November 7, 2024 • 49 mins
PR professionals are stepping up their game, transforming from mere communicators to strategic partners who drive business success by blending storytelling skills with essential business acumen. Today, we’re uncovering the secrets to mastering this game-changing skill set, crucial for communication leaders at every career stage—from entry-level roles to Chief Communications Officers (CCOs).
In this episode, we’re excited to welcome Ron Culp and Matt Ragas, Ph.D., two esteemed faculty members in the College of Communication at DePaul University and proud members of the Page Society. They’ll share invaluable insights from their co-authored book, "Business Acumen for Strategic Communicators: The Workbook," which is designed to bridge the gap between communication and business strategy.
We’ll also explore how entry-level, mid-level and senior professionals and CCOs can effectively integrate their communication strategies with business goals and tackle the challenges of today’s dynamic landscape.
Join us as we discuss:
In this episode, we’re excited to welcome Ron Culp and Matt Ragas, Ph.D., two esteemed faculty members in the College of Communication at DePaul University and proud members of the Page Society. They’ll share invaluable insights from their co-authored book, "Business Acumen for Strategic Communicators: The Workbook," which is designed to bridge the gap between communication and business strategy.
We’ll also explore how entry-level, mid-level and senior professionals and CCOs can effectively integrate their communication strategies with business goals and tackle the challenges of today’s dynamic landscape.
Join us as we discuss:
- The necessity for young PR professionals to develop business fluency to ensure their contributions drive organizational success.
- How mid-level professionals can transition from tactical outputs to a more strategic advisory role.
- For CCOs as seasoned professionals and business leaders to enhance their effectiveness by integrating business strategy with communication efforts.
- The importance of continuous learning and financial literacy for strategic communicators, along with a need to build strong relationships with finance and HR to become valued partners.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
One of the keys to being a successful communicator is
to really get into the DNA of the business, to
understand the business of the business. Join us as we
talk with Professor Matt Regis, PhD. And Ron Kolpe, who's
a fellow with PRSA. They are both on the Public
relations faculty at the College of Communication at De Paul
(00:29):
University in Chicago, USA. We're going to cover a range
of topics such as how young professionals need to expand
their news diet and how that helps them, the importance
of mid career professionals understand financing sheets, quarterly reports, all
of those things, and how senior leaders need to understand
(00:51):
that they can't do it alone, so how do they
foster business acumen and an understanding of the business among
their team. We'll talk about entrepreneurial mindsets. We'll talk about
entrepreneurial mindsets, and we will talk about having communications be
part of the fundamental deal and a of the business.
(01:12):
Join us on the next episode of Building Brand Gravity.
Thank you for joining the latest episode of Building Brand Gravity,
where we talk about the key issues, trends, and topics
that are top of mind among senior communicators, branding experts,
and marketing professionals. I'm Steve Halsey, one of your hosts.
Today's episode is called Building Business Acumen for PR Professionals
(01:36):
from entry level to CCEO, and I'm so excited today
to have two of the preeminent minds in the industry.
Professor Matthew Regis PhD ron Kolp, who's a fellow with
PRSA and he's a professional in residence. Both are currently
on the Public relations faculty in the College of Communication
(01:56):
at the Paul University that's located in Chicago, USA, if
you don't know that, and they're really helping develop that
next generation of communication leaders. They're also both members of
the Page Society. It's a community of the world's leading
communicator who's focused on creating community among senior communicators to
(02:17):
improve business and society. Matt and Ron Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It's great to be.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Here, Steve, Thanks for having us. Steve.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, you two are quite the dynamic duo and co
authors of several books. I'm sure many of our listeners
have read those at different points in time. Business Acumen
for Strategic Communicators a primer. There's Business Essentials for Strategic Communicators,
Creating shared value for the organization at at stakeholders. You've also,
(02:47):
if that wasn't enough, you co edited Mastering Business and
Strategic Communicators or First Strategic Communicators, so insights and advice
for the c suite of leading brands. So these books
are used by a lot of colleges and university classrooms.
I can also tell you from an agency perspective, we
use them for professional development at our agency in house
(03:10):
with clients. So you two are definitely on the leading
edge of the profession and we're here today to talk
about Look, I've got a copy right here, Business Acumen
for Strategic Communicators Workbook, your latest work. Guys, maybe you
could start by sharing a little bit of what inspired
you to write this latest book and to put it
(03:30):
actually in a workbook format for communicators at various stages
of their careers.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I'll jump in. I'll jump in to start. Matt the
thanks against Steve. The whole idea of these business acumen
books originated some fifteen years ago when I joined the
faculty at DePaul. Matt came into my office one day
and said, what do you think about this idea that
(03:59):
we're going to help improved the business acumen of students
and young professionals. And before he finished the sentence, I said,
I'm in well, little we know that there are four
books later, we're now into the Workbook. And the Workbook,
quite frankly, came out of discussions with academics in some
(04:20):
agency heads and CCOs after the last book business acumen
came out that they said, we need tools that will
allow us to work with our teams to up their
game with business acumen and business knowledge. And so we
(04:44):
decided that maybe Workbook would be handy. At first, we
were doing a lot of workshops, and we were, you know,
going around the country doing this on one off occasions
with corporations and other universities. But we just couldn't extend,
you know, our our reach any further by making more visits.
(05:06):
So what we decided to do is time from Workbook
that can really make this accessible to a broader audience.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And and Professor regis, what about what about from your standpoint?
I mean, you're you're really deep in the classroom all
the way through like graduate programs, so uh so, so
so why now what what?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
What?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
What have you seen that that's that's really saying, Hey,
now's the time to not just double down based on
your books, but like triple down, quadruple down on business
acumen for comms.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah. You know.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
The funny thing is is we had we had the
trilogy and that was nice and easy. We had three
of them. Then we went for four, and we're like,
is it a quartet? If you've got four books? What
is this? What is this called? Exactly? I would just
build upon you know what what what Ron said? This
book is really about active.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Learning, you know, and and uh, we've all heard that that.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Wise adage of you know, give a person a fish,
you feed them for a day, Teach a person to fish,
and you feed them for a lifetime. And so that
is really this book, right is to give you the
hands on learning experience so that you can actually then
kind of fish for yourselves when it comes to corporate communications,
(06:23):
content and analysis. And that brings us, that brings us
to this latest work.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Well, and what what I think is interesting is you
know a lot of people that have gone through journalism,
communications pr that the joke is, hey, I went that
route because I want to be creative and tell stories,
but I don't want to get in I don't want
to do math. I don't want to get in numbers.
I don't want to see spreadsheets. But you're saying, hey, actually,
to be successful and to be more creative, you've got
(06:51):
to understand the numbers. You've got to create the spreadsheet,
You've got to understand those things that create value. So
I guess over the next half hour, so that's kind
of where I want to put my questions with you guys,
is really you know, understanding that foundational element that that
business acumen isn't something that is a nice to have.
(07:12):
I mean, it is a must have, you know, for
any any communicator to have an impact. And so let's
start by talking about the different stages of people. So
you think about students or entry level PR professionals, they
need to develop this fundamental understanding of business acumen and
business fluency. But you know, to a to a to
(07:34):
a young student, to a junior ae business acumen and
that can seem like a really like out there concept.
So so Ron, maybe you can talk a little bit
about why is it important for those starting their careers
to understand that business acumen is an essential skill for
being a good communicator.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, those starting out, especially in an agency environment, they're
so is he doing tactical execution of events and projects
and news releases and the like that they don't have
the opportunity necessarily to say, well, how does this translate
into making the business successful? And it's when you can
(08:17):
move into that space and have the business knowledge to
communicate that, Hey, you know, if we do this, maybe
it's going to help us better communicate the message because
we're now as the person who responsible for tactical execution
of a project, We're looking at it from the perspective
(08:41):
is how this is going to drive business? And that
is what's been missing for years. When we talk to
CEOs and agency heads in preparation for I think our
second book. Universally, they came back in the old days
ten years ago, writing was the number one requirement desired
(09:05):
by these folks for the stabs they hire. Well, writing
is still very important, but today they're telling us and
they're hiring people who have more strategic view in a
higher business IQ because they know that good writers make
(09:26):
good thinkers, but good thinkers also need to understand the business.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I think I think that that is an important thing.
And the way I think about it is everything ultimately
has the ladder up to what is that business strategy,
what is that business goal? Otherwise you know, why are
you doing that? And if you start with an understanding
of what the business is trying to achieve, even how
you think about KPIs becomes very different, right, Like you said,
(09:53):
it becomes less tactical and really about how are we
trying to correlate what we're doing to achieving those business outcomes.
