On October 9th 2008, Dr. Legewie of CNC, and also a guest speaker in the MBA in Globalization lecture "Hidden Champions", led a 90-minute seminar entitled "Better Marketing Through Effective PR". Speaking to an audience of Japanese and foreign PR professionals, Dr. Legewie and his three colleagues highlighted how a company's marketing and PR functions can contribute significantly to the ultimate aim of building up, protecting and strengthening a global brand. Describing how companies can use media relations to sell more products and services, Dr. Legewie illustrated his points through a series of case studies on Japanese companies and foreign companies in Japan.

The first half the seminar was spent describing how "three pillars" made the Japanese media unique in character, greatly impacting a company's PR potential. Firstly, Dr. Legewie pointed to the dominance and authority of Japanese daily newspapers, some of which have a circulation of 40 million per day-more than the 10 major newspapers in the US combined. Secondly he alerted the audience to the presence of the press club system in Japan, which controls information and enforces highly restricted access to selected media. Thirdly, he talked about industry specific newspapers and magazines (the likes of which are not to be found in Europe or the USA), which give companies huge opportunities to promote their business in Japan. Dr. Legewie argued that the three pillars make it imperative for foreign companies in Japan to adjust their PR and marketing strategies. He noted that PR in Japan wasn't necessarily about getting in the newspaper that same day, but rather about being patient, "networking networking networking" and building up a press archive. He advocated an "anonymous outreach" approach to the Japanese media in the first instance, by placing a neutral press release or company fact sheet in the relevant industry's press club box. Such a move, the audience was told, could eventually result in a word-for-word copy in an industry specific publication. Other recommended PR activities were media roundtables, group interviews and joint press events with Japanese companies.

Dr. Legewie went on to cover the Mitsubishi motors crisis and resulting crisis management activities. Corporate marketing and corporate social responsibility was vitally important when attempting to rebuild the Mitsubishi brand; product marketing became almost defunct. During the crisis, Mitsubishi put the customer back in the focus and now Fuso is the most favorably reported truck makers in Japan (2008). In another case study, Dr. Legewie described the PR success of the Germany-based auto parts maker, Webasto, which has enjoyed coverage of its revolutionary truck cooling system by various relevant media in Japan. Webasto Japan's PR campaign is being overseen by Dr. Legewies' company, CNC.

CNC, founded in 2002, has around 100 staff globally and opened its Tokyo office in 2004. The German-based company has been responsible for, among other things, repositioning the branding of Masterfood to Mars, and specializes in five main areas of communication-financial, corporate, brand/marketing, crisis management and public affairs.