We hosted a roundtable for communications leaders including Ken Makovsky, president, Makovsky & Company; Britt Zarling, director of global strategic communications and thought leadership, Manpower Group; Paul Fox, director of corporate communications, P&G; Olivier Fleurot, CEO, MSLGROUP; Michael Petruzzello, managing partner, Qorvis; Gerard Meuchner, VP and chief global communications officer, Henry Schein; Andrew Katell, SVP of communications, GE Energy Financial Services. Bernadette Casey, senior editor of PRWeek moderated the discussion on communication take-aways from the 2013 World Economic Forum, held in Davos.

1. Global
DAVOS ROUNDTABLE
emergence
The World Economic Forum took place from January 23-27 in Davos,
Switzerland. In this MSLGroup-hosted roundtable, senior leaders joined
PRWeek senior editor Bernadette Casey in New York to discuss some
of the key communications takeaways from this year’s annual gathering
All photos by andrea fischman
From left: Ken Makovsky, president, Makovsky & Company; Britt Zarling, director of global strategic comms and thought leadership,
ManpowerGroup; Paul Fox, director of corporate comms, P&G; Olivier Fleurot, CEO, MSLGroup; Michael Petruzzello, managing partner,
Qorvis; Gerard Meuchner, VP and chief global comms officer, Henry Schein; Andrew Katell, SVP of comms, GE Energy Financial Services

2. DAVOS ROUNDTABLE
Resilient dynamism
Bernadette Casey (PRWeek): The theme of this year’s
event was resilient dynamism. What does this concept mean
to today’s communicators?
Gerard Meuchner (Henry Schein): When I think
of resilience, I think of stamina. In our 24/7 world,
we need more stamina than ever to do our work because
it’s nonstop. That notion of resilience speaks directly
to our responsibilities.
In terms of dynamism, look at how much the media
landscape has changed in the short time we’ve all been in
this profession. We’ve gone from the days of a handful of
major media to folks approaching us constantly from all
sorts of media outlets. As such, we need to think at a higher
and faster level to keep up with volume and demand.
Resilient dynamism is not only about needing the stamina
to do the work we do, but also having a nimble mind to
manage the very different audiences in this new world.
Paul Fox (P&G): Business has always been accelerating,
but it’s doing so at even greater speed now. As commu-
nicators, perhaps change is the only constant we deal
with today. In that respect, our ability to stay intimately in
touch with the audiences we’re trying to serve has become “for a very long time, the
absolutely crucial.
industry has been completely
Ken Makovsky (Makovsky & Company): Our business decentralized. this can’t last“
has always required resilient dynamism, but today you have – Olivier Fleurot, MSLGroup
to be quickly resilient. You have to manage change more
rapidly because we’re so hyper-connected today.
There’s an old saying about having PR whether you want almost too late because it can escalate out of control very
it or not. That particular point is more relevant than ever rapidly. That reality requires much greater anticipation of
because it doesn’t matter today whether you’re a CEO or issues and preparation of contingency plans.
a small business manager. In either case, you’re public. You In the world I work in, we now have a regulator we
really cannot wait for the opposition to frame an argument didn’t have before and we must be much more careful
without you and basically wait for the problem to go away about how we communicate, as well as operate overall as
because it’s not going to happen. a business. Regulators are a fairly new external audience
that we have to consider.
Britt Zarling (ManpowerGroup): In thinking about
stamina, durability comes to mind. You need durability Michael Petruzzello (Qorvis): At Davos, it seems they
to deal with the compressed economic cycles that will were trying to address the crisis in leadership that we’ve
continue. There’s also constant change to which you must been facing over the last couple of years, which was an
adjust. That’s the whole agility notion. unfortunate result of the economic downturn and a lot of
What does that mean for communications? You need events in recent years.
opposing skill sets. More than ever, you have to be stra- One thing leaders must look at is that global economic
tegic and tactical. You must be collaborative, yet entre- recovery is largely driven by perception and confidence.
preneurial. You need to understand concepts, but then Do we perceive things are getting better? Are we con-
be able to translate them into simple speak. fident in our ability to invest and buy? To have that
The ability to adjust to that is something today’s com- confidence, we must first have confidence in our politi-
munications people do not all have. Leaders such as cal and economic leaders, our business leaders. That’s
us who consider ourselves experts in communications where communications plays a very important role. It will
have to be better coaches on this because that’s what will help restore confidence in global leadership. It will help
make a difference. Those are the types of communications restore confidence not only in where our individual econo-
people we need today. mies are headed, but where the global economy is going.
