Since our founding in 1988, Public Strategies has served a diverse clientele, from Fortune 500 companies, top professional firms, and leading trade associations to major non-profits. Our mission, then as now, is to help these enterprises address the full spectrum of opportunities and risks in the public arena, in a way that delivers measurable results.

This mission grew out of two strong beliefs.

1) Senior executives need and deserve sound advice on how to address the public issues confronting their companies just as much as they need and deserve sound financial, legal, accounting, and management advice.

Jack Martin, our founder and chairman, and the people who joined him at Public Strategies had spent their prior careers running political campaigns. They talked with thousands of business leaders across the country. Many executives said those conversations showed them how much they didn’t know about the impact of the public on their companies’ economic health. Out of this came the conviction that senior executives need smart, creative people who can “sit on the same side of the table” with them and convert public risks and opportunities to their company’s advantage – our “ Fifth Seat” philosophy.

2) Companies could benefit from applying aspects of winning political campaigns to the corporate world. To win, political campaign strategists have to be creative and nimble. They have to “see around corners” and anticipate what opponents might do next. They have to be shrewd with the media, build support among many different groups, and put out fires fast – often in multiple places at once. And they’ve got to have the tenacity to stay the course, not just through Election Day, but well beyond.

Building on this belief, Jack and his colleagues set about hiring the talent and developing the tools needed to translate winning campaigns for political candidates into winning campaigns for corporations. Today, Public Strategies continues to refine these tools and apply them across the full range of services we offer our clients.