How do you erase this indelible scar created by your senior? Do you move to seek help from the human rights commission or speak against it and jeopardize the rest of your career growth with bad recommendations? I have been a victim of such circumstances facing bullying in the workplace for three consecutive years, which led me to do some study in this field. I wanted to know what exactly is bullying. Who is responsible for it and what could be the possible solutions?

Several definitions of workplace bullying have been provided in literature. Despite several definitions of bullying, there is a general consensus regarding what constitutes bullying (e.g. Einarsen et al., 2003). Specifically, for behaviour to qualify as bullying, it must be perceived by the victim as oppressive, unfair, humiliating, undermining, threatening, difficult to defend against or an infringement of the victim’s human rights. Furthermore, according to several authors (e.g. Vartia, 2001; Einarsen et al., 2003), such behaviour is considered to be bullying only if it recurs over an extended period of time. While I was writing this article, I felt that I had gone through each and every aspect of bullying in my workplace. I was treated in an unfair manner, humiliated and undermined by my superior Ms. SASA over an extended period of three years, which physically and mentally made me distraught. 

Bullying is a multidimensional construct and comprises a wide spectrum of behaviour that can be targeted at the work or at the personal characteristics of the victim. The more subtle types of bullying behaviour include withholding information and physically or socially isolating the victim, whereas the more overt types include setting impossible deadlines for the victim and publicly belittling the victim. Little did I realize at that point of time that setting of impossible deadlines or procrastinating the work towards the deadline is a form of bullying, victimizing me in my workplace.

Workplace bullying behaviours, as suggested by Hoel and Cooper (2000) comprises of four categories: (1) work-related harassment (e.g. persistently criticizing the victim’s work); (2) personal harassment (e.g. spreading rumours about the victim); (3) organizational harassment (e.g. removing key areas of responsibility from the victim); and (4) intimidation (e.g. threatening the victim with violence). Workplace bullying has several unfavorable psychological effects on victims (Fox and Stallworth, 2005), such as negative affect, depression, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts (Einarsen and Matthiesen, 1999). There is evidence supporting the psychosomatic model of bullying, which posits that bullying leads to negative affect, which then leads to physiological problems. Consistent with the psychosomatic model of bullying, being bullied has been shown to be associated with physiological problems, such as musculoskeletal pains, chronic fatigue syndrome (Einarsen and Mikkelsen, 2003), headaches, stomach disorders,

rashes (e.g. O’Moore et al., 1998; Vartia, 2001) and cardiovascular disease (Kivimaki et al., 2003).

Workplace bullying has widespread negative effects on organizations because it affects not only the victims but also those who witness the bullying (Hoel et al., 1999). Bullying adversely affects organizational performance in terms of output, creativity and innovation (Rayner et al., 2002). Being bullied at work also reduces the organizational satisfaction and commitment of victims (Hoel and Cooper, 2000), If an organization is to send a message to its employees that they are valued and cared for, then it is imperative that leaders themselves are aware of the various subtle behaviour that constitute bullying and that they refrain from enacting such behaviour (Fox and Stallworth, 2005).

How can this bullying stop, is there a solution to it? I think when informed of workplace bullying, leaders need to respond in ways that demonstrate to victims and other staff that the organization supports them and will not tolerate such behaviour (Brodsky, 1976; O’Moore et al., 1998; Hoel and Salin, 2003). Better still, leaders need to proactively address workplace bullying and can do so by developing formal statements and policies that indicate clearly that bullying is unacceptable and that bullying holds serious consequences for the perpetrators. Such primary interventions play a critical role in preventing bullying behaviour in the workplace (Djurkovick N et al, 2008).

Specific ways in which an organization can demonstrate that it is supportive of its employees include providing avenues for victims to lodge their complaints and ensuring that these complaints are acted on in ways that signal to all employees that the organization will protect their basic human rights. Furthermore, it is important that organizations demonstrate that they are concerned about the welfare of their employees by encouraging them, from time to time, to come forth should they have any work-related or personal problems with which the organization can assist them. An example of such an approach is the use of employee assistance programmes. It is in the hands of the leaders to stop this bullying and create a whole new world of harmony.

