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10-11 May 2005
The Metropolitan Club ● New York, NY
Produced by Harvard Business School Publishing
in collaboration with
The International
Association of Business Communicators
Strategic Issues/Program Agenda
(subject to change)
Day
One (Tuesday, May 10)
12:45 Welcome
1:00 – 2:30 pm
It’s a Small World After All: the Impact of
Global Standards on Corporate Speech
If you say one thing in Singapore and another in Seattle, could you be
in trouble even though neither statement is an untruth? Can the selective use of facts be
construed as a form of deception, since not all constituents are getting the whole story,
just the parts the corporation (or non-profit) thinks they need to hear? Thanks to the
Internet, the world is a very small place and standards – and consequences – are becoming
global. Does the management of this challenge lie with corporate communications? The
executive committee? The board?
George Brenkert, Professor and Director, Georgetown Business Ethics
Institute
Chris Bunting, Senior Managing Director, Global Consulting Group
(moderator)
Kevin Danaher, Co-founder, Global Exchange
Michael A. Fernandez, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief
Communications Officer, ConAgra
Elliot Schrage, Attorney and Advisor, Council on Foreign Relations
2:30 – 2:50 pm
Break
2:50 – 4:15
pm
Managing the Authentic Brand: How Real is Real?
In the new transparent world, your customers don’t just care
about your product or service -- they care about how and where you produce things, your
social responsibility standards, and the way you treat your workers. A recent
Fast Company article cited a story in which a teenager in a Nike focus group in Los
Angeles picked an Air Jordan shoe out of a pile and identifying the exact factory in Vietnam
where it had been made. In this world, your brand is an articulation of the core values of
the corporation. For corporate
communicators, it means that PR, IR, and marketing are blending together as sources of
information for the “hyper-informed” consumer. How is the notion of brand evolving? How do
you best manage your corporate reputation in this environment? How do you leverage
reputation shapers and assets you don’t control?
Charles Fombrun, Founder & Executive Director, Reputation Institute;
Professor Emeritus, Stern School (NYU)
Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Knowledge & Research Officer for Burson
Marsteller
Charles B. Holleran, Vice President & Chief Communications Officer, Ford Motor Co.
Daniel Jaffe, Executive Vice President, Government Affairs, Association
of National Advertisers
Julia Kirby, Senior Editor, Harvard Business Review (moderator)
Networking Reception
Day Two
7:30 – 8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
8:15 Welcome Remarks
8:30 – 10:00
am
Putting Your Best Foot Forward: Is It Spin or Just Making Your
Case?
Is it fair to cast bad news in a good light? Is the push for transparency the result of
corporate statements being crafted, honed, and polished to the point that investors,
customers and regulators feel manipulated? Or is it up to a discerning public to decide? In
the changing landscape of corporate speech, the public is calling for authenticity. Should
corporations be required to provide it?
Karen Seymour,
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Robin Conrad,
Senior Vice President, National Chamber Litigation Center, U.S. Chamber of
Commerce
Richard Samp,
Chief Counsel, Washington Legal Foundation
Lee Bowman,
Chairman and CEO, The Kingstree Group, United Kingdom
Kirsten Sandberg,
Executive Editor, Harvard Business School Press (moderator)
10:00 – 10:15 am Break10:15 – 11:45 am
Sharing Quality Information: Has Transparency Gone Too
Far?
While a central tenet of good corporate governance is to
share quality information in a timely manner, how can a company that wants to communicate
fully and honestly assure that all stakeholders worldwide get the same information at the
same time? Has the call for transparency gone too far? Can the new laws
governing full disclosure eventually degrade the public’s understanding by swamping it
in a flood of information? Has the call for more information increased the likelihood
of a communications error that could result in legal action, thereby discouraging voluntary
communications?
James C. Carter, General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer, Nike, Inc.
Charles Elson, Director, Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance
Edward S. Knight, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, NASDAQ
Martin Howell, Editor in Charge, Equities, Reuters
Ben Gerson, Senior Editor, Harvard Business Review (moderator)
Lunch
11:45 – 1:00 pm
1:00 – 2:30 pm
Welcome to the Glass House: The Pluses and Perils of Social Responsibility Reporting and
Other Disclosure Delights
Consumers and investors want it and companies want to provide it, but in
light of Nike v. Kasky, is social responsibility reporting going to be held to the same
rules and regulations as advertising, since these reports are playing an increasingly
significant role in establishing the reputation of the company? And should social
responsibility reports be held to the same high standards as the annual report to
shareholders, since CSR is playing an ever-increasing role in investment decisions. Can a
company extol its community and environmental efforts without drawing withering fire from
someone somewhere who takes exception to the reported facts? And what about NGOs and other
non-profits – should they be held to the same reporting standards as corporations?
Jan S. Amundson, Senior Vice President and General Counsel,
National Association of Manufacturers
George Brenkert, Professor and Director, Georgetown Business Ethics Institute
Frances Hill, Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law
Adam Kanzer, General Counsel & Director of Shareholder Advocacy, Domini
Social Investments
Tom Martin, Senior Vice President & Director of Corporate Relations, ITT
Industries, Inc.
2:30 – 2:45 pmm
Break
2:45 – 4:15 pm
Doing the Perp Walk: Is Corporate Communications Next?
Several recent court cases have turned,
in part, on prosecutors’ new view of public statements by executives (Martha Stewart
and Ken Lay, to name two): increasingly, any public statement could potentially lead to a
subpoena. What are the implications for corporate communications? If you are a designated
company spokesperson, is everything you say in public material? Is a CEO who reads a speech
at a conference liable for its content? How about those who wordsmithed it? Or those who
produced the conference at which it was delivered? How far down the communications chain can
(or will) the SEC and other oversight bodies go to get the truth?
Stephen Gardner, Director of Litigation, Center for
Science in the Public Interest and Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors, National
Association of Consumer Advocates (confirmed)
James R. Jenkins, Chairman, Association of Corporate
Counsel and Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Deere & Co.
Constance Bagley, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School, Special Counsel to the CEO,
Communications, Johnson & Johnson
Robert Becton, Vice President, Public
Relations, American Institute of CPAs (moderator)
4:15 – 5:15 pmm
Closing Keynote Address
The New Landscape of Disclosure and Compliance
An Interview with
BBill Lockyer, Attorney General, State of
California
with Walter Kiechel, Editor at Large,
Harvard Business School Publishing
Produced
in
collaboration with:
Sponsored in part by:
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