Irene Rosenfeld, Chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods, at the Arthur W. Page Society's Spring Seminar (April 15, 2010, New York), told what she looks for in communications execs: drive the business agenda as a true business partner to the CEO.

"You hold the reputation of your organizations in your hands. We depend on you to capture the look, the sound and the feel of our businesses, and translate them consistently into different media and languages around the world. And we trust you to sweat the details — because with one click of your mouse, you create public, indelible, and in many cases legally binding communications, that document our past and shape our future."

She gave four ways to move from "good to great" in the profession:

• Match the solution to the problem. Don't build us a Lamborghini, if we need a scooter.
• Pick your battles. With the volume of news articles, employee questions, policy and public opinion issues on any given day, you have to focus on what really matters.
• Understand how our business decisions will be viewed by critical publics and advise us how best to manage — both the opportunities and the challenges.
• You need to balance the short and the long term. Day-to-day business has a short-term cycle but when you're talking about governments, unions, regulators, media...those groups have very long memories.

"In my job as CEO, even if something happened on someone else's watch, it's my problem now. A great corporate affairs team holds our feet to the fire — to ensure that we adhere to the promises and pledges we make, or that we adequately explain when we have need to make a change. They also take a long view, staying mindful of how the expedient decisions we make today, might impact the future."

Rosenfeld emphasized how critical corporate affairs has been to her as the CEO, and to driving the successful turnaround and transformation of this iconic global company. Citing a Page Principle, she said "I certainly hope you can now appreciate why I say that our corporate affairs team is my 'secret weapon.' Indeed, they do conduct public relations as if the entire company depends on it."

— E. Bruce Harrison
    Washington, DC
    April 15, 2010