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Tag: Amith Prabhu

  • How many of us work to leave a legacy and how many of us aim to create lasting legacies, asks Amith Prabhu

    Leaving a Legacy

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    After a series of lists – first in December and then in January I’m back to the listless columns. I have got a lot of feedback on the columns that has lists because people enjoy reading lists. May be in March or April I will resort to another series of lists.

     

    February is a special month for a variety of reasons. And over the next four weeks I will write about concepts dear to my heart both personally and professionally. This week, as the headline states is about leaving a legacy.

     

    How many of us work to leave a legacy? How many of us aim to create lasting legacies? What is it about legacies that make them difficult to create? I try and meet at least 3-4 CEOs of Indian PR firms and an equal number of chief communications officers every month for one-on-one interactions. Each of these meetings is a learning session for me. Several of these individuals I meet are institutions in their own right and some of them have built companies that are moulded to look and feel like institutions. In January, I had separate meetings with two of the most powerful individuals in Indian PR consulting and the one thing that stands out every time I meet them is that they have built a legacy for future generations by sheer hard work, ample amount of determination and a clear vision. The same goes for communications directors. There are two individuals in different age groups who stand out for what they do at the conglomerates they work for and have created legacies that give the organisations a unique stature.

     

    They made me ponder on what goes into building and leaving a legacy besides hard work, determination and vision. I think there is no magic sauce and to each his or her own. But there certainly are some ingredients that go into legacy building. I’m hopeful in the next five years before we reach 2020 we will see several men and women who leave behind a legacy in the world of communication consulting and corporate communications.

     

    I was reading a special coffee table book brought out by Madan Bahal’s colleagues to commemorate his 60th birthday. I’m hoping next year Prema Sagar will bring out a book as the company she founded turns 25. These are individuals who came up the hard way who have built institutions and will leave legacies.

     

    The purpose of this column is to send out a message to all professionals that while small battles have to be fought day in and day out the war is about creating something that you will be remembered for. And there are plenty of opportunities out there to work on. The question you will ask yourself on completing a milestone in your professional life is “What did I achieve that I will always be remembered for?” And the first step is to start today by asking yourself the question as to what do you want to do in the next 11 months that you want to be remembered for in 2016?

     

  • A listing of 16 things one hopes to see happen in the Indian PR world this year from Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: 16 things we hope to see in Indian PR this year

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    Here is a list of 16 things one hopes to see happen in the Indian PR world this year… the concluding part of the series of
    1. A united communications fraternity – There are several groups online and offline. There is PRCAI, PRSI, PRCI, ABCI. They all need to come together under a Federation for the greater good.

     

    2. A book or two by PR veterans – We hope Prema Sagar and Madan Bahal or Dilip Cherian and Sunil Gautam bring out a book on Public Relations in India this year. It will be a good for future generations to gain inspiration from.

     

    3. An Indian PR campaign from a PR firm winning at Cannes – Indian PR firms have never won a Lion at Cannes and we hope this June changes that once and for all. Some great work does happen, some great packaging needs to happen.

     

    4. A PR professional becoming a corporate CEO – A career PR professional has rarely become a CEO of a corporate organisation.  John Fallon of Pearson, Dave D’Alessandro of John Hancock, and Richard Plepler of HBO have done it in the US. India’s turn now.

     

    5. The next 100 crore PR firm in India – This can only happen if the second largest Indian firm merges with another global firm, which maybe a difficult proposition but it is still possible. I’m referring to Perfect Relations becoming part of the Edelman or MSLGroup network.

     

    6. A Deputy Secretary General at PRCAI – PRCAI has great potential but needs more hands and feet. While Jayoti is doing a great job, time for her to have a full-time assistant and potential successor.

     

    7. A really solid awards system – There are couple of awards systems but these have the same companies on the jury, on the sponsor table and on the winners’ list. The three need to be separated with no further comment.

     

    8. A PR magazine in print – Print is not dying anytime soon. The profession needs to have its own print magazine so that the profession gets its due with a variety of stakeholders. High time this cat was belled.

