Substance Sells: Aligning Corporate Reputation and Corporate Responsibility

The Tisdall Lecture in Communications
The Canadian Public Relations Society Conference
Calgary, Alberta (June 16, 2005)

by Bennett Freeman

I want to thank Charles Tisdall, Barbara Sheffield and the Canadian Public Relations Society for inviting me to give this lecture. I would also like to thank Luc Beauregard and his National Public Relations colleagues in Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for the chance to work so closely together over the last two years.

It is a particular challenge to address such a distinguished group of public relations professionals. I hope to bring you a multi-dimensional perspective based not only on my work with multinational corporations over the last two decades, but also on my State Department experience and my current relationships with major international NGOs. My perspective on the link between corporate reputation and corporate responsibility has been informed most significantly by my work over the last two years with Burson-Marsteller—the gold standard global public relations and public affairs firm. So I come to our subject today both as an insider and an outsider, and hope to be both reflective and provocative.

My argument is that in this new era of accountability and sustainability, corporate reputation and corporate responsibility are inseparable. Multinational corporations in particular face growing pressures and expectations from diverse and demanding stakeholders around the world—pressures that they cannot escape and expectations that they must address. From human rights and labor practices to the environment and sustainable development, corporate policy and conduct is on the public agenda now more than ever before—at a time when trust in business remains low after the battering it has taken on both sides of the Atlantic over the last several years.

How agencies counsel their clients—and what companies communicate to their stakeholders—influences trust in brands and shapes the world for better or worse. Public relations and public affairs professionals have a fine line to walk in aligning private and public interests. They can walk that line and align those interests if they recognize that real commitment and performance matter most—and that only substance sells.

I am going to make this argument in three parts: first by explaining why and how corporate responsibility and corporate reputation are converging; second, by suggesting how the corporate responsibility agenda is moving toward an even more challenging one focused on accountability and sustainability linked to corporate strategy; and finally, by putting forth a series of brief propositions as to how public relations and public affairs professionals can align corporate reputation with corporate responsibility in ways that contribute to business success and a better world at the same time.

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