So so Matt from from your perspective when you're talking
to your students about career trajectories, right, because I mean
even at undergraduate and graduate they're they're thinking, Hey, you know,
(10:15):
I want to be a senior leader at an agency someday.
I want to be a c CEO someday. So what
specific skills do you talk to them about? What specific
skills from the workbook can give early career professionals and
edge and stand out in the job market.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
You know, it's it's it's interesting when you think about
and run thoses too from the classroom, when you think
about gen Z. You know, our current students now for
the most part undergrad and also and also some of
our graduates, I would argue the entrepreneurial mindsets is really
critical and that mindset can help you succeed in a
(10:56):
in a you know, a large agency or in midsize agency.
But a lot of our students, you know, Steve, also
want to They think they might want to work for
a boutique agency, or start their own thing, or freelance
or have a side hustle. And so it's like, okay, great,
we want to support you in that. But to do that,
(11:18):
you've got to understand the dollars and cents, and you've
got to understand the business of the business, whether it's
at a large scale or a smaller scale. And I
think we know that a lot of those principles are similar.
So I really think the the entrepreneurial mindset, you know,
is valuable whether you're in house on a large you know,
(11:41):
comms team, or you're you're an entrepreneur inside of an
agency and you're developing new business and new practice areas
and new solutions. And so I think that this new
book again helps you practice how to go phishing and
how to learn these different pieces. And I would say
(12:03):
from a tactical piece, it's almost like learning a chessboard, right,
And so when you're a junior person, you know you're
focused on learning how one piece, generally trained moves on
the chessboard. But there's a lot of value and even
as a younger person, earlier in your career, to understand
that big picture of how all the pieces, you know,
how the queen moves on the board, and understands sort
(12:26):
of that larger strategy, because you can then create more
value that classic seek first to understand to be understood.
You know, there's a lot of truth to that classic adage.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Well, I like I like that concept of the chessboard
and understanding the rules of the game, so you understand
even if where I'm at I can only move this far,
this is how everything is moving around me. And I'm
not asking you guys to give away the secret sauce,
but for some of those listening to our podcast who
may be in the earlier stage of their career, can
(13:01):
you just give a flare of some of the exercises
or some of the things in the workbook that they
can go through to help understand that chess board and
the rules of the game.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I'll kick things off, and I would say, before you're
even doing the exercises, for a young professional, it's about
expanding your news diet. So if you want to understand
the language and thinking of business, you need to build
habits to where you get exposed to the different terminology
and the different concepts, and so knowing about pop culture
(13:36):
and sports and hopefully public affairs it's always going to
be really important. But also carve out time to where
you're reading something like WSJ dot com or CNBC dot
com or a business insider, and that's going to give
you then foundationally as you dive into then the exercises
(13:58):
that's going to then build familiarity, I think, and curiosity.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Rough yeah, I think that. I think that's interesting spanning
your news diet, but but even expanding where you want
to create news right and and this feels like it
was ten years ago, but it was probably like three
years ago. I think one of the most interesting examples
was I found myself racing my son home on a
(14:22):
Sunday morning because DJ Marshmallow was going to drop his
new album in Fortnite. And you know, for me just thinking,
oh my gosh, from a truly omni channel communications profession perspective,
I mean to think that how I'm going to drop
an album is I'm going to create a concert in
(14:42):
a virtual game that people can create avatars, and it
was it was it was amazing way to think differently,
but that was achieving a very good business objective. So
I want to transition a little bit to thinking about
and I'm going to kick this back to you. You
ron thinking about kind of taking that transition from tactical
(15:03):
to strategic. Right, So, when we're getting to a little
bit more of our mid level PR professionals, you know,
they're trying to think about, how do I translate some
of these tactical outputs, how do I become more of
a strategic advisor role There most cases aren't going to
be working directly with the C suite, but they're going
to be working with senior managers of business, senior managers
(15:26):
of communications. If you're in house, that's when you really
start seeing a lot of the inter organizational connection starting
to come in. So maybe you can you can address
for us, for mid level professionals who are often just
moving into those managerial roles, how does business acumen help
them start contributing more strategically to their organizations?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
You know, for the junior staff number, I think the
big thing that we as their managers need to do
is to let them know, you know the okay, do
you understand why we're doing this project. Very often we
give them an assignment, they take it. They're like order takers.
They salute and leave and come back and give us something,
(16:13):
and we're then scratching our heads as their managers, saying
this really doesn't hit what we're trying to do, and
we don't take the time to say, let me tell
you why we're initiating it at this moment, what the
goals are for the business, and really bring them in
(16:36):
to more knowledge about how what we're doing helps drive
results for the company. And when you strike that, you've
struck gold. With not only junior talent, but the mid
level talent there is often in the same boat. But
I think a lot of times, especially junior talent, because
(16:58):
they're doing so many other things, especially in an agency
that may be working with sevenary clients, that they feel
it's too overwhelming. So we have to do is break it,
as we have in the book, break it into segments
that make it comfortable for them if they just start
out with something like what is the bottom line? We
(17:19):
hear it all the time, but we also know that
a lot of young people say, I have no idea
what they mean when they say that that's something that's
said between my boss and peers of his or hers.
So we have to make sure that we make it
comfortable for them, and then the senior leaders have to
make sure that their mid level talent is really getting
(17:44):
up to speed with these terms. We did an agency
workshop recently where the person in charge of the program said, Oh,
we don't have to go into all those details. I
know my team knows this information. So Matt says to me,
(18:05):
what do you think do you think they really know it?
I said, I don't think they do, just based on
my own personal experience at both corporate and agency jobs.
So we took a risk and we kind of ignored
the direction and we started with the basics. Wouldn't you
know that when we surveyed the group, they didn't know
(18:25):
the things that their boss thought bosses thought they should know.
So it's all making it as approachable as could be
and to bring people inside the tenth. If you're a
senior person and you have all that information, how do
you share it and how do you make sure that
your team understands how that business is in business and
(18:51):
how they make money and how this all translates into
success for the enterprise.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, I think that's I think that's really important, and
how you tie everything together and they can understand sequentially
how it fits together. And Matt in our discussions, you know,
you've talked a lot in the past about the importance
of building those relationships across departments. But part of that
is critic is having the critical skill set to be
(19:20):
able to have the conversation with finance, to have the
conversation with operations, to have that conversation with legal. So
maybe you can share a little bit like what insights
do you have for when people get to that mid level,
what are the things they need to think about in
creating those connections and even the language they choose to
not just demonstrate the basics, but demonstrate more of a
(19:43):
fluency in business acumen.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah, you know what, that's a great question, Steve. And
actually that's in part what inspired our edited book, our
Mastering Business for Strategic Communicators, which is really about it's
it's current or former CEOs explaining then how they work
effectively collaborate across different departments and functions, whether that be legal, HR, corporate, corporate, strategy, finance,
(20:14):
and then and then we have sidebars, which was a
fair amount of work to put together. As Rod remembers,
then you know the CFO or CCHR is then CCHR
is sharing their experience of how COMMS adds value or
doesn't or could do better. So I think maybe a
starting point is uh, mid career folks being very intentional
(20:40):
about not staying within our traditional lanes, you know, of
who we might naturally interface the most with, particularly as
a mid level professional, but consciously, you know, I'm reminded
by a great example a friend, a friend of ours,
I think you know Lisa Hartenberger as well, Steven. She
(21:02):
shared an example when she was with Navistar, you know
for many years, so industrial transportation company, and she talked
about purposely she would park. You know, there's there's the
office in the front and the white collar workers, and
then you've got your production and your engineers in the back.
And she would purposely enter every day from the back
(21:23):
of the factory and go through so she'd have opportunities
to build relationships with frontline employees right and got out
so that she can help them look around corners and
see what is really and build that trust and relationships.
And so I think that intentionality of actually consciously getting
(21:46):
out of your classic rhythm that's easy to stay within,
particularly within large organizations, and actually start figuring out who
are the folks that have what I were run and
I think of as hearts of teachers, right, that are
we've we've met these people. They do exist in all
of these different functions that you can get comfortable with
(22:10):
then bouncing ideas off of them, and they're not just dismissive, right,
but they've got that heart of teachers say I'm want
to run something by you, what do you think about this,
or particularly like financial or accounting concepts, and that you
can bounce things back and forth because our goal a
lot of times is to take complex stuff and make
(22:30):
it relatable and understandable. But it's very hard to do so,
as we know when we don't fully understand what we're communicating.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
So I think that intentionality of always networking and building relationships,
finding those hearts of teacher pros and other functions outside
of comms is critical.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, I mean that that intentionality I think is key.
