INTERNATIONAL: US CEOs believe PR will become more important

NEW YORK: More than 85 per cent of the US’s chief executive

officers believe that public relations will become more important in the

next five years, according to a study by PR Week in the US.

The PR Week/Burson-Marsteller CEO Report 1999, which polled 269 CEOs -

from multi-billion dollar Fortune 500 companies to businesses with

revenues of less than pounds 600 million - also revealed that 85.5 per

cent of CEOs believe that effective management of corporate reputation

affects stock performance.

In the largest companies (those with revenues in excess of pounds 3

billion), nine out of every ten CEOs correlate a company’s reputation to

the bottom line, while 100 per cent agree that PR will increasingly

become more important.

CEOs are also taking the lead in hiring their top PR personnel, with 85

per cent of respondents now hand-picking their heads of corporate

communications.

On new media, 65 per cent of smaller company CEOs believe in the

importance of the internet in reputation management, compared with only

54 per cent of those in large firms.

Edited by David McCormack.