Chapter 23 - 
Information Preparedness: Harnessing Technology

by Stuart Z. Goldstein

[From: Practical Public Affairs in an Era of Change: A Cutting Edge Communications Guide for Government, Business, and College, Public Relations Society of America (1996), updated January 2003.]

There's an exercise I often use when speaking to young communications professionals at local universities. First, I ask them to describe on a piece of paper the current functions, responsibilities and the structure of a communications department in a major Fortune 500 company. After several minutes, I then ask them to take what they've just defined and tell me what that communications role will look like in 15 or 20 years.

There really is no right or wrong answer. The point of the exercise is to underscore the need--for all of us, as communicators -- to develop a conceptual framework that stretches our thinking and forces us to consider a new model for how we practice PR/Corporate Communications. We need to step out of the silos that we work in and consider: how we leverage the different functional disciplines of corporate communications/PR, whether we understand the trends affecting the media in general and how innovations in technology are changing the thinking that is required of us as we look to the future.

It's amazing, but in the last 20 years the basic strategies and structure of what we do in communications have not changed significantly. Is the world the same as it was 15 or 20 years ago?

Historically, the role of communications has been seen as adjunct to the business. Communicators were tacticians, called in to write a press release, speech, annual report, marketing brochure, etc. This snapshot of the profession may be a generalization, but it serves as a sharp contrast to the real demands today on communicators in a fast-paced, highly demanding and competitive business environment.

Over the past several years, the profession has been forced into a transformation as companies have downsized and demanded more accountability from their communications departments. While there will always be a need for people with skill levels to implement the tactical elements of communication, dynamic forces reshaping business demand that communicators have a better understanding of how to get to that strategic level. Companies want communicators who can integrate their activities with the firm's business strategy and see themselves as catalysts for change. These seasoned communicators will have experience across the communications disciplines and will know how to leverage the pieces to influence outcomes and effect results.

Communications is no longer just "a nice thing to do." In the information age, it is a business imperative. The public no longer distinguishes between product performance and corporate action. The visual impact of media has created a sort of corporate persona, where every decision or product is seen as a sign of corporate judgment, ethics and responsibility.

Technology: a Key Factor in Driving Change
Technology continues to dramatically transform our world -- and the way we communicate. However, describing a laundry list of software or hardware trends and their impact on our profession hardly seems relevant, since they will change by the time this chapter is published. More importantly, we should focus on how we think about using technology in the context of creating more effective strategies.

Technology has already redefined the role of corporate communications as a knowledge-based profession--some of us just don't realize it. Innovations in technology and telecommunications have expanded the:

• quantity, quality and speed of communications worldwide

• impact of audio and visual media on public opinion; and

• competition for reaching and influencing key constituencies.

But communications professionals today are so absorbed in dealing with the "here and now," they are not developing the infrastructure tools that will allow them to operate on a more strategic level. The end result is that more often than not they're reacting to today's realities rather than influencing them.

Let me give you an example. It involves the tainted meat scandal that occurred in Seattle, Washington. In that scenario, reports of tainted meat hit the news wires within minutes of the first reported illness. The television cameras arrived at the CEO's door 20 minutes later. The wire stories carried the news to New York, where the financial markets reacted and the company's stock started to plunge. In the midst of all this, the head of corporate communications is likely to have turned to his staff and said, "Tomorrow morning, we've got to organize a crisis communication task force meeting."

That's the real world that we're operating in today. It's often the tail wagging the dog. Our profession has already been radically changed, because information flows more rapidly than ever before. And that affects how we approach the job of communications.

The rationale for a crisis task force, as it used to be conceived, and even as we manage it today is, "Let's get the group together; let's talk about it." Well, the message is already out. Companies no longer have the luxury of time for lengthy discussions to formulate strategy.

Information Preparedness: the Key to Success
Information preparedness, including more extensive use of perception research, will determine communication success in the future. And various technology capabilities will provide the wherewithal to better manage and influence events--not after they occur, but before they occur by anticipating and planning the "if P then Q" scenarios in advance....or as they are occurring.

