PROs make excellent CEOs, says Rosanna Fiske, CEO of PRSA

At PRSA, we’re occasionally asked how relevant an education and training in public relations is to a career beyond communications. The question is not on the value of an education in public relations, but rather, whether being a PRO is a one-dimensional position that limits what one may be capable of doing within a corporation.

It’s a worthwhile subject to explore. Ultimately, it leads others to ask whether PR practitioners can move outside of communications and into general management. Perhaps even to the holy grail of corporate life, the chief executive position.

Numerous debates have raged for years within the profession on this topic. But at PRSA, we have a simple answer: “Yes!”. It is our belief that public relations professionals are expertly positioned to be successful CEOs due, in part, to their extensive role managing a corporation’s reputation, stakeholder relations and crisis management issues. PR professionals gain a strong understanding of the inner workings of a business, as well as where it fits within its industry and its growth opportunities and challenges.

These are many of the same issues and concerns CEOs are tasked with managing, and in the UK it is noticeable corporate affairs professionals are exerting more influence in the boardroom.

We are seeing a similar situation in America among corporate affairs and corporate communications professionals, particularly at the top level of management. It's been a long, tough battle, but on many fronts the tide has shifted toward realising that corporate communications and public relations play a key role in advancing business objectives.

In many advanced markets, top corporate affairs professionals now have a prominent position in the C-suite. They regularly serve as a CEO or chairman's top counsel. This is how it should be. Corporate reputation, stakeholder relations and crisis management remain three of the leading challenges businesses face in a service economy that is dominated by a digitally-adept – and quick to react – public.

Furthermore, one can argue that corporate communications professionals’ main goal is to help businesses grow by connecting them in meaningful and beneficial ways with key audiences and stakeholders. Sounds like the role of the modern CEO.

This isn’t the first time PRSA has advocated PR professionals’ value as potential CEOs. Writing in Marketing Week last June, I rebuffed the claim of some that PR professionals and marketers can’t be good CEOs. This came after several CEOs told the publication that “marketers lack credibility” to adequately lead businesses; similarly, Merlin Entertainments CEO Nick Varney laid bare his belief that marketers are too siloed to become CEOs.

“The best marketers realise that ahead of connecting customers with a great product, or engaging key influencers and stakeholders, the goal of our work is to help businesses grow,” I wrote at the time. “If we achieve that, there is no reason we cannot ascend to the CEO desk.”

We have also rebutted the commonly held belief that marketers and PR professionals don’t have sufficient profit-and-loss understanding and financial knowledge to properly run a business. It is outdated to believe that the role of the modern CEO is simply overseeing the bottom line. The CEO is now chief communicator of the brand’s value, and key to guaranteeing a company’s good reputation.

All of which are the province of modern public relations and communications professionals.

With evidence mounting of public relations’ value rising within the global business community, how do we build our worth as potential corporate leaders? How can today’s public relations professionals line themselves up to be the next generation of corporate CEOs?

Rosanna M. Fiske, APR, is chair and chief executive officer of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).