http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/ ja Copyright 2008 Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:49:32 +0900 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss (It takes time to make money. Therefore, time is just as valuable as money and someone should not waste it). If you work in a PR firm and somebody asks you: "What is your product?", how would you answer? Me, I would say: "my time." Just like lawyers or accountants or other professionals, we charge our customers for the time it takes to do what we do best, including: Media relations and publicity Corporate image development and reputation management Issues interception & crisis management Media & crisis training and coaching Product launches and brand-building Marketing communications Public awareness and consumer education Stakeholder and opinion leader relations Social media communications and ‘Word of Mouth’ campaigns Corporate Social Responsibility programs Internal communications and employee engagement Special event and trade show management Journalist perception audits Media intelligence: monitoring, competitive research, and analysis Financial communications Communications strategy development/creative ideation and planning etc. So, if time doing these things is our primary asset, it is important for PR pros serious about their careers to increase the value of their time through education and training so that client money looking for premium quality can finance the fruits of that labour. In my opinion, even in tough economic times, there will always be enough demand from the market to finance the cost of training and compensating staff enough to supply it consistently. It is pretty straightforward: the higher our ability, the better our quality. If we get that precious thing, then we earn the finest reputation, and new business becomes easier because we get more 'incoming' prospects which we then convert into clients. Indeed, just look at our amazing community of customers from only three fiscal years in business at Tokyo, which then helps us attract great people, thus increasing our ability to attract premium money from the market so we can prosper as a company collectively and individually as well. Just like this 'virtuous cycle' below... Time might be money, but the key issue is the people whose time generates that money for themselves and for the company...us, the PR professionals, proud of what we do and always getting better at it because there's premium opportunity where there's premium time. ]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/06/17114932.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/06/17114932.html Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:49:32 +0900 (comment: there will be no harvest in the fall without planting and tending during the spring and summer. If you indulge only in the pleasures of the moment, then you will eventually find yourself in a difficult situation). So true! There's nothing wrong with enjoying these 'pleasures of the moment' -- celebrating things important to us like winning a big new business pitch, scoring media publicity, earning a compliment from a client -- but most of these pleasures come from our previous planning and preparation. The only way to achieve individual and team success in business is to first plan our work, then work our plan. We must always analyse the situation (where we are today), map-out our objectives (where we want to be in future), identify the stakeholders whose opinions and actions will determine the speed and extent of our success, the strategy we will use to guide our efforts, and of course the tactical activities that we spend our time doing within a pre-determined schedule. Thinking ahead is the key to planning: Thinking ahead about our own careers and where we need to be in future to be happy and successful Thinking ahead about what we have to do for the clients whose business is our key career driver and reputation-maker Thinking ahead about 'things to do'; determining proper priority between them and estimating how long each will take so we can manage our promises and deadlines well Thinking ahead about what different stakeholders need, when they need it, and how they need it In my job, I always have to think ahead about two things: securing the future money of the firm and attracting, training and retaining the talent of the future that will serve and attract even more of that quality-driven client money through a progressively higher education-enabled skill level. That sounds pretty fancy, but everyday it just means things like: going for new business immediately after we win a new business pitch to stay ahead of the money curve (not waiting until we are forced to find money); interviewing talented people who might join the firm in five months or even five years (not waiting until quality standards suffer if we get too much business without enough people); always meeting media every week to build relationships that will help secure coverage in future (not waiting for a specific assignment where it might be hard to generate ink with a journo we don't know) It is really boring and lazy to just sit around and wait for things to happen and then react. Instead of being reactive and passive subjects of change that other people drive, the idea is for us -- our group -- be the masters of change through addressing the future everyday by devising and following a plan that is designed to get us where we want to go. The world's most famous ice hockey player (and my fellow Canadian), Wayne Gretzky, put it well when he said: "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." ]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/06/02113843.