Particularly in occasions of disaster, it’s vital that inside, exterior and government communications groups collaborate to maintain everybody knowledgeable and engaged. Walgreens demonstrated the significance of this interplay throughout the pandemic and helped reset the model for future success.
Not too long ago, we caught up with Fraser Engerman, senior director of exterior relations at Walgreens, who led that cost, to ask him a couple of questions. Engerman might be a speaker at Ragan and PR Each day’s upcoming Strategic Communications Convention at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, October 19-20.
[RELATED: Join us Oct. 19-20 at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA for our Strategic Communications Conference]
Ragan: What ideas are you able to share with different professionals seeking to talk extra successfully?
Fraser Engerman: Apply your elevator speech! I always attempt to boil down what I would like to speak into some key soundbites. We’re all bombarded with data, and it’s usually troublesome to get the ear and a focus of your stakeholders, regardless of who they’re. I attempt to present the important thing factors upfront and supply extra element as wanted. This behavior most likely stems from my days as a tv reporter after I had not more than a minute or two to get to the essence of the story.
What’s a very powerful factor you’ve realized as a strategic comms professional to date?
Don’t sweat the small issues. Life is filled with small challenges. Attempt to preserve your eye on the larger image. That’s exhausting if you find yourself used to placing out fires within the second. It’s about making sensible selections and executing to the most effective of your means.
How does your strategy to communication differ out of your colleagues in different fields?
Everybody has their very own strategy. My fashion has all the time been to be easy with no agenda aside from to get the job achieved. I don’t consider in being the loudest voice within the room. Humor is central to how I navigate every day. The work is critical, however I by no means take myself too severely and having a wholesome dose of self-deprecating humor is a plus.
How do you keep updated on the newest within the subject? Are there any assets that you simply discover notably helpful?
I attempt to learn as a lot as I can from the newest business publications. Nonetheless, for me, studying the most important dailies just like the NY Occasions, Washington Submit and the Wall Avenue Journal permit me to maintain up on information which may not have an effect on my work immediately now however actually can have an effect. Networking is one other nice option to sustain. Hopefully, as we ease out of the pandemic networking might be a precedence (at the least in particular person)!
At this 12 months’s Strategic Communications Convention, you’re headlining a session on taking dangers, beating adversity and making a daring tradition. Are you able to give our readers a sneak peek at what they will count on to study?
I joined Walgreens on the top of the pandemic and needed to assume accountability for serving to lead our exterior communications by way of one of the crucial intense and troublesome intervals within the firm’s historical past. I realized methods to take dangers, step outdoors the consolation zone and preserve a staff collectively that was bodily aside.
If you happen to’d like to realize new strategic insights and communications methods for inside and government comms, public relations, advertising and social media, be part of us at Ragan and PR Each day’s Strategic Communications Convention, the place audio system from Walgreens, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Pepsico, Fb and extra will share their concepts and success tales. Register immediately!
Jon Minnick is a convention producer for Ragan and PR Each day. Comply with him on LinkedIn.
COMMENT