Andrew Katell (GE): Among the other balancing acts Olivier Fleurot (MSLGroup): Resilience is necessary
a communicator must perform is reactive versus active. because we are in a much more complex world. When
With the speed at which the world is moving, by the time I was a journalist with a French business newspaper,
a comment is made or a news story or blog post comes the world was simple. We were writing about the US,
out about one of our businesses, products, or services, it’s Western Europe, and Japan, nothing else. We never
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3. DAVOS ROUNDTABLE
wrote a line about India or China because we didn’t up focusing only on a domestic market in whichever country
know about companies there. it is because, overall, it feeds into the key characteristics
The first element is complexity – and a lot of CEOs needed for all communicators – perspective and context.
are struggling to understand those crucial markets. The
second one is speed. People are posting and tweeting Petruzzello (Qorvis): One thing we hear from
about everything. You need to figure out very quickly clients is that global communications is no longer just
who these people are and engage with them. looking simply for global strategies that can be executed
All this requires a lot of resilience and I see it when I try locally. They demand more adaptability. They want to
to advise clients. First of all, you need to be available all take global strategies and adapt and implement those
the time. You must have a good understanding of a certain market by market while simultaneously allowing
number of countries and cultures. those to bubble up so that when you go from emerging
markets to mid-level markets to more mature markets,
The global economy you can develop strategies that really work for all of
Casey (PRWeek): Between traditional markets and emerging them, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.
regions, the global economy is a huge issue – and communications
plays a key role in shaping those stories. Could you identify a Fox (P&G): One of the big takeaways for me from
couple of areas where there is either great opportunity or tre- this year’s event was a tangible sense of optimism, an
mendous challenge for business? optimism we haven’t seen out of Davos since probably
2008, before the recession set in.
Zarling (ManpowerGroup): Emerging markets are Yes, there were clearly areas of continued concern,
leapfrogging. They need to because they must compete particularly in regions such as the Middle East. There
globally now. What does that do for businesses? It cre- are issues from an economic point of view in Western
ates challenges and opportunities, but, for the most part, Europe. However, there was a general sense of optimism,
it’s compressing value chains. It’s compressing pricing. particularly from business leaders, that we were seeing
It’s compressing costs and expenses. Companies have to the end of the tunnel and not yet another train heading
operate in a much more agile way and that gets back our way. People are a lot more encouraged here in the
to the resilient dynamism. US. For the first time, Africa had a huge presence at
As communications people, we can no longer approach Davos. In fact, as communicators, we must begin to think
our roles with the mindset of just needing to understand our about Africa and its growth potential.
own company’s platform. We must have a refined under- As communicators, we also need to be where the
standing of what’s going on globally, politically, socially, business is. We need to intimately understand it. For
and economically, and then take that into account and us, it’s not just understanding the business. It’s under-
connect it to our company’s platform and vice versa. standing the consumer.
Meuchner (Henry Schein): Five percent of the world’s
population is in the US, so most of the world is outside
the country. Multinationals must start thinking about
how to deploy communications assets because the aver-
age US multinational probably has an overweighting of
communications assets in the US and underweighting in
all of those other regions of the world. It is those regions
that are growing faster than the US and have much more
economic promise, China and India most notably.
In the years ahead, you’ll see a shifting of the deploy-
ment of these assets to the emerging markets because
you can’t effectively communicate in another part of
the world from the US.
It’s more than just communications, obviously, when
you’re competing in markets such as China and India.
