There are times when the long-running debate over public relations measurement appears to be stuck in a constant loop, with agencies complaining that clients won’t invest the necessary resources to evaluate PR success effectively, and clients worrying that agencies provide inflated measures of their own success. It’s probably fair to say that no company has definitively solved the evaluation conundrum, but under the leadership of vice president and global head of external communications Andre Manning, Royal Philips Electronics—along with its global agency of record, OneVoice—has come pretty close.

Under Manning’s leadership, Philips and OneVoice (which consists of top talent from several Omnicom agencies working seamlessly around the world to serve the consumer electronics giant) have developed a measurement system that is global both in terms of the media it covers (traditional, digital and social) and its geographic reach. It goes beyond traditional media analysis to focus on a variety of key performance indicators, measuring content and tone and ultimately translating all of that into a net promoter score that helps the company understand the balance between advocates and detractors in every major market around the world.

It’s a template that others could benefit from, and it is to Manning’s credit that he has been sharing it enthusiastically with peers, speaking at several high-profile conferences such as the EACD’s European Communications Summit and the AMEC Measurement Conference.

But this very visible commitment to measurement and evaluation is only one reason Andre Manning is a worthy recipient of our 2011 SABRE Award for Individual Achievement.

Over the course of a distinguishing communications career, Manning has held various international communications leadership positions within Philips, In the 90s, he was based in Prague, helping develop the company’s communications network in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2001, he moved back to Amsterdam work on corporate media relations team and financial and strategic communications. In 2005, he moved to New York, and was responsible for enhancing Philips’ reputation in the US before taking over as head of global communications for the company’s healthcare business.

He was appointed to his current position in the summer of 2009, moving back to the company’s headquarters in the Netherlands to lead a network of 50 communications professionals around the globe. In this role, he serves as the communications advisor of the Philips board of management and has led efforts to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of the function.

In recent months, he has also been leading Philips’ marketing function on an interim basis, finding numerous opportunities between the company’s brand and reputation efforts.