I love that example that you shared of you know,
coming in from the back of the factory, and I
would all also, you know, recommend to any of our
communications leaders out there, any opportunity you have, particularly for
your mid level to let them go out and do
some ride along with your sales team. You know, I
(23:13):
was fortunate earlier in my career with a number of
clients to actually get out in the field and do
ride alongs and actually see how the discussions happen. And
like we said, there's a lot of complexity that needs
to be boiled down. But understanding what that sales environment is, like,
what that what the view of the brand is, like,
how you need to like get that communication to the
(23:36):
appropriate level I think is his key. So some great
advice there, now, Ron, I want to turn a little bit.
You guys spend a lot of time in the book
talking about understanding quarterly earnings and financial statements. So as
we think about those in like the mid career level
where this starts really seeming to make a little bit
(23:56):
more sense when they're starting to get a little bit
more at access to the c suite, what advice or
what council do you have regarding financial reports and quarterly
earnings calls for those in the mid level, I.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Can start out by saying, don't do it the way
I did. You know, I spent the first first twelve
years of my career as a reporter and then working
in the government in New York, and quite frankly, unfortunately,
business essentials weren't part of either of those jobs. So
when I joined Eli, Lilly and Company, I was there
(24:36):
maybe two weeks and my boss comes in and says, oh,
the person who usually does the earnings release has just
gone over to another company, merk, and so we need
somebody to write the report. So go up and meet
with the CFO. So I go up with my reporter's notebook,
(24:58):
which I was still carrying, and I'm taking notes furiously.
I have no idea what he's saying and come back.
I come back and I said, I think I'm in trouble.
And so my boss said, what do you need to know?
And I said, like, what are earnings? And I was serious.
So he trapes me over to the director of investor Relations,
(25:22):
who takes me under his wing. Bob Draper is forever
my hero, and we take it from the top and
he is my tutor on everything regarding earnings releases. I
learned so much in that experience, and even though I
probably went through twenty four drafts back then, we were
(25:42):
a through. We did the alphabet. We started with A
and then we're lucky by Z. We have a final
draft of the release. So we finished the release, sent
it to the cf the CFO, and the CEO for approval.
Not because of what I I did, but because I
was a communicator and I listened well to Bob Raper
(26:05):
from Investor Relations. We put together a darn good earnings
release and it was a career changer. Next thing, you know,
the CEO says, you know, the guy who left also
had responsibility for the ANNIE report, so let's give the
new kid the annual report. Now I'm in deeper than
(26:27):
I ever thought I could be. That was a career
defining moment, it appeared to my resume. It also was
a job responsibility for every role corporate role I had
after leaving Lily, because it jumps off the page as
(26:49):
something that if you understand the business of the business
and you can do an ANNI report in an earnings release,
then you understand the business. And like I said, it
was a defining moment. It'll be the defining moment for
other mid career people who want to find ways, and
(27:10):
one of those ways of doing it is raise your
hand and say, could I sit in on one of
the sessions where the guy writing the press release on
earnings is talking to management about how how it's put together.
And then of course listen to the earnings calls. You
learn so much through that. Again, first time I've ever
(27:32):
listened to earnest call was the one I was asked
to put together after that that press release, So hands
on is nothing like it?
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, I thought, I thought. For me what was was
was interesting was uh for for a large public company.
I wrote their annual report for a number of years,
and what I found interesting about it when you think
about UH where things sit in the corporate world, was
my ID badge was sponsored by this EFO, So like
(28:01):
when we were scouting locations and places to shoot you know,
the images and everything that we're going to do to
bring the theme to life. It became a joke when
I would travel with senior managers to see what rooms
I could access that they couldn't. And the fact that
I could access rooms because I was sponsored by the
CFO that you know, leaders in the company couldn't was
(28:26):
really speaks to the importance of understanding that the language
of it. But then also as Matt as we talked about,
is having those connections. So let's then switch to senior
stage career. Right, you've got that seat of the table.
You're a CEO, you're a senior agency head, counseling on
(28:47):
the earnings reports, all of these type of things. How
does business acumen change at that point and how does
it allow what's required to be seen as more of
an equal partner. I mean, you guys have interviewed a
ton of CEOs. Where does it Where does it pivot?
Where does it change once that CEO is has that
(29:09):
seat at the table and wants to be that partner
in the decision making?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah, it's it's it's it's so interesting, right because we
continue to see now serviyce speaking. You were talking about
CFO just now, Steve of reporting structures, and you know,
for a while it was do large corporations have CCOs? Okay,
we're established there. Now it is CCO taking on additional
(29:34):
roles and responsibilities. We're calling that CEO plus and so
now we're at this point where we've got the seat
at the table, and it's like, Okay, CCO and COMPS team,
What are you going to do with it? Because the
other thing that we all know, I you know, this
conversation also takes part with investor relations officers. They all
(29:56):
feel they deserve a seat at the table. There's there's
this a mushrooming of C level positions and they can't
all sit around happily around that table. And so I
think we're at this interesting phase of what do we
now do really as counselor and advisor to demonstrate our
value and our worth to live up to this elevated
(30:20):
role for our function. And you know, I think one
thing that Ron and I have seen is our function
talks a lot about whether it's agency or in house,
about learning and development of our teams, But then when
you look at the data, it's not as encouraging always
of how much we are truly spending to help level
(30:42):
up not just you know, the top person, that's great,
but the success of the top person A lot of
it's going to rest on the quality of their team
and the skill set and knowledge of their team to
help support them as a counselor and advisor. And so
I think everyone listening today, I would challenge them that
you're actually doubling down in your learning and development programs
(31:06):
and giving you know, we talked earlier in this call
about the junior folks in the mid level folks, make
sure that you're investing in them and not just giving
lip service, but you're putting real dollars and cents behind
opportunities to help them grow so they can help you
be more successful in your roles as senior leaders.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
So, Ron, how about from your perspective having sat at
some of those senior most positions, how did that kind
of influence what you wanted to talk about in this
book for those senior communications leaders, just to make sure
they're they're thinking about key topics, key issues, key training
for their staff.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I think it really struck me in the last couple
of corporate jobs, where the CEO actually anoints you you
are responsible for this because very often it's not said,
they assume, and some CCOs automatically move in. Many of
(32:07):
them now have MBAs and other experience that equipped them
to have a seat at the table and be considered
a business leader. Well, the rest of us had to
kind of earn that seat. And then the light bulbs
went off when I learned that I can't do it alone.
I've got this big team, big corporate team of people,
(32:32):
and I need to break this down and make sure
that there is somebody assigned to every major business unit
who understands the business of that business. And all of
a sudden, the business unit heads were coming to me
and saying, can you free up time for jan or
(32:56):
Paula or Ted to sit in on my weekly meetings
because we as an organization value his input and he's
going to learn or she's going to learn more from
having been there. So all of a sudden, we moved
some of the mid career talent into what I considered
(33:17):
pretty senior roles with some very big, sizeable business units,
and the business unit had was happy that they had
somebody who was really in communications and understood what they
were trying to achieve, and then that trickled down to
the people. Then that they came back and they had
(33:38):
to say to the junior staff, here's what we need
to do and why. So it was game changing for
organizations all over the country to realize that I just
can't keep it to myself and that I aren't I
good that I in the turn to a person for
(34:00):
every major strategic business decision. Spread that knowledge and you
become more successful through what your team is doing.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
M Yeah, that's that is that is great advice. Matt.
I'm going to give you this nice, easy softball question
around acronyms es G and D e I. You guys,
in your book you delve into ESG and DI reporting
as we know it is changing. It almost seems like daily,
(34:32):
you know, from you know, I would say, you know,
being somebody based here in New York. You know, from
the municipal level to the county level, to the state
level to the federal level too. You know, you have
the EU looking at you know, multiple changes and ESG
(34:53):
and materiality assessment and sustainability and all of that. And
then you also have the cultural overlay. So you've got
like regulatory reporting, you've got cultural overlay. You guys delve
into that in the book. What advice do you have
and can you talk a little bit about how communicators
need to think about ESG and DEI reporting in a
(35:18):
world that's in heavy flux on these areas and in
a world where I don't really see people running away
from the activities more so than the terms. So the
nice easy one for you, Matt.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I thought this was an easy one.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
Steve, like, as you were, as you were unpacking it,
I'm like, hmm, No, seriously, it's an excellent question, and
it couldn't be more in the moment right now, right.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
So, you know, it seems like each week now we're
seeing a different company in different ways, let's say, adapt
to what they're what they're going to at least publicly
do around DEI, UH and ESG. You know, it's interesting.
