Have you noticed that we are surrounded by PR spin on a daily basis? The political parties are at it. British Airways was at it during the strikes by BA cabin crew. Air traffic controllers are at it right now.

And the partners at Goldman Sachs are still wondering how to dig themselves out of the hole they've created for themselves - whilst at the same time digging a much bigger hole with a share out of enormous bonuses announced this week just when they are under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) here in the UK.

Remember the fiasco in Government circles on the day the Twin Towers were attacked on 9/11 by terrorists and Jo Moore, then working for an equally accident prone Transport Secretary Stephen Byers said It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury. Councillors' expenses?

Obviously she had her priorities in the right place. I remember seeing the TV pictures of the Twin Towers and simply bursting into tears in deep shock that any human being could do this to another. And no, I'm not ashamed to say I did cry. And I said prayers for every soul who lost their lives or were injured as a result.

But is the art of PR just about what headlines appear in the next day's morning newspapers or is it in fact more important than that?

On Monday 22 April I have the pleasure of speaking to an audience of leading Malaysian business people from a wide spectrum of industries and professions including doctors, accountants, investment firms, hotel owners, architects, airlines, fashion designers, shoe manufacturers, IT companies and even a radio star! If you fancy turning up, then you better hurry as its almost sold out!

What's fascinating about what's happening right now are the mistakes and cock ups being made by organisations that should really know better. And if I wanted to be more charitable, I could say that they're not being properly advised. PR could appear to be the least of their troubles - but actually, it could be part of the solution to them.

So back to Goldman Sachs. The bank's response to being investigated by the SEC for fraud was predictable: we didn't do anything wrong, it's not possible that we could ever do anything wrong, and anyone who says otherwise is simply too thick to comprehend our brilliance.

Well, that's been more or less its stance since the financial crisis began and critics first suggested that the world's most famous bank may not always be doing "God's work" in the words of its CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

It reminds me of an earlier time in 2003 when the partners of Arthur Andersen were implicated in the Enron scandal which saw Enron's CFO Andrew Fasto go down for five and half years and Jeff Skilling, CEO get 25 years in prison.

Veteran city commentator Anthony Hilton pondered in the Evening Standard this week whether the aftershocks of the investigation by the SEC will have the same effect on bringing down Goldman Sachs? Well if President Obama has his way, it will.

I can add my own insight to this dilemma. Back in the early 1990s I was chief press officer for Andersen Consulting based in London and I had joined at a time when business was booming and in fact I was told to restate the revenue figures in my News Release to be lower than they really were in order not to upset the clients!

In those days, Andersen's had a very strong culture - of few acquisitions and strong preference for organic growth. It was also the recruitment policy only to hire only those graduates with First class degrees and weed out those who didn't submerge themselves in the culture and fast track those who did.

So the parallels with Goldman Sachs are incredibly spooky. And with huge pride comes gullibility.

Those who I worked closely with at Andersen were utterly convinced that they were the best thing since sliced bread. And seen from the outside, they were. But with it came incredible arrogance.

Fast forward to 2010, and that kind of behaviour looks positively prehistoric. So it's telling it's been alive and well for so long at Goldman Sachs.

When I served on the Board of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations - the biggest professional body for PR people in the world - we understood the significance of the good PR work that was being done in private sector, public sector and voluntary organisations.

In short, PR is about one thing really.

It's about the management of reputation.

The day you lose sight of that, is the day you end up having no PR that's of any value or worse, negative PR that damages your reputation.

 

Top Ten Hot Tips for Unleashing the Power of PR:

1. Link PR objectives with organisation and business objectives
2. Have an insight into market and customer segments that can provide you with a competitive advantage in your PR
3. Make sure that you have a PR plan and that you have set milestones for the PR effort
4. Focus on your key PR messages  - have no more than five and review even on a quarterly basis
5. Always consider using photography wherever possible
6. Don't ignore traditional media channels such as print and put all your trust on on-line channels
7. Think creatively - a weak story can make it if it's offered as an 'exclusive'
8. Seek feedback from your customers and include testimonials in your PR
9. Measure outputs and outcomes
10. Don't give up - little and often works best!

If you'd like to learn more, then click here

 

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