I don’t know what I expected when I came to Beijing a week ago; after all, I had already done so much research on the country and her people prior to making the trip, but I had many delightful surprises!
China, today, reminds me of many of the good things about my America at the turn of the last century: high achievement, optimism, self confidence and a new found excitement in pushing the frontiers of human accomplishment. It was exciting to be just a part of it.
What I valued from the conference is the global importance of Public Relations in promoting ‘harmony’ between individuals, between organizations and between countries. Public Relations forces us all to look at the future ‘honestly’, optimistically and without too many reservations.
My talk on the ‘brand crisis’ Yahoo experienced clearly resonated, everyone recognized the need for looking at the future ‘strategically’ to prevent obvious problems from developing and then growing potentially out of control.
Clear communication is much more than providing accurately translated web pages or bilingual business cards, although this is a start. The key is to recognize those very large areas in common and then address those issues where future conflicts may occur. Developing a contingency plan for major Public Relations challenges is a critical component to every organization’s long term planning approach!
It is clear that those organizations that fail to embrace Strategic Public Relations as part of the management planning process could pay for that lack of foresight by spending their time in less profitable pursuits in answering unpleasant questions from their various constituencies. In this game even making a small mistake, someone may hand you a card that says,”You got Jail!’
I would like to thank the Reputation Institute for choosing my paper, my sister Kristin and my many new friends I met in Beijing for making this experience wonderful!
See you all in New York Next Year!
Karen 🙂
Ready to Board! I am off for Tennessee & Home!
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