By Jenny Fuerst, Director, Corporate Communications

Neil Mortine and Kathy Cupper Obert

Fahlgren, Edward Howard to Join Public Relations Businesses

Alignment Forms Independent Powerhouse:

Largest Firm in Ohio and Top 30 Nationally 

The acquisition, which joins the capabilities of Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations and Edward Howard, is expected to close during the first quarter of 2010 although integration and coordinated new business and marketing efforts will begin immediately.

Check out more details of today’s exciting announcement in the news release.

By Carol Merry, Vice President

There’s a battle going on today.

The irony is that the topic being argued over is probably not visible to those to whom it matters most.

The first shot was fired this morning when a few of the IR professionals on Twitter started sharing a Brunswick Group news release and presentation that reported the results of an online survey of about 500 buy-side investors and sell-side analysts in the U. S. and Europe. The key finding is that the investment community “overwhelmingly looks to companies as their primary source of information relevant to their investment recommendations and decisions, with the influence of new media playing a limited, albeit growing role.”

This proved controversial to the social media advocates on Twitter, although probably not a surprise to most corporate IROs, who have heard similar opinions from National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) panelists and webinar presenters. A number of tweets were unleashed in response - some saying they didn’t believe all the results and others finding ways to rationalize their way through the findings to show that investors do use social media. Interestingly, no one that I follow took the conciliatory path.

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By Carol Merry, Vice President

Truth, luck and understanding.

Deloitte Consulting published an interesting study that was reported on in the April issue of the Harvard Business Review in an article titled “Are ‘Great’ Companies Just Lucky?” The report and more widely available coverage must have had business success book authors everywhere feeling momentary panic to think that their lists and insights may have no measurable bearing on improving performance. 

The study found that only one in four of the companies identified as major success stories actually qualified as having achieved remarkable performance and that the rest were just lucky due to being able to take advantage of circumstances.

The moral of the story, so to speak, is that success stories can be valuable when used as a source for what the HBR calls “inspiration and fuel for introspection.” Put another way, it’s what you take from them that matters. That sounds obvious - but maybe it’s not. 

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By Amanda Bibbee, Senior Account Executive

Winning isn’t everything, but we enjoy it.

Last month, we had the pleasure of attending the Central Ohio PRSA PRism Award luncheon. The annual awards ceremony recognizes the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the crème de la crème among central Ohio public relations firms and professionals. (Think of it as the Academy Awards, only without the red carpet, paparazzi or Brad and Angelina.)

Overall, it was a record breaking year for the chapter, with 171 entries from 33 central Ohio companies and organizations, which goes to show that even in a recession, award programs are important. Not only do these awards showcase the best and the brightest programs (awards are great PR for your company!), they’re an opportunity for the staff as a whole to reflect on a year of hard work and success. As our fearless leader noted in an earlier post, the pressure to develop and implement programs that are on-time, on-budget and achieve award-winning, measurable results can be intense at times, so it’s important to have a little fun once in a while. At Fahlgren Mortine, PRism Award day is a day for the agency to let loose and celebrate with an ice cream social and annual kickball game. (Trash talking has already begun for 2010’s match.)

This year, we were honored to win 17 PRisms and 21 Awards of Excellence on behalf of 18 different clients. Our awards ran the gamut across 26 different public relations and social media categories, including PRisms for Emerson Network Power’s YouTube channel, the Ohio Tourism Division media relations program and even our own blog.

Also, major props are due to one of our own young professionals - Amanda DeCastro - who received the chapter’s Rising Star award. The award recognizes an individual with three or fewer years of experience who has demonstrated commitment to the public relations profession and community involvement. Amanda is our eighth Rising Star winner in the past 10 years. Congrats Amanda!

Last but certainly not least, a huge thanks to all of our clients who continue to believe in the value of PR and allow us to develop award-winning campaigns and programs on your behalf. We couldn’t do it without you.

By Carol Merry, Vice President

“Risk” is probably one of the large words in business news tag clouds these days.

A NIRI newsletter called it the “word du jour in boardrooms and on the minds of institutional investors.” A September 15 story on CFO.com says that, after relative finance department obscurity, risk managers will be offered a seat at the big corporate finance table following the recent meltdowns.

“What’s your risk tolerance?”

That’s usually the first question from an investment advisor. With the answer, they fashion a strategy that matches your goals to your risk profile. It’s a procedure that more companies and organizations might want to emulate.

Knowing that a momentary misstep may turn into a widely publicized and endlessly speculated-upon incident with an extended lifespan on YouTube is intimidating. You can’t plan for everything. And you can’t be inhibited in growing your business. As the CFO.com story declares, risk management is misunderstood: “It is not about eliminating or minimizing risk, as the name would imply. It is about avoiding uncompensated risk.” In other words, determine what level of reward is worth what level of risk.

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