There are also government relations aspects. That’s
vitally important and can only be developed in a real way
by having people in those locations.
Katell (GE): GE has had a major business and commu-
nications focus on decentralizing and deploying more of
our talent outside the US where the growth is. Putting it
another way, communicators need to chase growth – eco- “For CSR to be sustainable, it has
nomic and business – and there’s no substitute for being to be intrinsically linked with a
on the ground in a country.
I’ve spent years in Russia. I covered the UN as a journalist. business. It cannot be episodic“
That kind of world-view is very valuable even if you wind – Paul Fox, Procter & Gamble
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4. DAVOS ROUNDTABLE
Another key factor when looking at the global
economy is the fact we have massive moving popula- mindful of davos’ relevance
tions. More than ever, people are leaving their places of
birth and moving to very different regions. This is a Arianna Huffington, chair, president, and editor-in-chief of The
Huffington Post Media Group, spoke with PRWeek senior editor
dynamic aspect we’re only beginning to understand. Bernadette Casey prior to the roundtable about her views on some
Right now, it’s the equivalent of France’s and the key topics that emerged during this year’s World Economic Forum.
UK’s population moving. It won’t be many years
before it ’s the equivalent of the US population
moving. That has a dramatic impact upon culture, too, Bernadette Casey (PRWeek):
not just the economy. Women in leadership was a key
topic at Davos. What caught your
Petruzzello (Qorvis): When we think about the attention among the many conver-
emerging markets, the fascinating element is the demo- sations about this subject?
graphics. When you look at Latin America, the Middle
East, China, and India, 40% to 60% of those populations Arianna Huffington (Huffington
are under the age of 20. You have enormous numbers of Post): Just the recognition that
people who have yet to come of age as consumers, but this is where the world is going
that is something we’re going to have to deal with in the was noteworthy. There was a zeit-
next five to 10 years. geist apparent. Part of it was that
These youthful populations are different than their women will play a bigger role.
parents. They grew up with a mobile phone and Face- My biggest obsession is that
book. Not only are they moving physically, they’re women do not have to lead the
clearly moving every day with information. same way men do. We need to Casey (PRWeek): Please highlight
identify the ways that haven’t some of the more interesting dis-
Fleurot (MSLGroup): PR and communications didn’t worked in how men have done cussions that took place at Davos
exist in those countries 20 years ago, so the maturity of leadership. We can do it differently. around social media.
those markets, in terms of communication, is very different
from what it is here. Casey (PRWeek): It seems more Huffington (Huffington Post):
Of course, our clients are very eager to find exactly business leaders are making that Ubiquity is the new exclusivity. It’s
the same kind of processes, but it doesn’t work that way. body, mind, and spirit connection no longer about doing something
For instance, we just produced a white paper on the PR and directly linking that to how exclusively. Whatever you have,
industry in India because we think we have a role to play they handle a crisis and run their what matters most is getting as
to make sure this industry makes progress and develops. business. You talked about looking wide distribution as possible. That’s
In Africa, the population is going to double in inwards. How might these con- why I love that The Huffington
the next generation. Double. It’s 1 billion today. It cepts relate to PR professionals? Post, in addition to being a jour-
will be 2 billion by 2045 or around that. What’s going nalistic enterprise, is a platform.
to happen there? Huffington (Huffington Post): Increasingly, the more you can be
We are at a very beginning moment in Africa. My clients It’s very much at the heart of a platform or be attached to plat-
are asking me how can we help them there. My issue is communications because com- forms, the more you can get your
finding people who simultaneously understand how we munications professionals are or your client’s message out.
want to work and the local culture. That’s a big challenge, all about building connections.
but I believe Africa is the next frontier. When we are enjoying what we Casey (PRWeek): How has Davos
I was struck by the fact that in all the Davos sessions do, we build better connections. evolved or expanded over the
I attended before, the person who was talking about Ironically, as digital connections many years you’ve attended?
