PRs urged to aspire to top management

Public relations executives should aspire to be on the board of directors, rather than see themselves as press release writers, a visiting expert says.

Professor Anne Gregory, director of Leeds Metropolitan University's Centre for Public Relations Studies, said a recent survey of Britain's most admired companies found 43 per cent of them included their head of communications on the company or management board.

Gregory said the role of PR was changing.

"In previous years, PR was very much about media relations. Now there's much more of a view that organisations only exist because they are allowed to exist by other groups of people, whether customers, or the Government, or the press. The relationships with these groups need management."

Companies were now much more accountable to activist groups and more closely watched by consumers.

The role of the PR executive was to bring all those perspectives to the board - as they could potentially be one of the few executives with an overview of the organisation.

"These are the people that can confront the CEO. They are the ones that can say, 'hang on a minute that plan is going to annoy this group of people'.

"You won't get on the board by saying I can write well. You will get on the board by saying I can help manage the risks of this organisation because I know what all these groups want." 


*  UK executives on Management Today's Most Admired Companies list ranked the importance of PR tasks as:
1. Financial reporting.
2. Issues and crisis management.
3. Managing image and reputation.
4. Communicating good news.
5. Launching a new product or service.
6. Managing customer expectations.
7. Supporting new marketing activities.