MxMIndia

Category: PR

  • The first two in the news for not-so-pleasant reasons and the third for winning against all odds in the UK elections. All three masters of the art of Public Relations

    Amith Prabhu: Three men who made news in interesting ways last week

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    If you are a news junkie there is no way you would have missed news on Rahul Yadav, Salman Khan and David Cameron. The first two in the news for not-so-pleasant reasons and the third for winning against all odds in the UK elections. All three masters of the art of Public Relations.

     

    Let us examine each of them briefly starting with Rahul. The 26-year-old IIT drop-out is CEO of Housing.com. He has made several outbursts in the past few weeks taking on big daddies of the game and ensuring he hogs the limelight both in Twitterverse and in the print media. He has done the unimaginable which most old school corporate types have rubbished as mindless arrogance. But in the process what he has achieved is capturing mindspace, attracting eyeballs and more bang for the buck on his crazy outdoor campaign. No one can tell whether all this is planned or ad hoc. But Rahul Yadav has ensured that in a bland category he has got noticed and four of five serious home buyers I spoke to consider his portal as a player to reckon with despite his tantrum-laced behaviour.

     

    Next we have Salman Khan whose 12-year-old hit-and-run case made news last week when he was convicted by a Sessions Court, later released on interim bail by the high court. His foundation Being Human which he created in the past few years was used by the defence lawyers to highlight his good work. So also the role he played of a cop, a good Samaritan and a role model in some of his recent movies, which in hindsight were carefully chosen roles in order to offer perceptions to people that would look at him in a new light. He has won the Public Relations game largely and gotten away with a very tiny wrap on his knuckles for now.

    Lastly, we come to David Cameron, the British Prime Minister who won a second term when everyone had predicted a hung Parliament. It may be important to note here that he is one of the few world leaders who was formerly a Public Relations executive as Head of Corporate Communications at Carlton Communications. He understands reputation management better than most of his rivals and used that smartly during his campaign similar to how his counterpart in India did a year ago. He was the first British to visit a Gurudwara. He used a catchphrase in Hindi to capture the imagination of South Asian voters and put up several candidates of Indian origin to run for office.

    It will be interesting to see how they live up to the news they have made in the coming weeks. For now they have become more famous than they already were. The reasons may not be right, atleast for the two Indians. It may not be the best way to be in the news but sometimes being in the news in smart ways that do not break the rules is better than not being in the news. My reference to not breaking the rules in Salman’s case is how he used very popular characters and how he created a foundation to offer a new perspective.

     

  • Our diversity is great but the one thing we are united by as a nation, is our indiscipline, writes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: Our biggest PR campaign would be a display of discipline

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    We are a country of countries. We are uniquely placed in comparison to other large Asian or American countries. The singular reason for our unique placement is that we have at least 15 states out of 28 that have their own language and several more among the tribes that inhabit various regions especially the north east. Hence, every piece of brand or political communications needs to be translated into multiple languages in order to create national awareness.

     

    This along with our extremely unfavourable climatic conditions makes India a difficult place to operate in when compared to economies like China, Japan, Germany or the United States which are world leaders. The Prime Minister launched several campaigns as soon as he took charge but there has been no campaign to discipline Indians. A much-needed exercise to make the nation the best place to Make in. (my obvious reference to the much hyped Make in India campaign).

     

    Our diversity is great but the one thing we are united by as a nation, is our indiscipline. Being late to meetings, not scheduling appointments using online resources, a dislike for queues, an utter lack of respect to pedestrians when we are driving and pedestrians having no disregard for traffic signals are just some of the examples. This is a touchy topic but in our weakness lies an opportunity.

     

    If Make in India and Clean India have to become successes they have to be backed by a great deal of civic sense, respect for fellow citizens and a new found love for discipline. Unless this campaign is driven from the top it will not find favour. A campaign of this kind may never see the light of day at a national level but can we start small as key players in the organisations we work at. Can PR professionals, both in-house and in consultancies be known as the one category of professionals who are sticklers for discipline and catalysts of punctuality? Can PR professionals unite to create a campaign for discipline?

