Why PR deserves a seat at the decision-making table

You know that feeling when you find out something your organization or client is doing, but it’s too late to take full advantage of it from a PR perspective?

Any communicator who wants to rise above “order-taker” status must be in the room whenever the organization is deciding when and how to pull the trigger on a new development. Sometimes you’re there to be the voice of reason and explain how it might backfire, other times to advise on how to leverage the new venture with key stakeholders.

That’s what happened this summer during an internal meeting at Duolingo, the company behind the No. 1 language-learning platform in the world.

Senior PR manager Michaela Kron was meeting with colleagues who were discussing which languages to add to the app. Among them were Navajo and Hawaiian.

Kron recalls: “I just threw out the idea of how cool it would be to launch them on Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” The team agreed, and all worked to have the courses complete and ready to launch Oct. 8, the date for this year’s observance.