(36:08):
I think many listeners, and I think the three of
us are familiar with survey data of the American public shows.
Like you said, the actual acronyms DEI and ESG perhaps
lower levels of support than when actually specifically programs are explained.
Do you support sustainability? Do you support diversity? Here's how
(36:31):
we're doing so. As an organization, we know that that
gets higher levels of support, and we know that some
organizations seem to think the solution to that is we're
not going to call it ESG. We're going to call
it sustainability, or we're going to call it impact, whatever
that solution, whatever that decision might be, we do know
(36:54):
that as communicators, our job is going to be to
really explain these programs and the specifics of them, and
to tie it increasingly what we're seeing to the business
and business outcomes and business benefits. Even if I think
all of us would agree that it's the right thing
to do right to support DEI and ESG, but in
(37:20):
the larger, the larger world that we are operating in,
I think socio politically many of us can agree. Then
if we're a financially oriented stakeholder, if we can see
how these things help ladder up and support superior business
and financial outcomes, that would seem to be to be
(37:42):
less disputable and something that wherever we might fall in
the political spectrum, that we could get behind. And so
I think that this has made it I think the
communicator and the compsfunction even more important when it comes
to navigating, as we know, a very complex landscape around
(38:04):
DEI and ESG.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, And I think, as you know, as you talk
about that and kind of what I see out there,
you know, it's very much about, like you said, how
do we connect it to the business, who we are?
What is the authentic purpose of your enterprise? And I
think with that, if you start with that as the foundation,
then how you tell that story and the metrics you
(38:28):
use to tell that story. I think that's when you
get that authentic level of things. I think part of
the challenge. And you know, it was a conversation I
had with the senior CEO a couple of years ago
who was basically saying, you know what issues and topics
do you have the right to really talk about that
(38:50):
you're credible talking about. It's not saying you don't value
all these things, but what are those things that as
a company does it make sense for you to report
on to talk about? And how how does that tie
ultimately from what we're talking about here? What is that
business strategy? What is that business acumen? So, you know,
Professor Regas, you made me think of something I didn't
think about before. But that ability to translate your es
(39:15):
G or your DEI initiative reporting results is in itself
a form of business acumen. That's that's really critical for
professionals to develop overall and then within the ecosystem of
their respective companies and brands. So, you know, things are
not static, right and we're and even since since you know,
(39:38):
you guys wrote this book, you know there's little things,
a few elections happening in the world. All of these
things mean that what we have to do is be
continuous learners, right, and that business acumen isn't something Hey,
I take a course, I get the check mark, I
am good to go. Because there's always new regulations, there's
(39:59):
always new pressure, there's different Supreme Court regulations if they're
in the US. There's all these things that factor. So
Ron you talk a lot about personal growth and like legacy.
So when you think about business acumen as something that
evolves over time, what advice do you have to communicators
(40:19):
and what challenge do you have to them to continually
develop their skill set no matter where they sit.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Well, I think you know, if you look at it
as newcomers, the young people starting on the profession, I
don't want them to become overwhelmed at the thought because
it seems far more complicated. Even if you look at
our glossary, almost six hundred terms that they're probably about
(40:47):
thirty that they really need to know about. So I
want them to figure out how they can know the
businesses they're working for and how business overall might operate.
So I usually start out by saying, if you do
nothing else, pull up the front page the Wall Street Journal,
(41:10):
read the left hand column What's news, and just scan
it and you will find out what is going on
within the company. I had one CEO that constantly challenged
me in meetings where he'd say, well, did you see
that what the news was here about Peiser today? And
I was a deer in headlines. Well, I knew what
(41:33):
he was doing. He was reading the Wall Street Journal
because he had the luxury of having a driver, and
I didn't. But so I got up earlier and I
read the wat's news column, and I went to the
index and the Journal and the Times, and I read
what is being said about my company and or our competition.
(41:55):
So you always stay on top of the news. Pretty
easy to do. When you come to a term, then
you don't understand circle it, and I guarantee you it's
in our glossary.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
Look it up.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
We have a simple explanation of what that term is,
so you can learn. It's sort of by osmosis. So
does that be for the newcomers then in the mid
career level we kind of touched on it earlier. I
say network, network, network, and I don't mean externally looking
for a new job. I mean internally with the organization
(42:31):
people who are making the business happen, the finance team,
the legal team, and others, and you'll be surprised if
you ask them to go to coffee or somebody at
your prayer level. Within that organization, the word of mouse
spreads that this is a different kind of communicator. He
or she's really interested in our business. So I kept
(42:56):
getting invited to staff meetings. I didn't have time, but
I went because I learned so much about what was
going on, and then I was able to share a
community communications perspective that often was not realized. So the midterm,
the mid career people really need to just get involved
(43:18):
in the organization and really become a business partner at
whatever level that they're permitted to rise to. And then
CEOs they just need to train their teams to be
true business partners. And it's kind of an overwhelming thought,
and we hope that's what the book kind of addresses,
(43:40):
and it certainly our workshops and the feedback we've gotten
over the years has been positive to the fact that GEEP,
we thought they knew more than they knew because they
did deliver what I needed, but they had no idea
how much pain was involved in getting there, and so
the more you help your team understand how business operates,
(44:05):
in the expectations of business on the communications team, that's
kind of the whole package of what a leader can
do to bring everyone up in the organization to have
a greater knowledge.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah, I think that that idea that you're talking about
of being a true business partner, a true business advisor
is key, Professor Regis, I'm going to give you kind
of the closing opportunity here. Ron just talked about the
need to get into the DNA of the business. That's
my term, not his, but you basically want to get
(44:40):
into the DNA of that business. You were talking about
expanding your news diet, similar to what Ron was saying,
you can't do it yourself. You talked about intentionality, You
talked about an entrepreneurial mindset. You talked about a intrapreneurial
mindset within within a corporation. So from your standpoint, what
(45:04):
advice do you have for our listeners other than go
out and buy the book and do the workshop. What
what advice do you have for everybody in terms of
just really pulling through this business acumen and being a
better business partner a better strategic communicator.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Well, you know, you know what.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
And Ron and I have had this conversation many times.
We are in one of the best businesses in the
world in communication. Because if you're a curious person that
I don't have in this office, but I have in
another office a curious George and I think that that's
(45:44):
the right mindset to always be curious and continual learning.
And Ron and I are spoiled a bit Steve that
we actually get paid to learn and to help others learn.
And that's one of the most rewarding things that keeps
me and I know Ron charged up. Uh, it keeps
us doing these books, you know, four books in ten years.
(46:06):
And so I think, if you can embrace this, and
we're gonna have to in the in the in the
years ahead, Uh, be open to what we don't know
and don't be afraid of that and embrace kind of
that unknown. And we're in that AI revolution right now
and I and I just installed Gemini into my g
(46:27):
suite and I'm trying to figure out what does this mean,
what can I what can I do with this? And
and honestly, I resisted that for a little bit because
it's easy to get set into your ways and not
want to change processes and ways of thinking. But whether
it's a topic like business acumen or data and analytics
(46:48):
or DEI or AI, as long as we embrace curiosity
and lifelong learning and being open to what we don't
know and wanting to keep having that explorer mentality, this
is one of the best feels that you could possibly
be in. And we do now have that seat at
(47:08):
the table and we can affect serious change, but we've
got to be intellectually curious and truly embrace being Okay
that we don't know, but we're going to explore and
figure it out.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, this industry is
anything but expected and stayed and it's constantly evolving, which
is which is what I think is so exciting. And
also I think as we talk about here, and as
you talk about everything in your book about the business acumen,
where things come in is really understanding. Like you said
(47:43):
that curiosity for data, for context, for strategy, for relationships,
those are all for very key things for individuals to
bring together. And then, like you said, we can't be static,
we can't allow ourselves to do that we've always got
to be learning and kind of tying it back to
(48:03):
the theme of this podcast, Building Brand Gravity. I'm a
firm believer that everything we do either attracts somebody to
our brand or repels them from our brand. So let's
get smart. Let's do those things and make sure we're
pulling people to our brands in the right way. So,
Professor Regis Ron, thank you so much for joining me
here today. For all our listeners, I want to make
(48:25):
sure you follow them on LinkedIn. They always have great
things to say and perspectives. You can also buy individual
copies of this I've got mine right here, Business Acumen
for Strategic Communicators, the workbook on Amazon, or if you're
looking for a bulk order for your classroom or for
(48:46):
your team, you can reach out to matt Ron directly
or their publisher, Emerald Publishing. Guys, thank you so much
for joining us today, so much sage advice, and for
all our listeners, tune in next time for our next
episode of Building Brand Gravity. Thank you for listening, Steve.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
Thanks for being a friend of this journey for so
long now we really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Thank you, Steve. The pleasure, my.