     

    To start with we can do the following three things –

    a. To formalise the time we spend talking to our connections outside our organisations about our professional growth and career concerns. There is now an option to sign up at www.karmacircles.com/IndiaPR using our linkedin profiles  and with no commercial exchange one can seek and find mentors and plan dedicated time for a conversation

     

    b. To use the calendar in MS Outlook to schedule meetings and stick to them. I know several professionals who like to fix meetings randomly and claim that it works for them

     

    c. To dedicate time on a weekly basis to either write a regular blog or read one book relevant to the profession and write a review at the end of it that will benefit a generation of professionals getting into the PR business.

     

  • Independence is really a state of mind, writes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: Independent PR Firms are no different from holding company-owned firms

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    I fail to understand the big deal independent firm owners make about holding company-owned firms and vice versa. We are a people business and a PR firm is only as good as the talent it acquires and retains. I have worked at two independent firms in India and abroad.

     

    I have also worked at an independent firm that was acquired by a global firm and closely been associated with couple of others in both the leagues. I have honestly seen no difference. And I’m hoping there is a real difference that gets talked about.

     

    The context of the column is the conversations I have been part of where one league tries to do a one-upmanship on the other when there is no scope for such comparison. Then there is the dichotomy of one independent buying another independent. Does the smaller independent still remain an independent?

     

    Also, all these terms are media creations and mainly done to slice and dice content and create avenues for revenue in terms of separate content and forums to target two sets that are one and the same. Yes, independent firms are concerned about being acquired and losing the independence. But that is an area of concern and has been proven wrong by the world’s largest PR firm which not only has resisted all attempts to get acquired and in the process created a holding entity for itself.

     

    Recently, India’s largest firm, also an independent acquired a smaller firm to beef up some of its core offerings and grow in a particular geography. So, independence is really a state of mind. And I don’t think one should worry about independent versus holding company owned.

     

    What one should worry about is local versus international and that is a key differentiator. And this is what will be the deal breaker of the future. The only edge a local firm will have over its international counterpart is in terms of culture and freedom to be creative. Even on these the international firms are getting their act together.

     

    However, I was amazed to spend an hour at the office of an Indian PR firm last week which is not only young and independent but growing rapidly. That firm also has a team of trendspotters who are only focused on spotting trends. In a future column I will write about some of the up-start Indian firms which are raring to go.

     

    At a global level from a management standpoint, there could be couple of differentiators but at a national level, there are none. Today’s independent firm can get acquired tomorrow and the cosmetic change is the addition of another name as a suffix or prefix. Some clients will be won or lost because of global alignments and life goes on.

     

    But the bottomline is there is no big difference between the independent firms and holding company owned. If there is a real difference, it is between the international players and the local players. We are only as good as the people we invest in.

     

  • When will PR professionals learn to praise an achievement so that the profession gets the recognition it ought to get, asks Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: Why PR is never going to get its due for a long time?

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    I posted a tweet last week in the backdrop of the Net Neutrality discussion gripping urban India, stating “Good advice to the management by the new PR head. @Flipkart pulls out of Airtel Zero Rating. Now we can go back to shopping on Flipkart.”

     

    There were two objectives to posting this tweet. First, I was in the know of a new hire Flipkart had made and I knew the person was of a stature who could play the role of a counselor with the Bansal Boys to let better sense prevail. I also had read the news that Flipkart was relenting and supporting Net Neutrality (an issue that had led to lakhs of voices lending support to the issue). And I got to know from two people familiar with what transpired that the person indeed played a key role of advisor in a decision the promoters and investors had taken. Second, I am big believer that PR should get its due and we rarely give credit to this management function because of the crab mentality in the system. Hence, I was just saying what I did based on factual knowledge.

     

    Seconds after I posted the above tweet, two ‘veteran’ communications professionals who have been connected in the past with the company and the executive respectively, responded to the question. The first asked a question about how I knew that the person advised the management and the second said that I was dabbling in guess work. Well, this background is important for those who missed the twitter conversation. Because the larger points that were being missed was that – the PR function certainly had a role to play, something I was aware of and I was calling it out based on conversations I had with people familiar with the internal decision. In the midst of this, a senior journalist who neither knows who the executive is nor knows the promoters of the company personally decides to throw in his two bits and take the conversation to a different tangent taking away the credit being given to the new PR executive.