Africa was Bono on stage with Sharon Stone raising are becoming more widespread,
money for bed nets. It was all about how can we help them people are craving the live con- Huffington (Huffington Post):
because it’s all about disease and issues. nection. That’s why we see an I remember 2001. It was the first
This year, the sessions were talking about growth, explosion in interest in live events. time Davos took place in New York.
economic growth. There has been a 5% growth in the When digital became king, there That program put a tremendous
last few years in Africa. We don’t notice it because we were many people saying, “Oh, emphasis on the global leaders of
only talk about China and India, but it’s 5%. It can be this is going to destroy live events.” tomorrow, who were all young.
7% or 8% in the next decade. But it’s actually far from it. Last year, the Global Shapers
There is something in our DNA program was introduced. They are
Petruzzello (Qorvis): I also noticed something dif- that still craves the human con- under 30 and all doing amazing
ferent about the discussions on the emerging markets, nection and wants us to be with things to make the world better.
particularly Africa and some of the others. In the past, each other, rather than just having The fact Davos was able to
as we thought about those markets and as they thought these webcasts. And that’s not capture this trend and invite these
about themselves, they looked at us and said, “We simply going to change. In that sense, we people to be a part of it is why
need to dovetail or attach ourselves to what’s happening have to learn how to handle tech- the event is still relevant and why it
in the Western economies and we’ll shape a draft to nology so it doesn’t enslave us. will be resilient for many years. l
success in that manner.”
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5. DAVOS ROUNDTABLE
Today, they don’t seem to be doing that. They look munity’s economy to take out large numbers of females who
at the US and Europe and say, “That is not the total had completely dropped out of the education system.
solution to our problems or the only path to our success. P&G has a feminine protection business. We can do
We’re going to have to do more on our own and in something about that, which we did. We called it Protect-
our own way.” You start to see some development of ing Futures. That’s just one example.
independence in identity of these markets that you
really didn’t see before. Katell (GE): We do traditional philanthropy through
our GE Foundation. In addition, we are very focused on
Philanthropy and finance some of the key problem areas in the world, especially in
Casey (PRWeek): “Catalyzing Markets Through Philan- developing nations, such as healthcare, energy, transporta-
thropy” was a key session at Davos this year. CSR has long been tion, and water.
a major communications focus for in-house teams and agencies From a communications standpoint, we have latched
alike and the discussion at Davos accentuates that. How is this onto those in a campaign called GE Works. It works
element of your jobs evolving? well externally, but internally, our employees, which total
more than 300,000 worldwide, get very excited about it
Fox (P&G): P&G has always believed that for CSR to be because it is precisely business driven and, therefore, sus-
sustainable, it has to be intrinsically linked with a busi- tainable. These are not giveaways. These are economically
ness. It cannot be episodic. viable deployments of our technology and capital.
GE is big in renewable energy – wind and solar. It’s
been our fastest-growing business for the past five years
or so on the investing side. Our recruitment drives for
employees, as well as the feelings of our current employees,
has revealed this to be a very exciting area. They believe it
is personally rewarding and satisfying to be a part of this
every day when they come to work.
Meuchner (Henry Schein): There’s an evolution occurring
in CSR that is moving away from the simple disburse-
ment of cash to what Henry Schein calls “participatory
philanthropy,” where companies are taking advantage of
the things they do well to improve the communities in
which they operate.
We are the world’s largest provider of healthcare
products, primarily to offices of doctors, dentists, and vet-
erinarians. We have a lot of product that we give away to
NGOs before a crisis hits. We have a program whereby
“Relationships are the NGOs receive product from us that is perhaps unsal-
able or no longer usable to us for whatever reason.
at the heart of PR. To It’s not that money is unimportant, but it’s much more
me, that’s the magic meaningful to employees that they’re directly involved in
helping promote the social good because the very work
of Davos“ they do is being applied to these issues.
