There’s a discussion about the work ethic and expectations of Millennials going on at Firm Voice, the blog of the Council of PR Firms. At the risk of over-simplifying, the suggestion is that a difficult economy is driving Generation Y to grow up, work harder, accept lower pay and be less self-centered than would otherwise be the case.
Millennials comprise about half our team at Linhart PR, and our experience has been different. We weigh in with a POV here.
The strange story of Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd’s abrupt departure last week keeps getting stranger.
When BP’s Tony Hayward walked the plank following his tone-deaf media comments and yachting vacation, almost everyone agreed he had to go. But no such unanimity greeted the resignation of Hurd, concluding what The New York Times DealBook blog called “one of the great executive runs in recent American business history.”
“Mark Hurd Got Off Easy,” says business blogger and former Fortune Senior Editor Marc Gunther. Henry Blodget at Business Insider, himself no stranger to controversy, wrote a column headlined “Wait a Minute — Why Does Mark Hurd Get $50 Million Severance When He Lied in His Expense Reports?” Perhaps the unkindest cut of all comes from Gizmodo, which asks “Wait – Who the Hell is Mark Hurd?”
In Hurd’s corner: tennis buddy and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who called the HP board’s decision to seek Hurd’s resignation “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.” Geoffrey James at BNET says HP’s board “smelled a PR disaster and dumped Hurd like a ticking time bomb. What a bunch of sissies.” In the Los Angeles Times, columnist Michael Hiltzik says it looks like the HP board “panicked over appearances, rather than making a mature effort to weigh the facts at hand.”
In a Dow Jones column he considered titling “Hurd on the Street,” the inimitable Al Lewis, formerly of the Denver Post, says HP shareholders “deserve to know more details, given the obscene price tag on this unconsummated affair.” On top of Hurd’s severance, the news of his departure cost HP shareholders about $9 billion in market-cap.
Here’s my bottom line:
Hurd erred by creating or allowing a situation in which his judgment and integrity could be questioned. Appearances matter, especially for the CEO of a company with government contracts valued in the billions. Corporate governance expert Nell Minow rightly reminds us that government customers, in the U.S. and abroad, have zero tolerance for ethical lapses.
HP’s board erred by failing to disclose more about what happened, thus cloaking the basis for their decision. By withholding details about the findings of the company’s investigation, the board created the impression they panicked and pushed Hurd out, clearing the way for speculation about their actions and motives, and Hurd’s. Whose privacy are they protecting?
Al’s right: HP shareholders deserve better.
The role of outside PR advisors is an interesting part of the story. It’s been widely reported that APCO Worldwide advised the HP board to sack Hurd, or else face an ongoing controversy fanned by Gloria Allred, attorney for ex-actress and HP contractor Jodie Fisher, who accused Hurd of sexual harassment and later reached a private settlement with him. While canning Hurd to avoid embarrassing revelations may have seemed like a good idea at the time, the board’s decision has put HP “back into the middle of public crossfire,” says the San Jose Mercury News.
Since there are two sides to every story, Team Hurd hired crisis specialists Sitrick & Co., whose fingerprints are evident on some of the pro-Hurd, anti-board coverage over the past few days. The Wall Street Journal reports the board was “surprised Hurd didn’t go quietly,” suggesting a surprising level of cluelessness about what people will do when their reputations are at stake.
It’s encouraging that PR counsel was sought by the HP board before making such a momentous decision – talk about having a seat at the table. It’s also sobering to realize how much clients have at stake when they take our advice – in this case, a $9 billion decision.
I hope as they considered their options, the HP board cared as much about integrity as about image. Otherwise, they may have done the right thing, at least in part, for the wrong reason.
We’re celebrating Employee Appreciation Week at Linhart PR, along with many other companies in Denver. Employee Appreciation Week is presented by the Downtown Denver Partnership, with events including Denver’s Largest Coffee Break, a corporate ping pong tournament, concerts, outdoor movies in Skyline Park and happy hours on the 16th Street Mall.
At LPR, we’ll celebrate throughout the week, with help from our own internal culture club, Pizzazz, led by Kelly Janhunen and Jenn Tilliss. This morning we enjoyed a waffle breakfast from Waffle Brothers in our Café. Tomorrow, we’ll toast our team at the annual LPR Summer Soiree at the lovely home of Sharon and Jerry Linhart.
