This is an extract of a PRSI review of a speech by R Fernandez, Head, Press & Public Affairs, British Deputy High Commission, Chennai who was addressing the participants on ‘Opportunities and challenges for PR practitioners’ on a PRSI celebration of the National PR Day. Quite an interesting read.

Challenges:

1. PR needs to be taken seriously – by employers, customers, the media and the public.

It is a Perception Issue! Why is it important to ensure that everyone recognizes that PR makes a difference – Crucially, Decisively? Because there is a credibility issue. Very rarely does anyone in an organization or outside of it, perceive the sincerity, the hard work, the hours of research, the uphill task of contact-building, the effort and time that goes into struggling to understand a client. The PR man has to be at it all the time!

Fernandez sought to seek to measure about how PR efforts actually improve performance – profitability, revenue, customer base, shareholder perception, competitive edge, leverage with the media, increased awareness, enlightened perception, greater buy-in from management into the use of PR as a powerful business tool.

2. Break-neck speed at which the media, marketing and technology environment is changing.

Just a few years ago, terms and practices such as web-publishing and e-groups were unheard of. Today they are common. Customers are moving to the Internet for answers.

This is a real opportunity for the PR profession. The longer we cling to traditional tools the tougher we are going to find the transition. Yes we can rely on traditional practices selectively and as long as they serve a purpose but not beyond that. This mode – of direct persuasion – is used only in fits and starts in India, when it should become ‘mainstream’. It is perhaps the most crucial medium of the 21st century.

3. The world becoming flat very fast but staying stubbornly very round at the same time.

High growth, high inflation and high prices on the same shelf. Rich and highly informed thousands in the cities but poor and very illiterate millions in the towns and villages. Technology that hopes of putting a man on Mars but still cannot effectively tackle HIV/AIDS, kidney/heart failure and cancer. This is a challenge of ideas and the fight for a receptive and lasting space for those ideas.

What is the opportunity this presents? One of partnerships. So that we think not of customers or clients or employers or stakeholders, but ‘partners’. PR professional’s success in responding to this challenge lies in who we decide are our partners, how quickly and effectively we build and manage those partnerships for success.

This is the opportunity for raising our game in the field of skills and standards. Can we train clients in the way they procure and manage PR talent/time? Can we improve standards in the way clients brief PR providers and hold them to account? Can we ensure that our own teams realize the difference between a vision and a strategy, between an objective and an outcome? Can we standardize the measurement of PR performance so that we are not only happy that clients pick us over competitors but we ‘know’ that we are indeed better than the competition?

Do we take the trouble to be aware and respectful of intellectual property regimes or do we put our clients and our customers at risk in the way we transact with patents, copyright and trademarks? Can we convince Directors on the Board that if they hold PR to account in a crisis they should also give PR due credit during the good times? Can we convince CEOs and Presidents that CSR should not be an add-on but integral to the very being of the organization so that it permeates every operation, every department, every process, building respect and trust in the community?

Seeing the PR crystal ball, Fernandez notes that in the coming years the partnership response will manifest itself in two ways:

One that produces a large beast of a PR organization – that swallows smaller outfits, grows capital, competencies and capacities to become even larger so that, it can be almost all things to all people. There will probably be just one or two of these organizations in any given region.

Another manifestation will be niche PR – creating teams so small and specialized that they are no threat to the big organizations but continue to offer value that allows them to co-exist with the giants, perhaps as partners of a sort. Niche PR can be for instance those that address really small segments or have a tiny but unique offering. For instance, specialists in the vernacular medium or specialists in developing written material.

The middle-of-the-road organization may not vanish altogether. It may survive but will certainly not be able to ‘thrive’ for too long.

PR is about as good as your product, service or idea – not the other way around. Once in a while we’ll get a PR magician who comes along and makes a pocket-sized product hit the headlines -but if the product is wanting, we will find profits vanishing sooner than the magician.

Popularity: 3% [?]