Building Ladders to the Top

Last night, I had the pleasure of hosting dinner for 20 women to talk about our careers – our successes, our challenges, and the rules we’ve made for ourselves along the way.

The event was the first of what I hope to be a series under the auspices of GWEN, Edelman’s Global Women’s Executive Network, which is committed to fostering a work environment in which women can reach the most senior ranks within the firm.  A few months ago, we held something internally called Minute Mentoring, and we wanted to share the idea with our clients.  We reached out to some of the women clients who inspire us and whom we felt had something to share with the generation coming behind them.  Each brought a younger woman whose career they’ve taken an interest in.

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Edelman’s GWEN Program: Helping Women Lead and Succeed

Not only were we recently recognized as one of Canada’s Best Workplaces, but we also earned the title of one of Canada’s Best Workplaces for Women.  This is of particular significance for me and for our firm, because Edelman has made it a priority to help shape and influence an environment where women are encouraged to lead and succeed.  In fact, we specifically launched our Global Women’s Executive Network initiative (GWEN) to prioritize our focus on networking, recruiting, collaborating and career planning for women across the network in order to increase the number of women at the most senior levels of the company. So where does Edelman currently stand?  Read more »

Digital Digest: Unleash Your Creative Child Within

This week’s edition of Digital Digest – Edelman Canada’s summary of weekly reading in digital marketing, technology and strategy – is guest edited by Lisa Kimmel,  General Manager of Edelman Toronto.

Every day, my young kids creatively inspire me.  Kids have the ability to be open-minded, playful, curious, expressive, and forgiving.  And perhaps most importantly, they ask questions.  In fact, one study found that preschool kids ask, on average, 100 questions per day, including the often-annoying, “why?”

Interestingly, by the time kids reach middle school, the questioning (generally speaking) stops.  There are many theories on why this is the case, but the focus for this week’s edition is on how you can start to ask those questions again, and ultimately re-discover the latent creativity that lies within you.  Take some inspiration from these recent examples of brands that have pushed the creative envelope. Read more »

Edelman’s 2012 Trust Barometer and the Licence to Lead

Earlier this week, Edelman released the global findings from the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer – the 12th year of the firm’s annual trust and credibility survey.  Next week, we’ll unveil Canada-specific findings at our launch event at Toronto’s Windsor Arms hotel.

I’m confident that it will be a great discussion – our global CEO Richard Edelman, will host a panel of industry-leading experts, including former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, Heart and Stroke Foundation CEO David Sculthorpe, Globe and Mail media reporter Steve Ladurantaye and Executive Director, Schulich Executive Education Centre, Alan Middleton.  John Clinton, our Canadian CEO, will act as moderator.

Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of shifts in trust around the world – from the rising influence of NGOs, to trust as an essential line of business, to the rise of authority figures.   Yet regardless of the results, one question tends to come up each year:  why does trust matter  – and what is the true connection between trust and reputation? Read more »

My Week with Richard Edelman: A Crash Course in Inspiration

Last week, I had the privilege of acting as Richard Edelman’s chief of staff, based in New York.  With his permanent chief of staff currently on maternity leave, Richard has chosen to have one senior representative from each of the “BRICC” countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China…and Canada – act in this capacity, on a rotating basis.  While I’ve worked for Edelman for almost 10 years, and over the years, have had several opportunities to interact with Richard directly, I’ve never literally worked by his side – until now.  Read more »

Edelman ACEs 2011 Canadian Public Relations Society Awards

Edelman Canada was dealt a full house at this year’s Canadian Public Relations Society ACE (Achieving Communications Excellence) Awards, which are judged by industry peers and recognize creativity and excellence in public relations.  Our team took home a number of awards, including the trophy captured by Red Bull Crashed Ice for Most Creative PR Campaign of the Year – a first for Edelman Canada!

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A Day Spent In Good Company

This post also appeared on the Good Purpose Blog.

I recently had the opportunity to present Edelman Canada’s Little Give program at ORENDA’s In Good Company CSR conference, which took place in Toronto last week.  The conference brought together thought leaders in the corporate, not-for-profit and academic sectors to explore the evolution of community investment and to share strategies for creating meaningful corporate community partnerships.   I was thrilled to be able to showcase our program as a best-case example of a truly meaningful initiative in the company of other impressive CSR programs from Microsoft Canada, Corel Corporation, L’Oreal Canada and others.

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And Then What Happened? Social Purpose: The Value of the End Result

Canadians continue to place high value in companies and brands that integrate purpose into the marketing mix, as echoed by this year’s goodpurpose™ study.  In fact, the survey found that 67 per cent of Canadians are more likely to buy products and services from a company if they know it has brands that support good causes – up from 60 per cent last year.  That said, while we happily participate in calls-to-action to support a great cause, we seldom see the end results of our efforts.

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