#SenecaProud

Season 1

Robert Waite

Episode 9: Robert Waite

Professor Robert Waite has advised two United States senators, the White House and corporate CEOs on both sides of the border. A leading authority on public relations (PR) and corporate communications, he teaches media and communications programs. In this episode, he shares some interesting moments in his 30-plus-year career, key skills necessary to be successful in PR today and what sets Seneca apart from universities.

Robert Waite Interview

Robert Waite  00:00

Jerry Williams opens up the mic to calls and the light’s on.

 

Pat Perdue  00:06

Why? Did you know that this was going to happen?

 

Robert Waite   00:08

Not the next part, but I knew that it would be opened up. In retrospect, I'm not sure I would have put the Senator in that position. But there was some fear he was running behind. So, the thought was, he needed more exposure and to explain himself. Anyway, the first call is from his daughter, “Daddy, why are you destroying our family?”.

 

Pat Perdue  00:33

Hey, I'm Pat Perdue and I want to introduce you to my latest podcast. This is a co-production between my company YCastr and Seneca College in Toronto. Seneca College is a really great school. I know because over the past couple of years, I've been teaching some marketing and business and customer experience courses there. People come to study at Seneca from all over the world, which makes it a hotbed of innovative thinking. And a big part of that thinking is driven by our amazing faculty, many of whom are well like me, professionals, who are thriving in their own businesses, and teach at Seneca as a way to share their passion for what they do. But needless to say, I've been hugely inspired by the people I've met. And what happens when I get inspired? Well, apparently, I launch a podcast. So here we are. Welcome to the Seneca Proud podcast, where I get to introduce you to some of Seneca College's amazing faculty. So subscribe, download and join me as we meet some of the super inspiring folks who teach here at Seneca College in Toronto. I'm Pat Perdue, and I'm glad you're here today.

And welcome back to the Seneca Proud podcast. I'm Pat Perdue. So how about that opening for

today's show, right? My jaw was on the floor when he was telling me that story. So don't worry, we'll get back to it in the podcast. So let me tell you about today's guest. Robert Waite is a professor at Seneca College in the school's Graduate Certificate program. Subjects he teaches include: Advanced Presentation Skills, Writing for Public Relations Professionals, Writing for Government Relations, Media Relations, International Public Relations, and Investor Relations. But wait, there's a whole lot more. Robert Waite is one of North America's foremost experts in the fields of marketing, executive communications, cultural transformation and stakeholder relations. Mr. Waite is Managing Director of Waite and Co, a firm specializing in Board and CEO level communication strategy and advice, with offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Boston. Waite and Co draws on its founder’s 30 plus years of experience working with six corporate CEOs, two distinguished United States Senators, and as a member of the Executive branch of the United States, that would be the White House. Yep. He has led and transformed communications, government relations and marketing and investor relations functions at companies as diverse as IBM, Ford, and CAE; that's an aviation electronics company that has diversified into other simulation technologies; CIBC and Canada Post. A signature contributor to the Huffington Post, Mr. Waite continues to write and publish on topics of business leadership, corporate cultural transformation, and also deliver speeches and lectures to academic and general audiences. He is currently researching a book on critical success factors for CEOs who are new to the position. Mr. Waite joined us in the Sandbox Studio at Newnham campus. Here is our Seneca Proud guest for today's show, Professor Robert Waite. Mr. Waite, Professor, Professor Waite, how do you prefer your students to call you when they're talking to you?

 

Robert Waite  03:58

I do prefer they call me Professor Waite. It's totally unearned. But they don't know that. So, they usually devolve into calling me Bob at the end of the class.It absolutely happens. level, at least it's some

 

Pat Perdue  04:14

It's nice to start at a high place. So again, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for making the trip down from Ottawa today to speak to us. If you're going to talk about one course that really sort of lights your fire as a teacher here at Seneca. What might that be?

