It is a mess and it is all over the place and it is not going away in a hurry. The stock market is toast, the oil price is freaking out in the USD 150s, real estate and financial services are tanking like the titanic! Everyone knows that we are in the middle of a meltdown and the effects of inflation have just about started to ruin the financial results of companies.

The politics of the nation are in the gutter and the uncertainty that clouds all decision making both in the public and private enterprise will continue well into the next year, if and when another government comes into being. A government that is cross subsidising the oil bill and some other future government will reap the whirlwind and some whirlwind it will be for sure, and I quote Rahul Bhasin of Barings in the DNA, where he said, “We are frittering away our gains made in the last 15 years”.

Against the background of this carnage in corporate India, the bean counters are finally seeing resurgence, like desert plants, they have waiting out the decade of exuberance. Today they are rising like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes, and promise to be the bane of many brands, marketing campaigns and other assorted still born initiatives. Austerity is back like the rude shock of a cold water bath in the freezing winter!

When the accountant’s chop does come down on big-ticket advertising, out-of-home and television commercials, these being the pet peeves of the accountant  PR promises to stay untouched. Having said that budgets for travel, off sites, media training, and all those nice fuzzy things are bound to dry up real quick, if not disappear all together. In all this skirmishing, fortunately for PR, most corporates have come to understand that it is not an on-and-off thing and if anything, some might even find it the last refuge of the marketing to reach their target publics in times of budgetary paucity.

The job market for PR professional and Communicators promises to retain traction and the moaning for talent will stay the wail it is, so here is one area that I again see no effect of the slow down, if anything it could lead to many more corporates hiring for the reasons above.

Challenges bring opportunities and usually constitute the need, the same need that spurs innovation and fosters new paradigms and discoveries. These are the times to service your customer better and to vow to be closer to the business and not lose accounts on reasons of tardiness, inefficiency or downright stupidity! I see many avenues that were shoveled into the “not important or urgent” quadrants due the presence of other ‘lazy cheque’ populars suddenly becoming fashionable. The medium I am talking about and maybe one who’s time has finally come in India, is the online medium.

This is the time to knock again and dust off those online plans, whether it is a programme to engage key bloggers in your space, or kick off that e-mail campaign or spend your remaining rupees in the pursuit of a web-only viral marketing or buzz marketing campaign!

I wish you well in these nasty times, so get dug in and wait it out, this too shall pass, maybe not soon enough but you can always take the time to do something you always wanted to attempt, something forbidden, constructive, intellectual, delicious and inspiring! I look forward to comments here!

As a sequel to last week’s article this week I want to showcase the view from the wrong end or right end of the shotgun barrel, depending on your status in the food chain.

In a business, that is slowly maturing there is yet lots of road to travel down the professional path. The resource crunch pandemic is becoming a reality, as is the case with all other businesses; PR Firm’s too like every other enterprise are seeking to keep, up skill and attract new talent!

The above is a regular star in the everyday nightmare of a business leader in a PR Firm. The other cast include Mergers, buyout led account re-alignment. The loss of people can mean a lost account, worse loss of reputation and making it further harder to retain and hire and get general traction.

Employer pet peeves further include offer letter terrorism. This is any interesting phenomenon that involves swimming the job market and stacking offers. While everyone wants to offer their services at the best price, the mechanics involved include lies and deception. Confirming a joining date and not showing up isn’t a rare occurrence any longer.

The scarcity of trained resources has meant a further acceptance of tantrums, inferior quality of work, poor or non-existent account management and a general atmosphere where tardiness is accepted under threat of separation. Dishonesty and fudging of travel claims, using company infrastructure for personal use including dubious phone calls and other scam mongering.

This means a sense of cynicism and a lack of trust from the employer in turn that finally results in bad culture. A culture where mentoring and employee training evaporates and employers hedge people against each other in expectation of attrition and employee turnover. This leads to a chain reaction where neither can build personal trust and the first casualty is productivity followed by excellence.

The infuriating and myopic inability of account executives and managers to focus on all things financial, including expense claims of agency funds spent for client engagements, project or retainer fee claim delinquency is another big peeve. This impacts cash flows and balance sheet anarchy usually follows. The ensuing chaos can be easily avoided with regular follow ups.

While this may be a two-way street, employees need to bring up their end of the bargain just like employers do if we have to evolve as businesses that can presume integrity and legitimacy.

Tech Tags: pr public+relations india