Adding Value Through PR Integration

As an integral part of corporate leadership, public relations has created immense value for companies past and present. From Arthur W. Page, who was a vice president in charge of public relations and a board member for AT&T in the 1930s, to Jon Iwata, who leads communications and marketing for IBM today, PR professionals have helped define and protect corporate images and reputations by working hand in hand with other business functions.

But too often, and even today, public relations or corporate communications has been a detached department brought in only after bad business decisions have become PR issues. Today, with the impact of the Internet and crises both inside and outside of corporations affecting business, PR is being brought in faster and more frequently.

Now is an ideal time for the leaders of PR departments to do a careful assessment of how they can operate more effectively by integrating with other functions. Then, they must help others within their organizations visualize the added value sustained integration could bring.

Long-term survival is a dramatic, yet real, place to start. When you look at the companies that have survived crises — such as Johnson & Johnson with Tylenol tampering in the 1980s — and the ones that have not — such as Andersen after Enron — often the ones that survived had a strong corporate communications function and a strong leader that had the ear of the C-suite, including the CEO. Because of that, public relations not only was in a position to help manage through crises, but the function already had been playing a vital role in considering public reaction to business decisions and building goodwill before crises hit.

Public relations also can add creativity to the way companies market products to consumers, objective thinking to the way they handle consumer complaints, compassion for the way they communicate with employees, or a long-term view on how they establish corporate policies.

So where should PR integration start? There is no one-size-fits-all approach. In some cases, PR can add the most value by integrating with marketing. In others, it should be closely aligned with strategic planning or some other function. It all depends on the culture and function of the organization and, to some extent, on the value to the consumer of the product or service that is being delivered.

Smart communications executives probably already know where their organizations would benefit most from sustained integration with PR. But convincing key decision makers is the major challenge. Often, senior managers still do not fully understand what PR does, or they think of it only as media relations. Corporate communicators who are getting the attention of C-suite executives because of recent crises must use this opportunity to expand this limited view.

We also must raise our own bar. To drive sustained integration, PR will need to demonstrate even more skills that help businesses achieve their goals. For instance, at Boston University, most of the communication graduates we’ve recently placed in jobs speak multiple languages and have lived outside the U.S. Multinational companies want them onboard because they understand not just the language, but also the culture of the countries those companies are doing business in. So, they can work more effectively with other business functions abroad. With this in mind, we should continually be asking ourselves, "What new skill could make PR more valuable to the organization?"

Just as business evolves to remain relevant to consumers, PR must evolve to remain relevant to business. In this way, PR leaders can be the catalyst for a boomerang value from sustained integration. Those who do the best job of adding value to other business functions will, in turn, help boost the value of PR, too.