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Another Long-time Communicator Bids Farewell: Remembering Otto Glade

Webmaster IABC/Houston — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 21:45:00 GMT

From the Houston Chronicle

OTTO W. GLADE, 83, died September 18, 2005. Born in New Jersey, he studied to be a teacher, but found his real vocation was journalism. He received his master's degree from Columbia University and worked as a reporter and editor on newspapers in Massachusetts and New Jersey and as a news writer for NBC in Washington and New York before going to work for Esso (now ExxonMobil) in Bayonne, N.J. in 1954. He worked in communication and public relations for Exxon for 29 years before retiring in 1983. He was active in local and national employee communication circles. He served as board member and president of the Houston Business Communicators[IABC/Houston] and president of the national Council on Communication Management. Read the entire memorial.
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News of Otto Glade’s passing reminds me that nothing lasts forever while at the same time suggesting that yes, some things do indeed endure.

I was honored to work in Otto’s group, “Publications and Film Services” for ExxonMobil. Words were what we did, yet now I’m without words to describe Otto. For starters, world class energy, dedication, integrity. Many lighter side memories such as coming back from a long lunch and finding pink post-its at 10 minute intervals which read “See OWG”.

Otto always knew who you were and saw what you did. Otto was fair. Principled. Working in Otto’s group meant getting it done right and getting it done on time. Otto was brutally honest in his evaluation of one’s work, insisting that my video clips for the in-house production “This Week at Exxon” carry subtitles so that our New York employees would know what I was saying.

Our world is a better place for Otto’s having been here. . . .and I believe he is still here. . .leaving those post-its. . .and providing an example that all of us would be well advised to follow.

Godspeed, Otto.

Clair Cone Yates

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Otto Glade knew how to get a message across surely and quickly. Shortly after teaming up with him at Exxon USA in Houston (we had worked together before in New Jersey), we were discussing an employee-communication project that might include the president of that affiliate.

I said to Otto something to this effect: “We ought to tell Mr. So and So (the president) that he should….”

Otto cut me off in mid-sentence. “No one,” he said, pausing for effect, “no one tells Mr. So and So anything.” He followed this observation with a burst of laughter that defies description. But anyone who knew Otto knows exactly the sound of that laugh.

Otto and I had an interesting work relationship in Houston. He was in the Public Affairs Department and managed the writers, editors, designers, television producers who produced employee communion materials. I was in the Employee Relations Department which formally was responsible for communicating with employees. My job was to determine messages Employee Relations felt were important and then work with Otto and his people to keep those messages on track.

This could have been awkward and, yes, there were strained moments. But we continued to be friends and frequent lunch-mates for six years and on into retirement.

May he rest in peace and fondest regards to Marian.

Andy Purcell

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Otto Glade Did It His Way, Risks Be Damned

I’ll always remember Otto Glade for many things, not the least of which was his threat to fire me my first day on the job at Exxon.

He had gone out on a long limb when he hired me against the advice of other managers in Public Affairs, his own boss and the almighty Employee Relations Department. “No college degree, no job, no matter what,” they said.

Otto ignored them all and argued that my freelance writing samples suggested I was the right person for a job in his large and busy communications section. He also promised to fire me if didn’t go to night school at the University of Houston to finish two years needed to get my journalism degree.

No soft touch, Otto was a good writer himself, a demanding boss and a man of his word. Every semester he asked what courses I was taking and checked my final grades. “Maybe I won’t have to fire you after all,” he’d say.

Thanks to Otto Glade I landed a great job, finished college and retried as communications manager from Exxon’s world headquarters 31 years after he threatened to fire me.

Hiring me was a minor risk compared with a public campaign he headed to keep our employer from building a service station in his neighborhood. He lost that one, without losing his job. There are other “Otto stories” like that.

I’ll never forget him, a corporate maverick who always did what he thought was right, the risks be damned.

Jim Pitts, Fort Worth, Texas

28-Sep-05 4:45 PM

Pegge Bogle - Volunteer of the Month

Beth Miller, ABC — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 21:00:00 GMT

Name: Pegge Bogle

Company: Pierpont Communications, Inc.