     

    9. A few more women leaders in the top 10 firms – I shared a list of the 16 leading ladies in Indian PR consulting but majority of them are not in the Top 10 firms. We need more women in senior leadership (Top 3) at the larger firms.

     

    10. An Indian in the global leadership of a Top 20 international PR firm – Very few Indians have gone beyond regional roles. It is time for an Indian to make it to the global leadership of a leading firm beyond tokenism.

     

    11. Indian consultancies hiring from the top IIMs and from ISB – I hope 2016 is the year when IIMs and ISBs see a beeline for placements on Day Zero from at least five PR firms in India. This will be the day when the profession has truly arrived.

     

    12. A repository of Indian PR case studies – There is no online or offline repository of great case studies of work done in Indian Public Relations for reference. I hope this year that changes in some form.

     

    13. An Indian solution to the measurement problem – We have heard the Barcelona Principles for the last several years

     

    14. A PR professional being appointed by the government as communications advisor – This government may never hire a formal communications advisor like most previous Prime Ministers did. If they do, I wish it will be someone from the PR fraternity.

     

    15. A better work-life balance for PR professionals – PR often features in the most stressful jobs list. PR people are part of a vicious cycle. Maybe, it’s time to get that act together and focus on better health and less stressful times.

     

    16. A structured association of corporate communicators – There is no single association that brings together corporate communications professionals. There are WhatsApp groups and Facebook groups. But a registered association could do wonders.

     

  • A list of the ladies who have built brands and businesses from scratch or have been hired by global companies to lead their India office

    Amith Prabhu: The 16 leading ladies of Indian PR consulting

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    The penultimate in the series around the number 16 is a special focus on Women leaders in Indian PR Consulting. These are the ladies who have built brands and businesses from scratch or have been hired by global companies to lead their India office. If I have missed out on someone you think who ought to have featured here, please bring it to my attention.

     

    1. Prema Sagar – The undisputed queen of Indian Public Relations consulting. She started Genesis Public Relations in 1992 and has built it into a powerhouse in its own right. Sir Martin Sorrell and Harold Burson vouch for her.

     

    2. Nandita Lakshmanan – The only PR firm among the Top 10 that is headquartered in Bangalore. The PRactice is linked to the Porter Novelli network.

     

    3. Archana Jain – Archana is the authority on luxury and lifestyle PR. She has created a niche for PR Pundit that few have been able to match.

     

    4. Radhika Shapoorjee – This advertising executive made the switch to Public Relations early on and has been at the helm of H+K Strategies (formerly IPAN) for close to a decade.

     

    5. Radha Roy – As country manager of Ruder Finn, Radha leads client mandates in India which is one of six countries where this consultancy has a presence.

     

    6. Papri Dev – Papri spent over a decade at Genesis like most of the other leaders mentioned above and then moved as to Danile J Edelman Inc company Zeno Group India as its second managing director.

     

    7. Bela Rajan – Bela is the original founder of Sampark which her husband later joined and later got sold to Ketchum. She is one of the most down to earth professionals around.

     

    8. Valerie Pinto – Probably the only CEO of a global company’s Indian operation who is under 40, Valerie made big news when she joined Weber Shandwick from Perfect Relations last year.

     

    9. Sunayna Malik – Sunayna is one of the few leaders who moved from corporate communications to consulting when the trend was not yet in vogue.

     

    10. Madhuri Sen – Madhuri runs the iconic Seattle headquartered company’s India operations and has been at the helm of Waggener Edstrom since they launched in India in 2010

     

    11. Kavita Lakhani – Kavita is President at Golinopinion and works closely with Ameer Ismail in delivering client delight.

     

    12. Kavita Bhaskaran – Kavita is the brand new head at Ogilvy Public Relations. She joined the firm in late 2015.

     

    13. Praveen Rikhy – Praveen Rikhy runs Melcole PR, arguably India’s oldest PR firm that is still in existence.

     

    14. Shivani Gupta – Shivani cofounded SPAG Asia year before last which has gone on to win some major global awards.

     

    15. Manisha Chaudhry – Manisha is the co-founder of Value 360 which has become the go-to place for startups

     

    16. Jayoti Lahiri – Last but not the least. This list would have been incomplete without Jayoti featuring in it. As Secretary General of PRCAI she is like the first lady of Indian PR.