However, one thing that has confused me is pampering the media unnecessarily. I was stunned seeing my colleagues giving endless gifts to the media. It was a shock as in my professional course of Advertisement and PR I have been taught about professionalism. But I could not see any professionalism in taking gifts for attending events or for doing stories.

During my professional traveling so far for events, I have seen a culture that many times the media asks for gifts openly. They ask bluntly about what gift you are giving. It was really shocking when some of them asked straightforwardly for cash in an envelope to attend an event.

It’s not only the PR agency that encourages this culture but somewhere the clients are also responsible for the same. One of the biggest players in automobile industry thinks that if they do not give gifts to media, the event will be considered incomplete. They also think that the media will not write their stories without gifts irrespective of the fact how important the news they are sharing is.

Last year we had a big event in Rajasthan. One night before the event, a government minister died in a road accident. I started getting calls from the media till late night saying that they would not be able to attend the event as a minister has died and they will be busy in that. They asked me what we are giving as gifts. I was left with no option but to tell them and next day I found all media persons at the event. I believe gifts were more important than the death of the minister.

This seems more of buying the media rather than indulging in media relations. Or in other words, we can say this is the another definition of MEDIA BUYING in PR industry.

Later on I came to know that this is not the case in tier two cities alone, in metros, the scene is worst. Even in the capital, so many journalists from reputed media houses attend events just for gifts. Sometimes journalists give phone calls and ask for gifts without attending the event. And of course even after this, the story is not assured. But if the editor will eliminate the story, the journalist will never say that he or she has taken a gift from PR agency so please don’t stop the story. There are journalists who create issues for not getting the gifts. They make excuses for not attending the events from next time and also try their best to stop the stories.

It is a regular practice that has been carried by PR, journalists, and clients. But it creates a problem for small organizations who can’t afford expensive gifts for the media. We have noticed few journalists who try to stop stories of PR agencies that refuse to give gifts.

Another issue I believe which doesn’t make any sense is the pick ‘n’ drop for media. There is no point providing such facilities to media. In exceptional cases like providing drop back facility to female journalists in the night or taking media out for a day is quite acceptable. But calling a cab at your place four to five hours before the event and using the same for the rest of the day is really unethical. It really doesn’t make a sense to provide a cab to such a place which is just half kilometer away from the venue of the event. Still many media persons ask for pick ‘n’ drop for these small distances, despite the fact they get paid from their companies for traveling officially. They say it openly if we want us to attend an event, you have to provide the pick ‘n’ drop. PR agencies need to spare one executive to coordinate the cabs for these special guest of our. Sometime it feels like doing transportation business rather than real PR.

There are also some people who attend events without being invited for it and they openly ask for gifts too. They belong to such media houses, which are not relevant either for PR agencies or for the clients. Some people do not belong to any media houses but still claim to be journalists and ask for gifts. Few retired journalists are sometimes also being noticed attending events for their share. Sometimes they start misbehaving or threatening PR persons and try to show them the MEDIA POWER.

Sometimes they ask for two gifts at one go. Helping media in getting a discount in a clients’ product is acceptable but giving gifts, cabs, and other facilities to them to get the stories done is extremely unethical.

Needless to say that they have stronger network than any other in this industry. They update themselves with all the events everyday with the exact timings and venue. Sometimes clients ask us to find out the events happening on a particular date and we find it difficult to find all the relevant details. I must say it is an indirect learning for all of us.

I have noticed Mumbai as the only place where these practices are not followed. In the rest of the country the meaning of professionalism goes for a toss. I don’t know who is to be blamed for this. PR agencies or Clients? Obviously we cannot blame the media as we only support these practices for one or the other reason. I feel this process will continue like this and media will keep on taking the advantage of it. But still I want to stop this crap. Don’t know how.

