Logos Consulting Group president Helio Fred Garcia was quoted in the Washington Post on election day, Tuesday, November 8, 2016 on the Trump campaign’s choice of venue for its election night festivities.

The story, by Washington Post business reporter Abha Bhattarai, notes,

“Donald J. Trump kicked off his presidential bid at the Trump Tower last summer. Since then, he has repeatedly hawked his business ventures on the campaign trail and made several stops to promote his newest property, the Trump International Hotel in Washington.

But on election night, Trump won’t be celebrating — or conceding — at one of his hotels.

Instead, he has booked what he’s called his “victory party” at the New York Hilton in Midtown Manhattan, just around the corner from the Trump Tower and about a half-mile from the Trump International Hotel & Tower. A third property, the Trump Soho, is about three miles away.”

She then notes that the likely reason is the size of his New York properties — too small — compared to the New York Hilton.

“Trump’s properties are not large enough to accommodate the kind of crowds he’s expecting, says Helio Fred Garcia, president of the crisis management firm Logos Consulting Group.

“’The Hilton is huge,’ said Garcia, also an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. ‘I don’t think it’s so much that he’s embarrassed to hold it in his own place or that his brand has been tarnished, but rather that he expects a large crowd. And so he booked the largest venue that he could.’”

 

She notes that

“The Hilton, which boasts ‘Manhattan’s largest self-contained function space,’ can hold more than 3,000 people in its 24,000-square-foot ballroom. The ballroom of the Trump Soho (the largest function space in a Trump property in Manhattan) measures about one-sixth the size and has capacity for 400, according to its website. The atrium of the Trump Tower maxes out at 350 guests, while the largest space in the Trump International Hotel is a 665-square-foot boardroom.”

She notes that Hillary Clinton’s election night event will be in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center

She adds,

“But even if size wasn’t a concern, some say Trump may have good reason to look beyond his brand on Election Day. The candidate’s business ventures have taken a hit during his campaign. Foot traffic to Trump-branded hotels, casinos and golf courses has slipped roughly 24 percent since he announced his candidacy, according to location-based app Foursquare. And last month, the Trump Organization announced that its newest line of hotels, to be called Scion, wouldn’t bear the Trump name, a move that caused many in the industry to wonder whether the billionaire was trying to distance himself from his commercial ventures.”

To read the entire story, please click here.

Each month, as part of “The Business Case for Public Relations,” the Public Relations Society of America asks an industry leader to reflect on his or her career and make a “business case” for public relations.  In January, 2016, they profiled Logos president Helio Fred Garcia.

The column follows below and is also available here:

January 4, 2016

Helio Fred Garcia, APR

Helio Fred Garcia, APR, is president of the crisis management firm Logos Consulting Group and executive director of the Logos Institute for Crisis Management & Executive Leadership. Based in New York, he is a coach, counselor, teacher, speaker and writer.

He has served on the New York University faculty since 1988 and has received awards for teaching excellence, for outstanding service and for 25 years of service in teaching. Garcia is an adjunct professor of management in NYU’s Stern School of Business Executive MBA program. He is also an adjunct associate professor of management and communication in NYU’s Master’s in Corporate Communication program in the School of Professional Studies.

Garcia is a senior fellow in the Institute of Corporate Communication at the Communication University of China in Beijing. For eight years, until 2015, he served on the leadership faculty of the Center for Security Studies of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich. He has also served on the adjunct faculty of the Starr King School for the Ministry – Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., and is a frequent guest lecturer at universities around the world.

Garcia is accredited by PRSA and received the New York Chapter’s Philip Dorf Award for mentoring. He’s written several books, most recently, “The Power of Communication: Skills to Build Trust, Inspire Loyalty and Lead Effectively” (FT Press, 2012).

“2015 affirmed that effective crisis management, as all good public relations, requires rigor to secure smart decision-making,” Garcia says of what we’ve learned about crisis management from the year’s major stories.

“But so many leaders and organizations, who otherwise value rigor, throw rigor to the wind when bad things happen and make up a response along the way. We have seen confirmation that whether or not an organization emerges from a crisis with reputation, trust and competitive advantage intact is based on the quality and timeliness of the response, not on the severity of the event.”

Name: Helio Fred Garcia, APR

Childhood ambition:  To be a college professor

Current livelihood:  Executive director of the Logos Institute for Crisis Management & Executive Leadership

What changed:  I worked in public relations while in graduate school, then made the easy transition to stay in it.

First public relations job:  Manager of public relations at NYU Dining Services in 1979, which led, improbably, to a job in Edelman’s New York office in 1981

What you know now that you wish you’d known then:  The power of public relations isn’t about media, social media or communication. It’s about understanding people and groups of people; anticipating their needs, concerns and hopes; and then meeting those needs, resolving those concerns, and helping them achieve their hopes.

The power of public relations isn’t about media,
social media, or communication.
It’s about understanding people and groups of people;
anticipating their needs, concerns and hopes;
and then meeting those needs, resolving those concerns,
and helping them achieve their hopes.

 

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received:  When I resisted a headhunter’s invitation to move from consumer product public relations to Wall Street M&A communication, he advised: Don’t market yourself on experience or you’ll have essentially the same job your whole career. Market yourself on ability.

Greatest professional accomplishment:  I am proud of the hundreds of students I have mentored and thousands I have taught over 28 years, and that so many of those students have become clients, colleagues and friends.

If you weren’t in public relations, you would be:  Full-time college professor or administrator of an NGO focusing on multi-religious cooperation

Desired legacy:  That I touched the lives and shaped the careers of many people

Make a “business case” for public relations:  Public relations is about making smart choices to win the trust that is necessary to secure, maintain, and enhance competitive advantage.

 

The Case:
Public relations is about making smart choices
to win the trust that is necessary to secure, maintain,
and enhance competitive advantage.

Logos Consulting Group president Helio Fred Garcia was quoted in the February 9 issue of Senior Housing News, the leading source for news and information covering the senior housing industry.

 

The story, “Six Layers of Defense Against Fires in Senior Living,”  by reporter  Emily Smart, followed a number of recent fatal fires in senior living facilities.  Experts in senior living addressed strategies for presenting fires.  The piece ended with this:

“There is an expectation for senior living communities to have clear fire warning and suppression systems — including alarms and sprinklers — and that the building meet all appropriate safety standards in state and local law,” says Helio Fred Garcia, a crisis management consultant. “To the degree that any of those expectations are unfulfilled, then part of the corrective path going forward is to identify what didn’t meet expectations and then fix it.”

 

 

 

Logos Consulting Group is pleased to note that The Power of Communication: Skills to Build Trust, Inspire Loyalty, and Lead Effectively by Helio Fred Garcia was recently highlighted in CommPro.Biz’s New York University Strategic Communication, Marketing, and Media Management (SCM3) site:

SCM3 Adjunct Professor Helio Fred Garcia’s Leadership Book Receives Global Acclaim

The Power of Communication: Skills to Build Trust, Inspire Loyalty, and Lead Effectively (FT Press, 2012), by Helio Fred Garcia, arose out of the Strategic Communication course he teaches in NYU-SCPS M.S. Degree in in Public Relations and Corporate Communication program. Since its publication it has twice been named to the United States Marine Corps Commandant’s Reading List as one of eight leadership titles, required reading for all Marines. It is currently used in universities around the world, as well as at the U.S. Defense Information School and U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General Select Course. It will be translated into Chinese in China in late 2014 by Pearson Asia Ltd.