     

    The above list is in no particular order and was long overdue. One more in the series of 16 coming up next week. Happy reading!

     

  • The communications profession is bound to see a lot of action, writes Amith Prabhu

    16 Trends in PR & Corp Comm in 2016

     

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    2016 will be a year of the unexpected. The communications profession is bound to see a lot of action. Here are sixteen trends that will gain traction during the year.

     

    1. Thought leadership will gain more significance – There will be a greater demand for credible events to partner with and speak at. Content shared at events will have multiple levels of impact compared to the old school contributory article and interviews.

     

    2. Content creation and sharing will become the cornerstone of good communications – Thanks to the onset of 4G, video will become more widely accepted. Simple, meaningful content shared in real time will play an important role in communicating.

     

    3. Year of Pulses, US elections and Summer Olympics – Three major events will take place that will have repercussions around the world. The Rio Olympics in summer, the US Presidential elections in the winter and the UN declared International year of Pulses dominate headlines as they happen

     

    4. Good talent will come at a premium – Good talent, especially at the entry and leadership level will be much sought after. There will be good offers made galore and the best women and men will take home higher pay packages.

     

    5. Influencers will be in demand – Influencers from all walks of life, especially those who are neutral, social media savvy and have a huge following will be on speed dial of brand and communications managers. Differentiating between the credible and not so credible among them will be key.

     

    6. The lines between paid and earned will continue to blur – Advertising agencies will continue offering public relations services for a song and PR consultancies will keep hiring from creative agencies and media planning companies to offer paid media solutions.

     

    While the six trends above are my perspective in the Indian context I have curated 10 other trends from around the world to look out for.

     

    1. Search Engine Optimisation will be part of Public Relations campaigns – SEO can no longer be part of a digital shop working in silos. Closer integration between those building earned media will be seen.

     

    2. Despair across the world will affect brand marketing – The migration crisis, the rise of ISIS, corruption in emerging economies and economic instability will continue have its impact on marketing.

     

    3. The Internet of Things will play a role in Public Relations – Whether it’s an app to track media output or a website that aggregates influential blogs, there will be innovation galore in 2016.

     

    4. Purpose and Professional Development – Professionals will continue to seek greater purpose in what they do and look for a higher degree of professional development.

     

    5. Focus on Authenticism (I just coined that word) – A movement towards being authentic which in turn builds trust and makes it more credible will be keenly sought after.

     

    6. Livestreaming will get bigger – Tools like Periscope and Meerkat will become more popular and will help in sharing of news and events better than ever before.

     

    7. Pitching to Journalists will be back in fashion – Over the last few years thanks to the 140-character influence, written pitches lost their sheen. This tool will gain some resonance.

     

    8. Care to share what’s sharable – Journalists have immense pressure to carry news that will take off on the world wide web. News that can be shared wide and far will get prominence.

     

    9. Climate Change will be a big topic – A lot of what will be said and written will be linked to one of the all-time big problems on climate change. So keep a ear to the ground on this one.

     

    10. Crisis can come anytime and from anywhere – After what Maggi went through in India, brands better watch out for similar activism elsewhere.

     

    If you’d like to add other trends, feel free to comment and also share on Twitter.

     

  • Amith Prabhu lists the professionals to watch out for in the year ahead.., all achievers in their own right

    Amith Prabhu: 16 people to watch out in 2016 in Indian Public Relations

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    This list has an equal number of men and women in senior leadership roles in no particular order. These are professionals to watch out for in the year ahead. They are achievers in their own right.