Speaker 6 (49:10):
Pleasure, guys, we are GNS Business Communications. We are a
team of media strategists, storytellers, and engagement experts who meet
you at the intersection of business and communications. To learn more,
visit gscommunications dot com. You are listening to building brand gravity,
(49:31):
attracting people into your orbit a GNS Business Communications podcast.
Keep connected with us by subscribing to the show in
your favorite podcast player. If you like what you've heard,
please rate the show that helps us to keep delivering
the latest in industry influence. Thanks for listening. Until next time.
One of the keys to being a successful communicator is
to really get into the DNA of the business, to
understand the business of the business. Join us as we
talk with Professor Matt Regis, PhD. And Ron Kolpe, who's
a fellow with PRSA. They are both on the Public
relations faculty at the College of Communication at De Paul
(00:29):
University in Chicago, USA. We're going to cover a range
of topics such as how young professionals need to expand
their news diet and how that helps them, the importance
of mid career professionals understand financing sheets, quarterly reports, all
of those things, and how senior leaders need to understand
(00:51):
that they can't do it alone, so how do they
foster business acumen and an understanding of the business among
their team. We'll talk about entrepreneurial mindsets. We'll talk about
entrepreneurial mindsets, and we will talk about having communications be
part of the fundamental deal and a of the business.
(01:12):
Join us on the next episode of Building Brand Gravity.
Thank you for joining the latest episode of Building Brand Gravity,
where we talk about the key issues, trends, and topics
that are top of mind among senior communicators, branding experts,
and marketing professionals. I'm Steve Halsey, one of your hosts.
Today's episode is called Building Business Acumen for PR Professionals
(01:36):
from entry level to CCEO, and I'm so excited today
to have two of the preeminent minds in the industry.
Professor Matthew Regis PhD ron Kolp, who's a fellow with
PRSA and he's a professional in residence. Both are currently
on the Public relations faculty in the College of Communication
(01:56):
at the Paul University that's located in Chicago, USA, if
you don't know that, and they're really helping develop that
next generation of communication leaders. They're also both members of
the Page Society. It's a community of the world's leading
communicator who's focused on creating community among senior communicators to
(02:17):
improve business and society. Matt and Ron Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It's great to be.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Here, Steve, Thanks for having us. Steve.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, you two are quite the dynamic duo and co
authors of several books. I'm sure many of our listeners
have read those at different points in time. Business Acumen
for Strategic Communicators a primer. There's Business Essentials for Strategic Communicators,
Creating shared value for the organization at at stakeholders. You've also,
(02:47):
if that wasn't enough, you co edited Mastering Business and
Strategic Communicators or First Strategic Communicators, so insights and advice
for the c suite of leading brands. So these books
are used by a lot of colleges and university classrooms.
I can also tell you from an agency perspective, we
use them for professional development at our agency in house
(03:10):
with clients. So you two are definitely on the leading
edge of the profession and we're here today to talk
about Look, I've got a copy right here, Business Acumen
for Strategic Communicators Workbook, your latest work. Guys, maybe you
could start by sharing a little bit of what inspired
you to write this latest book and to put it
(03:30):
actually in a workbook format for communicators at various stages
of their careers.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I'll jump in. I'll jump in to start. Matt the
thanks against Steve. The whole idea of these business acumen
books originated some fifteen years ago when I joined the
faculty at DePaul. Matt came into my office one day
and said, what do you think about this idea that
(03:59):
we're going to help improved the business acumen of students
and young professionals. And before he finished the sentence, I said,
I'm in well, little we know that there are four
books later, we're now into the Workbook. And the Workbook,
quite frankly, came out of discussions with academics in some
(04:20):
agency heads and CCOs after the last book business acumen
came out that they said, we need tools that will
allow us to work with our teams to up their
game with business acumen and business knowledge. And so we
(04:44):
decided that maybe Workbook would be handy. At first, we
were doing a lot of workshops, and we were, you know,
going around the country doing this on one off occasions
with corporations and other universities. But we just couldn't extend,
you know, our our reach any further by making more visits.
(05:06):
So what we decided to do is time from Workbook
that can really make this accessible to a broader audience.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And and Professor regis, what about what about from your standpoint?
I mean, you're you're really deep in the classroom all
the way through like graduate programs, so uh so, so
so why now what what?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
What?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
What have you seen that that's that's really saying, Hey,
now's the time to not just double down based on
your books, but like triple down, quadruple down on business
acumen for comms.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah. You know.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
The funny thing is is we had we had the
trilogy and that was nice and easy. We had three
of them. Then we went for four, and we're like,
is it a quartet? If you've got four books? What
is this? What is this called? Exactly? I would just
build upon you know what what what Ron said? This
book is really about active.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Learning, you know, and and uh, we've all heard that that.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Wise adage of you know, give a person a fish,
you feed them for a day, Teach a person to fish,
and you feed them for a lifetime. And so that
is really this book, right is to give you the
hands on learning experience so that you can actually then
kind of fish for yourselves when it comes to corporate communications,
(06:23):
content and analysis. And that brings us, that brings us
to this latest work.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Well, and what what I think is interesting is you
know a lot of people that have gone through journalism,
communications pr that the joke is, hey, I went that
route because I want to be creative and tell stories,
but I don't want to get in I don't want
to do math. I don't want to get in numbers.
I don't want to see spreadsheets. But you're saying, hey, actually,
to be successful and to be more creative, you've got
(06:51):
to understand the numbers. You've got to create the spreadsheet,
You've got to understand those things that create value. So
I guess over the next half hour, so that's kind
of where I want to put my questions with you guys,
is really you know, understanding that foundational element that that
business acumen isn't something that is a nice to have.
(07:12):
I mean, it is a must have, you know, for
any any communicator to have an impact. And so let's
start by talking about the different stages of people. So
you think about students or entry level PR professionals, they
need to develop this fundamental understanding of business acumen and
business fluency. But you know, to a to a to
(07:34):
a young student, to a junior ae business acumen and
that can seem like a really like out there concept.
So so Ron, maybe you can talk a little bit
about why is it important for those starting their careers
to understand that business acumen is an essential skill for
being a good communicator.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, those starting out, especially in an agency environment, they're
so is he doing tactical execution of events and projects
and news releases and the like that they don't have
the opportunity necessarily to say, well, how does this translate
into making the business successful? And it's when you can
(08:17):
move into that space and have the business knowledge to
communicate that, Hey, you know, if we do this, maybe
it's going to help us better communicate the message because
we're now as the person who responsible for tactical execution
of a project, We're looking at it from the perspective
(08:41):
is how this is going to drive business? And that
is what's been missing for years. When we talk to
CEOs and agency heads in preparation for I think our
second book. Universally, they came back in the old days
ten years ago, writing was the number one requirement desired
(09:05):
by these folks for the stabs they hire. Well, writing
is still very important, but today they're telling us and
they're hiring people who have more strategic view in a
higher business IQ because they know that good writers make
(09:26):
good thinkers, but good thinkers also need to understand the business.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I think I think that that is an important thing.
And the way I think about it is everything ultimately
has the ladder up to what is that business strategy,
what is that business goal? Otherwise you know, why are
you doing that? And if you start with an understanding
of what the business is trying to achieve, even how
you think about KPIs becomes very different, right, Like you said,
(09:53):
it becomes less tactical and really about how are we
trying to correlate what we're doing to achieving those business outcomes.
So so Matt from from your perspective when you're talking
to your students about career trajectories, right, because I mean
even at undergraduate and graduate they're they're thinking, Hey, you know,
(10:15):
I want to be a senior leader at an agency someday.
I want to be a c CEO someday. So what
specific skills do you talk to them about? What specific
skills from the workbook can give early career professionals and
edge and stand out in the job market.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
You know, it's it's it's interesting when you think about
and run thoses too from the classroom, when you think
about gen Z. You know, our current students now for
the most part undergrad and also and also some of
our graduates, I would argue the entrepreneurial mindsets is really
critical and that mindset can help you succeed in a
(10:56):
in a you know, a large agency or in midsize agency.