Here is another example to illustrate how technology can be used to influence outcomes. During my tenure at American Express, we introduced into our department a method of tracking news wire stories through the local PC by subject.

The tools were in place when, in the middle of the Gulf War crisis, we saw a Dow Jones news story scroll across the wires on the PC: "Bomb discovered at American Express headquarters in NY." You can imagine how disconcerting this was, since we were on the 48th floor and we had no idea that there was a bomb reported in our building below us. We quickly called downstairs and discovered that in a mail room near Shearson Lehman's fifth floor trading area, a package had arrived from overseas. It was unidentified and unexpected. As part of normal security procedures, the floor was temporarily cleared until they could verify what it was.

Bottom line, it was not a bomb. And within approximately 45 seconds, we were on the phone to Dow Jones. As we clarified the story, we could see the correction being reported on the news wire.

Today, a company can ill afford to have its trading floors cleared before that disruption starts to hit the bottom line. And if that bomb story had been carried on the news wires and reported in the newspapers the next day, there is a high probability that further bomb threats would have been received. In effect, we had preempted a negative news story.

Given the way information flows, you cannot allow a story to go out over the media channel without challenging it, or coming very close behind it, or else it will dominate the news. If your message is too far behind, you've lost.

It should come as no surprise that some of the top people in the communications field have political backgrounds. In the modern era of communications, political campaigns come closest to serving as laboratories for testing communication theories. For example, in the Clinton presidential campaign, James Carville was credited for his success in managing the message by never letting something crowd the media channel, never letting a negative story get out in front of him.

Well, the same issue challenges us in corporations. The more we understand what capabilities are needed from a strategic point of view, the more effectively we can build the technology infrastructure that will support and leverage our effectiveness.

Reputational Risk
As companies have weathered the financial scandals of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, etc. and the impact of personal activities of celebrity CEOs (e.g., Martha Stewart), there’s a growing recognition of the real-time threat posed to reputation and brand image from a failed communications strategy.

It is easier and cheaper to keep your reputation than to be threatened with having to rebuild your brand.   Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and perhaps the most successful investor in history, put it this way, “If you lose dollars for the firm, I will be understanding. If you lose reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless.”

Managing reputational risk is a priority in many companies today, though more often these efforts are coordinated by the company’s auditor or financial control department.   Communications professionals have yet to demonstrate their leadership in this arena, even though the fundamentals of protecting the corporation’s reputation are associated with anticipating, planning and managing the consistency of what a company will say in a given situation.       

Companies essentially face two types of reputational risk: 1) Situational risk, which is an immediate, unanticipated threat and where you don’t control the circumstances (e.g., the attack at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001); and 2) Planned risk, which is an issue facing the company where you can plan communication strategies to offset or influence the outcome.   For example, a manufacturing company that plans to close a plant in September develops monthly communications activities beginning in January to explain and defuse reaction to the decision.

Reputational risk is really about managing how the CEO and the company are perceived. While technology is changing the dynamics of risk exposure to reputation with real-time access to information, communications professionals should be leading rather than following by embracing the perception research tools that for too long have been ceded to the advertising sector.   The power for communicators remains in how their intuitive judgments are supported by factual information.   

Defining "Strategic"
The word strategic has different meanings to different people. A number of my colleagues, for example, will talk about strategic communications from the standpoint of whether they have a plan that articulates their goals and objectives. Their idea of strategic is that they have an employee communications program that outlines their basic initiatives for the coming year, or a media relations program that projects the anticipated number of press releases or media calls.

When I talk about strategic, I mean influencing outcomes and affecting results by:

• Quantifying perceptions of various audiences through research
• Using these perceptions in developing targeted messages to distinct groups
• Creating the capacity to reach large, diverse constituencies with precision and speed
• Managing communication messages through preemptive activities to influence news and views on various corporate issues
• Verifying results based on action taken or by quantifying shifts in public opinion

In the future, a corporate communications department will function like a war room in a political campaign headquarters. As in a campaign, sophisticated research on perceptions of various publics will become standard practice. And technology will be used to reach those constituencies, once identified.