 

Robert Waite  04:28

It's good question. I think probably the one that I get most excited about is International Communications. It’s actually during the winter term of 2019. I'm teaching three sections of that particular course. There are a couple reasons I find that one exciting. One is that it actually plays into the diversity in Seneca classrooms. If you look around the room each semester, you see all of the diversity you would find in Toronto. So, it's an interesting course, because I've got people in the room who grew up in, in different cultures, or their parents did. And they've come to Canada to find opportunity. I've had a career where I've worked internationally. When I was at IBM, I was responsible for communications in the Far East, and Latin America, also Canada and the Caribbean, and got to travel a great deal during that period. And I just found it fascinating because there are so many elements that are different than what you might encounter here in terms of culture, religious norms, gender issues. So that's probably the course I enjoy the most. I also like to teach Media Relations. I enjoy that, in part because I set it up where students have to react to scenarios that I create, and some of the scenarios throw them a bit off balance. And I'm asking them to act as a spokesperson, or like a press secretary, and react, you know, in the moment, or within 10 or 15 minutes, to a situation that I present to them that. Frankly, it is fun for them. And fun for me.

 

Pat Perdue  06:15

Sounds like a really fun time. And is that with that particular course, the Media Relations course? Would that be the thing that would set them off balance as much as possible? Like, I guess they'll start your course with one set of expectations. And maybe throughout the course, you'll throw them a few curveballs, some surprises here and there that allow them to stretch and I guess expand their comfort level? Would that be an example?

 

Robert Waite  06:40

That would be an example. And one reason I do that is that I come out of the world of practitioner. I was running corporate communications, not just in government, but with a number of, of corporations. And the reality is, you go into work every day, not knowing what's going to happen. And more often than not, the unexpected happens. And you have to have the judgment and the ability to react to that in a measured way and not lose your cool. So, I do try to expose them. I don't do it day one. Sure. I start soft with you know, “Tell me something about yourself?”, types of questions.  “What do you hope to get out of this course?”, those types of things. I give them a sense of how the course will be useful to them. But I don't spring something really scary day one. I want them to come back on day five. I want them to come back to the second class.  

 

Pat Perdue  07:39

Sure. Well, you strike me as somebody who being in Corporate Communications and Media Relations, somebody who would take a lot to get you flustered, you seem pretty calm. A pretty chill kind of guy.

 

Robert Waite  07:51

Yeah, I had that reputation. I guess I still have that reputation. What people don't see is what's going on the on the inside. But yes, I made a career of appearing to be calm, because the worst thing you can do, if you're the senior communications person is lose your cool, because that's really going to make your CEO or your Senator or whomever, nervous. So, you need to be or pretend to be the calm eye in the storm, and the person who's reasoning things out and coming up with solutions. There were times again, on the inside, my stomach was churning, and I was reaching for some sort of antacid. 

 

Pat Perdue  08:36

I've got two questions based on what you just said; how might you go about teaching being calm under pressure or calm under fire? Because that's, as you mentioned, every day when you come into work, you don't know what to expect, and you hope you're going to have a relatively calm day. And you might not get that. And at the same time, you just have to be able to respond appropriately to whatever comes your way.

 

Robert Waite  08:59

Right. And one of the challenges with students is that they've got to where they are today, by responding quickly to things, you know. When we were all in second or third grade, the folks who eventually went on to university and all of my students already have their undergraduate degrees. So, they've done well. Now, their tendency is to raise their hand quickly. Yes, you know, I have the answer. I have the answer. So, one of the things I teach people, if the media calls, for example, is it's okay to say I don't know, but I'll get back to you. And the media will understand that they don't necessarily expect an immediate answer. They might like you to blunder into an immediate answer. But I always tell people that again, I also worked as a journalist for a period of time, you would give a spokesperson, some time to check things out to find out the facts to get a message that's reasonable and calm rather than reactionary. Well, the other thing in today's world I tell people is, if you can see if they can send the question to you as a text or an email, and then respond to that. Now, 10 years ago, the Globe and Mail and the New York Times, just 10 years ago wouldn't accept that. They thought that wasn't proper. From a journalistic standpoint that's over. So, it's absolutely acceptable if you have to sit down and fashion a response. And you can think about it, you can review it, you can show it to somebody including Legal, perhaps. I's a much more controllable situation, number one. Number two, unlike a telephone conversation, there isn't the iterative piece of it. In other words, they won't be asking you a quick follow up question, they might email back or text you back. I mean, that's another trick to kind of slow the game down.  Again, you never want to lose your cool, because that just leads to all kinds of trouble. You don't want to get angry at the reporter. The reporter’s doing their job. You don't want to go over the reporter's head. None of that ends well. But people have done that, from time immemorial. With very unfortunate results.

