Esteemed columnist for The New York Times Thomas Friedman recently wrote an oped (March 16) about the relationship between NGO Environmental Defense and KKR/Texas Pacific Group. The latter are buying out power company TXU. In short, Friedman cautioned readers about an approaching shift in how business will get done in the future. He described how Environmental Defense hired a Wall Street investment firm (Perella Weinberg) to force a reduction in planned TXU coal plant carbon emissions in exchange for the NGO’s blessing on the deal. Friedman then goes on to say….

“The Internet age is an age of transparency, when more people than ever can see right into your business and judge you by your deeds, not words. TXU could not manage its reputation by just hiring a P.R. firm and issuing a statement — because, thanks to the Internet, too many little people could talk back or shape TXU’s image on a global basis through the Web, for free.

The reputations of companies are going to be less determined by the quality of their P.R. people and more by their actual actions — and that empowers more of an honest debate on the merits.”

As a public relations professional and reputation expert, I was suprised to learn from Friedman that public relations had such a stronghold on reputation creation. Friedman gives public relations firms way too much credit for making or breaking corporate reputations. The world may indeed be flat but its citizens are not that dumb. Yes, the Internet provides greater access to corporate information, misdeeds and bad behavior. But public relations professionals do not have the power and influence to mask who companies truly are and keep people from having honest debates. We wish we could be that omnipotent but alas we are not.

Technorati Tags:
Thomas Friedman, New York Times, PR, public relations, reputation, corporate reputation, TXU, KKR, Perella Weinberg, Environmental Defense, coal plant, Texas Pacific Group, reputation expert, carbon emissions
Add to: Technorati Digg del.icio.us Yahoo BlinkList Spurl reddit Furl