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/06/02113843.html Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:38:43 +0900 Honesty to clients is appreciated because they are so close to their businesses, they need our objective perspective as PR agents. When clients ask us for the truth, we must deliver the truth...about why the reporter did or did not write the story...about what the journalists really think about the new product...about what is the correct price for our services. Honesty to colleagues should come naturally here at Edelman, but we must always remind ourselves of its importance. Honest and open channels of communication between each other results in the most wise decisions and the happiest company climate. Liars lose friends and destroy confidence, resulting in anger, isolation and resentment, which is why there should be no place in a firm for deliberate deceit nor casual deception (nor for telling people what they want to hear to achieve personal ambition). By continuing to be honest with each other, we show respect for ourselves and for the firm in a way that keeps people of quality and integrity warmly loyal to a company (whereas a cold-blooded concern with 'the ends' rather than the merits of the means could lead to departures...nobody wants to work for a firm they don't respect, which comes from a loss of trust, often the consequence of deliberate or opportunistic falsehood). Honesty to the media wins respect and helps build lifelong relationships built on a foundation of trust. Journalists can spot a liar in a second, and when they do, the publicity can be disastrous. Just one lie can destroy the positive impact of 99 true statements, and it can ruin corporate and personal reputations in a single news cycle. That's why not lying to the press -- always telling the truth we are allowed to tell -- is always the best way forward in every case. Finally, honesty to yourself. This is key to avoiding an unhappy life in a PR agency. The more honest you are with yourself -- and that's why performance reviews should be transparent concerning feedback -- the more you can leverage your strengths and overcome your weaknesses. Dishonesty only breeds disappointment and alienation. Telling the truth to yourself, to clients, to colleagues, and to media is a sure way to build one's PR success. Edelman's philosophy is centred upon the 'relationship imperative.' What is key to any successful relationship? Trust, respect and confidence, all of which come from honesty and truth-telling. I have found that the more intelligent the individual, the more honest the individual. Which is why lies and the liars who tell them are always confronted by the negative consequences of their deceit: the truth always comes out into the open. My father told me when I was a little boy that "you have to have a good memory to be a liar, because you have to remember all your lies." Smart people know that. But the problem is, lying is habit-forming and so the liar usually tells so many lies that it is impossible to remember them all. At Edelman, and I hope at all PR firms, we need to tell the truth honestly with all stakeholders at all times. I want Edelman to be seen as the most trusted and trustworthy PR firm. That's why honesty must remain our best policy. ]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/05/19152006.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/05/19152006.html Mon, 19 May 2008 15:20:06 +0900 (Emergencies and crises do occur, but you can protect yourself by planning and preparing ahead. Providing is preventing). Next month, one of my favourite people in Edelman -- Mike Seymour of our UK operation -- will be here to train our team about crisis communications in his role as the global practice leader. It's a timely visit, because we always need to further increase our crisis consulting business to help achieve our commercial objectives by building our reputation for leadership in the corporate space. We've done some solid work so far, but we will soon be selling deeper premium-grade consulting and at the heart of this is being able to run full-scale crisis simulations (about which Mike is a noted expert). Like media training, the crisis simulation -- to be distinguished from the essential but more straightforward crisis seminar that is a 'dime a dozen' in Japan -- is an opportunity to showcase PR thinking at its finest to c-suite decision-makers under 'real-life' mock conditions where the authenticity and drama of the training exercise will engrave indelible Edelman-supplied insight into the minds of senior corporate people. Crisis PR work is far more rewarding for us and for clients when it comes to preparedness rather than response. We might make more raw fees from the drama of an actual incident, but it is much more satisfying to help prevent a crisis in the first place by teaching corporate executives how to identify issues with crisis potential, intercept them, and manage them transparently to ensure positive trust-boosting outcomes with stakeholders. Crisis communications work is at the very top of the PR food chain, and expanding our mastery of it via Mike's training across the staff at all ranks will help Edelman Japan increase our skill level and thereby increase the demand from the market for our premium PR services. The true professional always prepares for the unexpected, because as professionals we know that the unexpected can always be expected. ]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/05/08175351.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/05/08175351.html Thu, 08 May 2008 17:53:51 +0900 Even the most skilful work will be unsatisfactory if it takes too long to complete. Rather than agonize over inconsequential things, we should try and do the highest quality job within a reasonable period of time. Speed! Clients appreciate it when we answer their e-mails instantly. Prospects are impressed by it when we send thank you notes after new business pitches the moment we get back to the office. Media like it when we return their phone calls right away. The more quickly we do something that someone wants, the more we show that we respect them and that they are important to us. The more they know that we respect them and regard them as important, the greater our reputation and our business growth. Likeability is one of our most important business assets with stakeholders. Whenever we do something quickly for someone, the more we show them