Earning Trust in a New Normal

I recently attended the Council of PR Firms Critical Issues Forum in New York. I’m new to the council, whose mission is to advance the business of public relations firms by building the market and firms’ value as strategic business partners. As a small firm by industry standards, it was a treat to rub elbows with some of the industry giants, including Dave Senay from Fleishman Hillard, Melissa Waggoner-Zorkin from Waggoner Edstrom and Ray Kotcher from Ketchum, who was serving his final meeting as chairman.

The topic for the forum was Aftershock: Rebuilding Trust and Confidence in 2010. A Socratic debate format was used with the clever and brilliant Len Schlesinger, president of Babson College, moderating. Panelists included Beth Comstock, SVP and CMO for General Electric, Susie Gharib, anchor for Nightly Business Report, Steve Harris, VP Global Comms for General Motors (ret.), Margery Kraus, CEO of APCO Worldwide and James Wiggins, ED for Corp. Comm. for Morgan Stanley.

Len Schlesinger asked the audience, what is the role of public relations in building trust?

My answer was, public relations role is to serve as a clear voice that ethically and transparently serves as a guide for the public conscience and engages discussion about important issues facing society. People were all over the place on this issue, which turned out to be the point of the exercise.

The panel engaged in a spirited discussion and we learned how gray this issue is for our industry. The following were some of my observations:

On the role of leadership in rebuilding trust – Companies must lead by voluntarily taking action. Washington will continue to exert a strong hand in new regulations, including cap and trade legislation, curbing executive pay, etc. Bold, proactive moves that can serve as industry benchmarks will be rewarded even though it is difficult to go first. Some felt (correctly, in my opinion) like business can never do enough to satisfy critics.

On the role of language in rebuilding trust – There is a major disconnect, perhaps larger than corporate America thinks, between main street and Wall Street. The trust has been shattered by greed and stupidity. Use simple words that people understand to tell your story. Get rid of the fine print disclaimers that consumers have such a difficult time understanding. Be authentic with outreach programs, and don’t forget that community begins with being in the community. This year’s graduating class from Harvard MBA School took an oath around the idea that their professional careers would be dedicated to benefiting the social good before stakeholder value (or maybe one drives the other?).

On the role of change in rebuilding trust – The “new normal” is the idea that we’ll never go back to the way we were, which was widely acknowledged as accurate. Critics must be engaged because their distribution platform for publishing content is so fluid. Corporations and leaders that are insular are at risk of being out of touch. Finally, “there is not much time” according to Steve Harris from GM. America is a forgiving country, but not to those who ignore the realities of “new normal.”

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Speak Up Revisited

This has been an interesting past 12 months. It has been nearly a year since Saxum launched our Speak Up campaign – seven simple tips that speak to your business during the national recession. Since Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession is “very likely over” in remarks last week, I thought I’d review our tips and give examples of how we used them during the past 12 months.

We launched the Saxum Speak Up campaign in October 2008 with a memo to our clients about how to communicate more effectively during the recession.

The tips:

1. Build customer and client relationships

Our team has focused on advising clients to become irreplaceable to their clients and customers by getting creative about relationships. The key has been an investment in time.

To date, Saxum has lost revenue from only a handful of clients and not one client laid us off because of the recession. Some have actually increased their budget. Our team approach and partner philosophy has made us a valued part of our client’s teams. We have weathered (and continue to weather) the storm together.

2. Educate your employees about what this means for your industry

In March, I made the decision to conduct a two day off-site strategic planning session with our entire firm (20+ people). We spent time talking about what worked, what doesn’t work and how to service our clients better. I have also given monthly financial updates. To date, our revenues are up double digits while we have reduced our reimbursed client expenses. We were selected for the Metro 50 award (for OKC’s fastest growing companies) for the third straight year.

Our industry has not fared as well, but we believe the upturn will create an incredible opportunity for public relations professionals. We believe organizations will keep advertising dollars low and increase Web 2.0 investment.

3. Invest in media relationships

The media has covered the economy like nothing it has covered before. Every client has had a strategy implemented to share thought leadership on this topic. Saxum has continued to seek new relationships which have paid dividends.

We also conducted our Saxum Social Media Summit this August to build social media relationships. Clients and nonclients were invited to attend a half-day training session with our partner from Connect Social Media, Jim Quillen. We answered two questions: What is social media? How do I use it?

93 percent responded to a survey and said the content was either helpful or very helpful.

4. Establish your company’s benefit to the community.

After reading what seemed like the 20th nonprofit solicitation letter in March, we came up with the idea of giving away $50,000 of our services to a United Way or Allied Arts partner in Oklahoma City who demonstrated a need. Born was the Saxum Step Up campaign. Step Up is an on-going community building campaign with our selected partner, The Oklahoma City Museum of Art. We were named the Journal Record’s Beacon Award (company making a difference) winner this July for our commitment to helping the museum. In addition, we made our largest financial contribution to date to the State, OKC, Tulsa and Austin chambers of commerce. Chambers are the front door to business for Oklahoma and Texas.

We’ve encouraged other clients to give of their time and money to help others in need. There are too many examples of clients who have taken this advice to list here.

5. Keep advertising

Besides real estate, advertising may have taken the biggest hit during the past year. The old financial model may not work anymore, but advertising will always help consumers and businesses make decisions. It may just be through new financial models, like uVizz.

6. Be transparent. Gain trust

In this Web 2.0 world where you can participate in discussions about your brand, being transparent has proved to be the only model to gain trust. Ask Bernie Madoff. Ask John Edwards. Ask Anna Naukam, the now jailed former director of OKC CASA. Ask Danny Rennels, former OSSAA director accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the organization. You have to be transparent.

7. Smile

This tip sounded simple, but is not. Smiling represents optimism. By projecting a positive “can do” attitude, I’ve found that challenging situations were made easier. Plus, it takes more muscles to frown.

How have the seven tips helped you?

View the Speak Up Video.

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Speak Up

Now Hiring

I’m constantly learning. How to be a better leader for our clients. How to get outside the box. How to make a difference. How to prioritize.

During the past month, I’ve been working with Sara Walker, our vice president for operations and human resources, as well as our other management team members on how to continue our momentous growth as we emerge from this recession. We’ve been talking about the best approach to hire the best talent and help talented people make a career decision that is beneficial to them. Of course, in our line of work, it is all about people.

I know all the statistics. Among the business services category in Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” 21 percent of employees leave annually. According to a StevensGouldPincus poll covering PR firms in 2008, 24 percent of firms turned over. One in four people moved on to a “better” opportunity. That’s way too high.

On our Web site, our job listing section is titled “careers” because that is what we are hiring. Resumes littered with one and two year stops need not apply. Those people may make an impact on your business in the short term, but they will never stay.

How do I know that? We’ve been there, done that.

In 2006, Saxum had 14 people total. In a one year period, eight of the 14 left for various reasons. After making a lot of excuses, I realized it was me and our company. We made changes (hired more diversity, paid more, set clear expectations, improved benefits, etc.). We became purposeful with our HR strategy. In the last 18 months, we’ve lost three people out of 21. One is still a consultant with us. One started a new career path and the other left for greener pastures.

If you are interested in a diverse, challenging, fast-paced environment, Saxum could be a good fit. We are a fun-loving, community caring, open-minded, news junkie, technology-crazed team of thoughtful public relations and creative marketing detail-freaks ready to tell our clients’ story.

Want a career in Tulsa or Oklahoma City? Apply now.