 

Pat Perdue  11:23

And potentially predictable results. You have a breadth of experience. And you're teaching shorter courses, semester long courses. How do you distill the lessons that you've learned over your extensive and really, really interesting career into a few months, or perhaps some consecutive classes that will allow you to deliver the lessons that you feel your students really need to have?

 

Robert Waite  11:51

I am careful not to turn the classroom experience into me telling war stories. That's not to say that I don't tell a couple, maybe one a class. I just know from family members, and particularly my wife, that it's easy to overdo remembrance of things past. What I try to do is link the story to a point I'm trying to make. That's part of the overall curriculum and subject that I'm teaching. There are examples of mistakes that I've made. And I think the students enjoy those the most, I think. There are really difficult situations that I've found myself in, that I use to illustrate a couple things. One is we're all fallible, and you have to be careful and what to do after you make a mistake.

 

Pat Perdue  12:47

Yeah, for sure.

 

Robert Waite  12:51

I mean, that's a big, big piece of it. And learn from that mistake. And that's a key element of that.

 

Pat Perdue  12:59

So, you were talking about some of your war stories. If there's a war story that you'd like to bring out, and you know, it's a home run every time you tell it. Would you tell it to us today?

 

Robert Waite  13:08

I don't know that might ruin it for the classroom. 

 

Pat Perdue  13:10

It might. Tell us your second best?

 

Robert Waite  13:15

Well, I've certainly had some interesting situations. I had a situation when I was with Ed Brooke, who was the first African American elected to the US Senate, way before Barack Obama. And he was being investigated by the spotlight team with the Boston Globe. And it was very intense. Eventually, it came to nothing. I mean, he had done nothing but he was being actively investigated, and some stories had had ended up in the newspapers at any rate. He was in a reelection campaign at this time. So, this is going to be an example of where actually there's nothing you can do. So we were on live radio,WBEZ radio in Boston, 50,000 Watts, Clear Channel. You can hear it up through the Maritimes and out to Chicago. You can hear it everywhere, everywhere in New England. Jerry Williams was the guy that ran the show. It was the most popular radio talk show in New England. And so, Ed Brooke, is there at a table very similar to the one we're at right now. Jerry Williams was across from him. And I was at the table but obviously no mic. I was just there; I suppose to witness things or do something. So, what happened was that there was back and forth between this radio interviewer and Senator Brooke.  When Senator Brooke, as part of things that were going on, had decided in his wisdom during his reelection year to divorce his wife of 30 years. Which would not have been something I would have advised to him. And his wife was an Italian American, and about 20% of the voters in Massachusetts are Italian American and about 60% are Roman Catholics. I could have given him some reasons to wait till after, at any rate. So, this had also come out in the press. So, Jerry Williams opens up the mic to calls and the light’s on.

 

Pat Perdue  15:29

Did you know that this was going to happen?

 

Robert Waite  15:31

Not the next part, but I knew that it would be opened up. In retrospect, I'm not sure I would have put the Senator in that position. But there was some fear he was running behind. So, the thought was, he needed more exposure and to explain himself. Anyway, the first call is from his daughter, “Daddy, why are you destroying our family?”. My first instinct was to pull the plug and run. Well, it was a glass booth, I couldn't, I wouldn't have been able to find the door. But you know, that's an example where a press secretary or a spokesperson is completely powerless. Other than possibly just passing out, to his credit, he actually engaged in a very calm, reasonable conversation with his daughter on the air, on radio, and did as good a job as one could. “You know, honey, you have to understand that sometimes adults don't agree.” and on and on. But so that was my story that I tell just to say sometimes, either you need to anticipate the worst, which I didn't in that case, or there's nothing you can do. And you just have to try to rebound from it or find some way back?

