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The Future of Public Relations in The Modern World
Transcription of interview with Vicky Ward:
Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, Financial Planner & Investment Advisor
Vicky Ward is the bestselling author of The Devil’s Casino. She currently serves as
a contributor to Fox News and Fox Business and has recently joined the MWW group.
Douglas Goldstein, financial planner & investment advisor, interviewed Ward on Arutz Sheva Radio.
Vicky Ward: I jumped ship to MWW, where I am working now as senior vice president for
corporate communications. I did this for variety of reasons. I’ve been thinking of making
the move into the sector after some time largely because I’ve been writing about corporations
and about CEOs for nearly twenty years so I’ve come to know them very well. When journalists
keep up their relations with the people they write about, a lot of times they are asked,
“What is the general perception of our company and what is the general perception of me right
now?” And I’ve got to tell people ... I would always say it very nicely. It surprised
me quite often that they didn’t see, and it’s not because in any way these are stupid
people, these are very brilliant people, but the stronger your corporate culture is sometimes,
the more double your aim particularly, sometimes if you work for a corporation that doesn’t
necessarily rely on consumers.
I often found myself almost holding up a mirror, and a lot of what I see I find extremely helpful
and I say “Could you keep talking?” because honestly I’d like to hear more of this consistently
and an active leadership team would like to hear more of this consistently. When I analyzed
it, I realized that Black Stone, back in the day when it wasn’t doing so well and many
years ago was struggling with it, they in fact brought in a team of journalists to look
at a company and see what was going wrong. More recently, Lynda Robinson left R&M to
do something similar at Black Walk, not that Black Walk was necessarily doing anything
wrong, but it was to really take a good look what they could be doing better.
I found this idea fascinating, and luckily for me Michael Kempner who owns MWW and was
the founder of it 20 years ago and sold the company and recently bought it back, happens
to be an outside-of-the-box thinker and he values having someone like me in an organization
who knew a lot of CEOs. But he said, “If you come to me, I don’t want you to start
thinking like a PR person.” I want you to feel valued as a journalist, which is I think
why he was so quite happy for me to write my book on the General Motors Building, which
I’d already signed and to continue to be a contributor to Fox News and Fox Business.
Douglas Goldstein: More than building the reputation of these companies, one of the
ways that MWW described your position was dealing with crisis management.
Vicky Ward: Right, because if you think about it, my book was about the crisis that brought
down the world economy! But the interesting thing is that Lehmann brothers did have an
outside PR team towards the end, but if they had had a corporate communications team really
working with them consistently the whole way through, and you need it from the outside,
not just from the inside, because a lot of these big banks have very strong internal
communications.
As you know, my book was very much about how Lehmann came to be a culture that didn’t
tolerate debate at the very top. The question is would they have listened to anyone who
came in from the outside, but ideally there’s a big lesson from all of that that suddenly
took me down this path. I think corporations have realized that they need to be continually
aware of public perception and in the modern age of endless news and high-speed internet,
they have to adapt frighteningly quickly and they need help with that.
The only thing that is really difficult, particularly for big corporations to do, is to stand out
among the crowd because it’s no longer enough to be a trusted brand. MWW have come out with
this great phrase that you have to relevant, and what they mean by that is that you have
to sparkle. There’s so much choice out there that consumers and stakeholders are almost
deafened, confused, and blinded by it all, not just people’s trust, but how do you
shine and the things that go into that when you really look at it might surprise you.
There’s a piece written in The New York Times recently explaining why Starbucks had
managed to become an iconic company that does stand out. The reason for that is not just
that it makes great coffee, and it’s possible that these are reasons to trust it, but it
does huge amount towards helping the American economy.
Douglas Goldstein: If some people might accuse you of switching teams, whereas having been
a journalist for all of the top papers and magazines and certainly a very well-respected
business contributor on Fox News, you’ve been on the side of the shareholders, people
who want to know what’s going on inside. Do you feel that maybe this is a switch of
team, the CEOs are going to say, “Hey Vicky, we did something wrong, now you got to spin
it to make it look good”?
Vicky Ward: Number one, I think that what I’m doing creates a new paradigm, and I
have Michael Kempner to thank for letting me do that because we’ll see if this works,
but in a way, I’m still a journalist, still an author. I am still on television commenting
about business, and here I am advising CEOs, but I do see as my role to tell them the truth.
I don’t think that you can help anybody effectively unless they tell you what’s
really going on and you are equally really honest back to them. I have too many former colleagues and people
I respect from the journalist community to spin them a bunch of rubbish. If I thought
someone had something that they shouldn’t say or wasn’t worth saying in the corporate
world, I would tell them not to say it.
This is a new challenge for me. Though you say I’m switching teams, the world has changed.
The publishing world has changed. The nature of journalism has also changed. I don’t
know how it’s all going to shake out. I don’t think anybody knows. I think it’s
fascinating that corporations now tell their stories on Facebook and things like that.
I think the two worlds of communication and journalism have become much closer than they
used to be. There used to be a War of Attrition, I just don’t think it is that anymore.
Douglas Goldstein: Could you just tell us where we’re holding on your book about The
General Motors Building that so that people can follow you?
Vicky Ward: If I follow orders, which I will be, I should have a manuscript in by the end
of the year.
Douglas Goldstein: How can people follow the work you’re doing now at MWW?
Vicky Ward: You could go to the MWW website, and very shortly I’m sure I will have Facebook and Twitter accounts,
so they can take a good look at that and I still have my own website which I will need to update which is www.vickyward.com.
Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host
of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show (Monday nights at 7:00 PM on www.israelnationalradio.com.
He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. Securities offered
through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, NFA, SIFMA. Accounts carried
by National Financial Services LLC. Member NYSE/SIPC, a Fidelity Investments company.
His book Building Wealth in Israel is available in bookstores, on the web, or can be ordered
at: www.profile-financial.com (02) 624-2788 or (03) 524-0942.
Disclaimer: This document is a transcription and/or an educational article. While it is
believed to be current and accurate, divergence from the original is to be expected. The original
podcast can be heard at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely
information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
The opinions rendered herein are those of the guests, and not necessarily those of Douglas
Goldstein, Profile Investment Services, Ltd., or Israel National News. Readers should consult
with a professional financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Please see
the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/.