that we like them. The longer we take, the more they might think we don't like them, and that's a sure way to harm our business and hold back our careers. Perceptions of competence are also closely associated with speed. If we deliver information or a tangible deliverable result fast, people think "Edelman is a competent high-quality firm unlike any other." If we take too long -- especially for basic or easy things -- they assume "Edelman is an incompetent low-quality firm just like some others I had problems with." PR people are the world's most powerful information workers. When I started out as an account executive in 1990 (when we had more typewriters than PCs and snail mail instead of e-mail), 'urgent' meant 'this week' or maybe 'today.' Eighteen years later, with electronic communication long having eclipsed paper communication, 'urgent' means 'within the hour' or often 'right now.' There does not need to be a compromise in quality by being speedy. We are accelerating our training even more to make sure of that. That's because service speed is a key driver of client perceptions of quality, so I think a speedy delivery of quality information & ideas & thinking & results should be our focus. There is a connection between the speed of service and the speed of a professional consultancy's growth and our personal development together with the team. ]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/04/22150007.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/04/22150007.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:00:07 +0900 (The capacity to listen to others is a virtue, especially in the PR business! Listen carefully to other people, even when they are talking about matters that seem trivial or foolish). Quite often at Edelman Japan, we have emphasized the importance of speaking-up at meetings to show intellectual curiosity so clients can see that our brains are hard at work finding solutions to their PR challenges. That remains important, but let's not forget that stakeholders like PR consultants who listen to them, not just talk at them. Listening is key to likeability --> likeability is key to client satisfaction --> client satisfaction is key to attracting more money to grow our careers. You see what I am saying. Over the years, I have learned that people generally like to hear the sound of their own voices. This is especially true in our business when we go to new business or client meetings or get-together with reporters. It's true that we should deliver our own key messages in a pitch or at a meeting -- so that clients or journos will, in consequence, think and do what we hope they will think and do -- but our own messages will have much more power if, before we do that, we perform 'active listening' instead of talking too much. Active listening is best manifested by asking smart, research-informed questions that we think about in advance (about past coverage, current issues, future plans, personal and third-party opinion, big trends, new products in the pipeline, etc. etc.). There should always be a strategy to the questions: we should ask the ones that lead the conversation towards where we expect the stakeholder to provide answers that allow us -- after listening to them -- the ability to comment in a way that showcases our own strengths. Therefore, after listening establishes the likeability and also the context, the questions can be used to guide the talk to where we want it to go...after all, we're in the information and the education business, but we are also in the persuasion business. In general, the first comments we make at a meeting should be designed to get the stakeholder to think 'yes, I agree with you.' It's an old sales approach, but a positive start to a meeting often leads to a positive conclusion. ]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/04/12192246.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/04/12192246.html Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:22:46 +0900 "Yes, that's an interesting idea; we will start thinking about it right away." "Yes, we should consider that, and so let me talk to a colleague of mine who knows that area really well." "Yes, I think some companies have done that, but let me do some research so we can learn from their mistakes." If we know that something might be a bad idea, we can always start with 'yes' but ask a question that leads the other party to the 'no': "Yes, it is an intriguing idea, but should we also consider x? They tried it and failed...can we do it differently and succeed?" If the idea is do-able but not inside the current budget, we can say: "Yes, absolutely we can do that. But as it would be a project under our agreement, should I send you a budget quotation?" If we have limited past experience about something, we can say: "Yes, especially with the benefit of your input and working with our colleagues, we can create the solution you are looking for." Like we teach in the media training (the same rules apply to all effective stakeholder communications), when asked about problems, we should propose solutions. When confronted with challenges, we should articulate opportunities. When dealing with a negative question, we should always try and come back with a positive answer. Complexity > Simplicity (clients always like) In general, our business is about taking the complexity of a client and simplifying it so stakeholders understand them via earned media coverage that makes our clients' lives easier because they look good with their boss. Clients like working with an agency because they outsource their PR problems to us, and so whenever they 'talk problem,' we should 'talk solution.' Simplicity > Complexity (clients may not like) Taking the simplicity of client requests and making things seem complicated through excessive negativity or too many questions hurts our likeability and reduces a primary reason for using a PR agency in the first place: to save time! Likeability is a key ingredient of client quality perceptions. Clients really like agencies that are 'easy to do business with,' agencies that provides answers to inspire inspire confidence, not just ask questions to raise doubts. Admittedly, there are lots of situations where we need to educate clients so they don't make a mistake, but in general responding with 'yes' to a client - even the 'yes' that only means listening - helps the client say 'yes' to us, especially at contract renewal time. (Of course, there is nothing more unprofessional that saying 'yes' and then acting 'no' by failing to take promised action, but that is a topic for another day).]