Pros
It is a marque name in the PR field; Edelman is to PR what Rolls-Royce is to cars. There is no shortage of communications offerings; from crisis and issues management, CSR to branding and digital, it is certainly "one-stop shopping" with quality, ingenious work all around. With it being a privately held company, there's no worries about dividends, superfluous buzz from NYSE analysts and the like; focus can be devoted to enhancing existing relationships with clients and new business prospects.
Cons
The first area of improvement is eliminating the "office politics" and keeping the egos of senior-level people in check...if that's even possible (also, some leaders just need to "toughen up" their pain tolerances more). Edelman has brilliant people at the helms of many practice groups but are not always "generous" to their support staff. They should go beyond minimum 3% increases and try making bigger spot bonuses more regular -- you'd be amazed at what those little things will do for morale. Some executives and account staff take a dismal, almost dismissive view to administrative professionals. I feel that if some had it their way, they would have the secretarial pool enter the offices through a back door not unlike the servants during the Antebellum South. Another area of improvement -- from top leadership down to mid-level -- is to ease up on or outright eradicate petty issues with colleagues on a daily basis or during the annual reviews; going a full year without bringing up any areas for improvement and then bombarding your reviewees with numerous flaws is just poor form. There will be days that go well and some will be better than others; that said, you -- like every living, mortal human being -- have to just roll with the punches and deal. It may be beneficial for Edelman -- and perhaps other companies -- to foster a culture of modesty and humility to some extent.
