This week, on the PRmoment podcast, I’m interviewing Brad MacAfee, chief executive officer, senior partner at Porter Novelli.

 Brad has worked at Porter Novelli for the past 18 years and is now the global CEO of this Omnicom-owned PR firm. Porter Novelli has around 90 offices in 60 countries.

 Here is a flavour of what Chris and I discussed: 

• Brad identifies what he sees as the four growth categories for public relations over the next few years 1 min
• Whether company purpose has become the new CSR? 2.30 mins
• Why consumer behavior is fuelling the rush for company purpose 4 mins
• Why Brad almost left Porter Novelli in 2006 when he didn’t make partner 6.30 mins
• Why Brad decided not to leave Porter Novelli 7.20 mins
• Why personal career management is really important 8.46 min
• Why the first 100 days of your time at a company sets the tone 10 mins
• Whether networked agencies have become unfashionable 11.05 mins
• Why networked agencies have a bright future, but a very different future to independent agencies 11.30 mins
• Why the advantages of scale are so important for networked agencies 12 mins
• Why Omnicom having 5000 people in London is a competitive advantage 12.30 mins
• Why the specialisation on offer within the holding companies excites Brad 13.00 mins
• Why the diversity of skills and scale in the networked model scale will eventually lead to better quality work for brands 13.30 mins and 16 mins
• How Omnicom PR group mix and match teams across its PR operations for specific briefs 14.30 mins
• Whether there is a tension for Brad in representing both the Omnicom PR and  Porter Novelli brands 17.00 mins
• What does “putting employees first” mean in a PR firm? 19 mins
• Why employees now expect great experiences at work 22.10 mins
• From a management perspective what’s it like working for a holding company like Omnicom 23.35 mins
• Whether Omnicom PR firms ever pitch against each other 25.45 mins
• How Brad became CEO of Porter Novelli 27.55 mins
• What skill set you need to become CEO of a global firm
• Why you need a great mix of mentors to have a great career
• The skills required to be a good PR person today
• Why PR firms need a stable of clients to help them stay innovative
• Which regions of the world Porter Novelli is prioritising 38.30 mins
• What is the job specification of a global CEO in a global PR firm? 40 mins
• Why Porter Novelli decided to get involved in Giving Tuesday 41 mins
• Why diversity matters in PR
• How Facebook CMO Antonio Lucio insisted Facebook’s agencies had diverse teams
• Why there will only be progress on diversity once it is measured
• Why PR firms should always be recruiting
• How diverse teams within Porter Novelli have been the most successful commercially and in terms of the quality of the work