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/04/05191619.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/04/05191619.html Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:16:19 +0900 (People often hesitate to ask a question for fear that they might look foolish. However, not asking questions can make people look even more foolish; their false pride keeps them ignorant). Ignorance is the opponent of progress for professional services people working in a modern information economy. Quite often, clients will think more highly of the brain credentials of their PR consultants if lots of smart questions are asked in meetings. Failure to ask questions -- to show intellectual curiosity -- is really a professional failure in a business where making the other person feel important by getting them talking is a key common-sense way to earn the economic progress of new business (the bigger the brain perception, the bigger the budget quite often). Not asking questions creates the negative impression that... "This person is not paying attention...this person is not thinking...this person does not value what I am saying...they don't want a dialogue with me." Asking questions creates the positive impression that... "This person has done a lot of research about me/my company before this meeting...they are listening to what we are saying...they want a strong two-way relationship with me in the future." A question is an acknowledgement that one does not yet know something needed to serve the client better. If we never ask a question because we are too timid to do so, we will never get the information we need to be the best client-centric PR consultants we can be. Asking questions should show our sincere interest in finding the right answer. However, all questions should be started with an introduction that shows our pre-research and thinking ahead (e.g. "I see from your website that you issued 17 press releases last year...how much news is the pipeline for next year?" [shows we did some homework] rather than just "What is the number of releases you will be asking us to issue" [seems lazy and passive]). PR people are increasingly the world's most important information workers, and so ignorance is our enemy and it can only be defeated by asking questions all the time in two-way conversations with stakeholders (e.g. our clients and the media who cover them). ]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/03/24152229.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/03/24152229.html Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:22:29 +0900 Don't get discouraged about an undertaking before you actually attempt it. What seems 'impossible' may actually be easier to achieve than you think. But you won't accomplish anything as long as you are only sitting around thinking about your goal. When I spent a lot of 2003 and 2004 in Tokyo doing some consultations with key PR industry stakeholders laying our groundwork for the new Edelman Japan, I heard these two things all the time: "It can't be done" and "You will fail." I was told - by Japanese and foreigners - that Edelman could never succeed here as we hoped to succeed. I was told that PR in Japan is commodity-based (order-taking rather than strategy-making). I was told that Tokyo is too expensive (most said we could never make any money). I was told that it would take a long time for us to grow (lots of folks said nothing happens fast in Japan). I was told that the talent level here is too low (several said that finding good people is nearly impossible). I was told that owing to our lack of a credible past in Japan, we could have no serious future. So I thought to myself "wow, all these difficult challenges...this will be really hard." But because few things of real value or meaning in life are easy, this made me focus on the opportunities instead. I don't mind saying that proving the sceptics and the critics wrong motivated me strongly. Now experience has shown that the negative people I talked to - all in the PR industry - are sometimes so pessimistic that they have almost come to be defined by their sense of the problems rather than their sense of possibility. It's almost like they don't even try sometimes because of their negative sentiment about their own industry. Life is too short to feel so badly about your own profession. But we have tried, we are trying, and we will always try because we can see that one-by-one, we are overcoming difficulties that - while some do exist and will persist for awhile - can be overcome by our group's optimistic and courageous team effort. We have served 100+ clients so far since 2005. We will soon grow towards 40 professionals -- and then triple that. Our training is driving quality levels higher all the time. Nobody expected this so far, so fast and it is important to know that our hard-working staff did this by trying in the first place because what we are building here is 'worth a try'. As I sit here entering my fourth year running this imperfect but improving office, the truth of that statement seems self-evident. Around here, whenever we ponder how hard it will be to win a really competitive new business pitch or to place a story for a client with an sceptical journalist, we try and keep in mind that the learning and earning and growing benefits that will come from the positive result will, in either case, be worth the trying.]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/03/13145151.