Recently I picked up a book called “Why So Stupid?” by Edward De Bono and this post is inspired by it. In fact, I wanted to write about why we stopped thinking about PR in our business but ended up writing something else courtesy a copy of a magazine landing on my desk.

Well, to be very honest I haven’t finished reading the book yet, but it seems that it would be fascinating to read through it. In the first few pages only, I disovered many things. One quote fetched my attention beyond doubt and I would like to share it with you. It helped me to put headline for today’s post as well. It reads and I write, “You can analyze the past but you have to design the future.”

Now coming back to the recently published report about “The Future of Public Relations” in one of the marketing magazines, I have few observations which I want to express for you lovely friends. While it did mention about the future of PR but the irony was that I haven’t seen any of the future leaders of PR talking about the future. I saw the same old faces trying to analyze the past without realising the present situation in many of their businesses or agencies and pretended to be designers of the future. I am sure many of you guys must have had a good laugh reading through it and some of their views must have been swallowed by many of us with a pinch of salt, some pepper and cold water.

The thinking in the industry has been stale and stopped somewhere. I was discussing the same with my wife and she said that it is happening probabbly because in earlier days leaders were born and born leaders are great thinkers, but today leaders are made, and they expect some reference as they are made like that. I think she has a point here. Most of our leaders are coming from ‘recoginition’ background and they always need a reference point to begin. The recongnition here is the worldview they have been living with since 70s and trying to impose the same upon their people. Do you have a high attrition rate – stop blaming the new generation, please. I have had the luck of meeting many of the agency heads and since I have to be politically correct here on this blog and have to remain in the industry where I belong to, I have to say a big lie that almost all of them have inspired me. (sigh!!) But, I am sure almost everyone who is reading my blog today knows ‘who is who?’ in the business and I do not have to give you any recognition or refernece point to think outside the box to arrive at any conclusion. I am sure you are smarter than me.

By the way, who am I to pass on any judgment on the industry or some of our so called leaders. After all, some of them have created the industry we are all working in now. They are the ones who are driving growth of their agencies and dipping the fees. They are the ones how are corrupting the business eco system and doing things which are not required in the name of building and maintaining relationships. They are the ones who are not willing to let their people grwo and try harder to make them feel inferior. After all, they are the ones who are drving the industry, where the accelerator is on a left hand side and brake is faulty with a gear lever lost somewhere on the way.

Why am I behaving so stupid and writing such a post? May be because I am like that only. I care for each one of us. I love what I do and it really hurts when I see my love being treated the way it is being now by many of them. SOS! Please respond, before its too late.

Take care friends and wake up! Jaago re… Jaago re… Jaago re…

PS: I wrote this heartfelt post with complete honesty and with an intention to hurt few of them in the process. If you are one of them and felt hurt, please accept my apologies and look into the mirror. Do you see the horns emerging from sides… ??!!!???

In a landscape dotted by hungry journalists, anchors, show producer, sometimes this breed, crosses the line of prudence and fair practice in the quest for exclusives, scoops and the most dramatic of them all; stings! In times of deadline overload and a lack of any tangible research, editorial balance becomes the first casualty to TRPs, popularity polls and advertising revenue.

How many times have you had a trick e-mail or a innocuous phone call translate into a bombshell in the press the next day, or even the same day in these times of broadcast and online media explosion? If you are out there working the space, then I am sure you do this more than you’d like to and while we all employ our own ways and means to deal with the scourge, maybe the time is right for a discussion. Keeping quiet is not an option so here are a few PR plays I’ve seen practiced:

