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.