Each day, a member of our leadership team will write a note to our staff expressing our respect for and gratitude toward the team that has helped us earn recognition as one of the best PR firms of our size in the nation. My message today shared borrowed wisdom on building a sustainable culture, from a company with a 113-year track record of success. I’ve included it below.
“Our Commitment to Each Other”
Last week, business and sustainability blogger and former Fortune Senior Editor Marc Gunther wrote about The J.M. Smucker Co. If you think Smucker is a cute little company making jams and jellies, think again: Smucker is a $4.6 billion powerhouse behind brands including Jif, Crisco, Folger’s and Pillsbury.
Marc profiled Smucker in the current issue of Fortune not because they’ve installed solar panels on their jelly plants or found dramatic ways to reduce their carbon footprint, but because they demonstrate sustainability in a different way: the company has survived and thrived for 113 years, a durable track record he attributes in part to the company’s culture.
Since we care a lot about culture here at Linhart PR, and since we’re celebrating Employee Appreciation Week, this seems like a good time to share a message provided to every new Smucker employee on their first day of work. This was written in the early 1980s by then-CEO Paul Smucker, grandson of the founder. It’s called “Our Commitment to Each Other.”
As Smucker’s experiences growth in the 80′s, we need to insure that we retain one of Smucker’s most cherished goals — the mutual respect of our fellow employees and an atmosphere that makes people proud to work here. This same commitment can be enlarged to include our customers, suppliers, and shareholders.
Here are a few basic thoughts, when put into our everyday lives, that can help:
Thank you for a job well done — This small recognition shows that we notice and appreciate the efforts of our fellow employees.
Listening with your full attention — By giving our undivided attention, we are showing that there is nothing more important at that moment than what is being said.
Looking for the good in others — By seeing the good in others, we are demonstrating our respect and confidence in their intentions to do what is right, and we are developing an atmosphere where we can grow and learn.
Sense of humor — Our work efforts are important; that is how we set the example and take the lead. Our sense of humor is also important, for that is how we maintain our perspective to our work. Humor, not at the expense of others, but as a brief relief from difficult tasks, can make our working atmosphere more pleasant and enjoyable.
By keeping these few thoughts in our minds every day, we can build a bridge of understanding that will nourish the atmosphere in which we work and our mutual respect for each other. I ask for your commitment to these thoughts; I ask for your commitment to each other.
As we recognize Employee Appreciation Week this week, our first order of business should be appreciating and celebrating each other, the teamwork we display day after day, and all of the different capabilities, qualities and personalities that come together to comprise our wonderful team. As Paul Smucker would (and did) say, thank you for a job well done.
The sun shone brightly on Boulder during last week’s LOHAS Forum, but I can’t help wondering about the impact of economic clouds on the horizon.
The LOHAS Forum is an annual business conference about providing goods and services to people interested in Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. This year’s forum attracted more than 500 attendees for two and a half days of presentations, panel discussions and networking events focused on connecting with “the conscious consumer.” Our client WhiteWave Foods was among the sponsors and speakers.
The vibe in the halls was positive. Speakers’ earnest exhortations to “re-think everything,” from missions and values to product design and marketing, were received with enthusiasm.
But the Great Recession appears to be having an effect. Gwynne Rogers of the Natural Marketing Institute shared research showing most consumer “green” behaviors are done not to save the planet, but to save money. The percentage of respondents who say they care about the environment has declined. People now expect environmentally-friendly products to work as well as conventional alternatives. And fewer people agreed with this statement: “It is important for companies not just to be profitable, but to be mindful of their impact on the environment and society,” from 80 percent in 2006 vs. 72 percent in 2009. (Hat tip to Scott Cooney at triplepundit for the summary.)
I’m confident that over time, more people will make purchase decisions based on assessing the impact of companies and brands on the environment, on our health and well-being, and on the community. In many cases, our clients’ success depends on it, as does a healthier future for society.