     

    Well, the two ‘veteran’ professionals have every right to say what they want to but in the process they were missing the opportunity to give PR its due. This is a regular feature where we do not go out of the way to participate in giving credit to a function that plays a strategic role in business. Why does this happen? That is a million rupee question. When will PR professionals learn to praise an achievement so that the profession gets the recognition it ought to get? This does not amount to mutual admiration. But peer recognition and there is a difference.

     

    Well, the same maybe the case with lawyers, advertising folks and management consultants but the PR consulting business is such a small world that everyone seems to know everyone. Yet, we do not see the bigger picture of giving fellow professionals the due. This maybe old school and a new generation of professionals is emerging which may change the outlook to each other. As an observer of the rapid changes taking place around and creating some of them myself, I’m positive that someday PR will get its due.

     

    I wanted to share this thought in today’s column because the background to all this is that in the past couple of weeks we have seen one of the biggest Public Relations campaigns which may never be referred to as a PR campaign. This is a campaign planned, executed and managed by ordinary citizens like you and me. The campaign has led to several business decisions of large corporates being impacted. It may not be like the Arab Rising event but has certainly had all the ingredients of a good campaign. People have put a lot at stake to take on large corporates in the fight for Net Neutrality. The battle is ongoing and on the look of it Public Relations is winning. But it will be referred to as citizen activism. Same thing by a different name.

     

  • While there are a few bright sparks that enter the profession every year a large number of entrants lack basic understanding of the business

    Amith Prabhu: Which are the good PR firms?

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    I get at least five calls each month from friends and professional acquaintances asking me to recommend a PR firm and more often than not I’m confused. Confused because I know and like the leaders of several PR firms. But I’m not so sure about the talent on the ground who will deliver campaigns and run programmes. In a consulting service business, a firm is only as good as its people. And that too the young work force that executes ideas.

     

    While there are a few bright sparks that enter the profession every year a large number of entrants lack basic understanding of the business. I am writing this after the experience of having interacted and mentored quite a few over the last couple of years.

     

    Today’s untrained and non-mentored junior executives become tomorrow’s managers and then later go on to become leaders in no time because of the attrition leading to a poor crop of professionals. We lack a few qualities compared to our counterparts in the west. We lack the ability to organise the willingness to be disciplined and the capacity to be knowledgeable. All essential commodities to be great Public Relations professionals.

     

    This problem may be solved if people come together. If not there is a bleak future staring at us. That brings me back to the point I make in the headline by asking a question – Who are the good PR firms? One of the reasons I get asked this question is because the word going around is that there are a handful of consultants in each firm who are really good and clients are worried that, if their business does not go to the hands of these outstanding consultants they are doomed.

     

    So how do we solve this problem? One option is to create a review site where consultants put themselves up for a scrutiny where their clients, peers and bosses review them. These consultants will carry a premium and be in great demand. More importantly this would be at the most 20% of the total number of professionals. Because those not sure of getting good reviews will not opt in. We need a rating system to collectively take the quality of the professional community to the next level.

     

    As time passes an increasing number of professionals will want to be reviewed publicly. This happens to doctors, chefs and several other professionals all the time. Maybe time for a Zomato for the PR firms. Then answering “Who are the good PR firms” will not be difficult.

     

  • The core AAP voter base does not care about intra-party fights as long as the party they voted for delivers on its promises which the governments has got down to do, notes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: The Aam Aadmi Party just did business

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    I have been getting calls from friends with a common interest in politics to understand my reading of the new kid on the block. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was written off until December, then positioned as the challenger in January, became the victor in February and went through its worst ever internal squabble in March. Now, its voters hope it delivers on its poll promises starting April.

     

    As I write this column, it has just delivered on its election assurance of launching a corruption helpline. One needs to understand that AAP is different from most other parties. For instance, it was not founded by breakaway factions or a regional satrap of an existing party, though it is bound to have the usual ups and downs any other party goes through.

