Get ready to broaden your perspective, leaders. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, one of the world’s leading business thinkers and change-makers and recent recipient of the Thinkers50 Lifetime Achievement Award, believes the greatest future breakthroughs – the ones that will tackle the most complex, messy and recalcitrant social and environmental problems of our time – will come from…
Today’s PR pros have numerous tools at our disposal – from social media to blogs, media relations to conference outreach – to ensure our organization’s (and those of our clients) key messages repeatedly reach our targeted audiences. And in today’s rapidly changing media landscape, relying on just one of these aforementioned strategies is no longer…
Today’s leaders are dealing with unprecedented changes, and an unpredictable and challenging future. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, with its explosion of new technologies, is forcing companies of every size, in all industries, to reevaluate everything – from how we think about and do our jobs and create business growth to what it takes to inspire…
A divided America agrees on one thing: corruption is rampant. But what we’re fighting here in the U.S. pales in comparison to the everyday exploitation of people in developing nations. In Paraguay, for example, the poor pay more than 12 percent of their income in bribes. That number is even higher in other still-emerging countries. An…
Google “how to become a thought leader” and you’ll get a lot of advice. And if you take stock of all the tips, you’ll learn you can do it in five steps or 13 steps, in a month or less, on a stage or via LinkedIn. But what happens when you’ve tried the tips and…
Thought leadership is a buzzword with definitions as numerous as they are diverse. Everybody talks about it, but no one speaks the same language. Establishing real thought leadership – the kind that positions a subject matter expert, an authority, a guru, a visionary, as a trusted source worth “buying” from – isn’t some kind of…
Lifelong learning never takes a break. In fact, while the pace of some businesses slows and your colleagues are off on vacations this summer, many of the country’s best conferences are gearing up for their annual events. At Stern Strategy Group, we work year-round with conference organizers to shape agendas and place expert speakers. Throughout…
Sinking trust in media is forcing many PR professionals to shift or extend the focus of their communications strategy from media relations to content marketing. It’s an adjustment that requires changing the channels of engagement from third-party news outlets to owned media like corporate websites, blogs and social platforms. But the core elements of success…
I can objectively (ahem, subjectively) say that podcasts are the greatest communications medium since the creation of written language. (Yes, better than TV.) My podcast love affair began about five years ago with NPR’s “This American Life.” Since then, I’ve subscribed to more than 70 podcasts, ranging from Stern Strategy Group’s “Minds Worth Meeting” to…
When I started working in public relations more than 20 years ago, my media relations strategy was pretty simplistic and straightforward – and effective. Finding the right journalist to pitch was relatively easy. One would simply open up the latest printed version of the 900-page, 3-inch-thick Bacon’s Media Directory, turn to the page that listed…
Skilled communicators are often avid readers, so I’ll assume you’ve read the John Steinbeck classic, “Of Mice and Men” (or at least the Spark Notes). The book’s central theme is this: No matter how carefully a plan is laid, something may still go terribly wrong. That axiom holds true in PR strategy, too. No matter how…
With mobile devices in almost every hand 24/7, social media is increasingly the communications channel of choice for 70 percent of Americans. And businesses are taking notice, rethinking and retooling traditional strategies, and learning how to create a brand story via social channels. There’s evidence. Spending on social media ads was up 60 percent year-over-year in the first…