• No comment – This is the most basic defense of the scared communicator or resident PR punter in the establishment. It creates a doubt in the mind of the viewer or reader about the authenticity or veracity of the story but has the potential of making front page all the same or the lead story in the dozen or so television channels out there, business, news, and combinations thereof.
• We do not speculate on market speculation – This or another variation of the same featuring words like ‘policy’ are yet another wet blanket in terms of media credibility, will they stop your brand image from get a contentious tag or even a black eye is arguable.
• Denial – This is the last reprieve of either the aggrieved or the very stupid, especially if its a lie. It will give a pause to the editor or the journalist, who will question their gut, chances of going to print or being aired, fifty per cent.
• Half Agreement, half denial – This Molotov Cocktail is the most sophisticated of the ploys, and clearly agrees to all or some part of the allegation but uses the loop in technique to include crisis messaging. Sent as a quote and usually written, it forces the hack to use the statement in full. Only the most savvy can do this bespoke but chances of being quoted out of context or half quoted remain high.
• Retraction or Rejoinder – These are mostly ego plasters to paper over bruised management egos, striking how the size of the retraction and rejoinder is in contrast to the placement, font size and prominence of the offending piece.
• Confirming statement – This is the pushover statement, executed along with a sincere sorry note and a display of the belly in submission. These are very bad for the ego and best suited for real tragedies, fraud, accidents, calamities and other industrial or infrastructure and government type of communicators.

I am sure there are hilarious variations sitting out there in your very fertile and successful minds and would love to get any more classification here or a anonymous war story, do feel obliged to share your scary knowledge with the tribe.

These are some concerning times that need both awareness of the stakes and training, if it is your privilege to be charged as the guardian of your brand and company image. There are lots of ploys the feverish hack employs to in the get-rich-quick-or-get-fired-trying, exclusive hunt. You need to understand that it is their job to report, to analyze, to predict and to expose, the end is fine but the means are most questionable. This pool is further muddied by competition and the dirty tricks department using friendly media for planting, seeding or plain obfuscating an issue. I will not use examples but the watchful here will see and read patterns in politics, industry and most media reporting, even that front page headline or the lead story on that television channel that looks innocent at first pass. Go figure…

If they know that you know, then you will receive their respect and maybe the show can continue down the road for all. Right now these are dangerous times for Image and Brand and all seems fair in the media war for exclusives. Next week sticking to a statement and dodging trick questions on the phone. Happy skirmishing! 

The debate over what a client says he wants and what he really wants will live for as long as the marketing communications and, more specifically, the PR industry lives and thrives. The briefs will always be brief and the expectations will mean ‘under promise, over deliver’ (the mantra that all PR managers chant around their mentees). I would have never brought this up but for an incident that spewed out the rotting question – should I believe what the client wants or am I looking in the wrong direction?

Picture this – the Chairman of a large and well-respected real-estate major briefs a PR team about what is expected from the PR campaign. Brand image, reputations, lineage, forthcoming IPO: almost everything is discussed. The expectations are clear – the company is to be projected as the leading real estate player in India. Everything sounds positive. The agency has bagged the account and is eager, satisfied and very comfortable in the extra soft, leather sofa. The old man seems a decent bloke. “No sweat, Mr. Chairman; your will be done.”

The team steps out of the suite on the 10^th floor and is immediately ensconced by the till-now reticent Corp Comm manager. Two things are made clear. The cheque will be signed after the press coverage report is received. Whatever the Chairman said was gas. The success of the campaign would be directly proportional to the thickness of the media coverage report, which should start thickening as soon as the team leaves the client’s office.

Now, wait a minute! Where exactly do brand strategy, image management, PR policy figure in this dry and very hollow scheme of things?

We can’t deny that there are more opportunities for PR professionals in India than ever before. Companies have started valuing the importance of public relations for their business. But when it comes to measuring its success it is still how thick a press coverage report looks. Building relationships with the target audience, nurturing a public image, paying attention to the demands of that ever important ingredient to your success called Press – these concepts will still take some time to bloom. So when a new luxury store is opened, the thrust is not on the years the brand will spend in India and how it should be perceived by the niche consumers. Sadly it’s on how many video cameras are seen at the launch and how many press clips appear after the hackneyed P3 party.

