Public Relations

First Principles Communication helped out on Ali Velshi's 2012 Canadian book launch. Ali is CNN's Chief Business Correspondent based in New York. We also arranged for him to appear on television in Mississauga. — First Principles Communication helped out with Ali Velshi’s 2012 Canadian book launch. Ali is CNN’s Chief Business Correspondent based in New York. We also arranged for him to appear on television in Mississauga.

Public Relations has four functions: to establish, promote, protect—and sometimes salvage—the reputation of an organization. The reputation of any organization is its most important asset.
Public Relations is the art of indirect influence (including non-paid placement in media) by an organization of all of its “publics”: current employees, potential employees, peers, competitors, customers, suppliers, regulators, politicians, and the public-at-large.

A good PR program strives for each “public” or several of these “publics” to take positive action(s) to the benefit of the organization. Do more of this. Or, stop doing that.
Public Relations is a senior management function; the most senior PR practitioner sits to the right hand of the CEO and advises on all business decisions.

When companies hire Public Relations practitioners, they pay for representation. This is much like hiring a lawyer. Reputable PR people are prevented by a Code of Ethics from being compensated for the actual number of articles (or “media hits”). The only way to guarantee placement of a particular message is to advertise.