     

    a) Sonia Dhawan – Sonia heads communications at Paytm which is making waves for all the right reasons. Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharms is in the news. How they manage 2016 will be interesting.

    b) Farheen Akhtar – As head of Public Relations at Snapdeal, Farheen has to manage the brand and its co-founders who are poster boys. Given the recent controversy around their brand ambassador, it will be a year to watch out.

    c) Anand Subramanian – As one of the younger communications heads, Anand has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. The business Ola is in is prone to issues – both with consumers and regulatory authorities.

    d) Omgita Awasthi – Omgita’s unique designation as Head of Founders Communications at Inmobi puts her in a unique position at this startup which is one of the few unicorns that is profitable.

    e) Naina Parnaik – The recent troubles at this Unicorn have had a direct impact on Naina with laid off employees making references to her. Having a social media savvy boss at Zomato may be helpful when crisis hits.

    f) Karun Arya – As Uber’s corporate communications head for South Asia. Karun will play an important role as the world’s largest Unicorn makes inroads into more cities in the sub-continent.

    g) Ishteyaque Amjad – Ishteyaque replaces Deepak Jolly who was promoted to a business role at Coca Cola India. Moving from Cargill in Singapore is indeed an interesting transition for this former Indian Army Captain.

    h) Sarah Gideon – Sarah heads communications at IT bellwether Infosys and has managed the communications around the leadership transition in the past year very well. She comes from the first family of Indian Public Relations.

    i) Pradeep Wadhwa – Pradeep moves into a regional role at PepsiCo with a remit that includes several countries. Having spent over five years heading communications for the Indian operation at the cola major he has his role cut out.

    j) Meenu Handa – Meenu moves on from Amazon India to Google India less than three years after she joined the ecommerce major as its first communications head in India. Google India has made a smart choice.

    k) Rachana Panda – The Chief Communication Officer and Citizenship Leader, GE India is a cool designation to have. In this role she is part of the leadership at this conglomerate which has always been bullish on India.

    l) Gayatri Rath – Microsoft India’s Director of Communications and Citizenship has her hands full given the global CEO is of Indian origin and makes frequent trips to India. The brand has a great reputation in India.

    m) Vinod Moorthy – the only consultancy-based professional to feature in this list. Vinod made an interesting transition of 2015 by moving to Rediffusion Edelman as its leader. This unit manages public relations for all Tata companies in India.

    n) Pradeep Rajasekharan – Pradeep is one of the few India based professionals who looks at communications in three continents at Franklin Templeton. His stint at Brunswick London and Dubai certainly adds value to his role.

    o) Anthony Rose – Antony is not in active communications any longer after moving on from Walmart Asia Pacific late last year. He is building an enterprise focused on people and events that seems like a force to reckon with

    p) Subhamoy Das – Subhamoy is one of India’s veteran bloggers with two successful blogs to his credit. This former journalist is back at Deloitte India as head of brand and communications.


  • In the last year of his yearenders, Amith Prabhu lists 15 key developments in the world of public relations in India and the world

    Amith Prabhu: 15 events in World and Indian PR

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    1. New CEO for MSLGROUP – MSLGROUP became the first of the big five firms to bring in a global CEO from a rival firm in recent times by snapping Fleishman’s Guillaume Herbette, a French man.

     

    2. New CEO for Fleishman – A few weeks later Fleishman announced that Dave Senay was retiring and his successor would be John Saunders who until recently headed the firm’s EMEA region.

     

    3. Stagwell Group created – A new holding company was created by former BM global boss Mark Penn. The LLC is named in memory of 17th Century Maryland landowner, Thomas Stagwell. I’m sure it has its eyes set on India.

     

    4. Cannes PR Lions – The Cannes PR Lions continued in the same old way where an ad agency work got the top spot. Like last year, there was the involvement of the PR firm as well. But there has been no PR Lion Grand Prix that was won by a PR firm on its own.

     

    5. Adfactors PR is a Top 100 firm – Adfactors broke into the Top 100 PR firm list as per The Holmes Report ranking becoming the only South Asian firm to make it to the coveted list. It was a big year of award wins for this 18-year-old company.

     

    6. Prema Sagar is promoted – This was a first. PRema has held the designation of Principal and Founder for 22 years. This year an addituional title of Vice Chair – Asia Pacific got added, thus making her the only Indian who reports directly to the Global CEO of a Top 10 firm.

     

    7. Cohn & Wolfe acquires Six Degrees – One of the smartest of the new age firms in India was acquired by WPP company Cohn & Wolfe. Rishi Seth and Zacharia James will co-lead the new entity.

