Against corporate navel-gazing

Communications managers will sometimes have to be the devil’s advocate

 
“Markets are conversations”: that is how the authors of the “Cluetrain Manifesto” put the logic of the market economy in the digital age at a point in time when the new economy – today one might call it Web 1.0 – had reached its climax. The idea was not brand new. As a matter of fact it is part and parcel of the science of political economy that “economic transactions are always based upon relations between human beings”, as Gebhard Kirchgässner formulates it in his book “Homo Oeconomicus”. Or in other words: goods, services and prices are media of a dialogue between supply and demand.

Christof Ehrhart

Christof Ehrhart is head of corporate communications and executive vice president at Deutsche Post DHL. Prior to joining Deutsche Post DHL, he headed corporate communications at EADS. He started his career within the communications industry as director of corporate issues in the corporate communications department of Bertelsmann, where he later held several positions such as vice president of public Rrelations for AOL Bertelsmann Europe and vice president corporate communications, product management and event marketing for Bertelsmann Online. Ehrhart moved on to become director of corporate affairs and public relations at JT International Germany, before he became head of corporate communications at Schering AG.