Also, I presently serve as chairman of the Global Public Affairs Institute. I can assure you that the assignment of communications resources to national markets other than our domestic market is inadequate in most U.S.-based corporations.

U.S. companies make too many avoidable mistakes in conducting public communications in other countries. Such basic things as faulty language translations, cultural faux pas, misunderstanding media procedures, insensitivity to unique national issues, and many others leave indelible adverse impressions among stakeholders in host markets. The public communications initiatives of our corporations must become more globally focused in planning, resource allocation and execution if we are to harness our full potential in the attractive international markets.

I am confident those of you in this room will adapt to the many changes in managing the global public relations needs of our corporations. But one more caveat. It is imperative that you - the leaders of our business - take seriously the challenge of providing excellent professional training for those following you. In its absence, creative use of technology, the quality of our communications product, and, ultimately, our role in corporate management will suffer.

Your work is tough, exacting and constantly on view publicly. The leadership and professional capability to assimilate the messages necessary to engage the trust and favor of your stakeholders throughout the world is a daunting task. Maximum value to be derived from communications will be realized only if there is a seat at the senior management table for your function.

My confidence that our profession's future is in the most capable hands is constantly reinforced. During the past few years I've chaired the Page Society's National Awards Committee. The programs we have judged, especially those of the National Awardees, represent excellence of which Arthur Page would be proud. It's always a great pleasure to see the work being done by those coming up through the chairs in our field. I have been fortunate, also, to witness many of these high potential comers through my work with the San Francisco Academy. I'm especially proud of the many young associates of mine who are doing very well in our field.

You have heard some of my thoughts about the past and a few perceptions of what might be among your most significant challenges in the years to come. I want to close with recognition for the people who are closest to me and whose patience has allowed me to accomplish what little I've been able to contribute to this great field of endeavor.

One is my wife, Shirley. She couldn't be here today because she had made a commitment to vacation with our daughter. During our 47 years of marriage she has been an invaluable moral, spiritual and professional compass for me. She never lets me forget that taking out garbage is my responsibility. She refers to herself as "Chairman of Nitty Gritty:' but she is a strong leader in our family and is most adept at letting us have her way.

Then I must say our four children and five grandchildren are constant reminders of why we're all placed here on this planet. I'm really delighted that our eldest son, Kent, is here with me today. As you grow a little older - in my case, a lot older - you realize that family is a wellspring of happiness, love and fulfillment. Fortunately, too, our careers are wonderful enablers, and organizations such as the Arthur W. Page Society serve as a valued professional family as well.

Thank you all and Godspeed.