But at times, I felt a disconnect between the powerful, inspiring visions shared from the stage (“Deconstruct and rebuild central concepts! Disrupt the marketing paradigm!”) and the tough, pragmatic decisions being made right now at kitchen tables and boardroom tables across America. This week’s gloomy consumer confidence numbers don’t suggest the return of a willingness or ability to pay a premium for environmental or social benefits anytime soon.
Here’s the good news: In its 14th year, the forum attracted a substantial number of attendees – ranging from locally-based companies (and Linhart PR clients) like Charter Baking and Pharmaca to global giants with massive influence, including Coca-Cola, eBay, General Mills and Johnson & Johnson. There was no shortage of transformative ideas and energy, from the speakers or the audience.
And at a time when many people have chosen to re-think their values and priorities – or have been forced to do so – companies and brands that can speak credibly to genuine stakeholder and societal needs, from positions of trust, have a real opportunity to connect and to thrive.
So much has been written in the past 24 hours about Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s ill-advised interview with Rolling Stone that it’s hard to find anything original to say about it. Because there are lessons here for anyone concerned with leadership and reputation, I’ll make the attempt.
Leaders must set the tone
If I heard the leadership team of a client company talking openly and disparagingly in the CEO’s presence about competitors, customers, investors or other stakeholders, I would question their character and sanity. I also would assume the CEO condoned or encouraged such behavior and had an insufficient appreciation for the reputational risks it entails.
The qualities necessary for leadership can bring leaders down
Photo: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Mark O'Donald/NATO
The high degree of self-assurance most leaders possess can blind them to unreasonable risk. Because they are accustomed to being in control, they sometimes assume they will remain in control in all circumstances, and that others will have as high an opinion of their actions, capabilities and motives as they do themselves.
Only a blindly confident general would invite an anti-war reporter from an anti-war publication into the command tent and expect everything to turn out OK. Either that or a general who knew exactly what he was doing and did it for reasons of his own, as yet unexplained.
Our culture has become very good at destroying leaders
The non-stop news cycle, the increasingly opinion-driven and confrontational nature of journalism and our fractious politics – combined with the very real challenges we face as a nation, at home and abroad – make for a very difficult operating environment for leaders. We are adept at chewing them up and spitting them out for transgressions real, imagined or invented. They are vilified, ridiculed, hounded and harassed – in the media, in Congressional committees, by TV comedians and on Facebook and Twitter.
We’ve seen this phenomenon at work with several consecutive U.S. presidents, business leaders and now, an important and by all accounts dedicated and accomplished military leader.
Sometimes leaders deserve to be removed from leadership positions because of the mistakes they’ve made, and that may be the case with Gen. McChrystal. But the fact that we go after them with such zeal and ferocity strikes me as something relatively new and disturbing.
We’re great at tearing leaders down, and not so great at discovering, developing and supporting them – even though we need capable leadership in business, politics and policy, now more than ever.
Earlier this week, I attended the Denver Business Journal CFO of the Year luncheon, along with Linhart PR Partner and CFO Carri Clemens and colleagues Chandra Brin and Dina Storz. Carri was a finalist for the second consecutive year. Here’s hoping the third time’s the charm.
Winning CFOs in several categories were honored, including small business, public company and not-for-profit . The stories of their accomplishments were a great reminder of the vital role CFOs play in helping to build businesses. The best of them – what my smart management consulting colleagues back at A.T. Kearney used to call “the strategic CFO” – are so much more than managers of the finance function.
Carri exemplifies this, in ways that benefit our team, our clients and our firm. She provides high-quality financial statements and forecasts that enable our partner team to be clear on where we are, and where we’re going. Her annual budgets are uncannily accurate (although somehow she always can find a little extra to help reward our team with a special treat). Her monthly presentations of high-level P&L data and trends help our staff understand what drives our business.
But these responsibilities don’t begin to encompass the value Carri brings to Linhart PR. She manages our annual client satisfaction and employee satisfaction surveys and helps us understand and act on the results. She serves as chief technology officer, chief HR officer and a kind, compassionate and wise counselor anytime one of us needs a listening ear. Most important, she gives smart, insightful, fact-based advice whenever we have an important business decision to make.
And she does it all with warmth, humor and grace, while balancing her responsibilities here with those of a wife and mother of two great kids.
