Earlier this week, the Star Tribune profiled top public relations firm Padilla Speer Beardsley, led by Lynn Casey, a UST Evening MBA alumna and this year’s Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal Women in Business Career Achievement honoree.
The Star Tribune article featured interviews with several of the firm’s first employees in the 1960s, and it’s clear there was a bit of a “Mad Men” vibe during that decade. While the multi-million dollar firm is now led by a woman, there were only three female employees in 1969–an office manager, a receptionist, and a “gopher.” Public relations consisted mainly of press releases and publicity stunts to draw attention to businesses.
More than 40 years later, Padilla Speer Beardsley has expanded into advertising and operates a successful New York office in addition to its Minneapolis headquarters. Client services range from crisis management to managing intellectual property challenges, and social media plays a major role alongside more traditional public relations channels.
So the next time you’re watching an episode of “Mad Men” and wonder what might have become of Don Draper and his colleagues in the 21st century, look no further than the riverfront headquarters of Minneapolis’ top public relations firm.
Brave New Workshop![business_writing_picture[1]](http://blogs.stthomas.edu/opusmagnum/files/2011/03/business_writing_picture1-300x199.jpg)
The Wall Street Journal recently featured an interesting article about the 
Many of our posts on the Opus Magnum blog pertain to the ever-increasing usage of social media in our personal and professional lives. As Facebook, Twitter, and blogs become part of our daily activities, many business-people are concerned about how to manage their social media content to strengthen their social connections while maintaining a professional image. 
While the nation’s elected officials come from a wide variety of professional and educational backgrounds, law degrees are the most common type of advanced degree held by American politicians. Our current president holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and many former presidents were lawyers as well. According to a 
Beware temptation, oh ye who brandish a keyboard and an ego…
So, I have an axe to grind and am not going to “aks” whether you care.![expletive_1[1]](http://blogs.stthomas.edu/opusmagnum/files/2010/09/expletive_11.jpg)
Bob Sutton, Stanford University professor and author of ![downtown-montreal[1]](http://blogs.stthomas.edu/opusmagnum/files/2010/09/downtown-montreal1-300x225.jpg)
Earlier this month I was in Montreal for a conference, where my total immersion French language and culture course from undergraduate school proved to be far too dusty to be of much use. However, on entering one of the restaurants I frequented and greeting the host with “bon jour,” he immediately began rattling on at breakneck pace in French. I knew full well that he and the rest of the staff would happily converse in English, but it took a few moments before I was able to beg him to “répéter en Anglais.”
2012 Challenge: Email on a “Human Scale”
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011This post originally appeared in The Scroll, a blog for the University of St. Thomas community. It was written by Dr. Carol Bruess, a professor in the Communication & Journalism department.
My smart colleague Dr. Wendy Wyatt passed along an opinion piece published earlier this fall in the Star Tribune. She knew I would like and applaud it. And indeed, the content was such that I can’t quite shake it from my digital-age brain. In fact, every ding of new email, log-in prompt and face lit up by a smart phone around campus brings my attention back to Chris Anderson’s commentary, “You’ve got mail! (Which means you’ve got demands).”
I mostly share his opinions, and they have come to claim a place in the front of my tech-stretched mind. With the new year nearly upon us, it seems timely to ask if Anderson might have put his finger on not only a profound problem but also a rather brilliant solution – one that can help all of us with an email inbox make sure next year is better than last. Could we be happier and healthier if we become better e-mailers? Sounds easier than losing 15 pounds!
Anderson’s day begins, like mine and likely yours, with a glance at his inbox: “A sample might include a message from the colleague of a friend about his startup venture. Another is about a staff issue. A third is a discussion, copied to six people, about an upcoming charitable event.”
He goes on, and this is where I started getting giddy and wanted to know more. I can’t stop thinking, “Oh my goodness. He’s pinpointed the problem to which I need a solution … as does, it seems, almost every adult, friend, student, colleague, administrator, staff, parent and pal I know.” He writes:
“These e-mails have nothing in common — except that none of their issues had been on my agenda that morning. I don’t even know one of the senders. But although it took only a few minutes to read these notes, I suddenly feel pressure to develop coherent thoughts on complex questions regarding someone else’s business, office politics and world peace. It’s barely 8 a.m., and I’m already drowning in e-mail. My day’s priorities have been commandeered. And more missives keep pouring in, including tweets, Google Plus notifications, Facebook status updates and instant messages. A fire hose of information all day long.” (more…)
Tags: communication, language, star tribune, writing
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