tesla passes on pr, its publics pay the price
Earlier today, multiple news outlets and the Public Relations Society of America reported that Tesla, the highest market cap automaker in the world, has allegedly shuttered its PR department. I use the term “allegedly” because, well, it’s hard for reporters to get confirmation of a corporate action when the mechanism for doing so has been disbanded.
According to articles in the New York Post, PRWeek and on several automotive trade sites, the company has dissolved the public relations function, with former team members having either left the company or been reassigned to other functions.
Could this be an air-out of current staff for a reorganization of the communication function or simply an unsubstantiated rumor? It’s hard to tell, as electric vehicle industry blog Elecktrek is reporting that non-response to journalist questions is the standard and confirming from an internal Tesla source “at the highest level” that the company “no longer has a PR team.”
Why does this matter and why should it be concerning to us all?
Contrary to a few dramatized, inaccurate TV portrayals of PR, the public relations function is about building two-way trust between institutions and their stakeholders.
Whether it’s about a business establishing and maintaining privacy in today’s highly connected world or assuring the safety of neighbors and a community surrounding a manufacturing plant, creating open, honest and sustained interactions are essential to mutual confidence and support. PR equips the public and organizations to understand and navigate each other, communicating differentiation and relevance, and establishing confidence. Ultimately, these forms of interaction are what truly create the social license for an institution to exist in a free society.
A CEO with 39 million Twitter followers and a mobile device does not constitute the type of robust, engaged and mutually productive exchange needed to maintain public confidence in a company. With as much uncertainty in the world today, largely the result of lack of transparency and public interest, is it too much to expect industry leaders to get into and stay in the marketplace of ideas and values? As a friend said to me more than 25 years ago, “It’s never too late to do the next right thing.”
Mr. Musk, we invite you to do so.