Note to viewers: under the Slide Show dropdown menu, select View Presenter Tools and that will show a complete narrative for each slide.

This presentation also provides an opportunity for students to think about how they might be influenced by this presentation in writing for a railroad executive involved in a current controversy over coal trains. Concerns include everything from increased coal-train traffic and coal dust to an upsurge in carbon dioxide and particulate emissions in energy-hungry countries such as China. (See Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign.)

For background, visit www.columbian.com , and search for the article, “Railroad man gives views on coal,” (Aug. 24, 2012). If you were PR counsel for the chairman and chief executive officer of BNSF Railway, whose boss is Warren Buffett, what advice, based on this presentation, would you offer with regard to the CEO’s responses shown below. To relate this exercise to the presentation, begin each response with “Trust me…”

On coal:Coal is a big business for us, without a doubt. And quite frankly, it always has been.

On speculation that the Northwest coal-export proposal would mean 60 to 100 coal trains per day:I promise you, that’s nowhere in the realm of seriousness. It’s not realistic.

On plans for Northwest coal-export terminals:Five facilities I do not believe will ever be built. The market will sort that out.

[continued]

On cost of emergency services to local communities for train accidents:The railroad would help the cities “work through that.”

On increases in coal dust:The BNSF is “deeply committed” to spraying coal loads with what’s known as a surfactant to keep dust tamped down. “It kind of binds it.”

On increased pollution from locomotives:BNSF Railway plans to spend $1.1 billion on energy-efficient, low-emission trains that cut nitrogen oxide by 60 percent and particulate matter by 69 percent. It’s difficult to say whether any of those cleaner-burning locomotives would end up in Southwest Washington. “We know that each state wants us” to put the leaner-burning locomotives in their communities”

On concerns about the climate change impact of feeding more coal-fired power plants:I don’t address climate change, because I’m not qualified to.

On demand for coal: …the world-wide demand for coal will not go down—one ton. It’s important for the U.S. to serve the energy demands of the developing world, including shipping coal.

On the environmental review process:Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s call for a “programmatic” environmental review of the coal-export proposals is an example of an attempt to bog down the process. It would be a “killer” of the coal-export plans.

Writing for Executives Part II

Compliments of Tom Hagley, Senior Instructor of Public Relations Retired,

School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon

Henry MintzbergThe Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University

“The MBA trains the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences.”

International Executive Search Firm:“Next to managing people and money, the most sought after skill in an executive is public relations.”

How the crisis was formedOpportunities it affords the PR writer

Henry Mintzbert, Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies McGill University

Robert SimonsCharles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration and unit head of accounting and controlat Harvard Business School

Kunal Basu, Fellow in Strategic Marketing Templeton CollegeUniversity of Oxford

The professors wrote:

"All of us who believe in business—from CEOs to business school professors—must recognize that we have contributed to this crisis… We are all captives of five half-truths that shape the way we think about business and the way we do business. As a result, we may be…destroying the very thing we cherish.”

They continued:

"As business leaders and academics, we need to challenge what we do and what we teach—assumptions about business that are, at best, half-truths."

Scale of half-truths No. 1

What are some ways in which a CEO can convince the public that he or she is pursuing success in a socially responsible manner?

What are some ways in which a CEO can convince the public that he or she is pursuing success with integrity?

Scale of half-truths No. 2

What are some ways in which a CEO can convince the public that he or she is committed to managing for the benefit of all stakeholders?

Scale of half-truths No. 3

What are some ways in which a CEO can convince the public that he or she pursues success as a shared engagement with others?

Scale of half-truths No. 4

What are some ways that a CEO can convince the public that he or she is pursuing success with honest rationales for action.

Scale of half-truths No. 5

What are some ways in which a CEO can convince the public that he or she is pursuing success under a new set of truths?

Bottom line…

Extraordinary Communication Required

Pursue Success in a Socially Responsible Manner