Building the Next Generation Public Affairs & Security Firm
The Next Practices Group Welcomes Ray Kerins Jr. as CEO of Next Security Group
Peter Drucker once said, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”
This is why we are thrilled that Ray Kerins Jr. has joined The Next Practices Group as Founder & CEO of NextSec, our group of firms dedicated to public affairs and all forms of security.
Some things, of course, never change. We all want to build the best reputation for our organization, explain our position effectively to our constituencies and protect ourselves from those who are against us.
Those needs are consistent. But what is different is dramatic and turbulent.
We live with a new threat mix of cybersecurity and disinformation risks that we refer to as the “lukewarm war.” Adversaries may hack into our systems and ask for ransom or shut down our systems or spread disinformation or some combination thereof. It’s the equivalent of watching Madison Avenue innovate the new media mix, but for nefarious purposes. We must be as fluent in this new mix, as they are, so that we remain a step ahead.
At the same time, we must continue to build our business or organization while gaining actionable insights via data science and applying them in more precise ways to share our story and achieve our goals. We need to build media plans that are consistent from TV to TikTok to Telegram. We need to share what we are learning from the dark web to how adversaries stage their content in remote locations.
It’s why we see the importance of tomorrow’s logic, which requires a mashup of the best media skills, the best public affairs strategy, and the best security team, all working as one unit to support our clients.
We see first-hand every day why Mr. Drucker was right. Yesterday’s models won’t cut it. Neither will the logic that built them.
We view it as incumbent on us to show how new models or evolutions of current models can provide value to our clients that may not have been obvious today…. or yesterday.
By Bob Pearson, CEO
bpearson@theblissgrp.com