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Few can say they’ve spoken with the CEO of a billion dollar company. For members of IU’s PRSSA chapter, however, this became a reality.
On March 9, H&R Block CEO Jeff Jones spoke to the chapter via Zoom on “The Essential Role of Communications in Shaping Business Reputation.” While organizing a separate event planned for early March, Nick Browning, an assistant professor of public relations at The Media School, referred me to a student in his PR writing class whose father worked for Target as CMO during its 2013 data breach. Excited about the opportunity to have a former CMO speak to my chapter, I reached out to Jones, who in addition to making the startling revelation about his position as CEO graciously and eagerly offered to share his wisdom. How could we say no?
Two weeks before the event, I met with Jones one-on-one to finalize the content that would be covered, as well as other specifics. Jones first walked me through his professional history and gradual rise to executive management. While discussing the importance of leveraging his company’s reputation to achieve good, I referred to findings from the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer, something recently covered in my PR management course, which found that businesses are the most trusted institutions. Intrigued by the fact that students were studying aspects of brand reputation, we decided to focus the event on reputation management and the role communicators play in maintaining a good reputation.
The seminar took place at 8 p.m. and despite its late time, counted approximately 20 attendees, including Media School faculty and a few members of Ball State PRSSA. The event was a huge success. Throughout the event, Jones maintained a semi-formal and conversational tone, allowing those present not only to be interested in the material covered but making them feel comfortable enough to ask plenty of questions to a man who would otherwise be intimidating. So comfortable were participants that the Q&A session that followed the presentation lasted over 40 minutes.
IU PRSSA is extremely thankful to Mr. Jones for his time and hopes to be able to host similar events with leading industry professionals in the future.