PulsePoint Group - Communications Management Consulting

Points of View is our blog dedicated to exploring the critical corporate communications issues of the day through insights and videos of Fortune 500 business and communications execs, industry insiders and our team.

Oscar Suris on Keys to Success in Any Industry

PulsePoint Group
August 11th, 2010

Oscar Suris, EVP of Corporate Communications at Wells Fargo who recently transitioned from the auto industry to financial services, discusses the keys to success as a communicator in any industry.

Tags: media, Reputation, video
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A Higher Purpose is PR’s World Series

Bob Feldman
August 9th, 2010

Originally Published PR Week, August 6, 2010 (subscription access only)

What’s your World Series?

As we continue a slog through a tough economy, I’ve noticed a dilemma facing many companies vis-à-vis motivating their employees. Whereas the sports world affords the clarity of a tangible, meaningful goal (e.g. World Series, Super Bowl, etc.) in which every member of the team is in complete alignment to pursue, business doesn’t have it that easy.

And, in a down environment, it’s that much more common for employees to feel that their work is just that: work.

It’s hard to imagine each Major League baseball team playing 162 games during the year and everyone then going home. It sounds absurd because what’s the purpose of playing all those games if it doesn’t really matter.

There has to be a purpose.

What is your purpose?

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Tags: Internal Communcations, PR Education
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Moving Beyond Reputation– It’s Character That Really Counts

Jeff Hunt
July 29th, 2010

“Your reputation is what you are perceived to be; your character is who you really are,”

– John Wooden, UCLA basketball coach, 1948-1975

That is a profound statement that has taken on new meaning in light of a string of recent crises that have confronted major global corporations like BP, Apple, Toyota and others.

Is it time for communications and marketing professionals to move from simply managing brand and corporate reputation to more actively asserting themselves — at a board level — in the stewardship of institutional character? If not these professionals, then who should assume the role of truly looking at institutional character, not at a transactional level, but at the DNA level of the organization?

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Tags: Crisis & Issues Management, Leadership, Reputation
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Can Social Networks Drive Professional Development?

Grant Toups
July 20th, 2010

We regularly connect with people online. We keep in touch. We make new friends. But can we actually learn anything that’s professionally useful? Is it possible for our online networks, professional or personal, to help us become smarter people and more effective professionals with some level of certain regularity? Instead of stumbling across the occasional jewel, is there a way to come close to a guarantee?

Consider this. Subject matter experts around the world are already using social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious to gather, screen, categorize and share relevant, insightful content. Prominent bloggers and Twitterers, like Guy Kawasaki, spend hours each day scouring the internet and linking to remarkably valuable content on their blogs and twitter feeds. And some companies are using Yammer to stream relevant news and other materials to employees on their closed internal networks. And let’s not forget powerful news aggregators like Google Reader that can put thousands of information sources at our fingertips and let us search all that content for even the most obscure word or phrase.

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Tags: PR Education, Professional Development, Social Media, Statistics
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The Quantified SWOT: Try It, You’ll Like It

Bob Feldman
June 28th, 2010

Originally Published PR Week, June 25, 2010

We’ve all been through SWOT exercises and, if you’re like me, you’ve often wondered if the process – sometimes painstaking and laborious – really yields actionable insight.

Lately I’ve had the opportunity to create and lead what I would call “Quantified SWOTS” and, perhaps not surprisingly, the quantification makes the end product more precise and actionable.

You may want to consider it. Let me explain.

Perhaps you’re considering the future of your own organization and want to do a self-assessment. Typical solution: SWOT.

But try this variation.

Work with your team and develop a master list of attributes that you believe your function has responsibility for within your company. The list, of course, includes things like leadership communications support, CSR, media outreach, employee engagement, etc. Break this down and be as specific as you like.

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Tags: Engaged Enterprise, Feedback, Leadership, Organizational Design, Productivity
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PulsePoint Group Appoints Don V. Cogman as Chairman

PulsePoint Group
June 17th, 2010

Former President of Burson-Marsteller to be Firm’s First Chairman

AUSTIN, TX (June 17, 2010) — Management and Digital consulting firm PulsePoint Group announced today the appointment of Don V. Cogman as Chairman.

Cogman is the former president and chief operating officer of global communications firm Burson-Marsteller, and has been active in public policy work for many years. Cogman has served as a senior counselor with PulsePoint Group since the firm’s founding.