Routine tools in the political world such as overnight polling and focus groups will be used to provide the critical baseline of information for deciding strategy....and for evaluating the effectiveness of that strategy once it is executed.

The shift toward research as a basis for communication planning is already under way. Union Carbide, for example, along with other companies is already using overnight polling of employees as part of its internal communications program. And there are a growing number of survey research firms now using the Internet to lower the costs for conducting this type of research.

Experimentation by companies like Union Carbide and others underscores the fact that they get it. They understand that there’s a growing competition for influencing various publics in the information age. And the period of time in which a company can respond to challenging situations from its various publics -- that "window of opportunity" -- is much smaller today.

Technology has leveled the playing field. Outside interest groups today are better organized and more sophisticated than ever before. They obtain marketing lists and carry out targeted mailings via snail mail and email. They use 900 numbers to solicit funds as well as to identify supporters and mail literature. And they, too, have access to a growing arsenal of technology/ telecommunications tools to help them communicate and influence diverse audiences.

Building the Technology Infrastructure
So, what technology is needed to help us achieve a more strategic approach to corporate communications? It’s not really one particular piece of software or hardware, but a combination of tools that you can use to provide a more solid footing for strategy. This electronic infrastructure for corporate communications will include at least three major technology components:

• An integrated database that allows you to proactively leverage internal information across all public affairs/corporate communications disciplines.
• An online corporate library or data repository that allows you ready access to an institutional memory of text, audio and video, as well as information from external sources.
• Diagnostic databases that track and help analyze opinion data on a wide range of issues across key segments of your various constituencies.

The Integrated Model
Today, public affairs professionals often see themselves across the different disciplines (e.g., media relations, government relations, employee communications, philanthropic activities) as clients to one another.

Each department within the corporate communications/public affairs umbrella has its own administrative database to help manage record keeping for that particular program, and for that program alone. While these systems support each function, in almost all instances there is an inability to compare data across the departments (see chart).

Even when a strong team spirit exists within an organization, the design of the technology may limit its ability to respond. One department comes to the other and asks, "Can you give me this information?" The other department is likely to respond, "I can give you a list of names, but I can't give it to you the way you need it because of the system...and that request may take us ‘til next week."

The integrated model, which some companies are already heading toward, will help position the organization for a higher state of readiness. This will be achieved by integrating databases that track and facilitate the cross-referencing of information from contacts with the media, elected officials, philanthropic group members, shareholders, employees active in their communities, etc.

In this scenario, the communications umbrella will consist of a string of departments that perceive themselves as integrated in terms of how they operate, integrated in terms of where data is kept, and integrated in their understanding of how to use data to "leverage the whole" of their public/external affairs effort.

Designing this relational database model requires that communication professionals see interconnections and leveraging opportunities. For example:

• The ability to track reporters who have written positive articles about a particular issue or seem predisposed to your company, and identify them by Congressional district so media stories can be pitched to correspond where votes may be needed in Washington.
• The ability to track philanthropic grants and philanthropic group members by Congressional or state legislative districts, and communicate information to them on issues affecting the company.
• Comparing the biographical backgrounds of elected officials with the backgrounds of the employees who are involved in the local political contact program. This will help target areas of common interest that might assist your company in establishing stronger political ties.
• Providing your PR people with direct, online access to information about the company’s philanthropic activities to use in marketing stories to the press ...or feed information to employees meeting elected officials that will help leverage these meetings to communicate other company concerns/messages on key issues.

Media Tracking
Many companies still do not track media contacts. But think about it. If you have thousands of media calls coming in each year, what are they calling you about? What kinds of issues are they raising with you? What has your experience been with that reporter? Rather than viewing the calls operationally, think about them strategically. Tracking this information gives you the ability to analyze and proactively manage it.

If you're tracking reporters and their stories, you will know their areas of interest and you will have the ability to more pro-actively market stories. You know who the players are.

How you use this information can shift the whole focus of your media relations program. You will stop serving a reactive function and will become more proactive.

