Boris Hughes

At a recent meeting of public relations professionals I asked the speaker, Boris Hughes, the million dollar question. (Actually the correct answer to the question is worth untold fortunes.) Hughes was discussing multi-platform marketing. He manages direct mail services for Hewlett-Packard so granted, the information he imparted was favorable for the continuing popularity of direct mail.

The conversation naturally turned to the use of social media, texting and the abysmal lack of proper communications skills by the “next generation” of business leaders. By “proper communications skills” I was referring to the ability to form complete sentences that successfully presented a concept, without the use of acronyms or “text speak.” Hughes offered the observation that in many cases young people entering the corporate world didn’t even have an email address, all their communications were via texting or on social networks like Facebook or Twitter.

I wondered aloud what was going to happen next – would the up-and-comers have to learn how to use email (like the rest of us) or was the corporate world going to abandon traditional business communications in favor of 140 character memos? I eagerly anticipated the answer; after all, HP is a communications and technology giant. His answer (insert dramatic pause), “I don’t know. No one does. I wish we did.” So do I, Boris, so do I.

Photo credit: Marc Beaudin/news-press.com