     

    8. Astrum is launched – Ashwani Singla snapped decade long ties with WPP Group to create his own firm. Astrum is the name of the brightest star. He also runs a separate entity that manages communications for India’s largest conglomerate.

     

    9. Pitchfork Partners is launched – Sunil Gautam and Jaideep Shergill continued their 15-year young partnership by stepping out of the firm they founded and sold to create Pitchfork Partners.

     

    10. Volkswagen fiasco – The Environmental Protection Agency revealed that the German automaker had covertly installed a “defeat device” that switched on during emissions tests, making the vehicles appear low-emission. Can’t get worse.

     

    11. Maggi recall – Nestle India had its worst year ever when food laboratory tests found seven times the legal levels of lead in its flagship brand. All hell broke loose. The rest is history. Maggi is back on the shop shelves now.

     

    12. First global conference on PR in Emerging Economies – Public Relations Society of Kenya hosted the first world conference on PR in emerging economies in Nairobi in November with the support of the Global Alliance.

     

    13. Tiny Indian firms make big waves at SABRES – Two Indian firms Spag Asia and Advantage Media made waves at Miami during the Global Sabres by winning the best new consultancy and a Top 40 campaign award respectively.

     

    14. SCoRe is launched – India’s first school of Public Relations was launched with an angel investor on board. The school describes itself as the world’s smallest start-up. It is set-up in Gurgaon with plans to expand to Mumbai.

     

    15. PRAXIS 2015 is India’s biggest gathering of PR professionals – The fourth edition that took place in Mysore in September is arguably the largest gathering of PR professionals in India with all the Top 20 firms in attendance.

     

    With this, we bid adieu to 2015. See you in 2016 with a list of 16 Indian professionals to watch out for in the year ahead.

     

    Amith Prabhu’s column on PR appears every Monday. The views expressed here are his own. Prabhu is associated with Praxis, SCoRe and was invited to speak at the Nairobi conference

     

  • Fifteen professionals whom I have either had the pleasure to work with or have heard of and are doing some amazing work within the organisation, writes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: 15 young professionals who show promise

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    This column is about 15 professionals whom I have either had the pleasure to work with or have heard of and are doing some amazing work within the organisation they work or for the greater good of the larger public relations fraternity. They needed to be called out and I’m taking the liberty to do so. This list is in random order:

    Vivaan Gideon – Vivaan leads communications at VM Ware India in Bangalore and was one of the youngest communications heads of a major tech company in India when he took charge four years ago. He truly belongs to the first family of Indian PR with his wife, sister and brother in law all leading communications at some of the large tech brands.

     

    Bhuvaneshwari Joshi – While Bhuvi, as she is better known currently works at MSLGROUP in Bangalore, her Facebook community Media Movements which on last count had 31000 members. This is possibly the largest online grouping of media and communication professionals and a great service to the community.

     

    Vikram Kharvi – The Mumbai based founder of Vivkypedia, cleverly named after himself also has a day job at Adfactors. He successfully manages the Indian PR Forum, has written a book on PR and is one of the most influential young professionals based in Mumbai inspiring the next generation of Public Relations professionals

     

    Shubashish Bharukha – Delhi-based Shubashish is the man behind Journalist Storyboard which he is building as Media Central – a repository of databases on the media and in-house communications leads. He also runs a boutique PR consultancy, Springhead Communications with some marquee clients.

     

    Aakriti Bhargava – Aakriti is based in Gurgaon and runs an interestingly named PR firm, Boring Brands that works mostly with startups. She is now building a new offering targeted at business owners and communications professionals. Smartly branded Wizikey, this online tool is a great resource for tracking, analyzing and monitoring a keyword.

     

    Sandeep Rao – Sandeep who currently works at Gutenberg curates one of the most insightful and active whatsapp groups which is on its way to becoming an app. It is the one stop place for PR professionals and journalists to exchange insights in real time on media movements, coordinates and information. One Source is a force to reckon with.

