Nine lessons for a successful career in corporate affairs

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Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

Welcome to the latest PRmoment Podcast with me Ben Smith. Today we’re catching up with David Hart. David has had over 20 years of experience working in corporate affairs - both in-house at the likes of Coca-Cola and SAB Miller and agency side at Fleishman Hillard and Burson Marsteller (now BCW.)

Before Christmas, I saw him posting about the lessons he wished he’d told his younger corporate affairs self and so we invited him onto the show to talk in more detail about his nine lessons of corporate affairs.

Before we start do check out our latest free-to-attend webinar The intersection of PR and SEO 2023.

Thanks as ever to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors The PRCA.

Here is a summary of what David and I discussed:

2 mins Why did David decide to write his 9 lessons of corporate affairs?

5 mins Lesson 1: Be bold, creative, take risks and help to sell

“When done right the power of comms is massive…it surprises me when some organisations don’t want to communicate”

8.30 mins Lesson 2: Be confident and bring your sixth sense of “perspective” to a crisis

11 mins Lesson 3: Make your job sustainable by understating the detail of ESG

14.30 mins Lesson 4: Don't just be a story writer

“The worst view of any business is the view from the window of the headquarters”

“Don’t just focus on the leaders…everyone within the business has a story to tell”

18 mins Lesson 5: Stop the press release

21 mins Lesson 6: Be like Jack Reacher - hope for the best; prepare for the worst!

“You're going to have a lot of difficult conversations with a lot of senior people”

“It’s about making sure the team is prepared (for a crisis)”

“There are 2 important pages in any crisis manual…”

26 mins Lesson 7: It’s an exciting time to work in Corporate Affairs - enjoy it

“I’m convinced more corporate affairs and communications professions… will in the future be CEOs - the ability to talk, the ability to engage, the ability to open and to lead discussions around business-critical issues are vitally important to that (the CEO) role“

30 mins Lesson 8:  Give yourself a break

“It (the corporate affairs role) can take over your life”

33 mins Lesson 9: Embrace change

“You want to be ahead of the innovation curve”