“Don is a true leader in our field, and my partners and I are thrilled to welcome him into this new role,” said Jeff Hunt, principal and PulsePoint co-founder. “His expertise in public affairs, issues management and strategic communications combined with his deep board service experience make him a perfect fit to serve as our first Chairman.”

The Changing World of Communications Management

Cogman brings over 30 years of strategic consulting experience as the company continues to focus on enhancing the rapidly evolving role of communications as a strategic business asset. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Leadership
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Nine More Characteristics of the Engaged Enterprise

Bob Feldman
May 17th, 2010

Originally Published PR Week, May 14, 2010

In my last column, we looked at seven internal changes that can help prepare your organization to become an “engaged enterprise” (def: a corporate business model that achieves an authentic, dynamic relationship between the company and its various stakeholders in which conversation and business ideas are shared up, down, and sideways).

As promised, this column focuses on the nine external moves necessary to achieve full engagement:

1. Recognize that media relationships have migrated. The communications group should have knowledge of and strong relationships with the top 10 digital influencers in each business segment of your company. The concept is not that different than the old days of media relationships, but not knowing these influencers is as wrong as not knowing your top-tier journalists.

2. Engage with customers for product innovation. Engaged enterprises regularly tap into their customers for product design and innovation. Regular use of crowdsourcing techniques makes such broad-based insight easy – and powerful. Check out Dell’s IdeaStorm for a good example. Great opportunity for communication executives to add real value across corporate functions.

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Tags: Engaged Enterprise, Leadership, Media Relations
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Digital Media Pioneer Paul Walker Joins PulsePoint Group As Partner

PulsePoint Group
April 6th, 2010

Former WPP, Accenture Executive To Lead Global Digital Media Practice

Austin, Texas – April 8, 2010 – Paul Walker, widely recognized as one of the leading global digital media experts, is joining PulsePoint Group, a communications management consulting firm, as a third partner to lead the firm’s digital media practice.

Walker, a social media advisor to leading global brands like Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Nike, ExxonMobil, Novartis and MasterCard, will team up with Bob Feldman and Jeff Hunt. PulsePoint was founded just one year ago and has quickly become a trusted, strategic advisor to such companies as Dell, Chevron, Amgen, CA, USAA, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Delta Airlines among others. The firm specializes in digital and social media, issues and crisis management and organizational design and change.

Walker will support PulsePoint’s primary mission of working with major brands to develop strategies and innovative solutions that engage prospects, customers and employees in more relevant and effective ways. This includes digital, social and mobile media – blended with more traditional CRM, marketing and communications — to build brands, develop markets and sell more products and services.

Accenture Experience Key to PulsePoint Mission

“We are thrilled to welcome Paul as a partner in the firm,” said Jeff Hunt. “Paul, Bob and I have known each other for more than 25 years and our professional respect and mutual admiration has deepened through every chapter in our careers. Paul is without a doubt one of the most enlightened and strategic practitioners in digital and social media. He has pioneered some of the most impactful applications of social media for clients like Dell and more recently The University of Texas,” Hunt said. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: In the News, Leadership, Social Media
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Seven Characteristics of the Engaged Enterprise

Bob Feldman
March 29th, 2010

Bob Feldman, Principal of PulsePoint Group, on what activities a company should undertake internally on it’s journey toward becoming an Engaged Enterprise.

Seven Characteristics of the Engaged Enterprise

Originally Published PR Week, March 12, 2010

In my last column, we explored the concept of “the engaged enterprise.” This is a corporate business model that suggests an authentic, dynamic, and deeper relationship between a company and its various stakeholders, in which conversation and business ideas are shared up, down, and sideways.

A constant value-exchange is the new norm.

Due to considerable response and curiosity on this subject, this is the first of two columns that will dig deeper into the model. In my next column, I’ll look at what you need to do in external engagement, but first, let’s look at what you need to do internally:

Strong internal collaboration. Lots of companies have implemented Microsoft SharePoint and other collaboration tools. But the issue is: how widely are these tools used? Does your department live on the site or is it the occasional repository of random documents? Collaboration and knowledge sharing exist in real time. Success depends more on culture and leadership than on technology.

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Tags: Engaged Enterprise, Internal Communcations, Professional Development, video
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