When PR was first mentioned in Lisa Novak's MBA class at the University of California-Berkeley's Haas School of Business, most of the students were perplexed by the concept. But Novak, SVP at Ruder Finn West, noticed as the professor gave examples of crises companies have faced and how PR has helped solve these, her fellow students were listening attentively.

"When the professor explained the problem and the results people got from [PR] - everyone got it," she recalls. ...