To be silent is to be complicit.
Richard Edelman
There's a lingering notion that elites continue to lead, and the masses will follow. This historic model of influence was predicated on the belief that elites have access to superior information and their interests are interconnected with those of the broader public.
Engagement and integrity are the two most fundamental aspects of building trust; lead from the front by evolving your company strategy, then live your values every day.
Social media has had a corrosive effect on government and trust, and I think it is a real cause for concern.
We win with facts that are well expressed and frequently communicated; we lose with silence and indifference to the broader social context.
When I joined the family business, our clients were mostly on the marketing side, from Morris the Nine Lives Cat to KFC's Colonel Sanders.
In our family business, the Edelman children must earn their way - there were and will be no promises without performance and leadership. That may lead to some skinned knees, but it is certainly the best way to learn life lessons.
We have continued to advance our global ambition with acquisitions that fill in the global footprint, such as Dabo in Dubai on the marketing side, Smithfield in the U.K. for financial PR, Ergo in Germany for corporate reputation and public affairs, and Position in Colombia to add scale to our Latin America business.
The 'truthiness' of Trump's so-called facts, the questions he posed on President Obama's nationality or jobs destroyed by free trade, has the same effect as dueling scientists on issues such as obesity or climate change.
The inability or unwillingness of citizens to differentiate between fake and authentic news is undermining a fundamental assumption of democracy: the informed voter.
We have to improve our ability to deliver tangible results, namely sales, not simply awareness or change of attitude among opinion formers.
Talking points are a core set of messages an executive or politician utilizes in communicating with stakeholders. It's a term of art for having an outline of your remarks.
There is a fear of innovation because people are afraid of job loss.
Israeli ingenuity was never more evident than in the Ayalon bullet factory built during the British occupation of Palestine. It was constructed underneath an urban kibbutz. The workers had a bakery and laundry which provided constant clatter to disguise the work carried on below ground.
The tech company needs to win in the war for talent. This means much greater focus on the employee, not simply as cog in the machine, but vital member of a programming team in a race against time and competitors. Wall Street is up-or-out, dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest.
The marketing business has been just about promoting things, but we don't believe that anymore. There has to be a societal component, too.
The Dabo people are consumer marketing geniuses. This is exactly why we acquired them.
PR is premised on truth, trust, and transparency.
Even with flexible time off to vote, it's still difficult for our people to juggle work, polls, childcare, and other responsibilities.
I remember feeling proud as I cast my first vote in Chicago in the 1972 presidential election - President Richard Nixon versus Senator George McGovern. Finally, I could participate. There was so much at stake.
Business has to stand up on behalf of its employees, on behalf of immigration, on behalf of its customers, and on behalf of supply chain-cum-globalization.
In the wake of the Great Recession, most business leaders have tended to focus on their enterprise and short-term performance. The time for that narrow focus is over.
We believe in a best-in-class vertical strategy, with PR at the center as its operating ethos of earned at the core, social by design.
Advertising has a problem. They're being squeezed because media buyers and digital firms are doing the creative. They're being squeezed because people aren't viewing their stuff.
We aim to be the primary creative partner, digital channel implementer, and relationship builder with influencers.
Modern, effective leadership means moving beyond the 'grand illusion' to engage the mass population and to align business with societal goals.
I completely disagree with Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute on the need for dignity in the marketplace instead of the social safety net, but he is a very persuasive character.
I think that the direct conversation is exactly what companies need to earn trust of customers. Admit an error. Fix a problem. Commit to doing better. That is only human.
Be smart about selecting your micro niches for communicating in the blogosphere.
It's urgent that companies tell their own stories on digital platforms.
As trust in institutions erodes, the basic assumptions of fairness, shared values, and equal opportunity traditionally upheld by 'the system' are no longer taken for granted.
We have got to be more comfortable experimenting with different models. So maybe a client just needs execution people or a lot of young people who are great with social media. We don't always have to give them the pyramidal structure of senior VP and account supervisor.
Companies need to be very active in formulating public policy - not as a substitute for government, but as a supplement.
Most smart companies should make themselves media companies. That means they put out their own information.
I wake up every day, and the family fortune is on the line, and that's a good thing.
We're not going into advertising. But we see the future battleground existing between ourselves, digital firms, and media-buying firms.
Mainstream media has been abandoned by many, for ideological reasons mostly, and brands need to directly engage with the end-user of information and offer opportunities for consumer- and employee-generated content.
We have seen an unprecedented dispersion of authority, such that 'a person like you' is now one of the most credible spokespersons on business, along with technical and academic experts.
We have been pushing forward on a new way of storytelling we call 'collaborative journalism' on behalf of a number of our clients.
Our goal is to put news where it earns attention, where readers can access it on every device and interact with it. We're meeting our clients' audiences where they are instead of asking them to come to us. Increasingly, that means hosting the content on social blogging sites like Medium.
More and more readers are finding important and interesting content through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and now Medium rather than traditional publishers.
The pace of change in marketing and the marketplace continues to accelerate. Unicorn companies are challenging long-established brands, and categories are being re-imagined.
We've learned that when a consumer moves from a relationship rooted in 'me' to one powered by 'we,' a new world of buying and advocacy opens up for a brand.
Instead of worrying about potential disruption, brands can be creative societal disruptors - because their consumers will be right there by their side as committed partners in a better life.
The trust of the mass population can no longer be taken for granted, and any continuation of the 'grand illusion' is dangerous for leaders in today's world.
CEOs who boldly lean into fulfilling the dual mandate of earning profits and providing societal benefits will find a receptive public.
Walter Isaacson attracts the best and the brightest to Aspen. It is exhilarating to listen to the likes of David Rubenstein and constitutional scholar Jeffrey Rosen speak about George Washington and Newt Gingrich and the original intent of the Second Amendment.
Gender parity in management is a necessity.
The problems of the world, from immigration to populism to income inequality to sustainability to peacekeeping, require a well-functioning supranational body.
The question for every Olympics is whether the giant investment will pay off in the future.