– Gerard Meuchner, Henry Schein
Makovsky (Makovsky): I’ve had clients involved in
those kinds of programs and an issue that often comes up
Let’s take Africa, for example. We’ve done a lot of work is whether or not they should promote their CSR efforts
there. One of the many things we have noticed was how versus just doing it.
few girls were actually in school there. And this was in a
number of African countries, particularly sub-Sahara. Zarling (ManpowerGroup): If CSR efforts are not help-
Logically, you might attribute this to the fact they ing further the mission of your company, the organization
have some sort of duties back in their villages. However, will not be there any more to give the cash. As such, the
the truth is they didn’t go to school or they dropped out sustainability conversation must come from the business’
of school because they were girls. Every month, they perspective, as well as the social perspective.
menstruated and they had no protection at all, so when The GRI [Global Reporting Initiative, which is a non-
they did have their period, they would stay at home. profit that provides all organizations with a comprehen-
They would stay in their villages until it was finished and sive sustainability reporting framework] Index is among
then they would pick up school again. many tools we now have to report on this kind of
Well, if you do that for several months on end, you activity. Communications plays a big role in making
suddenly realize you are a month or two behind the sure the message is connected that way. Otherwise, it
boys in class. The distance expanded to such an extent can sound disingenuous, look disingenuous, and look
that, eventually, they gave up. It’s not good for that com- like checking the box – and that’s not intended.
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6. DAVOS ROUNDTABLE
Fleurot (MSLGroup): That’s why we have this ex- Women in leadership
pression “greenwashing.” The majority of companies Casey (PRWeek): Another prevailing topic at Davos
still don’t think about this the right way. CSR must was the growing role women have in economic decision-
completely be part of your strategy. You have to work on making and, more broadly, leadership. In PR, women hold
a purpose. And this purpose must be created and co- three out four jobs, but eight out of 10 C-suite posts are
created by your people, the staff, and even other stake- occupied by men. It is changing, however, as more firms have
holders, such as suppliers. You must involve and engage women in the top roles. Have we reached a tipping point to
a lot of stakeholders to make sure the purpose will work where this momentum will really take hold?
and will deliver performance.
We have developed processes that we call Purple. Fleurot (MSLGroup): There was that session [“Women
Purple is made of purpose and people, and we think in Economic Decision-Making”] where five women were
it must come from the bottom of the organization as on stage and it was not a sideshow. It was the main plenary
much as from the top. session. You had the head of the International Monetary
The new generation will look at your company and ask Fund Christine Legarde, the president of Harvard Drew
about what good you do beyond making a profit. They Faust, and Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.
want to know how they will be engaged every day with As far as I am concerned, for the first time, I felt this
a purpose that is a bit broader than just making a profit. topic was really very visible. They spoke quite well and
That generation requires it, so if you want to hire the right
talent in the next 10 years, you need to have that.
Fox (P&G): There have always been three very distinct
categories in this space. There is a group that really
doesn’t care about CSR and sustainability. Then there are
those who are deeply passionate and run their lives against
CSR and sustainability principles. Then you have a very
large category that sits right between them. They believe
it’s important, but they won’t trade off performance for
sustainability reasons.
It’s that latter group that is beginning to get, for want of
a better description, more enlightened. They are becoming
more aware that they have a power. They have a power
either to group, to collect on social media, or they have a
power through their spending to affect change.
As communicators, we absolutely need to ensure
the authenticity of these programs. That’s a job both
internally and externally because, to Olivier’s point of
greenwashing, too much of it still occurs. It’s misleading
“structures must be
to consumers. As communicators, we have a role to play more inclusive to
in ensuring that particular practice dies out forever. break down barriers
Katell (GE): There’s great variation in what we’re talking to women getting into
about in different parts of the world as far as development leadership roles“
and awareness of CSR and who’s driving it.
– Britt Zarling, ManpowerGroup
In Russia, for example, it’s a fairly new phenomenon
for big corporations and wealthy individuals to latch
onto this. At the moment, they are doing so under en- challenged what is still a very immature environment in
couragement from the state, as opposed to perhaps Davos when it comes to this area. There is still a lot to do.
grassroots, which is probably more the case in countries
such the US. Zarling (ManpowerGroup): In Legarde’s plenary,
It’s quite fascinating to watch how emerging markets she’s rattling off these statistics about how 70% of global
are developing in the area of CSR, including in how they spending is done by women. She spoke about how when
communicate about it, and whether, frankly, they are women do better, economies do better because there’s
doing it purely for PR reasons. more control over GDP. Basically, she spoke about how
women aren’t the specialty market. They are the market.
