Relationship advice for PR practitioners

Relationships are in the DNA of PR – in fact, the name itself indicates the function manages relations with publics.  But the priority in PR practice is largely on writing skills rather than interpersonal ones; whilst although academic definitions and literature highlight two-way communications, they largely omit what is required to build and maintain mutually [...]

“Intel inside&”? Reinventing our profession … before extinction?

In a nutshell: the world gets more complicated, communication as a dialogue function is increasingly demanding, all stakeholders claim a legitimate interest in a corporate and “pull” what they need, while the communication professional reminds me of the young Dutch boy trying to halt the water bursting through the dam by putting his little fingers in the cracks.

To listen, to engage: empty buzzwords?

“Over the past years, we’ve seen very smart people make mistakes because they didn’t understand the context in which they were operating” – this sentence is extracted from an interesting op-ed column of last Friday’s NYT under the title ‘the power elite’

And now, let’s work for the Stockholm Accords and the future of our profession!

The communicative organization acts on the insights that relationships have real value, that reputation is shaped through relationships, and that the organization’s own values must be lived in constant dialogue within as well as with its customers, partners and other stakeholders.

Obama losing control of his narrative? Then why is Berlusconi successfully holding his?

It seems that, during his first year in office, President Obama is progressively losing control of his narrative. It also seems that Italy’s Berlusconi is, instead, holding on to his narrative with success.

Reaching out to Generation Connectivity Online

Public administrations have a reputation for inertia, so it’s always refreshing to see innovative counterexamples. The French Office national d’information sur les enseignements et les professions (ONISEP) is tasked by the Ministry of Education to help students, parents and educators to learn about existing professions and various opportunities for training or further studies.

The Communication Initiative and Haiti: how we, public relators, can hope to add real value

My good friend Warren Feek, from the Communication Initiative, has sent the following message…very relevant in general, but even more specifically for our professional community. Please read and, where possible, participate. Thank you.

Tackling social migration tensions with the architectural and the generic principles and specific applications concepts of public relations

You might have read these last few days of the serious social crisis developed in the southern Italian city of Rosarno in the region of Calabria, where an exasperated local community took to the streets and violently attacked the growing community of African migrants, leaving many wounded.

Public Relations, Capitalism and Democracy – Public Relations and Development: two provoKations from my excellent students

I have just concluded my course on global relations and intercultural communication at NYU in New York.
The intense interaction with 10 highly committed graduate students -two Russian, three American, one Brazilian, one Colombian, one British, one Singaporean- allowed me the opportunity to review some of my less resilient stereotypes and learn much more from them [...]

Jon Iwata at the Yale Club last night. Are corporate ideology and cultural integralism back in town?

Last night, at New York’s Yale Club, I participated in the Institute for Public Relations’ Annual Distinguished Lecture and Awards event.
The lecture was by Jon Iwata, IBM’s Senior Vice President, who heads the marketing, communication and citizenship organization departments of that company.
A full house, jammed with many of America’s most senior and reputed public relators.
On [...]

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