Complexities Bespeak Confusion

Just came across a list of new communications jobs out in the marketplace (no, I am not seeking employment—I am already married!). The list gave me pause, as it reflects the growth of uber specialization and redefinition that is going on before our very eyes. Yet, I am quite sure that these are new wrappers on old candies, with some added labels (“organic,” “low fat,” “sugar free,” et cetera).

Here are a few of the best:

  • CSR/ Corporate Affairs Executive
  • Head of PR / HR / Investor Relations
  • PR and Communication Manager
  • Media Relations / Branding Manager
  • Market Research / Online Reputation Manager
  • Communications Strategy Development Manager
  • Crisis Development / Fundraising / Investor Relations
  • HR / Benefits Communication Manager
  • Digital and Social Media Strategist
  • Social Media / Digital Marketing Specialist
  • Marketing Superintendent
  • Entrepreneurial PR and IR Senior Executives
  • In-House PR Management Consultant
  • Crisis / Issue Management / Cause Branding

Not sure that we have improved communicating, but the titles would have you believe so, a fact that I can state as the word arrangement and presence practitioner and readership concierge…. Speaking of the role of Concierge, you WILL be able to get a table at the best restaurants in Hartford now that Aetna is leaving…or thinking about it conspicuously. Imagine Hartford without Aetna. It would be like moving the pyramids from Egypt, the Yankees from the Bronx, or the casinos from Las Vegas. Or you pick the simile. Point is, the deafness of State officials and their impossible regulatory and taxation agendas could drive the pyramids across the Nile. The principle is simple: it’s like the new “automatic tolls” that will forever increase in price with no pain, since politicos can appropriate funds and then raise tolls largely out of sight or interest until it is too late. That happened in Connecticut, long the answer to New York’s wild taxation and regulation environment. Too bad, but the toll just got higher and higher until suddenly someone noticed. Sad day for Hartford and all that it stood for these many years. Check please, waiter…or is it Tray Conveyance Strategist?… H.W. Kaufman Financial Group’s Chairman, President, and CEO, Alan Jay Kaufman, has joined the School of Risk Management (SRM), Insurance and Actuarial Science Board of Overseers at the St. John’s University Peter J. Tobin College of Business in New York. Mr. Kaufman’s and the group’s longstanding dedication to insurance education includes programs inside the company and in academia. One result: Kaufman Financial Group has reduced the average age of its more than 1,700-person employee base to 40.3 years—compared to the industry average of 54 years. Read that again, please. Congratulations, Alan.  SA