 

Pat Perdue  16:54

Absolutely. What a great story of radio, to the spontaneous unpredictability of live radio.

 

Robert Waite  17:00

I'm a big fan of radio, particularly when I talk to my students about international because there are a number of countries, and I've just come back from a number of countries in Africa just recently, where literacy rates, for example, are low. And radio can be the most effective way to reach broad audiences.  I think some young people don't think of radio first. But it's still a good, strong medium. And in particular, on the international side, where you may have a state-controlled television network, you know, one station. But there are radio stations that can reach virtually everywhere. 

 

Pat Perdue  17:42

And this speaks to some of the differences in your International Communications course, where radio would play a larger factor than it would be perhaps if it was domestic.

 

Robert Waite  17:52

Absolutely, absolutely. And there are other considerations. So international is very complex. I talk about 10 Different factors you have to think about when it comes to international and one is language. Now we're at a bit of an advantage here in Canada, perhaps as compared to maybe the United States, in that most people realize we have two official languages. And most people realize we have large populations that would read something in Mandarin or some other language. Again, because of Canada's diversity. But there are places where there are three or four, national languages. And you have to figure that out. I also talk a lot about translation. It’s easy to get that wrong. And I preach that you should get the best. That you should then hire another translation company to check the first translation company. Because it can completely destroy whatever you're trying to do from a public relations standpoint, if the translation is done badly.

 

Pat Perdue  19:01

And we see that from time to time, even today. And let's talk a little bit about your students. You mentioned that your students are graduate students. So, they've, you know, they've got the education, they've got probably some experience under their belt before they get to you. If I'm an individual listening to this program right now, and I'm wondering if your program is right for me, what are some questions that I would ask myself?

 

Robert Waite  19:23

Well, I think there's a number of things you would want to think of, if you were thinking about the course. The course is very much, perhaps unlike undergraduate university courses. And again, with all due respect, because the universities do what they do well, but they also don't do somethings. And one of the things that we're very focused on is getting people job ready. If someone is thinking about taking the Corporate Public Relations program at Seneca, they need to understand what public relations is. In other words, they shouldn't just kind of show up with no thought or knowledge for a yearlong course, and just be sure that it's right for them. Another thing I would say is that people need to have good writing skills. Writing is still, in 2019, is still the foundation for communications and certainly for public relations. If I get one complaint from people hiring into either agencies or corporate public relations shops, it's that they're not finding candidates that have strong writing skills. I think writing is important. And I'll tell you, one measure of that is that when companies are hiring public relations companies, on the corporate side. They typically, and I know this because both of my kids are in public relations. 

 

Pat Perdue  20:01

Good for you!

 

Robert Waite  20:03

Well, my wife doesn't agree. She's an engineer. It's a human tragedy that they followed me into public relations. But that's a whole other podcast. But at any rate, they get taken into a room, they're given an assignment that they've never seen before. And they're not allowed any devices. And in 30 minutes, they have to write something. This happened, my daughter's with Ketchum. And my son had to do this. when he was starting out at Cargill, in Minneapolis. You know, I think they were kind of shocked.  And fortunately, they're both good writers, and resourceful between their errors, not just by looking things up on Google. I tell the students or prospective students, you either have to be a very strong writer, or you need to be able to get there quickly. We are generous in some ways in terms of marking, we're not particularly generous when it comes to sear a series of grammatical mistakes. We do mark down for that. And we have to. 

 

Pat Perdue  22:14

And appropriately because you can't set somebody up for failure. 

 

Robert Waite  22:17

That's right. You know, I tell the students that their success is our success in the sense that when they walk out the door with the certificate, and into a workplace, they're carrying the Seneca brand. And it's incumbent upon us to not let them out into the world, unless they're going to make a positive impression. Because again, that will reflect back on the school. So it's a mutual situation, it is an actual benefit. I want them to do well. But that's why I make them work so hard and point out, sometimes shortcoming. That is why they're there. I think some of them might appreciate t in the moment, but years later when they're on the job. And they're like, “Oh, Professor Waite mentioned this, and I caught it.” 

