The Corner Office

“Just because you wear a mock black turtleneck, blue jeans, and sneakers doesn’t make you Steve Jobs.”

That was the first thing Lou Hoffman, CEO of global PR firm The Hoffman Agency, said when I asked where executives go wrong when it comes to PR. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. In this interview / rant, Lou expounds, with characteristic insight and inimitable style, on the subject of …

PR Pitfalls - Where Execs Go Wrong:

Too many execs have a delusional perspective of where they stand in the food chain, an inability to see themselves and their companies as the outside world (through the eyes of influencers, like reporters) sees them. Without that critical introspection, their expectations of results are out of sync with reality.  

All too often, executives expect the media to just rollover and write big stories about their products or company. But if you’re not a first tier player, and there aren’t many companies that are, you have to be creative to achieve breakout results. And if you never buy into that idea, you never get more creative.

Even worse is when an exec comes from one of those big companies and then joins a second or third tier company. He’s still got the rolodex with all those great connections, and he still thinks the media loves him for him, when actually they loved him for where he was. The value of the connection has changed, but his perception of the situation hasn’t.
 
Case in point, we once worked with a CEO who had cut his chops at Oracle and joined a startup in the supply-chain software business. He had the expectation that the media was going to care about him and his company the same way they cared about him at Oracle, but that’s not what happened. Now that I hear the words, it sounds sort of naïve, doesn’t it? But it really happens.

PR doesn’t stand for “Press Release.”

Most executives don’t understand just how many news releases go out every day, literally thousands, just from the tech sector. If you don’t have a huge name, a news release doesn’t cut through the clutter. Even more pathetic is when companies build a thick portfolio of so-called news results that are just syndicated publications picking up press releases. It looks great, but nothing was really accomplished.

It’s the Internet. Heard of it?

Another thing that drives me nuts is retro executives who think the only thing that counts is the print version. Do they have a pulse? Are you kidding me? It’s pathetic. Seriously, there are still executives out there like that.

Americaitas

Too many execs think of America as the entire world when some of the highest growth and biggest overall markets are elsewhere, like China and India. And even if they’ve figured out their customers are over there, they somehow haven’t made the connection that the media’s there too.  

They lack the psychology, the mentality of bringing the overseas people into the picture, like they count as part of a global PR team. There’s something about America, I think of it as Americaitas, the way we see the world, that keeps companies from implementing a cogent, fully integrated, worldwide PR effort. 

In case you missed it, 10 Breakthrough PR Techniques From a Master is a must read.

And stay tuned for the follow-up story on how executives fall short when it comes to building successful media relationships.

Update: Be sure to check back on Wednesday for my interview with Larry O’Donnell - his perspective on the show will surprise you! 

Yesterday, something happened that I wouldn’t have thought possible. After the Super Bowl and its super ads, I actually watched the premier of Undercover Boss, a surprisingly creative reality show where, each week, the top boss at a big company poses as an entry-level employee.

Don’t watch reality TV? Me neither. This is different. Have you ever cursed corporate’s dumb policies? Ranted that the mucky mucks never listen? Wished the boss would work a week in your shoes? Well, be careful what you wish for; it’s really happening.

Now, my initial impression of the concept was “nice idea on paper, train wreck in practice.” I’ve seen CEOs in the trenches; it’s not a pretty sight. Trained in problem-solving, they tend to hone in on what’s wrong: incompetent employees, their “good intentions” botched by middle management, their grandiose plans failing in practice.

Then there’s the loose cannon factor: Who knows what they might say or do? Conventional wisdom says be careful when you put a CEO in front of customers because whatever he promises, the company has to deliver. Well, the same thing applies here.

So, as a management strategy, it’s definitely high risk. At least, that was my initial impression. Having watched the show, I’d say the concept has merit — with some serious caveats. Here’s my take on what went down: Read the rest of this entry »

Um, where to begin? Have you seen California senatorial candidate and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina’s YouTube ad? The one that characterizes republican rival Tom Campbell as a cheesy wolf in a sheepskin rug with demon eyes, crawling around the pasture on hands and knees, presumably trolling for helpless constituents to slaughter.

Well, you should. You really should.

I bet Hewlett Packard’s board directors have seen it. I bet their initial reaction was to cringe, shortly followed by sighs of relief at the bullet they dodged when they put their rock-star CEO out to pasture and replaced her with Mark Hurd, who has since executed one of the most brilliant turnarounds in tech history.

Whew … that was a close one.