     

    With this in mind, let us look at the fiasco and ouster of two party stalwarts, if I may call them so. Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were part of the troika led by Arvind Kejriwal. If Arvind was its face and limbs, Yogendra and Prashant were the brains trust and would have ideally been frontrunners for two of the three Rajya Sabha seats that the party would be entitled to in couple of years.

     

    That is where the problem starts. During the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Kejriwal went ballistic about letting over 400 individuals contest across the country against the wishes of the brains trust who are a combination of bundlers, legal expertise and psephology. The two leaders felt the party was spreading itself too wide for a bad fall, which did end up happening. Besides casting the net wide, the party supremo did a few other things that did not go down well. He put all his resources into the Varanasi basket, he was keen to get back to the seat of power in the Delhi assembly to avoid an existential crisis and he did not want to focus on Haryana state elections which the party had felt was a sitting duck a few months before the October election.

     

    Most importantly, he felt he was offering an alternative to those disgruntled with the INC and the BJP and wants to occupy the space left behind by the Congress and counter BJP without ever being seen close to either one of the party, especially the BJP for obvious reasons. In the midst of all this clever posturing, Shanti Bhushan (Prashant’s father and one of the first big donors of the party) decided to warm up to the BJP and its CM candidate which was the nail in the coffin. Once the election results were declared, the daggers were out.

     

    This was waiting to happen and they did it in style with effortless execution skills that even well-established parties were put to shame. In my opinion, the core AAP voter base does not care about intra-party fights as long as the party they voted for delivers on its promises which the governments has got down to do. When Delhi goes to the hustings in 2020 another Lok Sabha election would have been fought, even if half of the 67 legislators get their act together in the next five years and get voted again, AAP will be in for a second term with a simple majority.

     

    These were well-calculated moves which were delayed from last summer to ensure the perception of the party was not tarnished until the historic mandate was won. Key takeaways for Public Relations: a) Even as you go about putting your house in order don’t stop from delivering on the core b) Stakeholder memory is short and the last event is remembered, so go about offering some great experiences to the larger base, and c) If you can achieve what you have set out to do your reputation will take care of itself

     

  • Last week, a senior business journalist vented on Twitter by calling a PR firm by name and asking them to get its act together, notes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: Freedom of Speech and its implications

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    This column is about two stories on Freedom of Speech and its implications on reputation. Since Section 66A of the Information Technology Act is hot news one could not resist writing on a related note. One is from a media perspective and the other from a brand outlook.

     

    Last Monday, a senior business journalist vented out on Twitter by calling a PR firm by name and asking them to get its act together. I have always believed a service company is only as good as its people are. However good 99 out of 100 are, it takes one person to negate all the good the rest try and do.

     

    In journalism too, however good 99 journalists are, it takes one journalist to slip up and bring a bad name to journalism. But rarely do PR professionals call out the name of the journalist in public. This could be because of the belief some have, that PR professionals need journalists more than journalists need PR people.

     

    He also had some other advice few days prior to this angry outburst. While he is outspoken, many choose other ways to address the concern. While I have great regard for this senior journalist I think there are better ways to handle these situations.

     

    If someone tweeted to you, then give it back on Twitter. But if someone called you, then call their office and ask for the head of the branch or the Indian operation and register a formal complaint. If there is no respite, then resorting to any other method is valid. I admit I have not checked with him to understand whether he did that.  Some may say that it is none of his business to do that and they may be right. However, I’m assuming that he did not do that before tweeting.

     

    As per the advice he had on March 18 via tweets, he said, “PR juniors shouldn’t deal much with clients. Seniors should deal with client briefs & teach juniors how to deal with journos”. Well, may be a point to ponder on. He also tweeted “Why are PR consultancy seniors so lazy? Don’t/can’t they tell their junior staff who to deal with and how? Wondering whether to name consultancies” and “PR juniors often tend to be in 3 categories (1) Overzealous (2) Servile (3) Clueless.”