 

Pat Perdue  23:07

I hope so. What's the thing that surprises your students? If they come to your class, and they're like, I wasn't aware that I needed this? Or where do they find themselves stretching in your classes?

 

Robert Waite  23:17

Well, one thing that always gets a response from them is that if I'm conducting a final, I tell them that much as in the old west, where you had to check your guns at the church door before you came in to worship, you have to check all your devices in at the door. I have a table in the back. And they need to write the exam device free. So that typically that follows the question, is it going to be an open book exam? And I say, oh, no, it's not going to be an open book exam. In fact, you have to leave all of your devices behind. They typically do fine, but I think it's just not something they're used to. Another thing that surprises me and maybe at university, particularly larger universities, they just don't have to do this very often. I do make them get up in front of the class and do presentations. And typically, but not always, in a team situation. Occasionally, individually. And considering that they want to go into public relations it is surprising to me sometimes the anxiety. It's interesting. The other thing that I do that surprises them. I don't know if it does or not, but I do make them work in groups and try to explain to them that particularly in a corporate setting, they're going to do that a lot. out. And sometimes, you know, they'll come to me and say, you know, "Fred, a member of our group, just isn't doing his work.” And I will say...

 

Pat Perdue  25:12

And what have you done about that? Right?

 

Robert Waite  25:15

They expect me to kind of intercede from on high. And I say, “No, no, no, what you're learning here is how to motivate, how to work together as a group. You guys have to figure that out. And if Fred isn't doing what he should be doing, maybe he'll slip by and share your grade. But I can assure you he won't last long in the corporate world. Because it will be noticed. And he'll be kicked out at some point.”

Those are the types of things that I think surprise them a bit.

 

Pat Perdue  25:48

How do you find technology is impacting your courses, you know, the breadth of your career is pretty vast. And public relations have changed dramatically, I would say over the last 10 years due to social media and the, you know, mobility, smartphones, all of that, how has that impacted your program?

 

Robert Waite  26:07

Oh, it’s impacted my courses and the department overall. I mean, today, we have courses on social media, for example, John Packer teaches that particular course and he's a real expert. One advantage I have is that I'm still a practitioner. In fact, one of the advantages you asked about Seneca or the certificate programs, one of the advantages Seneca has with a certificate program versus university is that at the university level, most of the people are academics, proudly, as they should be. We have quite a balanced mix of people who are practitioners, and some academics. I don't know that it's 50/50, it feels like that, in terms of the type of experience people bring to the to the classroom. Again, because I have my own company, and I use social media to advance the company. I also have two children in the business who are not afraid to tell me if I'm falling behind in anyway. In terms of electronics, I have a pretty good window on that. And things are and will continue to evolve, but also change. I think the sense of trust and excitement around platforms like Facebook, for example, has lessened.

 

Pat Perdue  27:39

Getting to your courses and your programs. Do you have a sense of what the future holds for your courses over the next year or two years?

 

Robert Waite  27:47

One of the things I try to impress upon my students and try to build into the teaching, that I guess would be a shift, is I think students once they become practitioners, they should learn this, while they're students, is a better understanding of how to measure success. Now most of my students, God bless them, are English majors or political science majors or history majors. I'm not trying to be negative. I was a history major. So okay, I can confess to the same issues. What they weren't were mathematics majors or the hard sciences, or accounting or statistics, things of that sort. And so I think they gravitate to public relations, as kind of a comfortable place to head for with their liberal arts or arts and sciences degrees. I try to impress upon them. And again, I think we need to build this more into the curriculum, the importance of measurement, and we do a little bit of it with media relations. But I think we need to do more, because one of the complaints of clients, of PR firms or of CFOs of companies is how do I know that I'm getting value for money, and I'm spending all this money? How do I know? There's the old joke in advertising; we're spending a ton of money. Half of it just isn't worth it? The problem is, I don't know which half. 