But a lot of our students, you know, Steve, also
want to They think they might want to work for
a boutique agency, or start their own thing, or freelance
or have a side hustle. And so it's like, okay, great,
we want to support you in that. But to do that,
(11:18):
you've got to understand the dollars and cents, and you've
got to understand the business of the business, whether it's
at a large scale or a smaller scale. And I
think we know that a lot of those principles are similar.
So I really think the the entrepreneurial mindset, you know,
is valuable whether you're in house on a large you know,
(11:41):
comms team, or you're you're an entrepreneur inside of an
agency and you're developing new business and new practice areas
and new solutions. And so I think that this new
book again helps you practice how to go phishing and
how to learn these different pieces. And I would say
(12:03):
from a tactical piece, it's almost like learning a chessboard, right,
And so when you're a junior person, you know you're
focused on learning how one piece, generally trained moves on
the chessboard. But there's a lot of value and even
as a younger person, earlier in your career, to understand
that big picture of how all the pieces, you know,
how the queen moves on the board, and understands sort
(12:26):
of that larger strategy, because you can then create more
value that classic seek first to understand to be understood.
You know, there's a lot of truth to that classic adage.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Well, I like I like that concept of the chessboard
and understanding the rules of the game, so you understand
even if where I'm at I can only move this far,
this is how everything is moving around me. And I'm
not asking you guys to give away the secret sauce,
but for some of those listening to our podcast who
may be in the earlier stage of their career, can
(13:01):
you just give a flare of some of the exercises
or some of the things in the workbook that they
can go through to help understand that chess board and
the rules of the game.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I'll kick things off, and I would say, before you're
even doing the exercises, for a young professional, it's about
expanding your news diet. So if you want to understand
the language and thinking of business, you need to build
habits to where you get exposed to the different terminology
and the different concepts, and so knowing about pop culture
(13:36):
and sports and hopefully public affairs it's always going to
be really important. But also carve out time to where
you're reading something like WSJ dot com or CNBC dot
com or a business insider, and that's going to give
you then foundationally as you dive into then the exercises
(13:58):
that's going to then build familiarity, I think, and curiosity.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Rough yeah, I think that. I think that's interesting spanning
your news diet, but but even expanding where you want
to create news right and and this feels like it
was ten years ago, but it was probably like three
years ago. I think one of the most interesting examples
was I found myself racing my son home on a
(14:22):
Sunday morning because DJ Marshmallow was going to drop his
new album in Fortnite. And you know, for me just thinking,
oh my gosh, from a truly omni channel communications profession perspective,
I mean to think that how I'm going to drop
an album is I'm going to create a concert in
(14:42):
a virtual game that people can create avatars, and it
was it was it was amazing way to think differently,
but that was achieving a very good business objective. So
I want to transition a little bit to thinking about
and I'm going to kick this back to you. You
ron thinking about kind of taking that transition from tactical
(15:03):
to strategic. Right, So, when we're getting to a little
bit more of our mid level PR professionals, you know,
they're trying to think about, how do I translate some
of these tactical outputs, how do I become more of
a strategic advisor role There most cases aren't going to
be working directly with the C suite, but they're going
to be working with senior managers of business, senior managers
(15:26):
of communications. If you're in house, that's when you really
start seeing a lot of the inter organizational connection starting
to come in. So maybe you can you can address
for us, for mid level professionals who are often just
moving into those managerial roles, how does business acumen help
them start contributing more strategically to their organizations?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
You know, for the junior staff number, I think the
big thing that we as their managers need to do
is to let them know, you know the okay, do
you understand why we're doing this project. Very often we
give them an assignment, they take it. They're like order takers.
They salute and leave and come back and give us something,
(16:13):
and we're then scratching our heads as their managers, saying
this really doesn't hit what we're trying to do, and
we don't take the time to say, let me tell
you why we're initiating it at this moment, what the
goals are for the business, and really bring them in
(16:36):
to more knowledge about how what we're doing helps drive
results for the company. And when you strike that, you've
struck gold. With not only junior talent, but the mid
level talent there is often in the same boat. But
I think a lot of times, especially junior talent, because
(16:58):
they're doing so many other things, especially in an agency
that may be working with sevenary clients, that they feel
it's too overwhelming. So we have to do is break it,
as we have in the book, break it into segments
that make it comfortable for them if they just start
out with something like what is the bottom line? We
(17:19):
hear it all the time, but we also know that
a lot of young people say, I have no idea
what they mean when they say that that's something that's
said between my boss and peers of his or hers.
So we have to make sure that we make it
comfortable for them, and then the senior leaders have to
make sure that their mid level talent is really getting
(17:44):
up to speed with these terms. We did an agency
workshop recently where the person in charge of the program said, Oh,
we don't have to go into all those details. I
know my team knows this information. So Matt says to me,
(18:05):
what do you think do you think they really know it?
I said, I don't think they do, just based on
my own personal experience at both corporate and agency jobs.
So we took a risk and we kind of ignored
the direction and we started with the basics. Wouldn't you
know that when we surveyed the group, they didn't know
(18:25):
the things that their boss thought bosses thought they should know.
So it's all making it as approachable as could be
and to bring people inside the tenth. If you're a
senior person and you have all that information, how do
you share it and how do you make sure that
your team understands how that business is in business and
(18:51):
how they make money and how this all translates into
success for the enterprise.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, I think that's I think that's really important, and
how you tie everything together and they can understand sequentially
how it fits together. And Matt in our discussions, you know,
you've talked a lot in the past about the importance
of building those relationships across departments. But part of that
is critic is having the critical skill set to be
(19:20):
able to have the conversation with finance, to have the
conversation with operations, to have that conversation with legal. So
maybe you can share a little bit like what insights
do you have for when people get to that mid level,
what are the things they need to think about in
creating those connections and even the language they choose to
not just demonstrate the basics, but demonstrate more of a
(19:43):
fluency in business acumen.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah, you know what, that's a great question, Steve. And
actually that's in part what inspired our edited book, our
Mastering Business for Strategic Communicators, which is really about it's
it's current or former CEOs explaining then how they work
effectively collaborate across different departments and functions, whether that be legal, HR, corporate, corporate, strategy, finance,
(20:14):
and then and then we have sidebars, which was a
fair amount of work to put together. As Rod remembers,
then you know the CFO or CCHR is then CCHR
is sharing their experience of how COMMS adds value or
doesn't or could do better. So I think maybe a
starting point is uh, mid career folks being very intentional
(20:40):
about not staying within our traditional lanes, you know, of
who we might naturally interface the most with, particularly as
a mid level professional, but consciously, you know, I'm reminded
by a great example a friend, a friend of ours,
I think you know Lisa Hartenberger as well, Steven. She
(21:02):
shared an example when she was with Navistar, you know
for many years, so industrial transportation company, and she talked
about purposely she would park. You know, there's there's the
office in the front and the white collar workers, and
then you've got your production and your engineers in the back.
And she would purposely enter every day from the back
(21:23):
of the factory and go through so she'd have opportunities
to build relationships with frontline employees right and got out
so that she can help them look around corners and
see what is really and build that trust and relationships.
And so I think that intentionality of actually consciously getting
(21:46):
out of your classic rhythm that's easy to stay within,
particularly within large organizations, and actually start figuring out who
are the folks that have what I were run and
I think of as hearts of teachers, right, that are
we've we've met these people. They do exist in all
of these different functions that you can get comfortable with
(22:10):
then bouncing ideas off of them, and they're not just dismissive, right,
but they've got that heart of teachers say I'm want
to run something by you, what do you think about this,
or particularly like financial or accounting concepts, and that you
can bounce things back and forth because our goal a
lot of times is to take complex stuff and make
(22:30):
it relatable and understandable. But it's very hard to do so,
as we know when we don't fully understand what we're communicating.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
So I think that intentionality of always networking and building relationships,
finding those hearts of teacher pros and other functions outside
of comms is critical.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, I mean that that intentionality I think is key.
I love that example that you shared of you know,
coming in from the back of the factory, and I
would all also, you know, recommend to any of our
communications leaders out there, any opportunity you have, particularly for
your mid level to let them go out and do
some ride along with your sales team. You know, I
(23:13):
was fortunate earlier in my career with a number of
clients to actually get out in the field and do
ride alongs and actually see how the discussions happen. And
like we said, there's a lot of complexity that needs
to be boiled down. But understanding what that sales environment is, like,
what that what the view of the brand is, like,
how you need to like get that communication to the
(23:36):
appropriate level I think is his key. So some great
advice there, now, Ron, I want to turn a little bit.