Okay, so we get why she did it. Instead of spending $5 million to blanket California with a well-produced TV ad, she did, well, this. She got some crazy viral ad guy to cut and paste this thing together and throw it on YouTube. Well, it’s viral all right. And sure, she got her message across, that Campbell is a FCINO, aka fiscal conservative in name only. Read the rest of this entry »

In the early 80s, Audi was an upcoming luxury auto brand in the U.S. A “sudden acceleration” recall linked to six deaths and 700 accidents put a stop to that. Within five years, Audi sales plunged 83 percent, and it would take 15 years for the brand to claw its way back to pre-recall sales levels.

The parallels to Toyota’s current accelerator pedal crisis, which includes a halt in production of 8 models and a recall over 5 million vehicles, are obvious. But the potential damage of a so-called “lost generation” to the Toyota brand is enormous and on a scale far greater than any brand crisis in modern times. Read the rest of this entry »

Think you’ve got crappy management? Clueless, incompetent, dysfunctional executives who don’t know what they’re doing and won’t listen to the wisdom of their employees? Then you need to read this.  

True story:

The CEO of a Fortune 500 company put a great deal of money and effort into change management and communications programs up and down the management chain and across divisions. These were well received by the folks. Operationally, the company prospered.

But after a few years of great pomp and fanfare, the CEO left the company for a “better job.”

The new CEO made a big showing of dismantling the physical, organizational, and communications apparatus that, as he put it, his predecessor put in place to isolate himself from employees. He flattened and streamlined the organization.

But his agenda wasn’t exactly altruistic. Narcissistic is more accurate. He simply wanted all eyes on him, everyone’s focus on his vision for the company. Well, his vision was wrong. Employees didn’t get it, and neither did the market, but he wasn’t listening. Operationally, it was a disaster. I don’t even think it’s a Fortune 1000 company now. 

Neither executive was genuinely a “man of the people.”

So why the story? Read the rest of this entry »

In addition to being an extraordinary CEO and marketer, Apple’s Steve Jobs is without a doubt one of the great pitch-men of our time … or any other time, for that matter. He can create a buzz like nobody’s business and he gives one hell-of-an inspiring commencement speech, as we’ve noted in the past.

Last week, in an “employees only” town hall style meeting a few days after the iPad launch, Jobs demonstrated that he’s also a master motivator of employees. This excerpt, as reported by Wired, is a stunning example of uniting the troops against a common enemy:

Jobs, characteristically, did not mince words as he spoke to the assembled, according to a person who was there …

On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says. Someone else asks something on a different topic, but there’s no getting Jobs off this rant. I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing, he says. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s b***s***.” Audience roars. Read the rest of this entry »

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From the time we’re little, we’re told that time heals all wounds. But nobody tells us it’s only half true. When the wounds are inflicted by somebody else, fine. But when wounds are self-inflicted - also known as mistakes - all the time in the world won’t heal them if we don’t acknowledge them.

Failure is a little bit different, but the concept is similar. Failing to admit and learn from failure will only lead to more dramatic failure. The converse is also true: admitting and learning from failure will ultimately lead to success.  

Unfortunately, many leaders seem to be allergic to the whole idea of admitting failure. I’ve seen it dozens of times with business leaders, political leaders, CEOs, and executives. Why that is, I don’t know, but it may have something to do with how success gives leaders a big head, as we discussed in The Problem with Know-It-All Managers.

Regardless, systemic business failure, corporate failure, and personal failure, typically comes down to leaders or managers sticking their heads in the sand. Don’t be one of them. Instead, master these … Read the rest of this entry »

We’re barely through “that time of the year” — the endless deluge of holiday season automobile commercials complete with red bows, winter scenes, and “limited time special offers.” Having just bought a new car with my wife, I have a suggestion for the automobile companies: spend way less money on the one-after-the-other television ads and more resources on fixing the dealer experience, which I’m sad to say remains terrible. Read the rest of this entry »

More people get into trouble by opening up their mouths than any other way. Don’t believe me? Think about all the times you’ve screwed up in your career, or even in your personal life, and think about the most common cause. 

Okay, so actions count a lot too. I get it. But you have to admit, what you say and how you say it carries a lot of weight in life. And it can make all the difference in your career and your business.

Unfortunately, most of us weren’t born with the management communications gene nor had the benefit of an executive coach to mentor us on the finer points of “soft skills.” Looking back at the early days of my management career, it’s almost shocking how demeaning and arrogant I sounded at times.

You know what I’m talking about. You know how it feels when it happens to you. Read the rest of this entry »

The iPad will likely be the biggest thud since Steve Jobs returned to Apple. Not that it’s a bad product. It’s not. It’s an amazing product. It’s a nifty product.

And while it certainly will steal market share from other products - some MacBook, some Kindle, some Netbook, some Tablet PC - it won’t create a new category in between phones and notebooks, the way Steve Jobs hopes it will. It will sell millions of units, but it won’t sell tens of millions of units. Read the rest of this entry »