     

    The second story is shorter and about my hunt for a product that I use, which I shall not name here. In the last two months, over a dozen shops I went to looking for this product by brand name have not had it in stock. I almost tweeted about my angst and then realized a friend (who is vocal about brands), works in a senior position for the company that markets the product, and I should check with her. It so happens that we communicate often on Twitter and I checked with her in a reply tweet as to why this product was unavailable. She immediately called to request me to delete the tweet lest questions get asked. I had no problem taking down the tweet to save her the trouble of handling the issue. But my questions are as follows:

     

    Could the brand have not had better ways to communicate to the outlets about the stop of supply of this product, so customers are not hassled? Could the brand have not had a section on their website or on social media indicating that the product has been temporarily shelved? And lastly, because the executive knew me and saw the tweet mentioning the brand name, she could call me. How is the brand dealing with other customers who are questioning the product’s absence in shop shelves, given that people in a particular profession are still recommending the product?

     

    With no offence meant to anyone, all I can say is we are a society which does not understand how to enjoy freedom of speech.

     

  • How many communications heads have made attempts to earn the seat at the table by acquiring a business qualification or being able to contribute to the bottomline, asks Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: Where’s the Seat at the table?

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    I was at two back to back events last week in Mumbai. One organised by the Association of Asia Pacific Communications Directors to launch the India chapter. And the other organised by yours truly to bring together senior communications folks from both sides of the aisle under one platform.

     

    Both events had much in common. One thing that stood out is the question that a member of the audience asked at both conferences. As to when would communications leaders get a seat at the table? Two interesting perspectives emerged from the respondents on stage.

     

    Before I share those responses in this column I would like to place my viewpoint on this question which should be a non-question. Communications leaders are hired by chief executive officers more often than not to assist them in a function that they love to lead from the front. Take the example of Anand Mahindra or Harsh Goenka or Tony Fernandes or any other vocal and communicative chief executive to understand this better.

     

    These CEOs and several others like them drive communications strategy, have a seat at the table and technically lead the communications function with the communications head reporting to them. That should answer the question in some part. Next, how many communications heads have made attempts to earn the seat at the table by acquiring a business qualification or being able to contribute to the bottomline?

     

    Other questions that come to mind are – Who are the outstanding communicators in India who deserve to have a seat at the table? What have communicators who have earned a seat at the table done differently? And what will communicators with a seat at the table do differently that they are unable to do now?

     

    Well, there are communicators who are senior enough to have been nominated as independent directors in companies other than their own and truly on merit. Roma Balwani and Veena Gidwani are two such names. This is a beginning as communications as an independent function is much newer a function compared to the traditional functions of sales, marketing and operations.

     

    This trend will certainly change and we will see more and more communicators earning that seat at the table in addition to the CEO who for all practical reasons is on that table? So the question we should be asking is when will communications earn the second seat at the table? And in order to find answers let us think innovatively to make a truly remarkable difference that will contribute to the business beyond the plain vanilla role of communications advice and execution.

     

    I think I have answered the question without mentioning it explicitly. Now it’s time for communicators to ask their CEOs for that second seat by building a fool-proof case to deserve that. The time is not far.

     

  • Just as a botched up surgery does not let surgeons lose their credibility. Public relations professionals who work with consultancies and in communications departments largely try and work within an ethical code that is unwritten but understood, writes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: Has Public Relations lost its credibility?

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    This week, in Mumbai I’m co-hosting the first gathering of senior communicators. The half-day conclave hopes to become an annual feature by bringing together business leaders who share their thoughts on reputation management. Public Relations over the years has been referred to by different folks with different strokes.

     

    Some call it Public Engagement, some say it’s Public Communications, some call it Corporate Affairs or Corporate Communications, some others refer to it as Reputation Management or Strategic Communications. There are many other nomenclatures associated with the profession. But Public Relations, many think is no more as sexy as it used to be.

     

    In a recent twitter conversation on a different tangent, the consulting editor of Money Life (Veeresh Malik) raised a question that Public Relations in India had lost its credibility. [His response was – if PR was about real content told with style then why did it lose credibility?}. There were four others including me tagged to this thread. One of them (Prema Sagar) responded with a question – “Did it? And Malik responded saying Yes.