You guys spend a lot of time in the book
talking about understanding quarterly earnings and financial statements. So as
we think about those in like the mid career level
where this starts really seeming to make a little bit
(23:56):
more sense when they're starting to get a little bit
more at access to the c suite, what advice or
what council do you have regarding financial reports and quarterly
earnings calls for those in the mid level, I.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Can start out by saying, don't do it the way
I did. You know, I spent the first first twelve
years of my career as a reporter and then working
in the government in New York, and quite frankly, unfortunately,
business essentials weren't part of either of those jobs. So
when I joined Eli, Lilly and Company, I was there
(24:36):
maybe two weeks and my boss comes in and says, oh,
the person who usually does the earnings release has just
gone over to another company, merk, and so we need
somebody to write the report. So go up and meet
with the CFO. So I go up with my reporter's notebook,
(24:58):
which I was still carrying, and I'm taking notes furiously.
I have no idea what he's saying and come back.
I come back and I said, I think I'm in trouble.
And so my boss said, what do you need to know?
And I said, like, what are earnings? And I was serious.
So he trapes me over to the director of investor Relations,
(25:22):
who takes me under his wing. Bob Draper is forever
my hero, and we take it from the top and
he is my tutor on everything regarding earnings releases. I
learned so much in that experience, and even though I
probably went through twenty four drafts back then, we were
(25:42):
a through. We did the alphabet. We started with A
and then we're lucky by Z. We have a final
draft of the release. So we finished the release, sent
it to the cf the CFO, and the CEO for approval.
Not because of what I I did, but because I
was a communicator and I listened well to Bob Raper
(26:05):
from Investor Relations. We put together a darn good earnings
release and it was a career changer. Next thing, you know,
the CEO says, you know, the guy who left also
had responsibility for the ANNIE report, so let's give the
new kid the annual report. Now I'm in deeper than
(26:27):
I ever thought I could be. That was a career
defining moment, it appeared to my resume. It also was
a job responsibility for every role corporate role I had
after leaving Lily, because it jumps off the page as
(26:49):
something that if you understand the business of the business
and you can do an ANNI report in an earnings release,
then you understand the business. And like I said, it
was a defining moment. It'll be the defining moment for
other mid career people who want to find ways, and
(27:10):
one of those ways of doing it is raise your
hand and say, could I sit in on one of
the sessions where the guy writing the press release on
earnings is talking to management about how how it's put together.
And then of course listen to the earnings calls. You
learn so much through that. Again, first time I've ever
(27:32):
listened to earnest call was the one I was asked
to put together after that that press release, So hands
on is nothing like it?
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, I thought, I thought. For me what was was
was interesting was uh for for a large public company.
I wrote their annual report for a number of years,
and what I found interesting about it when you think
about UH where things sit in the corporate world, was
my ID badge was sponsored by this EFO, So like
(28:01):
when we were scouting locations and places to shoot you know,
the images and everything that we're going to do to
bring the theme to life. It became a joke when
I would travel with senior managers to see what rooms
I could access that they couldn't. And the fact that
I could access rooms because I was sponsored by the
CFO that you know, leaders in the company couldn't was
(28:26):
really speaks to the importance of understanding that the language
of it. But then also as Matt as we talked about,
is having those connections. So let's then switch to senior
stage career. Right, you've got that seat of the table.
You're a CEO, you're a senior agency head, counseling on
(28:47):
the earnings reports, all of these type of things. How
does business acumen change at that point and how does
it allow what's required to be seen as more of
an equal partner. I mean, you guys have interviewed a
ton of CEOs. Where does it Where does it pivot?
Where does it change once that CEO is has that
(29:09):
seat at the table and wants to be that partner
in the decision making?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah, it's it's it's it's so interesting, right because we
continue to see now serviyce speaking. You were talking about
CFO just now, Steve of reporting structures, and you know,
for a while it was do large corporations have CCOs? Okay,
we're established there. Now it is CCO taking on additional
(29:34):
roles and responsibilities. We're calling that CEO plus and so
now we're at this point where we've got the seat
at the table, and it's like, Okay, CCO and COMPS team,
What are you going to do with it? Because the
other thing that we all know, I you know, this
conversation also takes part with investor relations officers. They all
(29:56):
feel they deserve a seat at the table. There's there's
this a mushrooming of C level positions and they can't
all sit around happily around that table. And so I
think we're at this interesting phase of what do we
now do really as counselor and advisor to demonstrate our
value and our worth to live up to this elevated
(30:20):
role for our function. And you know, I think one
thing that Ron and I have seen is our function
talks a lot about whether it's agency or in house,
about learning and development of our teams, But then when
you look at the data, it's not as encouraging always
of how much we are truly spending to help level
(30:42):
up not just you know, the top person, that's great,
but the success of the top person A lot of
it's going to rest on the quality of their team
and the skill set and knowledge of their team to
help support them as a counselor and advisor. And so
I think everyone listening today, I would challenge them that
you're actually doubling down in your learning and development programs
(31:06):
and giving you know, we talked earlier in this call
about the junior folks in the mid level folks, make
sure that you're investing in them and not just giving
lip service, but you're putting real dollars and cents behind
opportunities to help them grow so they can help you
be more successful in your roles as senior leaders.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
So, Ron, how about from your perspective having sat at
some of those senior most positions, how did that kind
of influence what you wanted to talk about in this
book for those senior communications leaders, just to make sure
they're they're thinking about key topics, key issues, key training
for their staff.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I think it really struck me in the last couple
of corporate jobs, where the CEO actually anoints you you
are responsible for this because very often it's not said,
they assume, and some CCOs automatically move in. Many of
(32:07):
them now have MBAs and other experience that equipped them
to have a seat at the table and be considered
a business leader. Well, the rest of us had to
kind of earn that seat. And then the light bulbs
went off when I learned that I can't do it alone.
I've got this big team, big corporate team of people,
(32:32):
and I need to break this down and make sure
that there is somebody assigned to every major business unit
who understands the business of that business. And all of
a sudden, the business unit heads were coming to me
and saying, can you free up time for jan or
(32:56):
Paula or Ted to sit in on my weekly meetings
because we as an organization value his input and he's
going to learn or she's going to learn more from
having been there. So all of a sudden, we moved
some of the mid career talent into what I considered
(33:17):
pretty senior roles with some very big, sizeable business units,
and the business unit had was happy that they had
somebody who was really in communications and understood what they
were trying to achieve, and then that trickled down to
the people. Then that they came back and they had
(33:38):
to say to the junior staff, here's what we need
to do and why. So it was game changing for
organizations all over the country to realize that I just
can't keep it to myself and that I aren't I
good that I in the turn to a person for
(34:00):
every major strategic business decision. Spread that knowledge and you
become more successful through what your team is doing.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
M Yeah, that's that is that is great advice. Matt.
I'm going to give you this nice, easy softball question
around acronyms es G and D e I. You guys,
in your book you delve into ESG and DI reporting
as we know it is changing. It almost seems like daily,
(34:32):
you know, from you know, I would say, you know,
being somebody based here in New York. You know, from
the municipal level to the county level, to the state
level to the federal level too. You know, you have
the EU looking at you know, multiple changes and ESG
(34:53):
and materiality assessment and sustainability and all of that. And
then you also have the cultural overlay. So you've got
like regulatory reporting, you've got cultural overlay. You guys delve
into that in the book. What advice do you have
and can you talk a little bit about how communicators
need to think about ESG and DEI reporting in a
(35:18):
world that's in heavy flux on these areas and in
a world where I don't really see people running away
from the activities more so than the terms. So the
nice easy one for you, Matt.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I thought this was an easy one.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
Steve, like, as you were, as you were unpacking it,
I'm like, hmm, No, seriously, it's an excellent question, and
it couldn't be more in the moment right now, right.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
So, you know, it seems like each week now we're
seeing a different company in different ways, let's say, adapt
to what they're what they're going to at least publicly
do around DEI, UH and ESG. You know, it's interesting.
(36:08):
I think many listeners, and I think the three of
us are familiar with survey data of the American public shows.
Like you said, the actual acronyms DEI and ESG perhaps
lower levels of support than when actually specifically programs are explained.