Equally important, automated media tracking preserves your institutional memory. This is particularly key because of the high turnover in the reporters covering companies today, as well as the turnover of corporate media relations staff.   While online access to

previously published stories can help reconstruct what was reported, it would not preserve your experience with reporters and how your previous statements were treated by the press.   This additional information can be critical in a crisis or on an issue that’s been covered over several years.

Data Warehouse/Online Corporate Library
Communicators are not typically comfortable with technology, though the future success of the function will require a closer partnering with IT.   Strategic access to a large-scale institutional memory online is at the core of a company’s information preparedness.  This data library would include access by subject to  news clippings, corporate statements, photo files, a video library of all production/operating facilities as well as linkages to external "information brokers" who can provide unlimited access to data when needed.

The Pepsi bottling scare is an excellent example of how information preparedness really saved the day. Within a week of news reports of a needle allegedly being found in a bottle of Pepsi, the company was able to distribute a video on the safety of its bottling operations. Now imagine a company using a video library to create a video news report (VNR) in real time and then distribute that footage over fiber optic networks or via satellite almost simultaneously with news wire reports. This represents a new dynamic in how messages can be managed.

Online access to external databases is another fundamental component of the communications infrastructure. Many companies already use external information databases. Some of these databases provide in-depth coverage of who's who in the media, legislative information, access to wire services...and there are a growing number of "information brokers" who specialize in an industry or type of data analysis.

Corporate communications professionals should not only broadly investigate avenues of information sources that will strengthen their efforts, but also ensure the ability to capture and retain this information. While it is often cost-effective to use outside data providers, there will be instances when capturing this information requires developing software to bridge with your internal technology infrastructure.

Diagnostic Database
A third building block for effective communication strategy is an internal database that will help track and analyze ongoing diagnostic research on the perceptions of your various publics, including:

• Understanding how your company is generally perceived by various corporate constituencies
• Gauging in advance how different “if P then Q” decisions will be perceived before action is taken
• Measuring the effectiveness of messages as they're communicated, and then using this information to modify the messages, if necessary

Smart companies today are asking themselves, "What is the basis for our communication strategy? What do we base our advertising on? Is it being driven by intuition or by research?" This issue poses a real dilemma for us as communicators.

Most of what we do in communications is intuitive, driven by our gut...usually drawn from past experience. A combination of things that we see, observe and feel. It is not very quantitatively based.

But we live in era when CEOs are demanding more accountability. If I were to ask: How would you demonstrate your effectiveness as a communicator? How would you prove that you've identified your audience properly, communicated to that audience the right message, that you informed and influenced, and that you actually achieved your desired result?

Communicators for too long have ceded the value of perception research to the folks responsible for advertising.   However, the writers and crafters of corporate positioning and message management have a critical need to reclaim research as a cornerstone of strategy.

In the information age, the margin for error in communicating the right message and influencing change is narrower than in the past. In this environment, communication strategy tied to intuition and experience should be tested for validity through periodic research.

Technology is allowing us to become more sophisticated in using measurement techniques. And  tracking perception research over an extended period of time will permit you to draw correlations that reinforce or correct intuitive judgments, and can be used to plot changes in strategy.

The Media Is Also Changing
Innovations in technology and telecommunications are also shaping trends in the media. Competition in network media and cable has not only impacted the style and content of news, it has also reduced the base of available advertising revenue. This loss of revenue is putting enormous strains on broadcast and print journalism.

Newspaper chains are rapidly consolidating the fourth estate. As a cost-cutting measure, local news reporting staffs are being reduced and greater reliance is being placed on syndicated coverage by the news chains. The result, sadly, is that there are fewer sources of independent news today. This trend applies to broadcast media as well, and it is going to continue.

Operating As a News Bureau
The opportunity side of this trend is that corporate communicators can get their story out by starting to operate as their own news organization. If you drop the fluff and provide information that is newsworthy, you may find hotly competitive news organizations receptive to your material.