But we should not be complaining too much. There was a time when PR meant going on media rounds with bad photocopies and even worse media lists. Press coverage was really about cutting every single newspaper snippet and admiring it with the zest of a mother looking at a new-born baby. Things have changed a bit and the same things are now done with much more style…

In hind sight, the days when more and more companies would expect agencies to walk the talk and do some real PR wizardry are round the corner. A few of us need to get out of the complacent mode and be willing to do things differently. If the ‘MNC culture’ (another cliché awaiting burial) has survived and thrived, we can be sure that more professional understanding between PR agencies and companies can’t be far behind. Till then the debate will continue and many more words will be wasted. But only briefly…

I have been speaking to branch heads, team leaders and heads of organisations I know to whom I posed the question in terms of what would they do if someone from their team was treated in any way that was vulgar and sick. Almost all of them said that they would immediately take cognisance of it and bring it to the notice of the senior most people in the organisation both at the Client’s end as well as the agency. And if after warnings, the problem persisted, they would give up the account no matter what. Some of them have given up accounts because the problem persisted.

But again the discussion is not so black and white…mis behaviour, mis demeanor and harassment is not always one sided. It is very much a function of how each one of us conducts ourselves, how we behave, how we talk, our mannerisms, the signals we pick and give out and if there is anything that makes the other person feel that one is ‘available’ issues such as these crop up. However there have also been instances when guys have been harassed by female Clients and that’s when I realised that gender issues are no more about just women…they are beyond all lines and rules…it’s all individualistic and very dependant on situations and people themselves.

Some rules that I try to follow as a girl in this profession….

• Never go alone for Client meetings or media rounds unless you know the people really well

• Always go with someone along and have the team anyways with you….so that you are not just in good company but also do not have to come back and summarise the meeting details to your team

• Try to meet Clients and Media in their offices and if you are meeting them outside for lunch or snack meet at a place which is more fun, casual and crowded instead of restaurants with a certain ambience

• Dress appropriately…. This is a profession of not just overt communication processes but of informal, subliminal and behavioral communication. Dress decently to not attract any unwanted attention

• Be professional in your behaviour and conduct • If in spite of all this, you are faced with an uncomfortable situation, do not shy away from talking about it, but bring it up to the notice of your seniors

• Do not get hysterical while reporting about the incident but state facts and get both parties involved

At the end of the day, stand up for yourself and if you think no one is taking an action against the unfair treatment, take a decision that protects your integrity and self esteem. Since nothing is more important than your self esteem.

Madhavi Mukherjee

Client and PR relationships are like marriages, they feud, but can”t stay without each other and more or less work out if both parties give it a half decent shot. There are exceptions on both ends and so let’s not go there today for the sake of the majority. On the specific question of clients not paying or paying too less or other grouses, I see essentially see this phenomenon in two parts.

Product or Services Differentiation

Firstly, it is an ability to differentiate your self in positioning. The PR Firm market has been a commodity market for the longest time with no entry barriers for hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop shows. I saw this happening 10 years ago and today is no different. There is room for both and it is good that entrepreneurship is still a possibility in the market place. What is the big difference in working for the big 5 PR Firms in the country (if you can actually figure out ever who they are by number of people employed or revenue in a transparent fashion, beyond claims) and the home office 2-3 people outfit, one can argue. I am sure there are a lot of differences in offering and durability in time of intense attrition but we who profess to be champions of branding do a rubbish job of its when it involves our own brand characteristics and touch points across websites, corporate identity markers from business cards to collateral branding including electronic collateral like the microsoft power point, the one leg of the one legged, PR Industry are all pretty crap.

