One of my colleagues (and favorite people in the world :0)) posed a good question to my team over email yesterday:
“Should we in PR be managing our reputation or should we be reinforcing values?”
Here was my response…and I welcome other’s thoughts:
“I’d argue that without doing one you have no chance of being able to do the other. Much the same as a company selling a product, the legal system defending your rights, or a health care industry trying to enhance the quality of lives. In today’s climate, the reality is that credibility is not a given for ANY company or profession. But it is needed to affect positive change. So there lies the dilemna (spelling?) Can you ignore one and expect to progress in the other?
And ultimately to me change can only occur when you have people who are willing to push for what they believe, affecting change where they can, and dealing with the discomfort that the gray creates, in the pursuit of their overall goal(s).
The values and passions don’t have to change, but the gray can be the difference between success and failure, happiness or misery, or life or death — and the gray can be in one compound, one vote, one message, one person or one discussion.
That is what the power and responsibility of PR means to me. “
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