Do you support sustainability? Do you support diversity? Here's how
(36:31):
we're doing so. As an organization, we know that that
gets higher levels of support, and we know that some
organizations seem to think the solution to that is we're
not going to call it ESG. We're going to call
it sustainability, or we're going to call it impact, whatever
that solution, whatever that decision might be, we do know
(36:54):
that as communicators, our job is going to be to
really explain these programs and the specifics of them, and
to tie it increasingly what we're seeing to the business
and business outcomes and business benefits. Even if I think
all of us would agree that it's the right thing
to do right to support DEI and ESG, but in
(37:20):
the larger, the larger world that we are operating in,
I think socio politically many of us can agree. Then
if we're a financially oriented stakeholder, if we can see
how these things help ladder up and support superior business
and financial outcomes, that would seem to be to be
(37:42):
less disputable and something that wherever we might fall in
the political spectrum, that we could get behind. And so
I think that this has made it I think the
communicator and the compsfunction even more important when it comes
to navigating, as we know, a very complex landscape around
(38:04):
DEI and ESG.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, And I think, as you know, as you talk
about that and kind of what I see out there,
you know, it's very much about, like you said, how
do we connect it to the business, who we are?
What is the authentic purpose of your enterprise? And I
think with that, if you start with that as the foundation,
then how you tell that story and the metrics you
(38:28):
use to tell that story. I think that's when you
get that authentic level of things. I think part of
the challenge. And you know, it was a conversation I
had with the senior CEO a couple of years ago
who was basically saying, you know what issues and topics
do you have the right to really talk about that
(38:50):
you're credible talking about. It's not saying you don't value
all these things, but what are those things that as
a company does it make sense for you to report
on to talk about? And how how does that tie
ultimately from what we're talking about here? What is that
business strategy? What is that business acumen? So, you know,
Professor Regas, you made me think of something I didn't
think about before. But that ability to translate your es
(39:15):
G or your DEI initiative reporting results is in itself
a form of business acumen. That's that's really critical for
professionals to develop overall and then within the ecosystem of
their respective companies and brands. So, you know, things are
not static, right and we're and even since since you know,
(39:38):
you guys wrote this book, you know there's little things,
a few elections happening in the world. All of these
things mean that what we have to do is be
continuous learners, right, and that business acumen isn't something Hey,
I take a course, I get the check mark, I
am good to go. Because there's always new regulations, there's
(39:59):
always new pressure, there's different Supreme Court regulations if they're
in the US. There's all these things that factor. So
Ron you talk a lot about personal growth and like legacy.
So when you think about business acumen as something that
evolves over time, what advice do you have to communicators
(40:19):
and what challenge do you have to them to continually
develop their skill set no matter where they sit.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Well, I think you know, if you look at it
as newcomers, the young people starting on the profession, I
don't want them to become overwhelmed at the thought because
it seems far more complicated. Even if you look at
our glossary, almost six hundred terms that they're probably about
(40:47):
thirty that they really need to know about. So I
want them to figure out how they can know the
businesses they're working for and how business overall might operate.
So I usually start out by saying, if you do
nothing else, pull up the front page the Wall Street Journal,
(41:10):
read the left hand column What's news, and just scan
it and you will find out what is going on
within the company. I had one CEO that constantly challenged
me in meetings where he'd say, well, did you see
that what the news was here about Peiser today? And
I was a deer in headlines. Well, I knew what
(41:33):
he was doing. He was reading the Wall Street Journal
because he had the luxury of having a driver, and
I didn't. But so I got up earlier and I
read the wat's news column, and I went to the
index and the Journal and the Times, and I read
what is being said about my company and or our competition.
(41:55):
So you always stay on top of the news. Pretty
easy to do. When you come to a term, then
you don't understand circle it, and I guarantee you it's
in our glossary.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
Look it up.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
We have a simple explanation of what that term is,
so you can learn. It's sort of by osmosis. So
does that be for the newcomers then in the mid
career level we kind of touched on it earlier. I
say network, network, network, and I don't mean externally looking
for a new job. I mean internally with the organization
(42:31):
people who are making the business happen, the finance team,
the legal team, and others, and you'll be surprised if
you ask them to go to coffee or somebody at
your prayer level. Within that organization, the word of mouse
spreads that this is a different kind of communicator. He
or she's really interested in our business. So I kept
(42:56):
getting invited to staff meetings. I didn't have time, but
I went because I learned so much about what was
going on, and then I was able to share a
community communications perspective that often was not realized. So the midterm,
the mid career people really need to just get involved
(43:18):
in the organization and really become a business partner at
whatever level that they're permitted to rise to. And then
CEOs they just need to train their teams to be
true business partners. And it's kind of an overwhelming thought,
and we hope that's what the book kind of addresses,
(43:40):
and it certainly our workshops and the feedback we've gotten
over the years has been positive to the fact that GEEP,
we thought they knew more than they knew because they
did deliver what I needed, but they had no idea
how much pain was involved in getting there, and so
the more you help your team understand how business operates,
(44:05):
in the expectations of business on the communications team, that's
kind of the whole package of what a leader can
do to bring everyone up in the organization to have
a greater knowledge.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah, I think that that idea that you're talking about
of being a true business partner, a true business advisor
is key, Professor Regis, I'm going to give you kind
of the closing opportunity here. Ron just talked about the
need to get into the DNA of the business. That's
my term, not his, but you basically want to get
(44:40):
into the DNA of that business. You were talking about
expanding your news diet, similar to what Ron was saying,
you can't do it yourself. You talked about intentionality, You
talked about an entrepreneurial mindset. You talked about a intrapreneurial
mindset within within a corporation. So from your standpoint, what
(45:04):
advice do you have for our listeners other than go
out and buy the book and do the workshop. What
what advice do you have for everybody in terms of
just really pulling through this business acumen and being a
better business partner a better strategic communicator.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Well, you know, you know what.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
And Ron and I have had this conversation many times.
We are in one of the best businesses in the
world in communication. Because if you're a curious person that
I don't have in this office, but I have in
another office a curious George and I think that that's
(45:44):
the right mindset to always be curious and continual learning.
And Ron and I are spoiled a bit Steve that
we actually get paid to learn and to help others learn.
And that's one of the most rewarding things that keeps
me and I know Ron charged up. Uh, it keeps
us doing these books, you know, four books in ten years.
(46:06):
And so I think, if you can embrace this, and
we're gonna have to in the in the in the
years ahead, Uh, be open to what we don't know
and don't be afraid of that and embrace kind of
that unknown. And we're in that AI revolution right now
and I and I just installed Gemini into my g
(46:27):
suite and I'm trying to figure out what does this mean,
what can I what can I do with this? And
and honestly, I resisted that for a little bit because
it's easy to get set into your ways and not
want to change processes and ways of thinking. But whether
it's a topic like business acumen or data and analytics
(46:48):
or DEI or AI, as long as we embrace curiosity
and lifelong learning and being open to what we don't
know and wanting to keep having that explorer mentality, this
is one of the best feels that you could possibly
be in. And we do now have that seat at
(47:08):
the table and we can affect serious change, but we've
got to be intellectually curious and truly embrace being Okay
that we don't know, but we're going to explore and
figure it out.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, this industry is
anything but expected and stayed and it's constantly evolving, which
is which is what I think is so exciting. And
also I think as we talk about here, and as
you talk about everything in your book about the business acumen,
where things come in is really understanding. Like you said
(47:43):
that curiosity for data, for context, for strategy, for relationships,
those are all for very key things for individuals to
bring together. And then, like you said, we can't be static,
we can't allow ourselves to do that we've always got
to be learning and kind of tying it back to
(48:03):
the theme of this podcast, Building Brand Gravity. I'm a
firm believer that everything we do either attracts somebody to
our brand or repels them from our brand. So let's
get smart. Let's do those things and make sure we're
pulling people to our brands in the right way. So,
Professor Regis Ron, thank you so much for joining me
here today. For all our listeners, I want to make
(48:25):
sure you follow them on LinkedIn. They always have great
things to say and perspectives. You can also buy individual
copies of this I've got mine right here, Business Acumen
for Strategic Communicators, the workbook on Amazon, or if you're
looking for a bulk order for your classroom or for
(48:46):
your team, you can reach out to matt Ron directly
or their publisher, Emerald Publishing. Guys, thank you so much
for joining us today, so much sage advice, and for
all our listeners, tune in next time for our next
episode of Building Brand Gravity. Thank you for listening, Steve.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
Thanks for being a friend of this journey for so
long now we really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Thank you, Steve. The pleasure, my.
Speaker 6 (49:10):
Pleasure, guys, we are GNS Business Communications. We are a
team of media strategists, storytellers, and engagement experts who meet
you at the intersection of business and communications. To learn more,
visit gscommunications dot com. You are listening to building brand gravity,
(49:31):
attracting people into your orbit a GNS Business Communications podcast.
Keep connected with us by subscribing to the show in
your favorite podcast player. If you like what you've heard,
please rate the show that helps us to keep delivering
the latest in industry influence. Thanks for listening. Until next time.
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Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.