Title: Vice President

Hometown: Troy, Michigan (north of Detroit )

Education: B.A. in Journalism (1979) Central Michigan University ; Completed graduate studies in Mass Communications (1979-80) at the American University in Cairo ( Egypt ).

My line of work is: Public Relations

I got into my line of work because: My longtime friend Gretchen Weis (one of many IABC blessings in my life) was an executive at Pierpont and encouraged me to give agency work a try. I love to write and discovered that I’m also pretty good at strategic planning.

Career landmarks: Establishing myself as a freelance business writer in 1984; Joining Pierpont in 1996 as a part-time writer and working my way to VP, as my kids grew up and I learned the PR business.

Goals: Obtain my IABC accreditation by year-end (I sit the exams in October at the district conference); improve my public speaking skills; and continue to mentor students and young professionals. Also, I want to canoe a Texas river before I turn 50 years old – I’d better get going, not much time left!

I’ve been an IABC member since: 1982

My contributions to IABC include: Program Director in the 1980s; Marketing Director in the 1990s and Education Relations Director since July 2004. I also used to contribute to the annual report, but we don’t product that anymore.

I belong to IABC because: It keeps me connected with some of the best people anyone could wish to know and it has helped me grow professionally and personally.

My favorite IABC events are: The monthly luncheons and the district conferences. I haven’t missed a district conference in the past five years. Great programs and lots of fun!

I think everyone should be an IABC volunteer because: It’s the perfect way to develop skills and build your business contacts.

If I was in charge of IABC, I would reach out to every member and encourage them to get involved. We especially need our younger members to volunteer and take responsibility for shaping the future of the Houston chapter.

My heroes and heroines include a few special neighbors, teachers and friends in my life while I was growing up. My mom was always busy taking care of babies, so there were several women who became “surrogate moms” to me. They always made time for me and answered a thousand questions about boys, money matters, college, anything. I was blessed with about four mothers!

What I wish I’d learned earlier and why: Ask for what you want. You can never go wrong with the truth, so when I’m honest about what I want, I’ve found that people usually want to help me achieve it. The key is knowing what you want.

Favorite or recent movies:   Recently, “A Very Long Engagement” and my longtime favorite “The Wizard of Oz”

Favorite or recent books I love to read the Pulitzer-Prize winners. Two of my old favorites are “Crossing to Safety” and “Angle of Repose” by Wallace Stegner. He’s a masterful writer.

When not working for a living, I love to spend time with my family, read, pretend at gardening (I kill more things than I grow) and travel when I can afford it.

The most unique thing about me is I’m the oldest daughter in a family of nine children.

People who know me would say I’m way too organized (and bossy). Hey, I’m the big sister, remember?!

What I’m most proud of is my marriage. Andy and I met in Cairo (within two weeks of both of us arriving) and will be married 24 years in January. He’s my best friend.

What I like best about Houston is the can-do attitude. This city really is the land of opportunity. People don’t ask where you’ve been because they’re more interested in what you can do.

What I least like about Houston is the traffic but I’ve learned to use the time to plan and think (constructive daydreaming!) so I’m sure I’d miss the traffic if there was no commute time.

28-Sep-05 4:00 PM

ESIG Spotlight: Bringing Home the Gold

Alice Brink, ABC, APR — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 21:00:00 GMT

by Alice Brink, ABC, APR

Two contrasting communications programs show how to do measurement right

In the 2005 IABC Gold Quill Awards, two entries were singled out for top awards – the Jake Wittmer Award for Research and the IABC Business Issues Award. The entries could not be more different – one is a food promotion campaign and the other an internal business transformation program – but both show how effective research and measurement can link communication to business outcomes.

Seen more hazelnuts lately?
If you are seeing hazelnuts pop up more often in the news and in food products recently, you are witnessing the results of a campaign by the Hazelnut Council implemented by Publicis Dialog. Vicki Nesper of Publicis received the Jake Wittmer Award at the IABC international conference in Washington, D.C. in June.