     

    Parekhit Bhattacharjee – Parekhit is a member of Genesis BM’s Associate Learning Programme. He has risen through the ranks and leads Step-Up, a firm within the firm that targets startups. He was deputed to spend a few months in Beijing to help BM China set up a similar venture. His twitter following is admirable to say the least.

     

    Ruchica Tomar – Ruchica is the only PR professional in India who has a verified twitter handle. This former journalist is the new India communications lead for Uber. The cab hailing app has many challenges in India in the year ahead. Most challenges are regulatory and communications related in nature. How they will navigate through will be closely watched.

    While I’m not speculating about the age of the eight names mentioned above, the next seven are certainly under 30.

     

    Aniruddha Bhagwat – Aniruddha set up his own firm soon after graduating. He is building the Ideosphere group like a holding company with smaller group companies within. He was named young professional of the year at an awards night last year and works on several interesting mandates.

     

    Tejal Daftary – Tejal is partner at Criss Cross Communications. Another young firm led by young co-founders. After her initial training at Perfect Relations, Tejal set up her own consultancy at age 24 and is an Independent board director for Rodium Realty Limited since 2014. Now, we are talking business.

     

    Akshara Lalwani – Akshara is articulate and savvy. She set-up Communicate India five years ago when she was barely 23 which has grown to be a mid-sized firm in a short span. Her clients include Merck, Mindshare, Disney among others.

     

    Priyanka Bhatt – Priyanka is the lady behind Equations Media. After a stint with Text 100 the entrepreneural bug caught her that led to the setting up of her firm. She is one of the smarter young professionals I have met.

     

    Afshaad Kelawala – This man is possibly the youngest branch head of an established PR consultancy. As Mumbai head of PR Pundit Afshaad leads mandates for several of the lifestyle and luxury clients that the firm manages.

     

    Ancita Satija – Ancita is with Cohn & Wolfe Six Degrees and is a former Chartered accountant aspirant who moved to PR. She drives the weekly Social Pow Wow Chat on Twitter. Writes a regular blog – these are hard to come by these days and is a professional to watch out for.

     

    Neha Mohanty – Neha is the Head of PR & Communications for AirAsia in India, where her role includes Brand Building, Media Relations, Publicity, Social Media Marketing, Brand Awareness, Crisis Management and New Business Development. This is truly outstanding.

     

    Jai Kewalramani – Jai makes it to the list for possibly being the only second generation professional (in a long time) of one of the Top 5 firms who has followed in his father’s footsteps at Perfect Relations. It will be interesting to see how the succession planning at this iconic firm pans out.

     

  • A selection of 15 books that anyone in the business must read

    Amith Prabhu: 15 books to read for PR pros in the year ahead

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    As I was setting up a library at the Indian School of Communications and Reputation I spent considerable time researching the 100 must-have books in a library of a PR professional. We hope to make it the best library for a communicator. I have picked 15 books that anyone in the business must read:

    1. Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier

     

    2. Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday

     

    3. The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene

     

    4. Repositioning by Jack Trout

     

    5. The Father of Spin by Larry Tye

     

    6. Spin Sucks: How the Public Relations Industry Got Such a Bad Name and How You Can Fix It by Gini Dietrich

     

    7. Business and Community: The Story of Corporate Social Responsibility in India by Pushpa Sundar

     

    8. Public Relations in India: New Tasks and Responsibilities by J V Vilanilam

     

    9. Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward L. Bernays

     

    10. Social Media Explained by Mark Schaefer

     

    11. Reputation Rules by Daniel Diermeier

     

    12. Trust me, PR is Dead by Robert Philips

     

    13. Building Reputational Capital: Strategies for Integrity and Fair Play that Improve the Bottom Line by Kevin Jackson

     

    14. Managing the Professional Service Firm by David Meister

     

    15. New rules of marketing and PR by David Merman Scott

     

  • In the first of a series of round-ups of highlights of the year that has been, Amith Prabhu list – in random order – people who made interesting career moves this year

    Amith Prabhu: 15 interesting moves in 2015

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    This month I kick off a four-part series – one each week, on professionals, books youth in PR and events to highlight fifteen of these as a tribute to 2015. First in the series is a round-up in random order of people who made interesting career moves

     

    a) Senjam Raj – Senjam is a pathbreaker. Few will know that he writes one of the longest running weekly column on a topic close to his and my heart – quizzing. He cut short his two-year sabbatical to take on the role of heading communications at Flipkart. Among the many things he has undertaken is Flipkart Stories.