We’re very fortunate to have Carri as our CFO and a partner in our firm. To us, she’s the CFO of the Millennium. Time to start working on that acceptance speech for next year.
Since its inception in 1987, Microsoft PowerPoint has become the default communication tool for business, government and even the U.S. military. Despite grave doubts about its usefulness in communicating precisely and persuasively, or explaining complicated situations or ideas, I have subjected clients and colleagues to many PowerPoint presentations, and have been subjected to countless more.
My distaste for PowerPoint was reinforced during my years at A.T. Kearney, the global management consulting firm, where client deliverables resulting from thousands of hours of work and costing millions of dollars often were delivered in the form of 100-plus slide decks of mind-numbing granularity. In their very limited spare time, A.T. Kearney consultants sometimes amused themselves by rendering works of literature or great speeches in PowerPoint form, e.g., Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Edward Tufte, professor emeritus of political science, statistics and computer science at Yale University, who has written brilliant, elegant books on information design, critiques the software in his essay “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint,” for fostering simplistic thinking and providing “reassurance to the presenter rather than enlightenment to the audience.” Tufte argues that inappropriate use of PowerPoint by Boeing and NASA engineers contributed to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
The latest evidence in the case against PowerPoint appeared on page one of The New York Times earlier this week: a diagram meant to illustrate the complexity of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, used in a briefing last summer for Gen. Stanley McChrystal, leader of American and NATO forces. “When we understand that slide,” McChrystal quipped, “we’ll have won the war.”
PowerPoint is “dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster told the Times. “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.” McMaster banned PowerPoint presentations in his command in Iraq in 2005.
The crux of the Times piece, by national affairs correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller: “Commanders say that the slides impart less information than a five-page paper can hold, and that they relieve the briefer of the need to polish writing to convey an analytic, persuasive point.”
My take: PowerPoint is a useful tool, which is why it’s the preferred method of information-sharing requested by some clients. But business and communications leaders should recognize its limitations – and seize opportunities to resist its ubiquity, especially when dealing with complex topics or where precision or persuasiveness are required. Sometimes there’s just no substitute for the written word.
For more about really bad PowerPoint, visit Seth Godin’s Blog. When you must use PowerPoint (and sometimes we must), check out Lifehacker’s 10/20/30 PowerPoint Rule.
We like things colorful and quirky here at Linhart PR. Two years ago, while visiting Barcelona with my wife, Sue, and Sharon and her husband, Jerry, we discovered a colorful, quirky holiday – St. George’s Day (or La Diada di Sant Jordi in Catalan). We were wowed by the energy, pride and partying that marked the Catalans’ celebration.
St. George’s Day is celebrated on April 23rd from Barcelona to Beirut, and in countries including Portugal, Italy, Greece, Russia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Kosovo. What they have in common is a patron saint – St. George, who died on this date in 303 A.D.
In England, St. George’s Day is the country’s National Day. St. George’s Cross, a red cross on a white background, forms part of the British flag. Pubs are festooned with flags and garlands bearing St. George’s Cross, and it was traditional at one time to wear a rose in your lapel.
In Bulgaria, a common practice is to slaughter and eat a whole lamb – since St. George also is the patron saint of shepherds.
In the Catalonia region of Spain, where Barcelona is the capital, St. George’s Day is a national holiday. Schools and offices close and people take to the streets to celebrate. The main event is the exchange of gifts, a tradition dating back to medieval times. Historically, men give a rose to the women in their lives, and women give men a book —”a rose for love and a book forever.”
How did this get started, and why roses and books? Legend has it St. George killed a dragon that was about to devour a Catalan princess. A rosebush sprouted from the dragon’s blood, from which St. George plucked the prettiest rose for the princess.
In 1923, a Barcelona bookseller began promoting the holiday as a way to honor the deaths of Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare on April 23, 1616. Barcelona is Spain’s publishing capital and a one-two punch of love and literacy was quickly adopted. This tradition inspired UNESCO to declare April 23rd “World Book Day.”
Barcelonans awoke this morning to find the streets lined with thousands of makeshift bookstalls and stands selling roses, which appeared as if by magic overnight. Today, they will have bought about 4 million roses and 800,000 books – half of all annual book sales in Catalonia.