     

    My answer would be clearly NO. Public relations has not lost credibility. Just as a botched up surgery does not let surgeons lose their credibility. Public relations professionals who work with consultancies and in communications departments largely try and work within an ethical code that is unwritten but understood.

     

    There are certain stakeholders and certain professionals in Public Relations who will cross the line that leads to an incorrect perception. Public Relations has certainly failed in building its own reputation but that is less a problem of the profession and more a problem of competitors not coming together. The mediocre has always been given an upper hand because few think of the long term, rather focusing on the short term.

     

    I’m hoping the conclave aptly called ENGAGE gets professionals to engage with each other during and after the conclave to arrive at an outlook for the profession for the year ahead and the time to come. I hope senior folks both, who lead communications departments and lead PR firms evolve a system to make things better so people like Veeresh won’t live with a wrong perception that PR in India has lost its credibility.

     

    Maybe we need to start early and it’s never too late. We need to train professionals’ right. We need to accredit new and existing professionals. We need to get senior folks to talk more often and do a service to the profession. Because if we do not focus on the publics and the relationships around the eco-system of Public Relations we would only be leaving a messed up reputation of the profession for future generations.

     

  • Though Outlook was owned by a corporate house and had a style that was not very much liked by right-wingers, it definitely brought in a freshness to journalism, writes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu on Vinod Mehta: They don’t make editors like him anymore

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    It was my final year of high school and I still remember my dad coming home with this new magazine in hand. My home saw four daily newspapers and three weekly magazines that came through subscription, which meant the newspaper man or the postman delivered these. One of the three magazines had stopped abruptly (Sunday from the ABP Group). There was a vacuum.

     

    India Today was losing its shine and The Week was becoming predictable. This new magazine in my dad’s hand was a welcome read. It was called Outlook and was a weekly, versus India today which was then (in 1995) a fortnightly. Well, the rest they say is history and Vinod Mehta drove the magazine’s editorial content for almost 17 of the 20 years it has been in existence.

     

    It was always a joy to read the last page of the magazine when it featured ‘Delhi Diary’ authored by Mehta himself. I was at the entrance of Hotel Taj Palace in New Delhi on 22nd November waiting for my cab. I had just left the venue of the HT Leadership Summit after attending a session on Twitter. As I was waiting feebly walks Vinod Mehta. We exchanged glances, then a smile and as he waited for his car I told him he was a much admired Editor.

     

    He asked me what I do and then quickly referred to the session we had both attended few minutes prior. He was quite upset that the social network site did not have a mechanism to prevent anonymous handles that were spewing venom. He was quite alright with the idea of criticism. He also mentioned that he was also not happy that there was a parody account on him called @DrunkVinodMehta. To which I told him he should have his own account (I have been successful at convincing couple of other Editors to get on to the medium), and he responded that he had created a twitter handle the previous weekend mainly to promote his memoir. (See @vinodedmehta)

     

    Just then his car arrived, followed by mine. He needed help to get down the final flight of stairs and extended a hand. I was more than happy to extend mine. Both, his driver and he thanked me followed by which my cab arrived as well.

     

    Barely 100 days later news trickled in that he had passed away. He stood for fearlessness. An attribute that few Editors can claim to have in this day and age. Though Outlook was owned by a corporate house and had a style that was not very much liked by the right-wingers, it definitely brought in a freshness to journalism and branched out create few other titles under its franchise. Vinod Mehta did not shy away from publishing the brickbats sent by the readers. He was loved or hated but never ignored. He definitely lived the 73 years of his life very well. I wish there are more like him in the journalistic fraternity. I also hope Outlook posthumously published the entire collection of Delhi Diary. And may his soul rest in peace.

     

  • Peer influence, word-of-mouth marketing, new connections are all taking place at these weekend events around the country, notes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: The art of Public Relations is changing

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    India is seeing a new breed of events that were never heard of until a couple of years ago. I just returned from one and my biggest takeaway is that Public Relations is changing faster than we thought. And it is happening through real-time human interaction.