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/03/13145151.html Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:51:51 +0900 Victory attracts new and more powerful challengers. If a company does well in the marketplace, competitors will arise to try and capture its business. There is no rest for the successful. For a company that humbly started with nothing when we incorporated three years ago this month, Edelman Japan has been fortunate to experience notable rapid successes as a young company during its early phase. We are aware of it, but so too are our competitors: our web tracking software shows higher traffic from more and more PR agencies all the time. Especially because many of the foreign-owned PR agencies have been experiencing slow or even no growth in recent times (or so I am told), people have really noticed that Edelman is the fastest-growing international PR firm in Japan these past few years. Under pressure from their advertising conglomerate head offices who worry about impatient stock markets (whereas we have the luxury of being privately-held focusing on a PR-centric approach in partnership with long-term client relationships), I think some of our competitors have been asking themselves what we are doing right to enjoy such solid results in such a short time. Because they have seen our investment in intellectual capital, our 'doing PR for PR,' and our laser-like focus on quality -- in this, the most quality-focused country in the world -- there are signs that our approach us leading to imitation. That is very flattering, but it also means that the competition is going to get tougher and try to copy our thinking and better leverage their longer years and larger staffs. Therefore, at Edelman we are re-doubling our efforts to leverage our assets to build our careers by building our firm. Here are the kinds of values that our company especially emphasizes: Speed: being nimble and quick; responding to stakeholders and getting things done fast to stay one step ahead at all times. Ambition: we want to be the premium brand offering the best service and results, not excuses and mediocrity. Fearless: not being afraid to take risks and try new things and dare to be different; always investing in more intellectual capital -- research applied to client recommendations -- to secure thought leadership. Quality: we are always trying to continuously improve it to ensure that there will be a growing number of 'Edelman enthusiasts' who recommend us to others (and this is the #1 factor in securing future prosperity). Education: becoming the best trained PR team supplying a higher level of skills commanding a higher demand in a market that will pay for the reality -- and not just the rhetoric -- of modern PR. Influence: we are a rising and respected operation in our global firm; Edelman Japan is working to become a PR consulting powerhouse, earning a higher profile and more marketing muscle than any other foreign PR firm in this country. In addition to leveraging our strengths, at Edelman Japan we are also addressing our weaknesses as we try even harder to recruit and retain the talent we need, to improve systems and processes, and to deliver on the Quality promise consistently at all times on all accounts. We have tackled a lot of tough problems so far; it was not easy for us to create a firm of 30 people in three years, but the nice thing is that we did it with our own hands and hearts here in Tokyo, creating a office designed not just to import world-class money, people, and ideas, but to export those things as well.]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/02/25111607.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/02/25111607.html Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:16:07 +0900 (Most people are as happy as they make their minds up to be; this proverb echoes that sentiment). Mark Twain once said that every person's mind is a "...suffering machine and happiness machine combined." In my experience running PR agency offices since 1995, usually people who let their 'happiness machine' do most of the mental work are the ones who make the most successful team members. I think the same applies to entire offices and companies, too. Having PMA [Positive Mental Attitude] is a key ingredient to enjoying a really successful career in public relations. People who enjoy overcoming challenges rather than being defeated by them usually do well in professional services. That's because clients do not want to pay a lot of money to hear about problems they expect the agency to transform into solutions. Co-workers seem to feel the same way usually. People in any office -- in any country -- almost always gravitate towards the active person who is happy and excited to get the job done, rather than the passive person who is afraid to take action and just sits around complaining like a victim. Some people in life -- a small minority I hope -- almost seem to enjoy suffering thoughts and are never happy even when things are going well. I try really hard to spot such people in job interviews and through EQ testing so that we can avoid 'suffering a perennial sufferer.' One way to detect and to avoid hiring someone 'wired to be negative and suffer all the time' is to see how they handle rejection situations. If someone seems to pro-actively reject -- almost like "I am going to reject you before you reject me" -- then there's a good chance this person would not accomplish too much here. We make money by pitching new business and pitching media. We face rejection all the time. With a PMA, we can learn from it and increase acceptance plus winning. People with a NMA [Negative Mental Attitude] invite losing and then constantly experience it over and over almost as if the suffering were being unconsciously enjoyed. I am not a psychiatrist, but a friend of mine is, and he gave me this insight which I thought I would share because I think he's right. Our experience here at Edelman Japan shows the positive results -- we are the fastest-growing office in Edelman globally during the past three years -- of deciding in advance to think about what we do in a positive and constructive way as we look for happy victories rather than set out to encounter sad defeats. ]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/02/15134412.