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Page Society Spring Seminar: The Authentic Enterprise

Note: This summary was provided by the Arthur W. Page Society and Burson-Marsteller, and it summarizes the "Authentic Enterprise" session, which took place on April 10, 2008.)

This session was introduced and moderated by Jon Iwata, Senior Vice President - Communications, IBM Corporation, and Co-Chair of the Page Mission Task Force. He opened the session by sharing some new research around the central themes of the The Authentic Enterprise, the Page Society's white paper on the role of the Chief Communications Officer. He also announced that due to the strong interest in the publication and its related research, the Board of Directors has decided to extend the work in this area through a new task force. Iwata asked the panelists to address the corporate challenge of being an authentic enterprise in the face of globalization, stakeholder empowerment and the rise of technology.

Advise Constructively

(The following is an excerpt from Why Should the Boss Listen to You? The Seven Disciplines of the Trusted Strategic Advisor (John Wiley & Sons, 2008) by James E. Lukaszewski)

Most advisors, early on, tend to give advice in the context of their staff function or personal area of expertise. Typically, staff thinking and decision making are quite different from operational thinking and decision making. To succeed as a trusted strategic advisor to operating executives, you will need to align your thinking patterns and decision-making habits with theirs. This chapter describes a methodology that helps you think and communicate using a more structured and process-driven format. When you use such a format, executives are able to understand your recommendations and see how they relate to ultimate goals and objectives, without their having to do a lot of translating.

How information is structured when presented to management is very important. Whether the solution proposed is bold, obvious common sense, absolutely applicable, or brilliant and creative, managers will absorb advice better if it fits into their processing approach, builds on their intuitive skills and experience, and allows them to assimilate.

Does Size Really Matter? How to Pitch a Big Client as a Small Firm

Conventional wisdom dictates that big companies are the domain of big PR firms. And small firms? They should stick to other small businesses that are well within the range of a small firm’s limited resources. But if you’re knowledgeable in the ways of public relations and skilled with the appropriate media tools, is the size of your firm really such a factor in implementing a successful public relations campaign?

With the Internet’s extensive resources at your fingertips—resources that allow you to establish a big online presence and to network in an age when media has become diffuse rather than consolidated—your firm is almost immediately a whole lot bigger than it might at first seem. Which means that no one needs to know that you’re a one-man show working out of your apartment in Toledo. And that’s important when you’re competing with the big boys to pitch to a large or high-profile client.

Investor Communications Strategies in the Age of Online Activist Shareholders

On April 30, 2002, Walter Hewlett announced that he was abandoning his proxy campaign to block the HP-Compaq merger. Our client, Hewlett Packard, had hired us as part of a team that waged a campaign both online and off to convince shareholders to approve the deal. Hewlett’s campaign was formidable, well-funded, and effective. He rallied dissatisfied HP and Compaq employees, skeptical investors, and a hungry financial news cycle to make his case. His online campaign was formidable, and he heavily relied on blogs and his anti-merger Web site to get the word out. We suspect his biggest expense was the costs needed to mail out proxy ballots to investors.

Thankfully, Walter Hewlett lost, and the market seems to agree that his vision was the wrong one. HP’s stock, which closed around $17 when he ceased his campaign in 2002, is trading in at over $45 as of late March of this year.

Today, there are many Walter Hewletts of there, and there will be many more in the future. The SEC announced last year that companies may now distribute proxy ballots electronically, lowering the bar for a campaign like Walter Hewlett’s to be cheaper than ever. The overall drop in the stock market has created buying opportunities for hedge funds that now routinely agitate for management changes that will increase the value of the stock. (read more)

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