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How human experience changes things

Fascinating story about a doctor who dealt with a spinal injury and how that changed his view on health care.





One of the things that is rarely talked about in PR, yet which is so essential, is the degree to which executive management truly understands the business they are running. This ties back to the book Good to Great, and also ties in to vision and mission statements.

When executives and personnel are personally connected to their business - when they eat, breath and sleep the organization's mandate - PR is typically very easy as there will be a myriad of activities, projects and spokespersons for PR folks to mine to tell the organization's story.

However, when an organization is disjointed or silo'd, when people are merely clocking in and clocking out, the task for a PR person becomes extremely difficult because there is no over-arching 'spirit' or vision that underpins all activities. As a result, various aspects of an organization end up standing alone and making for a much less compelling story and it can be a challenging task to make disconnected functions of the business appear as though they are working together like a well-oiled machine. 

For up-and-coming PR folks, the #1 thing you want to be on the look-out for in any organization you work for is a passionate CEO that truly understands the business they are in. This can be tricky, because as this story shows, everyone thinks they understand the business they are in - but as this CEO found out, he didn't 'truly' understand it until he experienced what patients experience.

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