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	Phil's Blogservations Thursday, October 05, 2006 Posted by philgomes 12:08 PM Edelman, Year One: "License To Operate" Edelman, Year One: "License To Operate" Like I mentioned, I tend to maintain a pretty vigorous travel schedule. Having spent 31/32nds of my life in the Bay Area and with the love of my life living Chicago, I find that I don't necessarily like LA quite that much so as to miss it. In any case, I remember my second trip to the New York office more vividly than my first. Both took place in my first month or so. I came back from that first trip — your basic meet-and-greet-o-rama — late on a Thursday night. I know because, no sooner had my ass hit my LA chair the next Friday, I received a call. "Hi, can you be in New York on Tuesday?" the pleasant voice on the other end asked. "You mean this coming Tuesday?" "Yes." "Why?" "Well, I'm from Michel Ogrizek's office and he'd like you to present to our corporate communications summit about blogs." "Um... Who's Michel Ogrizek?" "Um... Our vice chairman in New York..." "Oh..." You really stepped on your own p3n15 that time, didn't you, Gomes? I thought to myself. After recovering from this first of many n00b moments, I said "Sure." I mean, I still didn't know who Michel Ogrizek was, but he had a title like Vice Chairman, so I guess it was time to fire up Expedia. There were a number of things that were unusual about this particular meeting. (One thing that stands out is that, during our de rigueur pre-meeting introductions, most people indicated that they had been at the company at least a decade. And, then... There was... Me... One month...) Michel started the summit off by describing what the companies he was talking to wanted most from their PR programs. And what do you think it was? "Increased marketshare?" "Coverage in so-called 'top-tier' media?" "Higher share price?" "Depositioned competitors?" "Perceived technical superiority?" Nope... Companies told Michel that they wanted to "preserve their license to operate." *gulp* Wow... Having "grown-up" career-wise in Silicon Valley, I had to admit that I had never heard that particular turn of phrase before. Sure, I tended to work with smaller companies that, perhaps, had a different set of concerns, but I'm willing to bet that "help us preserve our license to operate" never quite made it into an RFP. Have the likes of Intel, Sun, and HP ever used that phrase? (Certainly, HP is adding it to their vocabulary now.) Have you ever used it? Did I miss this memo? Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, edelman, phil gomes HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.