It goes without saying that public relations practitioners wear many hats. Such words and descriptives as advisor, counselor, fireman, relief pitcher are par for the course. I would like to add one more hat to the mix—matador.

The PR field relates well to bullfighting:
• After all, a matador fights bulls like we take on client issues.
• He is often seen on a public stage working his red cape to connect with his four-legged heavy-breathing adversary.
• In some cases, a matador can be heavily wounded if he doesn’t take the right precautions.
• At the end of the day, a matador’s end deliverable is to end the bull’s fight and fury.

Illusionary English aside, corporate communications is all about making sure the bull—in the form of a crisis or adversity—is properly addressed and is promptly handled before the bull goes on a rampage. Success is often judged on how well we get to know the adversary and how he thinks before the rampage begins.

Said differently, many crises can be averted had the crisis been planned out and its ramifications were addressed before the actual situation took place. Too often, companies take a “wait-and-see” approach to their reputation planning efforts, vis-à-vis if ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But because reputations and businesses can be hindered by rogue employees, market downturns or other unforeseen conditions, it is imperative to think ahead of a potential crisis such that it is planned before it happens.

I was talking to a couple of PR friends about their difficulties attracting business within their agencies. Another one was telling me about potential layoffs taking place if they don’t get some business through their doors. With each of these conversations, I asked why they think these situations are taking place. Their answers were the same–”It’s the economy. People don’t want to spend now.”

That might be true–provided that the agencies where these people work don’t change how they operate. In trying economic conditions, successful firms will change how they do business–provide more virtual teams, adapt work processes to accept lower retainer fees, bill for performance as opposed to billing senior people over junior people. We are talking with companies who have PR counsel, but don’t like that they are not changing the way they do business. What’s more, they like that we can adapt to THEIR needs.

SMPR wants to get to a point where the only excuse we make is that we are already working at our capacity, and that we need to hire more people to meet it.

If I hear “spin” as an equal to “public relations,” I could conceivably lose my lunch.

It’s scary to fathom when people don’t understand the role of PR practitioners. In its shortest form, “A” does not equal “B”.

For those who prefer long-form math, here is a breakdown.

If A= Public Relations, and if B= Spin,

Then…

A = Truth. Influence. Strength. Growth.

B = “Untruth.” Weakness. Tail between your legs.

There will be a quiz later; here’s hoping some corporate executives are paying attention.

We just coordinated an interview for the CEO of Flat Top Grill (www.flattopgrill.com) that is slated to run in the Chicago Sun-Times in the coming days. The crux of the story–authored by Sandra Guy–is about how restaurants in the city of Chicago are dealing with the increased tax of restaurants in Chicago, on top of the sales tax hike recently enacted by the Stroger administration.

Discussions around this story got me thinking about how the city of Chicago might wish to consider raising revenue in a downward economy. At SMPR, we advocate learning from other business models and industries to provide insight on how to do things differently. So let’s throw an idea out there, courtesy of sports stadiums, corporate branding and buzz marketing.

Here is the ultimate sponsorship initiative–rename the city of Chicago, with the assistance of the world’s foremost authority on Internet search.

Chicago + Google = ChicaGoogle

What a way to attract Olympic officials for 2016!!! Mr. Daley, Mr. Brin, Mr. Page, are you there? Has one company or group ever gone as so far to “buy” a city? Kim Basinger paid $20 million for a small town in Georgia in 1989, but not even her (ahem) star power could be as powerful as Chez Google.

Is this idea farfetched? Sure. But raising taxes for Chicago restaurants to 11+ percent seemed like a pipe dream, too–and look where we are now.

We’re working with a couple of clients who have similar but different issues.

Each of them is trying to develop an idea that requires the buy-in of different parties in order to make the idea more “whole.” But each client has been spinning wheels in one form or another to make the idea move forward without having the buy-in of all parties connected to the projects. Said differently, they are trying to build a puzzle around one piece, when all of the pieces will make the puzzle more complete.

I created the following catch phrase to encompass how stakeholder involvement helps transform projects into more complete packages; what do you think?

I am wondering if there are any tallies or surveys out there for the industries with the worst overall reputation–not just for their image, but for keeping their word for getting things done.  We hear a lot about used car salesmen images, but even they take a back seat to the construction industry.

Back in February, one of the windows in my house cracked due to the extreme cold weather.  The windows were made by Hurd Windows and Doors, so I needed to get a replacement. Plus, I had a leaky jamb or two, so I’m wanting to get those replaced as well. With a tagline of “Welcome to the state of Perfection,” I shouldn’t be worried, right?

Here we are in October–neither the window company nor the construction company which required a deposit to get the windows ordered has delivered on their promises.  What’s more, the construction company never updated me about the lack of progress about the windows being ordered.  Far from perfection here…

To be sure, I get it that when Hurd filed for bankruptcy and that the number of distributors had been cut, things had changed.  But when a company puts forth a message and relies on finances and other excuses as shields, they are as far from perfection as possible.

In this case, the words/expectations of both the construction company and the window company are worth nothing to me.

Give me ACTION, not WORDS. Right now, both of these company’s words are as valuable as a cracked window in the middle of winter.