How many people can recall different practices in a large popular PR Agency unless they happen to be a specialist firm? If I take names I will be slaughtered as these are all friends, colleagues, ex-colleagues, so I’ll be prudent and duck my tail in on that but there are no many opportunities lost because no one in the leadership is really thinking about it beyond lip service and also-ran measures. Practice differentiation is not something just to do as a business whenever a fat client with a fat retainer demands it or when a project turns  into a reusable solution offering. It too needs the branding and marketing that will differentiate it as an offering and help you charge a premium for the effort in doing so.

Text 100 first changed the retainer landscape in the country in late 1990s with retainer values far in excess of what was then ‘going price’ for retainers in the Tech PR game at least. Again without taking names, there were enough nay sayers who never thought such retainers were possible or rated the survival chances of Text 100 in India. When the dust settled, history had been made with the Microsoft Account and there were many red faces. To be fair Text 100 came with an international mandates, best practices, processes but whatever local clients they picked up too came at larger retainers.

They were leaps and bounds ahead in differentiation, branding, positioning, and clients loved them and paid too. This gave hope and eventually benefited so many other legacy PR Firms who over a period of time started to attain similar retainer values because they moved up the value chain and comparing. This is when they had all along been largely sedentary about the possibility of a retainer being more than a lakh or two. There are many other examples of large retainers in Automotive, Financial Services, and Real Estate etc. 

Let’s talk for a minute about the client perspective here. What clients complain about is a lack of employee stickiness and just getting legs and no brains when they employ a PR Firm. If you sit on the client side which I have many times with multiple PR Agencies, these issues become important, so there are two sides to this coin! Don’t kick what you eat as there is seldom a one sided argument and there is no smoke without a fire!

So it isn’t like clients don’t pay. If you think you have an offering that deserves more (and good old vanilla media relations ain’t going to hack it partner) Pitch it right, be bold, be brave, and state your value proposition up front, brand your offering and you can get away with a screamer for a retainer!

Lack of Employee Stickiness and Intellectual Capital Capture in Public Relations Firms

The second important aspect one would do well to consider here involves employee longevity. Measures that arrest attrition including real dedication to employee training, specialization in vertical or horizontal practices, succession planning and an ability to see the next step-on-the-ladder.

There are philosophical and conceptual question there – what profitability are you after in terms of a gross margin is something that needs to examined in the interest of growth and scaling up. ‘Reverse price arbitrage’, this time in favor of employees and an inconvenient analysis of employee cost-to-company, as compared to retainers will show the employee wage bill as a percentage of revenue. What an owner, or promoter forsakes in terms of pay and work environment can only be good for the business but it is a question of rationale and greed.  I have seen many owners and promoters lash out about a lack of loyalty and commitment in employees while they themselves have zero empathy in return. Why is loyalty and commitment only an attribute expected of the employee and not the employer? If you want your people to stay please take care of them, treat them like individuals with aspirations and pay them right! Pay peanuts get monkeys – sound familiar?

So that is what I meant by garbage in- garbage out. Although there are good things happening out there in pockets, I am inherently in love with the idea of a consolidation based on market and supply dynamics, big names with standard global practices coming in can only mean better things for the industry and things moving to a new equilibrium.

The culture of crony PR firm associations has no done anything for the Industry or maybe I have not seen it and inconvenient issues never surface as these may not be in the best interest of constituents.

Let us embrace change and not stay shackled to the hackneyed tenets of a accidental birth, as India moves into the spotlight with its integration with the world economy, the future is bright for all of us!

Sometime ago, used to encounter clients who at the time of signing up bad mouth the agency that worked before portraying them as irresponsible, unethical, unprofessional and what not. Used to take their word at face value and actually express surprise and anguish at such behaviour of a peer firm. It is only when the firm I run received a bitter taste of this that I woke up and realized the folly. A client whom we felt was unreasonable, adopted the familiar tactic of saying what we delivered was not of value etc. as a ruse to avoid payment. When we confronted firmly and pushed hard we found to our shock that the trigger was not just the client but another PR firm whom they had hired after us. In another instance the client who bad mouthed the previous firm turned out to be so unprofessional and unbearable we had to sign of the account after few months and actually sympathize with the firm before who must have endured the same ordeal.