Makovsky (Makovsky): Having been on the boards Women are making progress in the business world,
of a number of industry organizations, many of them but there’s still a fundamental problem because what
are tackling research standards, but no one has done companies offer women is clearly not what women want.
anything about industry standards on CSR. It would You have women entering the workforce at the same
really be an advance for PR if we could get one of the rate as men. You have women graduating and in very
industry organizations to undertake those kinds of capable roles. However, something happens that is creat-
standards because they are critical. ing a barrier. It might be structural, cultural, individual,
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7. DAVOS ROUNDTABLE
or social, but this is where companies have to really think
about how they structure work differently.
I just had a baby. When you think about what that means
from a work-structure perspective, it’s very different for
women. It’s not because I don’t want to keep working and
move up, but I need more flexibility. Women are more
driven than men to have control of their schedule because
a huge majority of that population still serves as either
caregivers or they have other responsibilities other than
just being the primary financial-income bearer.
Structures need to be looked at differently and they must
be more inclusive to break down those barriers to women
getting into leadership roles. As an industry, retail has a
little easier go at it because women have access to P&L
experience in a faster way. For the majority of women
in the workplace, however, they usually come up in staff
roles. In those industries, there needs to be more access
and exposure to the P&L experience.
Fox (P&G): The concept of diversity and inclusion and
the role women play at P&G is part of our fabric. When
we talk about consumers, we tend to talk about “she.”
We’ve always recognized the role women play. We “when you have an issue that’s
articulated it publicly for the first time with the “Thank
You, Mom” campaign. by definition controversial, the
Many women have risen to the senior ranks at process must involve listening“
P&G. If you look at the board composition right now, – Andrew Katell, GE Energy Financial Services
out of 12 independent directors, five are women. I
struggle to think of any other corporate board in the
world that has that sort of representation. from the Fortune 500. Three of the last five chairs have
We recognize that if you create heterogeneous organi- been female and next year’s chair will be female. That’s a
zations, they are far more innovative and productive than good sign of progress on this front.
homogeneous ones.
Fleurot (MSLGroup): MSLGroup organizes an interna-
Zarling (ManpowerGroup): And this can’t be about doing tional women’s forum every year. We have 1,200 women
something for the sake of doing it. It must start with the from 70 different countries meeting and talking about
outcome in mind. You want diversity of thought, which various topics. It’s not only about women in business and
creates innovation and inspires different ideas. You can’t politics, but their views about business issues. We’re going
get that with all the same types of people in the room. to do it in Brazil this year.
If you start there, you can then create the work models A lot of women say they hate quotas, but if this is the kind
and the structures. That’s where you then address the flex- of thing we have to do to kick start the process, so be it.
ibility issue to create more inclusion.
An emerging challenge
Makovsky (Makovsky): I got into this field in the early Casey (PRWeek): Another Davos session focused on emerging
‘70s and PR was dominated by women. Based on statistics, technologies – genetically modified foods, fracking, and such.
it still is heavily dominated by women. However, based There’s a communications challenge in defining new technolo-
on recent surveys, such as those conducted by the PRSA, gies, educating consumers about them, and getting a consistent
while women dominate the business, 80% of the leader- communications message out. How do you tackle that?
ship is male. Moreover, there’s a great disparity between
the average salary for women and men. It is changing, but Katell (GE): It really speaks to a very fundamental
it remains an issue we have to wrestle with. issue, certainly in the US, but I suspect globally about
the way discourse is handled on issues such as fracking
Zarling (ManpowerGroup): This is more of a structural or any other number of things that are in the news and
issue. It’s not a lack of interest on women’s part. It’s that lighting up the blogosphere and social media.
they tend to reach a certain point and then leave. Most Whatever the issue, it’s about civil discourse and the
leave to start their own business. They are fueled by a lack of it. It’s this impulsiveness that’s enabled by some
desire to create the structure they want, which includes of the social media technology that people don’t think
more flexibility and control of their schedule. much before hitting the “send” or “post” button. Related
to that, there is also a broad unwillingness or inability to
Meuchner (Henry Schein): I’m the chair this year of be a good listener. And these are key communications
The Seminar, the annual forum of CCOs, primarily skills – discourse and listening.
