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Paul Argenti
Over the last 30 years, there have been at least four or five efforts to teach communications at business schools on a broader level, but none have really taken off. When the folks at the Public Relations Society of America approached me, I told them I’d be happy to help and we basically stuck with it this time. A couple of people really pushed it and got the job done. I think the reason this could be successful is because it’s not like five professors sitting around a campfire and trying to see how they can make it work. This effort is thousands of people who work in public relations saying, “Hey, this is important and we need your help to get it done.” If we can get a critical mass of schools teaching these skills, then it just becomes something that everyone gets interested in.
I understand that five schools, including Tuck, will be involved in the pilot program next year. Tell me a little bit about the curriculum you’ve designed for these schools and how you foresee this being integrated into MBA programs.
I think we need to start small. If it is in the curriculum at all, that would be a plus. Existing classes that teach presentation skills and writing would be the obvious place to incorporate this. Schools can use my textbook and there’s an instructor’s manual that I’ll tailor for the needs of each of these schools. I’ve written 100 different cases on this topic, and there are a number we are rewriting into shorter cases that, for example, someone who works in public relations could come in and teach without a lot of training. For example, one case I wrote is about Starbucks and how it dealt with the battle over fair trade coffee. I’ve also written a lot of experiential exercises, like one I’ve done on Toyota that looks at a situation from the perspective of a Japanese executive, a U.S. executive, and someone from the Japanese and the U.S. press.
Why do you think these communication and reputation management skills are so essential for business leaders today?
If you ask CEOs what is important to them and how much time they spend communicating, they’ll tell you it is a huge part of their job. But it has sort of been cordoned off as an area of specialty, and I don’t think people realize the power of it. I was putting together my list of public relations blunders for the year, and I had so many candidates I didn’t know where to stop, from Anthony Weiner to Netflix. When you think about it and go down the list, these things don’t have to happen. Most of the time these executives shoot themselves in the foot. Crisis communication has become so important and there is a tremendous amount of differentiation in management today based on reputation and clear articulation of strategy. Now we have to convince the deans and the business schools that this is an important thing to teach students.
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