At the NASDAQ Stock Market, for example, when its communications staff traveled around the U.S., they had difficulty getting local TV coverage. Local stations couldn't spare the staff to cover the story. So NASDAQ brought its own person to film events, and the tapes are then handed off to the local station. If this is done credibly, the video is run as news.

Credibility is essential to the success of this strategy, whether it's your own locally filmed news coverage, the distribution of video news releases or an audio news bureau that can be accessed online by external radio stations.

Creating Direct Channels of Communication
As the control of media ownership (print and broadcast) becomes increasingly concentrated,  companies will need a technology infrastructure that helps them create more direct channels of communication: between the company and its stakeholders, as well as with segments of the general public.

While everyone is suggesting that the reality of 500 cable TV channels is just around the corner, it makes you nervous thinking about editorial decision-making once the shakeout is over. These cable companies may be owned by three or four huge media conglomerates.

Companies already have begun using technology offered by firms like ADP to speed the delivery of printed material directly to shareholders. Communicating directly with employees through dedicated cable TV channels is not far away. In this scenario, Social Security numbers are likely to be used to designate access for employee viewing rights in their homes. Before long, this type of communication could be totally interactive--which could expand the use of cable TV for annual shareholder meetings.

Some companies, like General Motors, have developed their own database of shareholders who have been pre-identified as willing to write letters to legislators or to local media to influence events in Washington, or blunt negative or erroneous news coverage.  Others have used similar databases of volunteers to generate letters from employees to newspapers and Congress.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of smoking, Philip Morris has been (out of necessity) a leader in harnessing technology to support its communications activities. Confronted with an amendment on a bill pending in Congress, from a database of over 30 million names, Philip Morris can execute mailings overnight. The mailing can include a toll-free phone number that supporters can call to express their views. As the calls come in, computers can sort and redirect the call so the phone will ring in the Congressman's office. That's real. That's no longer imaginary. And whether it's Congress or letters to the editor, communicating directly with stakeholders can be a powerful method of managing perceptions and outcomes.

In the past, many of these approaches were used less frequently because they were so manually intensive or costly to implement. Technology, however, is removing these obstacles.  Broadcast e-mails have replaced overnight mailings, and online survey results have now been used to demonstrate opposition or support for public policy positions. 

In a media-dominated world, communicating directly with broad coalitions of stakeholders (as well as segments of the public at large) who you can pre-identify as being predisposed to your views is absolutely critical. Corporate communication effectiveness increasingly will be differentiated by the degree to which communication strategy utilizes the infrastructure and tools that technology offers in reaching these groups.

The role that communications plays in a company's bottom line is greater today than it has ever been. And in a world where CNN comes into almost every home and news is reported with lightning speed, the absence of a strategic approach to communication can be devastating.

Using Research to Target Strategy
While survey research has long been used to gauge public perceptions on issues, we are entering an era where marketing segmentation analysis will be used to guide communication strategy. Instead of broad-brush strategies drawn from a large general sampling of opinion, technology-supported research techniques will provide laser beam targeting capabilities.

Sophisticated geo-demographic targeting software combined with cognitive modeling (offered by social scientists) will allow you to identify by zip code large clusters of people with similar views across the country. This information can then be used to direct your corporate messages into highly specific media markets and to help prioritize how you allocate advertorial and advertising dollars in newspapers, broadcast TV, magazines and even direct mail -- all with a degree of precision unimaginable just a few years ago.

Easy access to, and use of, direct database marketing techniques will significantly redirect how corporate PR professionals inform, influence and generate support among diverse stakeholder groups; e.g., employees, shareholders, customers and others.

None of the ideas I've raised should boggle anyone's mind. The capabilities are not five or ten years off; many exist today. In fact, various companies are experimenting with some of the strategies I've touched on.

And as we move toward interactive media, the technology can now sort and identify the source of a caller or online Internet respondent.  Interactive media, therefore, provides yet another method of survey research, which can then identify and retain information about potential supporters.

Competing for Influence
In the information age, technology is also leveling the playing field for public interest groups. These groups are adopting the same techniques for communicating messages, mobilizing support and prompting action.

