All of our clients are businesses related to the biomedical field. This means that our employees need to understand the technical implications of the products and services we are presenting to the press and investors, and they also need the communication skills. I often have to choose between an applicant with a strong PR background and someone who has a good technical background in the biosciences but lacks the essential PR skills needed to be successful in an agency setting.
In my business, one must know how to write a news release and how to write for a nonscientific audience, how to construct and write a public relations program, one must have a basic understanding of chemistry and biology, and one must feel comfortable in communicating with the Wall Street community. It is a large skill set and one that few applicants have when they interview for an entry-level position with an agency such as Noonan/Russo. Whether these skills are acquired on the job, in school, or through natural talents, makes selecting the "right" candidates difficult.
So for me, there is always a gamble that the person I hire will be motivated to acquire the skills they don't have and use the skills they have to add value to our organization. A Ph.D. almost has to forget that they have an advanced degree, since they must learn a new set of skills to work in an environment where many may be threatened by their academic training. At Noonan/Russo, we divide our staff into several groups: those who are interested in the investment community (investor relations), the press (media relations), those who like to write (corporate communications), and those who are interested in marketing (product communications). Each group requires a different set of skills and a different way of viewing the world. For example, below is a sample of some of the questions members of our interviewing team might ask.
Media Relations
To join the Media Group we require a basic knowledge of the working media. This means that you must understand:
- What are the major publications important for client coverage, and why are they important?
- How do you write a news release, what goes into the lead paragraph, the first paragraph, the second paragraph, the boilerplate?
- What is an advance and an embargo? When do you move news? What are the laws regarding public disclosure? What is the difference between not for attribution, off the record, and on the record? What is news?
- Who are the important reporters for the different sectors, and what are they writing about? When do you call a reporter? What do you say? What do you say to a reporter who doesn't want to be bothered talking to you? What if the reporter hates talking to PR firms (learn not to flinch at the word "hack")?
Two of the most critical issues for any company are how to raise financing and how to keep shareholders happy. A strong IR group can make a significant difference in a company's long-term success. Here, the importance of knowing how Wall Street operates is critical:
- What are the differences between a balance sheet and an income statement? What is a burn rate?
- Who are the major analysts that cover biotech, and which companies (Your client? Your client's competition?) do they write about?
- What are the major investment banks that finance in your client's sector?
- What are the leading companies in your client's sector? What are their products that might compete with your client's? How are they viewed compared with your client?
- What is the difference between the buy side and the sell side? What is the difference between retail and institutional investors?
- What are the trends driving the financial markets?
- What are the SEC regulations covering disclosure? What is the "quiet period"?
In the biomedical arena, product news is critical to a company's stock price, which in turn drives the company's ability to raise future financings and its ability to complete product research and development. Helping clients communicate clearly and in a timely fashion about their products in development is an important role. Some of the key issues include:
- What are the FDA rules regarding clinical trial result disclosures?
- What are the steps to FDA approval?
- What are the FDA advisory panels? How do they work?
- What is the difference between a PLA, a 51 OK, and an NDA?
- How do you launch a product? What are you allowed to say about the product and its competition? What isn't allowed? FDA regulations about disclosure can sometimes interfere with SEC disclosure requirements.
To keep shareholders on board, and to gain new shareholders (as well as to fulfill SEC requirements) companies must maintain an ongoing stream of communication with the outside world. Some of the important issues for a PR firm working with such a company are:
- What are key corporate messages? This can be amazingly difficult for a company to verbalize, but it is critical, especially in a sector where there are 250 other companies competing for the attention of the press, Wall Street, and investors.
- How these corporate messages are best expressed to different audiences?
- What are the best tools to use: multimedia, internet, print and so on?
- What are the elements of good corporate design, and why is it important?
- What makes a good corporate identity?
- How do you judge the right style of design to use and so on?
How Do I Break Into The Profession If I Don't Have These Skills?
Get some PR experience: work as a volunteer, take PR courses, or try to get an internship at a firm. Imagine that you are still in graduate school. Don't focus on a salary, just get the experience so that you can demonstrate to a prospective employer that you want to be in public relations and that you have enough skills to be able to be productive from day one. It is perhaps the most difficult job you will ever try to get, since few organizations want to serve as a training ground for someone who has a little working knowledge of their profession-or even worse, for someone who is unsure of what they want to do with their life.