At Linhart PR, we’re celebrating St. George’s Day with a rose for everyone on our team, to say thanks for their dedication to our clients.
What about the books? This afternoon, we’ll have a book-themed trivia contest. At Beer Friday, we’ll draw one name from among those answering the quiz questions correctly. The winner gets a $25 Tattered Cover gift card.
Happy St. George’s Day to all.
I’m in New York this week to help judge the North American SABRE (Strategic Achievement in Branding and Reputation) Awards, presented annually by The Holmes Report. Although I’ve judged PRSA’s Silver Anvils several times, it was my first experience judging the SABREs and I found it interesting.
My fellow judges were (from left in the photo), Gary Rudnick, my friend and one-time GolinHarris colleague, who is now regional managing director at GH; Mark Kaminsky, partner in SS+K and veteran corporate communications executive; and Kirk Stewart, executive vice president at APCO Worldwide and formerly global vice president of corporate communications for Nike and one-time CEO of Manning, Selvage & Lee. Paul Holmes, editor and publisher of The Holmes Report, facilitated our session.
We judged 88 entries in five categories: corporate image, employee communications, financial communications, cause-related marketing and community relations. Our team was one of many recruited by Paul to judge hundreds of entries in various categories. Our client Chris Arnold, communications director at Chipotle Mexican Grill, also made the trip from Denver to judge other categories as part of a separate team.
No, I’m not going to reveal any of the winners. But I will share some impressions:
Solid results are being delivered in a variety of fields, but overall, there’s still a disconnect between communications results and business or organizational outcomes.
Only a few islands of excellence stood out in a sea of sameness; the inhabitants of those islands will know who they are on May 11th in New York.
The tone of many entries makes crystal-clear that too many PR people seem willing to believe their own BS, or at least are trying to get the judges to believe it.
Someone is missing from many of the entries, and that someone is the audience – all too often not discussed, especially not in terms of what the program planners want the audience to think, feel and do.
A surprising number of program entries contained typographical errors, suggesting a certain lack of attention to detail.
The good news is that our judging group shared a common view of what constitutes high-quality, high-impact PR programming – as evidenced by the fact that in most categories, we were in immediate agreement in identifying the top program. Excellence still stands out.
Speaking of judging, Dawn Doty and Kelly Womer will be in New York later this week to judge the Silver Anvils for PRSA. I’ll look forward to their report.
I spent last Friday walking the halls of the Anaheim Convention Center, attending Natural Products Expo West, the massive trade show for the natural and organic food and personal care products industry, produced by Boulder-based New Hope Natural Media.
It was a great opportunity to spend time with and support clients like Rudi’s Organic Bakery and WhiteWave Foods, the company behind leading brands including Silk Soymilk and Horizon, the organic dairy. I also had a chance to visit with our friends from mix1 Beverage Co.
Expo West is a scene. I can’t do it justice here, but if you’d like a sense of the sprawling magnitude and unusual vibe – powerful cosmic energies united behind saving the planet and striking it rich — check out this account by Elephant Journal’s Waylon Lewis.
I wondered whether enthusiasm would be dampened by the bad economy of the past two years, but a New Hope representative told me attendance was up and business was brisk.
While the industry may face headwinds as consumer confidence returns gradually, new products meeting genuine consumer needs will continue to generate excitement. Doug Radi, vice president of marketing for Rudi’s Organic, said their booth was crowded with retailers asking when they can get their hands on Rudi’s new line of gluten-free bread.
There were celebrity sightings. Dr. Andrew Weill and Sara Snow were among the speakers at The Organic Center dinner on Friday night. At the cocktail reception preceding the dinner, my wife, Sue, introduced herself to Marilu Henner, reminding the actress (and wellness author) of her breathless, star-struck appearance years ago with Sting on “The Tonight Show.” Without batting an eye, Marilu said “May 13th, 1993.” She was sweet and gracious.
My favorite celebrity sighting happened on our flight home on Southwest Airlines. The lead flight attendant looked and sounded familiar, and as we deplaned, I asked if I’d seen him on YouTube. He said yes. It was David Holmes, Southwest’s famous rapping flight attendant.