     

    Peer influence, word-of-mouth marketing, new connections are all taking place at these weekend events around the country. The Coalition, Construkt Festival INK conference and The Goa Project are just few of the events that have mushroomed. These are the new media outlets where ideas are brought to life and discussed threadbare.

     

    We talk of PR professionals not getting their due.  If we PR professionals do not take time out and invest in attending events such as these we will for remain in a shell. Besides the learning and meeting with new people that these forums offer there is an amazing power to float trial balloons and test new concepts that these gatherings offer.

     

    Three things I liked at the The Goa Project, which I feel are reasons enough to attend such unconferences in the future. People from different walks of life who are complete strangers attend. I did not know a single person but at the end of two days I had made friends with nearly a dozen interesting individuals including an art therapist, a make-up artist, an in-film placement expert, a design thinker, an econometrician, a bespoke designer, a theatre actor, a linguist, a podcaster and a spa owner among others. Can there be a wider variety?

     

    The unconference meant anyone could apply to be a speaker and share a point of view. So one could attend sessions as diverse as women-centric cinema, fund raising in the arts, the power to change habits and stress management among others. Most importantly the sea-side ambience provided a relaxed setting for learning with fun.

     

    Lastly, one goes back with entirely new perspectives on life that one would not get at a gathering of like-minded or fellow professionals. So why are PR professionals not at such events? I don’t have an answer. All I know is that there is a need for such events and these are great places for communicators to create traction for brands and organisations they work for.

     

    We cannot complain that we do not have adequate forums to meet and discuss ideas. We must make use of these platforms to evolve ideas. Until the next unconference, then.

     

  • How many PR professionals across the below-30 and above-30 category innovate or do something remarkably outstanding, asks Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: 30 under 30 and what they need to do

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    I was a member of the jury that chose the first list of 30 under 30 in Indian PR. Two things that clearly stood out were, that there is great talent out there and the future of our profession will be in great hands in the years to come. The other interesting takeaway is that some of these should also feature in the list that Forbes India brings out and there are some who would make the cut but do not nominate themselves.

     

    Now that brings me to a Twitter discussion I was having with Deepa Dey who heads Corporate Communications at a leading consumer healthcare company (it’s a different matter that she refers to the discussion as an argument). She felt it was saddening that PR professionals did not feature in the Forbes India list whereas I felt how does Forbes find out that some bright sparks exists unless they do some PR for themselves or come under the radar of the journalist compiling the list. I think it is really optimistic to want to see PR professionals in this list and never impossible.

     

    I’m reproducing the methodology that Forbes India used to arrive at the list from their website:

    The research process was three-fold: One, interviews by Forbes India staffers with sources across relevant categories as well as through studies of databases and media coverage. Two, an online application on forbesindia.com, inviting applications from entrepreneurs/ professionals who felt they qualified. Three, by spreading the word through social media. This helped arrive at a long list which went up to over 300 names across 13 categories. (Finance as a category was dropped for lack of adequate representation.)

     

    Now the question is whether Public Relations as a category even featured at all? And if it did, whether PR professionals featured in the minds of sources that Forbes India staffers spoke to. Also, did PR professionals who felt they qualified, even apply to be in the list. When I refer to PR professionals I mean both – those who work inhouse and those who work in consultancies.

     

    Keeping both the above in context the question I have is how many PR professionals across the below-30 and above-30 category innovate or do something remarkably outstanding? If they do, why is it not brought into the fore? Well, the answers to these will never be found.

     

    The point I’m trying to make is that PR professionals get into the profession to contribute towards building reputations using the power of communications in different forms. Very rarely do PR professionals want to hog the limelight. It is a strategic backroom job with a lot of power and responsibility.

     

    Now that we have our own list that features not one or two but thirty bright, smart professionals we should celebrate and get more people to apply next year. Let’s hope these 30 contribute in outstanding ways to themselves, their organisations and to the profession. And may some of these apply to be in the Forbes India List in 2016.

     

    More importantly, may some of our own who are in the 40s and 50s get to be the people Forbes India speaks to next year! Till then here’s cheering up the 30 under 30. May their tribe increase and may our optimism grow.