communications

Today we have a feature interview with Valerie Christopherson. She is founder and CEO of Global Results Communications (GRC), an award-winning public relations firm trusted by both entrepreneurs on the cusp of new discoveries and multi-billion-dollar enterprises breaking new ground. Renowned for her expertise in high tech, she is the driving force behind GRC’s targeted communications strategies that dramatically enhance client market presence and performance on a global scale. Prior to founding GRC in 2005, Valerie held key positions at QUALCOMM, Porter Novelli Convergence Group and other niche agencies in the mobile, telecom and technology sectors. Over a span of 20 years,... Read More >

Chief Communications Officer Must Have’s The role of a Chief Communications Officer, or CCO, is constantly evolving as the digital and communications landscape is also in flux. Being a CCO now covers many aspects of the organization, from public relations to internal communications to branding. As a result, in many organizations, CCOs have taken on a more prominent leadership role. Because of their knowhow, the CEO and the board usually turn to CCO’s for strategic advice. Therefore, it is no longer sufficient for CCO’s to just be competent at the communications side of things. Here are some of the essential... Read More >

Effective communication has always played a vital role in profitability, no matter what your business offers. That challenge, here, is that communication – both the methods and the expectations, change over time, so what may have worked in the past may not work so well in the future. That means the ways in which we communicate, as well as what we say and who we say it to, should be consistently reviewed for accuracy and effectiveness. Unfortunately, for many established businesses, those ideas were not properly ingrained in their processes, and that lack created a cascading effect both on investor... Read More >

It’s been a shaky couple of weeks for Dolce and Gabbana, after they released an ad campaign that has been described as “disrespectful and racist”. The backlash has been immediate and hard, ranging from boycotts by celebrities and having its products withdrawn from Chinese e-commerce sites. The Italian luxury fashion house’s controversial advertising campaign includes videos of a Chinese model struggling to eat various Italian dishes with chopsticks. The ad was designed to promote a major fashion show in Shanghai, which has now been canceled. Chinese-French model Estelle Chen, who withdrew from the show, tagged Dolce and Gabbana on an... Read More >

Healthcare and insurance companies wanting to engage Baby Boomers need to let go of traditional ways communicating to this generation. We need to recognize that our traditional perception of their priorities does not align with what they actually want – boomers want to stay active while also dealing with the challenges that come with getting older. According to Pew Research Centre, anyone born between 1946 and 1964 falls within the Baby Boomer generation. Right now, they are 54 to 72 years young, and currently, in the US there are about 76 million boomers, representing about 29 percent of the population.... Read More >

If you ever step inside a public relations firm, chances are most of the employees are women. While there are still plenty of men in the industry, for the most part, it’s a female-dominated industry. PR is an especially inclusive industry for women, well that is, unless you consider the very top of the chain. Around 61% to 85% of all PR-related jobs are held by women, and women account for 59% of PR managers. Yet, figures released by the 2014 World PR Report estimated only 30% of all global PR agencies run by females. PR is a field that... Read More >

Thought leadership is one of the most significant buzzwords to hit the marketing industry for some time now. However, while many people know about thought leadership - few business owners understand what it means to their company and their promotional methods. Thought leadership is a specific kind of content marketing - designed to convince an audience of a company's credibility. With thought leadership, marketing teams discuss specific topics that are relevant to their target market - often addressing these concepts from a unique perspective or talking about them with the use of specialist industry statistics. Types of Thought Leadership Almost... Read More >

Businesses rely on great communication to thrive. If team members don't know how to connect with each other, share ideas, or express their feelings, then collaboration simply can't happen. Unfortunately, not everyone naturally has excellent communication skills from the moment they move into a leadership role. While all managers and supervisors strive to say the right thing every time, it can be difficult to convey information with the right tone - particularly when it comes to offering constructive criticism, giving feedback, or attempting to push a team in a certain direction. The good news is that there are a few... Read More >

Ask any leader, and they will likely tell you they have more to do than they have time to do it. We have all kinds of metaphors to describe it: wearing lots of hats, too many irons in the fire, burning the candle at both ends … you understand, because you’re likely living it. The best managers increase their ability to handle greater responsibility, and they help the leaders working under them to develop these skills as well. But how do they do this? Understand that it’s not the end of the world if you occasionally drop some balls. You... Read More >

It’s been decades since tennis sensation Boris Becker made international headlines. In those days, he was a phenom on the court, capturing the attention of tennis fans the world over as he won multiple Wimbledon titles. The recent mention of Becker in the headlines paints a very different picture. Becker is embroiled in a bankruptcy case, and his attorneys are making what some are calling a highly unconventional argument: their client is immune to prosecution thanks to diplomatic immunity. The explanation for this argument hinges on how the courts view Becker’s time as an unpaid attache for the Central African... Read More >