GOODBYE TO THE LOW PROFILE
The Art of Creative Confrontation
Herb Schmertz with William Novak
Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1986
pp.242 $16.95
During the well-publicized oil crisis of the 1970s, populists looking for an easy answer to the problem of excruciatingly long lines at gas stations reflexively blamed the big oil companies. It was alleged that these barons of black gold were bilking the public for an even greater gain than the corpulent profits they routinely earned. So widespread was this sentiment that President Carter himself joined the chorus of blame. To many Americans it was simply self-evident that the oil companies were greedy. Almost every television report and newspaper story reinforced this yarn.
Standing against this tornado of public opinion was one man, a corporate Don Quixote, who demonstrated tenacity, imagination, and flair - Herb Schmertz, Mobil Oil's Vice President for Public Affairs. As Schmertz himself notes, if you want to enter the public debate instead of simply being caught in the tide of fashion, you must be willing to engage in confrontation and do so creatively. His record attests to this prescription.
Good-bye To The Low Profile: The Art of Creative Confrontation is written as a primer for business executives who are obliged to respond to the charges made by the media solons. As Schmertz asks, "What do you do when Sixty Minutes Calls?" If you're Schmertz you respond directly, recognizing full well that much of what you say may end up on the cutting room floor. Sixty Minutes always has the advantage in this confrontation, but there are steps that can be taken to limit the damage. Schmertz has superb instinct for response.
But this book goes well beyond advice on what to say to a television interviewer. Schmertz is interested ostensibly in how corporations can enter the debate on public policy in which they are often cast as villains. One of the extraordinary developments nurtured by Schmertz was the Mobil op-ed pieces that first appeared in The New York Times and now regularly appear in the other major newspapers and weekly magazines. It is his contention that this was (and remains) an effective way for Mobil to address its critics and perhaps more importantly, affect the character of public issues.
In a way it is odd that this public affairs effort must be launched at all. After all, business should not be perceived as guilty of crimes against America without a chance to defend itself. But in the era of Ralph Naderism, business is wrong until further notice. One would think, from the media's reporting, that this isn't or perhaps should not be, a capitalist society. It is instructive that the "heavy" in most prime time television programs is a business executive. Invariably he is amoral, if not immoral. As Herb Schmertz notes, media people are "perfectly happy to discuss morality with me - so long as it's my morality. Their morality, it seems is off-limits."
Such is the state of the media that what is, and only what is, sensational represents what is newsworthy. As a consequence young reporters are obsessed with the scoop, that story that will launch careers into the upper echelons of the news
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