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8. DAVOS ROUNDTABLE
When you have an issue that’s by definition controver- tion. We’re in a transitionary period where the notions of
sial, there are multiple viewpoints. To reach some kind of privacy and IP protection are being interchanged.
solution, the process must involve listening, respecting We’ll be creating new models going forward. You know
each other’s opinions, and trying to keep it under control, it’s coming. As communicators, we must begin to think
positive, and constructive. about what that means and be ready for it.
As communications leaders, we must help manage that
whole process and do it in a way that’s not heavy handed. Katell (GE): What governs the ability to express views?
We’re not meant to censor the debate, but rather guide it Prior to the Internet era, and even perhaps at the beginning
in a positive, constructive way. of it, the governor for that was economics. You needed to
be able to get your information or viewpoint in a news-
Petruzzello (Qorvis): I’ve spent most of my career in paper, on TV, some sort of physical asset. Now, the cost of
Washington and the environment has never been more expressing or distributing your view is zero, or very close
polarized than it is today. It is so difficult to find common to zero. Therefore, there’s no barrier of economics to that.
ground on policy issues, whether it’s fracking and other In fact, I don’t know what the barrier is or will be.
forms of energy, the environment, or health.
It seems that more and more, we’re just a nation divided Fox (P&G): If you think about the principle of trying to
from right and left and with not a lot of effort to try and drive change, we’ve always gathered to create change. Live
find a common middle. As a result, the vast majority of events are a great thing. We used to do them physically
people who can shape those debates and, ultimately, come because we had to. What we’re seeing now is a migra-
up with the solutions are walking away from that discourse tion of that principle online. You’re seeing large groups
because it’s too polarized. It’s too divided. We must figure of like-minded people gather together virtually and still
out how to bring that back together. create change.
Fleurot (MSLGroup): I’m part of a steering committee Makovsky (Makovsky): It’s not necessarily an either-or.
within the World Economic Forum that tries to help vari- Think of some of the recent revolutions – Arab Spring,
ous stakeholders establish new norms and values in the for example. The online component of that was huge, but
digital world. It’s interesting because technology creates it was precipitated by a physical event.
new potential issues about privacy, IP protection, even
national security. However, as per the values we have, Fleurot (MSLGroup): We’ve had big demonstrations
it’s not as if I’m divided between being an off-line or an recently in France. It’s all about the mariage pour tous, wed-
on-line guy. In terms of values, I’m the same on both. ding for all. It wasn’t triggered specifically by social media.
Of course, the lawyers and the parliaments in the world People just wanted to make a point in the streets. We’ve
must establish laws to regulate this new world, but in terms had huge demonstrations, pro and anti. Very interesting.
of values and ethics, they should be the same.
IP protection is an emerging issue, a very big one for our
industry. You have companies that would love to use any
data they can find and, of course, individuals who would
like to choose and manage how personal data will be used.
To me, that’s one of the big issues of the next few years.
Makovsky (Makovsky): A lot of companies have these
values, but how do they translate that into action? How
do you operationalize these kinds of values?
My firm has developed a system where role models who
demonstrate values get rewarded. It’s working well, but at
companies with thousands of employees this becomes a
major challenge.
There’s also the transparency issue, particularly in our own
business that uses spokespersons. In terms of employees
communicating outwardly and all kinds of external com-
munications, we not only need to be concerned about
transparency, but, in a sense, operationalize that.
Fox (P&G): Transparency is critical, but where do you find
balance with the current proliferation of communications
channels and the abundance of polarized opinion?
