An Idea A Day

PUBLIC RELATIONS BECOME SUSTAINABLE Jim Blythe

BEING PHILANTHROPIC IS one thing—doing things that also help the business is something else. Using your employees to clean up a local beauty spot is a wonderful PR exercise, because it leads to news coverage and it also motivates your staff—they feel they are working for a caring organization. However, it does virtually nothing for the longer-term benefit of the business.

Moving from a purely publicity-oriented approach to a business-oriented approach requires a certain amount of creative thought and long-term commitment—but then PR is a long-term process, as is running a business.

The idea

Microsoft ...