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/02/15134412.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:44:12 +0900 This proverb encourages people to be patient when accumulating savings or combining many small efforts...patience and persistence will ultimately lead to success. A few days ago, I was making the point that if we make too many small mistakes in our work, in clients' minds these can add-up to a negative perception of one big mistake in hiring a PR firm. So, knowing that, it is pretty dumb -- and there is no good excuse -- if we keep making the little mistakes that needlessly distract from our overall quality and devalue hard-earned accomplishments in the client's eyes. But let's peer through the other end of the telescope and look for positive insight; the same concept works when we do small things well. Every day, we communicate lots of content to numerous stakeholders via multiple communications channels (e-mail, SMS, IM, mail, fax, face-to-face, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). Each of these hundreds of unique 'touch points' (collectively the 'dust' of a positive image) makes or breaks our reputation. If we ensure a positive result with no mistakes per 'transaction', each small thing we do well becomes part of a big sense of accomplishment and quality in the minds of our clients. Spell check, double-checking, margin alignment, planning headers logically, use of one consistent font per client relationship, making sure bullets and numbering are the same throughout, imagining a timeline from start to finish and scheduling time accordingly, dressing well for meetings (one level up from the client to show respect), always phrasing things verbally in the target audience's interest...the list of small but significant tips goes on. These are all modest and minor things on their own, but if we apply a sense of fine craftsmanship in our conduct of each, then mistakes and pressure will be replaced by achievement and pride. Here in Japan, quality matters most, and quality comes from a mastery of the small things. I always ask our employees at Edelman to help me help them continue to make our firm better through everyday personal observance of this fundamental professional services principle. At Edelman we are aiming at being the best we can be by doing our own small personal part to accumulate the everyday 'dust' that will create a new PR standard of excellence in Japan.]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/02/07161941.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/02/07161941.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:19:41 +0900 Inattention to detail can be the source of considerable problems; attention to detail can be the source of considerable success. Earlier this week, I visited the website of the Canadian PR consultancy I co-founded in 1994 (www.environicspr.com). I noticed that the characteristics that agency values look unchanged since I moved on some eight years ago: Meticulous attention to detail Writing excellence Business intelligence Common sense Client service excellence A sense of humour Team player I was a true believer in that fine firm's culture and so our staff in Tokyo will recognize in these concepts the things that Edelman Japan emphasizes every day, and indeed these are the things that I have often talked about in training our staff. The first one -- 'meticulous attention to detail' -- is close to my heart because way back during my H&K days in the early 1990s when I got in trouble for being a typo-prone SAE, I found out through hard experience that stakeholders really value the small things. Clients value documents from PR firms that are perfectly formatted, nicely designed, with no spelling mistakes or inconsistent punctuation. Why? Because such documents earn the reputation for Quality and documents that are the opposite are an insult to the money they are paying to finance our salaries. Prospects value meetings where smart questions are asked that evidence the fact that we have thought about them and done some research beforehand. Why? Because these are busy people who don't want to waste time teaching us the things we should already know as 'big brain' information-worker professionals. Journalists value pitches that match their area of assignment with story angles designed to cater to their audience segment. Why? Because media are even more busy than prospects and if we waste their time with pitches that show we have not thought about their needs and done some basic research beforehand, they will think the PR firm is ignorant and amateur and never listen to them again. Colleagues value it when other co-workers meet deadlines and provide adequate notice before the deadline if more time is required. Why? Because missing deadlines without pre-extension is unprofessional and immature and sends the message that 'this person is incompetent and disorganized.' Everybody values thank you notes especially -- one of the smallest but most important communications gestures. Why? Because sending thank you notes after somebody has spent precious time with you shows we consider them important, shows we are good communicators and shows we are not selfish rude people. I suppose none of these things are individually huge, but failure to do small things right makes the fact of failure seem to be a much bigger deal. Plus, neglect of small things can be habit-forming and create a resistance to learning from mistakes, which can be bad for one's career in an industry where not repeating the same mistakes is so important to success. The point becomes clearest of all when you consider all the 'touch points' between Edelman and the stakeholders we deal with. Thousands of times a week, stakeholders get e-mails, phone calls, faxes and documents from Edelman (plus face-to-face meetings). The thinking we use in the e-mail, the manner of our answering the phone, the name spelled correctly on the cover sheet we use with the fax, the writing of the documents and the friendliness of our greeting for guests collectively make or break our reputation. Of course, that reputation for Quality -- which comes from all of our employees doing those thousands of small 'touch point' things right all the time -- draws the money from the client marketplace that pays for things like salary increases, so paying attention to the small things has economic consequences, too...both as a team and individually. So, we plan to keep doing the exact opposite of that American saying that I disagree with so much: "Don't sweat the small stuff." One of the great things about Japan is the finely detailed work of small things that makes the great Quality reliable and valuable product: be that product a car, consumer electronics, or the PR consultant's time.]