As speaker and active participant in many industry forums and meets I do end up socializing and chatting up large number of professionals across levels. One striking common thread is that when the conversation veers to their/other PR firms very little of what is said is objective and positive. I am sure there is no lack of good work going around in our business and leaders as well. Considering how less forums we have to share best practices or access leaders from other PR firms these personal tête-à-tête often offer a great opportunity to share and learn. Alas, we are not interested or see any value.

Next is the abrupt change in behaviour I have observed in PR pros who switch to corp. comm. or marcom. How much ever popular opinion is different, I am clear and firm that being on the agency side is a conscious decision I have taken despite many offers to switch. I treat and see myself as an equal and not otherwise. However, the behaviour of many of our peers when they cross the fence is truly surprising. Particularly the attitude when they sit across the table. Instead of leveraging it positively to have empathy for the agency and working like partners in unison often have seen the agency exposure being used as a stick to beat the agency with. My contention is that agency business is no magic and am sure nothing changes just because someone switches over to the other side. This beating down particularly happens in the area of media relations where despite knowing its glorious and documented uncertainties, the newbie corp. comm. pro., would probe as to the logic of how certain key messages were missing in the article etc. among others. While as a professional, I do not shirk responsibility, it is nice to have someone on the other side who not only understands how you work but actually factors it in objectively and works with you to fill in and make it a success. My poser is – fine you pay the fees but is it not the client firm that really wins from a successful PR campaign than the agency?

Finally, the lack of respect and inability to give credit to the senior pros. I will never accept that building or running a medium or large PR firm is a cakewalk and happens due to sheer luck or due to one benevolent and powerful mentor or whatever. It needs perseverance, planning and a whole lot more like any other industry if not more. If we all believe our leaders compromise more, how less do the leaders of our client companies have we seen compromising? How come we have different yardsticks? Yes, the factors I mentioned above helps but it is not the be all and end all.

Here are the resolutions have made for myself:

 -          what goes around, comes around, if I pass and actively support agency bad mouthing, in no time it comes back to haunt your firm as well, so, why do it in the first place

-          insist on and strive to have clients treat you as partners and push that envelope all the more with ex-PR pros turned clients

-          there is no agency that can deliver 100% to all the clients; it is simply impossible and every agency will have its cupboards adorned with few failures and that is part and parcel of life and no barometer to judge

-          PR account management and relationship building is still in the realm of subjectivity and hence when it goes sour, it will lead to frayed tempers; rather than feeding on or building onto it, one would be better off to move on in the most amicable manner possible

-          Will try my best to learn from other firms and leaders as much as they allow (recently offered to work as a associate with a very senior professional whom I admire and who runs his own consultancy for two weeks just to learn and be exposed to how he does things? He was taken aback when I made the request but was insistent and said I will not bring to the table the fact that I run my own agency and he can shout at me and do what he does to his team?)

-          Finally like employees, clients come and clients go; the reason for a client to stay with a PR firm is often a function of many factors, some of which the firm has no control over (once we lost a client because he grew faster than we did and when we chose to go with the largest firm in our country we were frank enough to say that gradual expansion is our strategy and we are not going to relook at it because of one client); so be professional about it

Am ending here not because there are not words to express more on this topic but because would not like to break the golden rule of being crisp in the blogsphere. Love to hear from all of you. 

Xavier Prabhu, an entrepreneur owns and runs PRHUB. He can be reached at Xavier@prhub.com

Public Relations is a part of the good old IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) mix and is nowadays considered to be the one of the most crucial elements for a successful communication campaign. PR is a part of the Media and A&M (Advertising and Marketing) industry and yet is not just treated as a step sister, but sometimes scum. As excited and honored I am to be a part of that industry and having grown and specialized enough to have some sort of an expertise in the profession, it saddens me when Media (Journalists) treat PR professionals as an interruption, just a watchdog who mediates meetings and interactions and says nothing at all, a coordinator for information almost only to be a delivery boy…it upsets me when media thinks that ‘you’ are the ignorant link in the chain of communication.