 

Pat Perdue  29:29

Right, yes.

 

Robert Waite  29:33

It's an oldie but a goodie. And it holds true and it holds true for PR. But there are methodologies that you can use and they're important because people only want to pay for something if they think they're getting value for money.

 

Pat Perdue  29:49

And these days, if they can prove to the CFO that this is a good investment numerically, then at least they can get it on the budget for next time.

 

Robert Waite  29:58

When I used to be pushing for budget. I didn't go to the CEO to get help in terms of getting it through. I went to the CFO and tried, typically successfully, to convince that person that there was value. So pre sell to that person before going before the senior manager.

 

Pat Perdue  30:22

And then if the senior management says, you know, I love the idea, but I don't think we'll ever get the budget for it, you can say, well, as a matter of fact, yes. 

 

Robert Waite  30:29

Tom, what do you think? In this instance, the fellow’s name was Tom, at IBM, and he, again, because he had been pre sold, he was a backer. There are some politics even within, well, actually, a lot lives within corporations. The other thing and it's along the same line, that I try to impress upon students, is that they should work hard to understand the business side of the business. How does your company or your agency if you happen to be on the agency side, how do they actually make money? And what I found in my career, and I think one reason I was able to be successful and move up in corporations is I worked hard, because I was a history major, right? It didn't come natural to me. I could tell you, maybe how, you know, the US Treasury was doing in 1789. 

 

Pat Perdue  31:23

But again, could be another podcast.

 

Robert Waite  31:27

Yes. But I couldn't necessarily tell you, you know, how IBM was doing in 1995?  I worked hard to understand the language and the basics of the business model. How does this company actually make money? Why? What the main reason was, was the central interest of the C suite executives, particularly the CEO, and the CFO. Because for two reasons. One is they have to report on that quarterly. And so it's of vital importance. And you need to help them do that.  But the second reason is, they really care about it, because that's how they get paid. And that's how they get their bonuses. So if you can speak that language to a CEO or to other C suite executives, you will be seen not as that communications gal or guy, you will be seen as a member of the team who's pulling in the same direction to get the company to where it needs greatly. And yes, I mean, that includes the big bonuses that they might be getting. And if you don't believe that they are focused on that, then you don't understand this.

 

Pat Perdue  32:38

Well, it's great advice. Hearing you speak, I can absolutely guarantee that I think the reasons your students attend your classes is, you know, there is the theory and there's the knowledge and the lessons, but the experience and the stories that you bring of the day-to-day battle of, you know, you get up in the morning, you show up at work, and this is kind of what happens every day. I think that's the invaluable contribution that you bring to your program.

 

Robert Waite  33:03

I enjoy it as well. Itzhak Perlman, the famous violinist was asked recently, and I saw this on the PBS station, the Buffalo station, which of course we get here in Toronto. He's probably 75 years old, you know, why do you teach? And he said, and this resonated with me completely. “I teach so that I can learn”. And I find that my teaching is a learning experience, and that I get as much or maybe more out of the interaction with my students, as they're getting from me, and it informs my other work. I write for Huffington Post; I have my practice and it keeps me sharp.

 

Pat Perdue  33:48

That's great. Well, thank you very much, Robert, for joining us today. It's been a true pleasure having this conversation I've been looking forward to it for a long time ever since we first spoke on the phone. Thank you very much for making the journey down here to speak to us today. 

 

Robert Waite  34:03

My pleasure.

 

Pat Perdue  34:07

That was our conversation with Seneca College Professor and one of North America's foremost authorities on PR and corporate communications, Mr. Robert Waite. And he mentioned he's hesitant about bringing up the stories. But you know for my money, that is where the fun and interest is. Thank you so much for listening. We have one more episode after this. And that's it for Season One of the Seneca Proud podcast. If you haven't already, head on over to iTunes, subscribe, and leave us a five-star rating and review. That really helps us out. Until next time, I'm Pat Perdue. Stay proud Seneca!