As communicators, it’s our job to define that. That will “Our business always required
be a huge challenge for us moving forward. resilient dynamism. today you
We’re also dealing with a generation today that thinks
about privacy in a very different way than the generation have to be quickly resilient“
before, and light years differently than the prior genera- – Ken Makovsky, Makovsky & Company
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9. DAVOS ROUNDTABLE
Zarling (ManpowerGroup): There’s increased access, Petruzzello (Qorvis): There was a heightened sense of
no doubt, but for what purpose? As communicators, we optimism coming out of the conference. Everything needs
still have to come back to what is the purpose for which to move forward to make that sense of optimism more
we want to use certain platforms. We need to be very pervasive. To turn that optimism into reality, business and
clear about that because, otherwise, everything is out of government are going to have to do more through good
control and you can’t focus on the outcome we’re trying to policy and good financial decisions.
achieve. Let’s be purposeful about the channels we want Probably even more important, we’ll need to have good
to influence. That can help at least give some more sanity communications, individually and in partnership. Leaders
and clarity around the objective. of business and government will have to figure out how to
come together and make that happen.
What’s in store?
Casey (PRWeek): In light of the issues highlighted at Davos, Fleurot (MSLGroup): Actually, I’m suggesting a theme
what major communications themes do you see evolving in the for next year’s event in Davos – leveraging diversity, be it
next 12 months or so? cultural, global, or gender.
As far as communications’ role, we have to raise
Fox (P&G): When I look at what’s happening around the our game day after day because it’s a more complex
world today, the potential that lies in front of the commu- world. Issues are more complex, so we have to recruit
nications field today is greater than it’s been at any point even better people all the time. It’s also about build-
during my 30-plus years in the field.
Zarling (ManpowerGroup): Leaders such as us have
a responsibility to ensure that we’re coaching and really
helping those individuals entering the industry under-
stand how to navigate what’s going on and then build
the right kind of skills because there’s still a gap. There’s
a lot of potential out there in the incoming talent, but
there’s a responsibility to effectively coach that potential
so that it can be unleashed.
Makovsky (Makovsky): I’ve seen a real change over
the years in how our business has moved into integrated
communications and using a lot of the same kinds of tools
people in marketing and advertising have used.
In a recent survey we did with CCOs and CMOs, there
was a tremendous understanding of the different roles
and the need to come together, but the one area where
there was the least collaboration was on social media.
My hope would be to see a greater coming together
“In Washington, the
of the various sectors within marketing because, ulti- environment has never
mately, the client doesn’t care about where the best
idea comes from. The chances of getting it are going to
been more polarized.
be better through collaboration. It is so difficult to find
common ground“
Katell (GE): The best communicators now and in the
– Michael Petruzzello, Qorvis
future will always be well grounded in some basics that
will never change. They must be good listeners. Before
you act, listen well, particularly to your target audiences. ing those very strong relationships with our clients and
Good storytelling skills are crucial, too. Good writing making sure the trust is there.
comes into play here. There is clearly a convergence of disciplines because
Of course, while keeping all those basics in mind, you of digital and social, though a lot of companies are still
also must execute the new tools and channels that will organized for the 20th century, not the 21st. Many still
continue to involve both live and virtual connections. work in silos. For a very long time, the industry has been
completely decentralized. We work for companies, big
Meuchner (Henry Schein): Relationships are at the American companies that have very decentralized com-
heart of PR. To me, that’s the magic of Davos. You can munications and PR organizations. They don’t even know
meet people and make relationships in a way that is in- we work for them in China, it is so decentralized.
creasingly rare in this world. That continues to be the Because of digital and social, this can’t last very long.
appeal that Davos holds for those of us who attend. It Anything can start on a social media platform in, for
is serendipity to go there and meet people you couldn’t example, Myanmar and then become a global issue in
imagine meeting. From that, relationships are formed and one hour. It’s a fascinating time, and a great time for all of
connections are made. It’s just a wonderful experience. us in communications. l
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