     

    b) Pooja Sabharwal – Pooja moved from Genesis Burson Marsteller after a decade long stint to head communications at PayPal India

     

    c) Varghese Thomas – Varghese had a long career in two of the world’s better known technology brands. First at Cisco and later at BlackBerry. He moved from the latter to head global communications for homegrown TVS Group.

     

    d) Nandini Goswami – After close to three years at GSK Pharma, Nandini moved to Kellogg’s India as its first Director of Communications. A role that was managed by a senior nutritionist until recently.

     

    e) Amit Narayan – This was a prize catch. Edelman India hired Amit Narayan from Singapore Asia where he led external communications for the Vodafone Enterprise Group in Asia Pacific. This was followed by Vinod Moorthy being hired from H+K Startegies to lead the Tata mandate.

     

    f) Kavita Bhaskaran – Abbott India’s former Public Affairs Head moved to Ogilvy PR to fill the vacuum of leading the India unit.

     

    g) Atul Ahluwalia – Long time Weber Shandwick veteran moved on from the firm where he was India Vice Chairman.

     

    h) Poonam Kaul – Poonam spent close to ten years at Nokia India before moving to PepsiCo India as Pradeep Wadhwa takes on a larger regional role.

     

    i) Deepak Jolly – Talking about colas, Deepak moved internally to head a business unit after leading communications and public affairs at Coca-Cola India. This is a rare move. He was replaced by Ishteyaque Amjad who came in from Cargill in Singapore.

     

    j) Shubhamoy Das – Shubhamoy moved on from PayPal India in Chennai to take on the role of Communications Head at Deloitte in Gurgaon.

     

    k) Surajeet Dasgupta – This was the big journalism to consultancy move of the year. Surajeet was a National Corporate Editor at Business Standard where he spent over two decades before joining Ketchum Sampark as COO.

     

    l) Purnima Mohanty – Purnima Sahni Mohanty made the move from Samsung to head communications at DuPont India

     

    m) Sonali Madbhavi – Sonali was country head at Gutenberg Communications before she moved to client Quikr

     

    n) Devashish Dasgupta – Devashish moved from Yum Foods to head Public Affairs at SAB Miller.

     

    o) Zeenat Khan – Zeenat joined Housing Dot com from Apollo Hospitals and has dealt with all the changes at this start-up.

     

    Other notable moves included Paroma Roy Chowdhury from Google to Soft Bank and Chavi Leekha from Uber to Nokia.

     

  • While I give credit to Anurag Batra for instituting these awards in 2010 and bringing up the 6th edition in style, it was sad to several stalwarts missing, writes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: A perspective on PR awards

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    I was part of the audience at the oldest awards for Public Relations in India held at Gurgaon on Saturday night. While I give credit to Anurag Batra for instituting these awards in 2010 and bringing up the 6th edition in style, it was sad to several stalwarts missing. I am not privy to the reason for the absence of at least a dozen senior leaders but they missed an opportunity to inspire younger professionals.

     

    Some PR companies were conspicuous by their complete absence. I’m worried for future generations that there are less than half a dozen opportunities annually for the fraternity to interact with future managers and leaders. I also feel leaders of organisations may have reservations about certain events and therefore keep away.

     

    I’m hoping things get better. We are a unique family of professionals where almost all key players know each other on a first name basis. We need to work towards a better future. This maybe possible by also improving and increasing the awards options. Globally, ICCO has launched awards, there are the Cannes Lions, Sabre has been around for a while and now the global alliance is making inroads into the awards space.

     

    Awards should have a completely independent jury. One which does not participate in the awards. Award functions should be sponsored by entities that do not submit entries. The three divisions should be kept separate – those who submit, those who sponsor and those who judge.