One public welfare agency, for example, published a full-page ad in The New York Times several  years ago, dramatically calling attention to the problems of children and offering a package of information about the organization's efforts. The public was encouraged to call a 900-phone number for a fee, which more than covered the cost of the call and printed material. The agency not only used this approach to advertise its message and raise money; it also facilitated the capture of names and addresses in a database of supporters for future activities.

Whether or not you accept each of the scenarios I've described, the emphasis here is on the degree to which breakthroughs in technology and telecommunications are changing the way that messages are communicated and managed. These scenarios also underscore the influence of technology as the great equalizer in the competition for influence.

What's the Downside of Technology?
It is important to underscore that technology is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end....a tool. People still have to analyze and interpret data. A technology platform will provide corporate communicators with a heightened state of readiness and more effective methods for researching, targeting and executing strategy. The best technology infrastructure in the world, however, will not substitute for good judgment.

There does exist the potential for business to abuse technology and violate consumer privacy. Each of us in the communications profession must exercise good judgment and carefully define boundaries. When it comes to the issue of privacy, we should make certain that information used is always in the public domain and readily accessible. And if we err, it should be on the conservative side of the issue. The public will be unforgiving if a company encroaches on this fundamental right.

Finally, the most effective communication strategy in the world will not protect an organization that lacks a moral compass. It didn't take CEO Jim Burke at Johnson & Johnson a long time to decide what to do during the Tylenol scare. He immediately pulled the product from the shelves. There was financial loss involved, but some issues are crystal clear where public safety is involved, which is why this remains a textbook example of doing the right thing.

The leadership of the CEO plays a critical role in the reputation of a company today. While the CEOs should never rise to celebrity status, they cannot ignore the impact their voice has on the brand and the company’s communication strategy. The best perception research can be for naught, if the senior executive doesn't value communications as an integral part of the business. But that is changing, as more enlightened CEOs are bringing with them a better understanding and appreciation for the importance of an active communication program.

A New Era of Communication  
The 21st century has arrived...and the communications support required by business will be markedly different from what we know today.

Communications is becoming a knowledge-based profession, and the lines between corporate communication/ public affairs disciplines are converging. In time, the dynamic forces reshaping business will lead to communication departments that structure themselves with two primary points of emphasis:

• Research and technology to guide strategy development and to provide implementation (distribution) tools; and
• Senior-level communication strategists with experience across the disciplines.

In this new era, executive communications, media relations, issue management PR, advertising, employee communications and the rest of the disciplines will be more closely integrated to ensure clear, consistent and constant emphasis on key messages.  These messages will emphasize corporate vision, values and service philosophy as well as product benefits and points of differentiation.  A more coordinated and integrated approach to communications, moreover, will offer companies the capacity to change advertising and marketing messages, sometimes overnight, to address the changing perceptions of various constituencies.

As we face a communications world that will be greatly influenced by technology, we must begin to look at developing new strategies, skills and tools for the world of the future. Our universities and professional trade organizations must be called upon to help us design new models and serve as laboratories.   And our students must understand it’s the value of their strategic thinking that will distinguish them in the marketplace of ideas.

In this chapter, I’ve described a number of issues and trends, and proposed one viewpoint on the changes in emphasis needed to lead us toward a new model for the practice of communications/PR. But the larger and more important question is when you look out 10 to 15 years, what’s your vision of the PR and corporate communications profession?

The question is intended to serve as a wake-up call and a challenge to each of us who aspires to be a communications professional to stretch beyond our current thinking. Once awakened to new possibilities, we can ensure our relevance—not as “client-driven”, technically proficient writers, but as “catalysts for change.” 

About the Author:
Stuart Z. Goldstein is Managing Director, Corporate Communications at The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation in N.Y. His 20+ years of experience cuts across the disciplines of corporate communications and public affairs, including serving as a spokesperson at two Fortune 500 companies. He also spent a decade running political campaigns in New Jersey. He can be contacted at sgoldstein@dtcc.com.

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