PR professionals are sometimes more knowledgeable than the media peers and I wouldn’t shirk admitting that. The kids out there are slogging day in and day out reading upon the sectors, devouring reports and analysis to gain in depth knowledge about their Clients, strategizing hand in hand with the marketing team and the corporate communications team to build a sound image of the Client…and then you get rebuffed as the side kick whose role is chopped off at the editing table!

It’s a different thing to condemn a PR professional if they call and follow up at peak story filing time, if they come unprepared for a meeting, if they are unable to share the necessary information et al. But to revile those professionals who are doing an equally hard job to manifest everything that the Client is saying and channeling it to the right medium… I think is a sorry state of affairs!

PR professionals are not ‘DODOS’ as some would have them believed. They are a bunch of extremely dignified and intelligent group of kids who understand the depth of communications and are as big analysts of the sector and society as their counterparts are…
- Madhavi Mukherjee

Tech Tags: PR public+relations india

I replied that if the journalist is asking her out as a man to a woman, there is nothing much I can say to help. She has to use her feminine instincts. However, if the journalist is asking her out just because she is a PR lady and he assumes that PR people are supposed to wine and dine, she can politely tell him that the wining and dining in question is not about going to the movies or to the local pubs with a journalist. The wining and dining that we do are only at well-planned corporate events organised as part of a marketing campaign. Few rotten apples tend to spoil the whole basket.

Well, maybe in not so many words. But that’s the point to be made. In case it doesn’t do, tell your senior colleague at office and make sure he/she writes a letter to the editor of the newspaper where the journalist is working. And if the senior is too scared silly because he might lose his good terms with a journalist, well… a leader who cannot protect his/her subordinates is no leader to learn from.

To get a better perspective from a veteran lady PR professional, I asked Surekha Pillai, General Manager and Delhi Head of IPAN, what she would advise a young colleague who is facing such ‘misbehaviour’.

She admits that it is a common problem faced by many in the industry and said:

My take is that we all really make a big deal out of this whereas the solution in my opinion is fairly simple. Every employee should be empowered to exercise what I could call his/her right to self respect and modesty. At IPAN, all employees are. They are encouraged to politely and firmly stand their ground when met with disdainful behaviour from media or clients. I recently wrote a letter of complaint to the CEO of a client company about unacceptable behaviour from his communications department towards the team that manages the account. He was extremely gracious about it – he responded with an apology, as well as a reassurance that the matter will be immediately dealt with. To a large extent, the industry is responsible for how we are dealt with, perceived and looked at.

Back to your specific question, let’s consider a few points:

a) What is ‘misbehaving’? The way I look at it, a male colleague at work could be asking the girl out, someone from the client’s side could do the same and the same goes with media. We tend to get extremely defensive just because we are in a profession that many perceive to be a business of wining and dining. Such a situation could arise anywhere and is not necessarily specific to media and PR. What often is also interesting to note is that when a journalist who is asking someone out is interesting enough for the person who is being asked out, then it is seen as an extension of the relationship and not ‘misbehaving’. So it really is all about perspectives.

b) When you talk of advising the lady in question about explaining the wining and dining bit to the journalist, I again think we are being defensive. I don’t think it’s anybody’s business to question or know why we wine and dine. It happens in EVERY profession where there are opportunities to get together and connect with your stakeholders, why make a song and dance about it only when the PR folks do it. I wouldn’t throw light on it.

c) I would advise her to take a call based on her personal interest levels and also that if he acts difficult as a result of it, she should respond in a way she deems fit and not lose sleep over it. I would reassure her if her act was justified, we will back her to the hilt.