Changing times require rededication to service. (Management Topics)

"Organizations are the way they are because of how people think. Until we change how we think and interact, nothing really changes."

The explosive growth of the public relations and public affairs world in the 1980s created and obscured some of the problems we in the industry are grappling with today. the era's unending line of new clients and budgets superheated by opportunity distracted us from the only real truth in this business: our client must be the force governing our practice.

Subconsciously, perhaps, but to the industry's detriment, we reasoned in the '80s that we could afford to spread ourselves a little thin, to focus on the next "deal," because there was always another client in line to replace any that might leave. The numbers bore out such a view. By one accounting, the total revenue for the top 50 public relations firms in 1980 was less than the total revenue booked by a single firm in 1990.

The era when firm growth superceded client service has ended. An endless line of new prospects no longer exists. We in public relations firms took our eye off the ball--our clients--and became enchanted with revenue growth at any price. And we paid an awesome price in client dissatisfaction.

As one of the world's largest public relations firms and a frequent target of such criticism, Hill and Knowlton had a responsibility to its clients and its employees to focus the firm's attention on the problem of client dissatisfaction and break new ground in solving it. What we found not only has specific implications for our firm but also provides general lessons for our industry.

Organizations today face change as never before. Therefore, how to manage change has become a key concern. Rethinking core assumptions and shaping operations to meet new assumptions are our firms' needs as much as they are our clients' needs. We must make decisions from the same vantage point we urge on our clients: research.

For the last two years, our firm has conducted extensive research on a global basis to determine how economic and business changes are likely to affect our clients, our industry and our firm. Using our own resources--the Wirthlin Group, Decima Research, and a four-person team of senior Hill and Knowlton executives--we interviewed three groups: clients, former clients and employees. The process began more than two years ago and has involved nearly 600 interviews.