The campaign stood out in its effective use of research to drive the entire program. The firm surveyed 1,000 primary shoppers nationwide and conducted focus groups to measure U.S. consumer attitudes toward hazelnuts and also used secondary research on other food trends to develop its target audiences, strategy and messages. The research findings themselves became part of the key messages (for example, consumers are seeking more products with hazelnuts). Solid research enabled the firm to set clear quantitative objectives, including:

Convince at least three new companies to begin developing products with hazelnuts
Increase visits to the council’s web site by at least 10 percent
Increase consumption of hazelnuts by at least 3 percent, and share this information with food companies.

Publicis used a full range of strategic and creative tools to implement its campaign, reaching food companies, chefs, and consumers. The results were thoroughly measured, including:

Product development at five companies directly attributable to the campaign, with four companies introducing new products so far
Web site visits up 25 percent per month
Hazelnut consumption up 6 percent.

By sharing the increased consumption figures with food companies, Publicis can then drive additional interest in product development.

Publicis also set media placement and impression targets and exceeded those, but the exciting thing is that they did not stop there. They set, achieved and measured outcome objectives.

Bridging the Gap

Gap Inc. didn’t use the phrase above for its internal transformation effort, but it might as well have. Beginning with a baseline of more than two years of declining store sales, a deteriorating balance sheet and ebbing employee morale, Gap undertook a massive turnaround with the help of Stone Yamashita & Partners, a consulting firm focused on corporate change initiatives. This campaign is being honored with IABC’s Business Issues award.

Objectives included some soft measures and could have been better quantified (some baseline measures are missing) but most were measurable through employee surveys that have been conducted periodically throughout the campaign. Objectives included:

Drive understanding and alignment around [the campaign’s principles] across the organization
Win shareholders’ confidence
Help increase employee satisfaction and retention

The campaign included a cascaded, highly interactive series of full-day workshops supplemented by ongoing communications and management decision-making tools using the company’s new principles. Upward communication was increased through surveys and intranet response tools.

The campaign is still ongoing but success is evident in several measures so far:

Among management employees, 83 percent feel confident in their understanding of the principles and 88 percent feel empowered to implement them
Earnings have increased, helping the stock price rise from below $9 to $21
An employee survey showed 76 percent of employees agree Gap is a great place to work and 68 percent rated their own job satisfaction highly, and employee turnover has decreased by 15 percent.

Both of these campaigns represented significant financial investments. Fortunately, they were wise enough to set clear outcome objectives and include effective measurement to demonstrate that the campaigns were worth the cost.

Alice H. Brink, ABC, APR, is president of A Brink & Company, a Houston-based public relations consulting firm that works with corporations and non-profits to achieve measurable results. She is a past chair of IABC’s Gold Quill program. This article originally appeared in The Measurement Standard (www.measuresofsuccess.com).

28-Sep-05 4:00 PM

New Membership Dues Payment Plan

Debra Foszcz — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 23:00:00 GMT

IABC's New Membership Dues Payment Plan

IABC now gives members the option of paying their membership dues in four equal consecutive monthly payments. Please note the following guidelines if you are interested in participating:

1) The program is open only to professional members who pay full dues annually. Not eligible are student, student transition, 500 Club, retired, or corporate members.

2) Members will be charged the four equal monthly installments in the first four months of membership.

3) This program is available through online for join and renew only. The option to pay in four installments will appear automatically as part of the usual online process when you join http://www.iabc.com/join or renew http://www.iabc.com/renew.

4) Only credit card payments are eligible. The credit card must have an expiration date that is after the date when the last payment (fourth installment) will be charged.

5) Charges will be made in US dollars.

6)  IABC will charge a service fee of $5 per payment ($20 total.)

7) If a credit card is declined during any of the four installments, the membership will be cancelled immediately. The following procedure will be followed before cancellation: IABC will try to charge the card on 4 consecutive days. If it has been declined oneach of the 4 days, IABC will attempt to contact the member by email or phone. If there is no resolution after these attempts, membership will be cancelled.

We hope this payment plan options bring more convenience and affordability to our members.  Now you have no excuse not to join or renew!

27-Sep-05 6:00 PM