"Governance and Government: It's Our Deal"

I want to talk with you about two things — the need for us to be a lot more active in government relations and the need to figure out how we can help executives in the C-suite and the boards of directors do a better job in corporate governance.

Government has been a steady part of my professional life. It's true that except for those few years on the Federal payroll working in Congress, my public relations work has been in the private sector; but in fact it's always had something to do with government.

I was accountable for Washington relations for Freeport and in almost all the counseling for clients in my firm for 25 years, we focused on government issues.

We put together coalitions — mostly on environmental issues and sustainability — and we worked with companies on a range of legislative and regulatory matters.

So, as with many of you, we keep learning about the interface and influence that flow between government and business. The past year has provided us with a succession of teachable moments.

What I care about is the impact now and straight ahead on you and on corporate communications.

Getting ready for this conversation with you, I sponsored an online survey to ask people like you who are in corporate communications how you're working with government relations in your company.

A third of the respondents said government relations has increased significantly as a corporate issue in the past 12 months. A quarter said it has risen to paramount importance in corporate communications.

Half the respondents say they are on the same organizational level as government relations, reporting to the same senior corporate officer.

CCOs have increased involvement in government communications, in Political Action Committee decisions, and in what's happening in Washington, where there's an obvious shift of power away from places like New York.

I still enjoy Jack Kennedy's assertion that Washington is a city with Southern efficiency and Northern charm. But now we may be ready to say it is neither efficient nor charming, but it is necessary. You neglect Washington at your peril. Your CEOs now know this. Your boards know this.

I was interested to see Chase Manhattan this summer hold its first board meeting in Washington — and to invite Rahm Emanuel to drop by.

How many companies represented here hold board meetings in Washington? Who has staged events in Washington, where your products have been on display so Congress could see them and you could show how your company contributes to the economy?

Here's the bottom line on our survey: it confirmed that things have changed and any silos between corporate communications and government relations are being eliminated, and Washington has become a stronger focus.

Part of my inspiration to do the survey was an interview in the New York Times with Robert Bruner, who is dean of the Darden business school at the University of Virginia.

He was asked, what are the lessons business schools should take from the financial crisis?

Dean Bruner's answer: "...An amplification of ethics; behavioral economics and finance; and an understanding of the interface between business and government, which...is the forward-looking issue for us today."

He concludes, as I'm sure you do, that the aftermath of the macro-economic crisis is a much larger role for government in business.

So am I suggesting that CCOs become lobbyists? No. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I have to confess that I was one of the founders of the American League of Lobbyists a number of years ago.

Am I saying you have to take over government relations? No…although I know a couple of you in this room already have that accountability.

I am saying that government engagement — political engagement — is in your wheelhouse, now as never previously to this extent.

Sharp, effective communications to manage the perceptions of stakeholders have to wrap around the company's government relationships.

This gets chief communications officers into counsel on governance. Any formula now for corporate governance needs to consider political engagement.

The Page Society's hookup with the Business Roundtable recognizes that. The Roundtable relationship, by the way, is probably the best thing we've done to leverage the profession in corporate settings.

Bad corporate governance has been acknowledged as a major factor in the economic crisis. In the aftermath, trustworthy governance is the key to recovery.

And our challenge — as corporate communicators — is to provide rational, persuasive trustworthy counsel aimed toward business opportunity.

As for corporate board relations, there is obviously now, with government's rise as both watchdog and partner in American business, new pressure on corporate boards, new accountability.

And I suggest that this is the time for anybody in our profession to step up his or her engagement with boards and board members.

When we hear now that poor communications can well be part of the problems that get CEOs fired or handicaps their effectiveness, the question of CCO service as trustworthy counsel to boards and to CEOs rises as an area where, it seems to me, we can make some incremental progress.

Last year we had Bill George, the former CEO of Medtronic, as a speaker. In his new book, "7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis," George says this:

"Look at crisis as a gift. It provides you with a golden opportunity that may not come again to reshape your business and your industry and emerge as a winner. But you've got to be bold and focused to seize it."

The opportunity for CCOs, coming out of this crisis, is to bring to the table your unique talent to create stakeholders in the company's success. This conference is providing more of the intellectual framework that will enable us to focus and maybe be a little bolder in influencing trustworthy governance.

Failure to engage with the full range of corporate trust factors could be a terrible mistake. It could not only shortchange our managements during the recovery. It could default to others in the C-suite as the trustworthy counselors.

That to my mind is almost unthinkable. And I believe we, you and the Page Society will continue to make that unacceptable.

Thank you again for this recognition and for the privilege of our association in the opportunities ahead.