     

    There are over 90 PR firms in three categories – large, medium and small. There are about 20, 30 and 40 firms respectively in each of these categories. Only about 8 to 10 participate. Further, only 10 to 15 attend the awards despite being held in the metros. I wish this changes. There is so much good work done by several of the 90 firms. I hope as time passes we become more inclusive and transparent in rewarding ourselves.

     

    PR, etc is a weekly column written by Amith Prabhu, a communications professional, Dean of communication school SCORE, founder of the Promise Foundation, Praxis and Engage. The views expressed here are his own.

     

  • These gatherings are good but would do well with a healthy mix of speakers and delegates from every continent and every emerging economy, writes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: Notes from Nairobi from the World Conference on PR in Emerging Economies

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    I was in Africa this past week on my maiden visit to the continent to attend the first World Conference on Public Relations in Emerging Economies organised by the Public Relations Society of Kenya in partnership with the Global Alliance of Public Relations and Communication Management. While the event title had World Conference mentioned it was largely an African affair with a spattering of representatives from other continents. I was the only Indian and one of two Asian speakers. There was only one other Asian delegate. There were about 20 individuals in all from outside the Middle East and Africa region.

     

    The highlights of the conference were the inaugural keynotes by Lord Chadlington and Paul Holmes. Interestingly, both were keynote speakers at Praxis in the second and third edition. They both shared interesting insights. Apart from these two gentlemen, most other speakers were about average. The conference was about how communications is evolving in the emerging economies in the light of realities that include terrorism and sustainable development.

     

    All in all, it was an eyeopener to a continent with immense potential and endless possibilities. I presented a series of Indian case studies on fund raising and cause communications in a breakaway session which went down well with the audience. It was a great opportunity to discover the sights and sounds of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.

     

    These gatherings are good but would do well with a healthy mix of speakers and delegates from every continent and every emerging economy. Brazil, China and Russia were not represented and that was not a good sign. It may be a good idea for Indians and the Chinese to come together to create a Regional Conference to share notes between the two economies.

     

    The world is moving at a rapid pace. As this frantic movement takes place India and China are going ahead at breakneck speed. It will be interesting to learn from each other at the next World Conference on Emerging Economies, if there is one.

     

  • The entertainment destination is grand and opulent but misses out on the small touches where Public Relations can come in, writes Amith Prabhu

    Amith Prabhu: The Kingdom of Dreams experience lacks good Public Relations

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    This column is about five things organisations can do build a reputation by focusing on the small things. A visit or life in Gurgaon is incomplete if one has not been to Kingdom of Dreams and watched one of its two shows or at least hung out at Culture Gully, its interesting food court with a difference. The entertainment destination is grand and opulent but misses out on the small touches where Public Relations can come in.

     

    I have been ensured that each of my house guests in the past year and there has been at least one family every quarter gets to watch a show at Nautanki Mahal. While the shows are great, the food is good and the entire experience is larger than life, there are those small things that this place misses out and it could be because of the environment it operates in.

     

    First, the online booking system is a sham. You book in a specific category that is within your budget but at the counter when you collect the tickets the show has been cancelled for absurd reasons and explained in a rude manner. Then tickets for another day are offered in a higher category because the ticket counter associate claims lower categories are not available making the customer believe that these are sold-out. But in reality the lower category tickets are not being sold to push higher category tickets.

     

    For members of the loyalty club programme there are other ordeals to deal with. Often, the card is upgraded to a higher class which in itself is a good thing but the card holder is not informed and he or she gets to know only at the time of a transaction and the entire process of reactivating a card takes at least half an hour, until which time no order can be taken, which means a longer wait to fill the stomach.

     

    Well, these are not just my experiences but those of several others who have gone through them. What can one learn from Public Relations to deal better with these scenarios?

     

    Firstly, transparency. Never fool customers. You can do it once or twice with few or many but not all the time. Secondly, customer is the reason of the existence for any business. Never be rude or arrogant with customers even if they are wrong. Third, a happy customer experience is a guarantee of loyalty. An unhappy experience offered to a customer is a road downhill. Fourth, honest communications is always key to success in the long term. Customers are humans and understand simple explanations. Fifth, never underestimate the power of activism and social media. These are the new ombudsman.