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/02/01133905.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/02/01133905.html Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:39:05 +0900 Money is found in dangerous places Since co-founding Environics Communications in 1994, leading the new Edelman Korea in 2002 and most recently establishing the new Edelman Japan in 2005, I have learned that there can be no profit without risk, and if a PR firm wants to be successful, the team must remember that nothing is gained if nothing is dared. Taking smart risks comes naturally at Edelman. After all, 'Entrepreneurial Spirit' is one of our corporate values. Many of our employees know all about risk, because they had the entrepreneurial courage to join a new company just starting-up, and now we can see the positive reward of these collective risk decisions through the development of the company that our people are helping to co-create. Edelman will continue to take informed risks to secure our future in Japan; here are just two examples: 1. Differentiation We will continue to risk by daring to be completely different than all the other PR firms as 'the agency of change,' and that includes aggressively marketing the firm to stakeholders. Why? Because too many PR firms all seem the same these days and the Japanese market is hungry for the new kind of Quality-obsessed PR agency Edelman has deliberately chosen to become. Perhaps you have heard about 'Differentiate or Die'; positive differentiation is essential to modern marketing and so we will keep promoting our premium brand of intellectual capital-driven PR. 2. Ideation We will continue to always keep thinking of daring new ideas for our clients, and then take the risk of presenting our thinking to them. Weekly internal account team meetings at Edelman should always generate one new idea to serve the client better, an idea we are not afraid to express. The question for us should not be a timid 'What if they don't like it?' and we should not be thinking negative thoughts like 'We've never done that before.' That's the easy way out, a cop-out. Instead, we should ask confidently: 'What new idea will the client like that improves the quality of their PR?' and be thinking more about our ambition to win approval in a positive way rather than dwelling on a fear of rejection. Then, we should present the idea so that the Client can see that we are counselling them in a clever way to add value, not just 'going through the motions' like their last risk-averse agency probably did. Sometimes clients might not like an idea, and indeed all risks don't succeed, but we get wiser because we learn from the experience of trying in the first place. Risks can be dangerous, they can be extremely rewarding. Danger can be stimulating and in facing it through risk-taking, business life is far more exciting and profitable (financially and psychologically). The last thing we need in the Japanese PR industry is another cautious agency....'playing it safe' would stall our profession's momentum and worse, it would make life pretty boring for PR people. So, let's keep finding money in the dangerous places where we know our way around and feel confident owing to our continuously improving competence as PR people proud of what we do.]]> http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/01/26171719.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/01/26171719.html Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:17:19 +0900 Bob Pickard applies his two decades of public affairs and PR experience to the task of building and serving the firm’s expanding community of clients in Japan and Korea. In these countries, Edelman has grown ten times larger during the past five years and today it is the leading global PR consultancy in North Asia. A founder and Representative Director of Edelman Japan, before Bob was Managing Director of Edelman Korea, which was named Edelman’s international ‘Office of the Year’ in 2004 & 2005 and was also recognized as ‘Consultancy of the Year’ at PR WEEK’s 2004 Asia-Pacific PR Awards. Since 1990, Bob has developed, managed, and implemented effective communication strategies for a diverse spectrum of leading global organizations. An experienced crisis communications practitioner, he has also media trained several hundred executives in America and Asia. Before joining Edelman, Bob was executive vice president of Environics Communications, a PR agency he co-founded in 1994. There he led the expansion of the firm’s business into the U.S. market, serving as general manager of its New York-area office. Earlier, Bob was a vice president at Hill and Knowlton Canada. A member of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 1992, he served on the staff of senior federal Cabinet ministers, including Canada’s 16th Prime Minister. A Toronto native and current resident of Tokyo, Bob has travelled to 39 nations (including all 50 U.S. states). He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies from Queen’s University and is a frequent conference speaker (e.g. APEC, EIU, WEF) on CSR issues. http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/01/01000000.html http://www.edelman.jp/en/blog/2008/01/01000000.html Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0900