Brad MacAfee, chief executive officer, senior partner at Porter Novelli on the PRmoment podcast

This week, on the PRmoment podcast, I’m interviewing Brad MacAfee, chief executive officer, senior partner at Porter Novelli.

 Brad has worked at Porter Novelli for the past 18 years and is now the global CEO of this Omnicom-owned PR firm. Porter Novelli has around 90 offices in 60 countries.

 Here is a flavour of what Chris and I discussed: 

Brad identifies what he sees as the four growth categories for public relations over the next few years 1 minWhether company purpose has become the new CSR? 2.30 minsWhy consumer behavior is fuelling the rush for company purpose 4 minsWhy Brad almost left Porter Novelli in 2006 when he didn’t make partner 6.30 minsWhy Brad decided not to leave Porter Novelli 7.20 minsWhy personal career management is really important 8.46 minWhy the first 100 days of your time at a company sets the tone 10 minsWhether networked agencies have become unfashionable 11.05 minsWhy networked agencies have a bright future, but a very different future to independent agencies 11.30 minsWhy the advantages of scale are so important for networked agencies 12 minsWhy Omnicom having 5000 people in London is a competitive advantage 12.30 minsWhy the specialisation on offer within the holding companies excites Brad 13.00 minsWhy the diversity of skills and scale in the networked model scale will eventually lead to better quality work for brands 13.30 mins and 16 minsHow Omnicom PR group mix and match teams across its PR operations for specific briefs 14.30 minsWhether there is a tension for Brad in representing both the Omnicom PR and  Porter Novelli brands 17.00 mins What does “putting employees first” mean in a PR firm? 19 minsWhy employees now expect great experiences at work 22.10 minsFrom a management perspective what’s it like working for a holding company like Omnicom 23.35 minsWhether Omnicom PR firms ever pitch against each other 25.45 minsHow Brad became CEO of Porter Novelli 27.55 minsWhat skill set you need to become CEO of a global firmWhy you need a great mix of mentors to have a great careerThe skills required to be a good PR person today Why PR firms need a stable of clients to help them stay innovativeWhich regions of the world Porter Novelli is prioritising 38.30 minsWhat is the job specification of a global CEO in a global PR firm? 40 minsWhy Porter Novelli decided to get involved in Giving Tuesday 41 minsWhy diversity matters in PRHow Facebook CMO Antonio Lucio insisted Facebook’s agencies had diverse teamsWhy there will only be progress on diversity once it is measured Why PR firms should always be recruitingHow diverse teams within Porter Novelli have been the most successful commercially and in terms of the quality of the work