This post is dedicated to the movers and shakers of pubic affairs, PR’s shy first cousin. Dilip Cherian, Nira Radia, Suhel Seth, Deepak Talwar are familiar names in this industry in Delhi. There are many more that you may not know but who are just as effective. Shantanu Guha Ray talks about them all in his article ‘Forked Tongues and Artful Nudges’ in the 21st June issue of Tehelka. Go ahead, you will enjoy it…

The rapid expansion in the media space has done many good things for the nation. It has provided choice in beats across entertainment, movies, news and education that earlier was simply not ever thought of or envisioned. The proliferation has brought about waves of soaps, contests and now with the first IPL season shaking India, it has brought a gaggle of new anchors anxious to make their mark.

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! 

Every once in a  while, there comes the case of a company that is unable to throughput communication in stark contrast to its otherwise brilliant performance indices. I have sought to understand this malady now and again but a chance conversation yesterday with a known genius in the Indian Financial Services space triggered this post. If you are the guardian angel of the Aspirational; the evangelist with passion, fire and a head full of mindgames, the PR kind, then read on…

Perception lags performance, due to many reasons. The causes manifest themselves in three primary reasons. For a Public Relations, Communications or Brand consultant, it is important to understand the terrain before they pick up on a project that seeks to break logjams in the media and perception circuits for a customer.

Breaking gridlocks and logjams for late entrants to the perception game requires special skills, the tricks  and tactics have been there forever, question is have you ever thought about it, enough to elevate it to strategy?

Changing share of voice in the media and lecture circuit from a inane buzz to the screaming roar of a Ferrari or shepherding your customer (internal or external depends which side of the table you are sat) from the mind-numbing terrors and traps in the media, triggering a turbo boost for your spokesperson in terms of messaging uptake and effectiveness, is what this post is about.

Firstly, an inability or fear of dealing with the media due to a past bad experience can make efforts hard or non-starters. Media Relations is an art that requires constant practice, the ride comes with bumps and smooth stretches, sporadic crises thrown in for spice.  You give, you get, but you always talk! There is media out there that is out to trick you out, will they hesitate to rubbish your carefully build reputation for an exclusive? Absolutely not for a second! Can PR change the game for your business? Absolutely yes! Good comes with the bad, package deal like with most things in life. If you are going to get anywhere, you need to get started! Tell them like it is, chances are that they take risks in business everyday and will grow into the act with a little hand holding from you, the specialist!

Secondly, there is a clique out there as in most other domains, these ‘usual suspects’ then pretty much control the share of voice in the media, and this maybe specific to a beat. The media is most times too lazy to do any hard digging when mapping a business space and again relies on the ‘usual suspects’, who maybe be convenient darling MDs, CEOs and other assorted rabble rousers. Awards: every publication and their mother has an award stacked with their favourites, breaking into this game needs perseverance, a nose for ‘distress sales’, finally being able to work the apex bodies like CII, FICCI, NASSCOM, etc, for advocacy and influencer relations.

Third and last here, is clearly a lack of process internally at the client organisation be it in terms of communication superstructure, even if one does exist, its ability to deliver strategic advice to management may be suspect in hierarchy driven situations or where communicators are too junior to be taken seriously. Some people use external consultants to tell them what is known already as it brings a credibility they lack.

Anyone can tell you that game changing maneuvers are few and far in between as stereotypes and ’safe’ options abound but if you as a PR professional were ever able to affect changes that made a company’s perception congruent with its performance as benchmarked against its peers, then you indeed deserve to be in the hall of fame. If commitment is your destiny and you can help tell a story that is true and ethical but inconvenient, then you are indeed one lucky person!

We need our heroes just like we need our war stories to feel good about the tribe and what it does, so come on give!

We are back to business. Year 2008 is full of news. Our blog is also making waves with great contribution from young and energetic writers. I see lot of involvement and interactivity from our readers too. The cricket and its racial monkeys to wild dogs, the cricketer with highest integrity and the cricketer who is still figuring out whether monkey is an animal or some race! BCCI’s late awakening, comparison of current president versus the previous one and so on… It is indeed a good news year so far and we have just crossed ten dates on our calendar. I thought of writing annual PR horoscope for the benefit of our readers, but you will have to wait till next Thursday for that. I have given a task to a dear friend and well-known astrologer. She is currently busy gazing at crystal ball and reading tarot card for us PR wallahs!

I am keeping my promise about continuing our affair with public affairs and giving out few tips about how to become successful public affairs professional. Well, please practice this with caution; it also depends on where you are in time and place.

Patience is a virtue: Develop this most important trait. It will come in quite handy under all circumstances. I have waited for a bureaucrat for nine hours in a dingy government office on a broken bench. There are lots of other benefits too.

News is knowledge: Learn from the news. Use the news for your benefit and use it for your advantage. Strategic media management in public affairs plays a very important role too. One doesn’t need to talk about it here.

Small is big: Every individual with a government ID card is important. Missing file can only be found by the most important person in office. The section officer’s remarks can not be ruled out even by minister in a conventional wisdom. Joint secretaries decide our future with one stroke of red or green pen. Respect everyone, forget no one.

Give me Red: Not many people like the color red (please excuse me, Mr. Left) but you should learn to love the red. Red-tapism is the most abused word and you need to learn to use ‘red carpet tactics’ to find your way through the maze.

Research is the key: Do a lot of research. Have answers to all possible questions. Prove your worth as an argumentative Indian without being one. I am still wondering what were we doing and how were we surviving when there was no Google and the only color my office computer’s monitor shouted on my face was black. You are lucky, we are all lucky to have you guys! We love you Google.

Politics in my favorite cup of tea: Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that you need to play office politics. It’s too petty and should better be left for those who don’t have anything better to do in life. Knowing to get even with politics and politicians is a skill and do whatever it takes to make them remember your name.

The humble does not tumble: Dealing with bureaucracy and politicians would surely make you humble. It shows you who you really are. The way this country has been run is remarkable. There are lot of good officers, some amazing politicians and many amazing activists out there who are making a difference to the society in their own manner. Respect them and respect the power it brings to the fore. Yes, power corrupts too. But there is hope and there is God.

This list looks more like a checklist of soft skills development seminar. There is lot more to learn and share but I am not a doctor who prescribes a medicine which not many people like to swallow. I am ending my public affairs posts here. If you have any questions or specific queries based on all our posts, please feel free to write to me and we will discuss them online or offline.

Future is bright for those who respect the present. Take care and be happy.

Tech Tags: pr public+relations india Public Affairs

In the last week’s post we discussed about basics of public affairs and how it is becoming more relevant in recent times. This week, we will take our journey forward and discuss about the various tools being employed to manage this socio-political equations.

Every organization has a different view towards how to manage this set of stakeholders and many of them devises the system which works best for them. Organizations do active lobbying, offer sponsorships, deploy code of conduct, some even pay bribes, offer consultation (directly or through industry bodies), sometimes practices voluntary self-restriction or even go for legal remedies in order to manage the socio-political stakeholders. We will discuss about all these in a step by step method.

During my past experience, I have worked with an organization which followed a very strong ‘code of conduct’ and believed strongly in consultation and voluntary self-restriction if needed. I have also worked with an organization that strongly believed in paying brides if needed, offered sponsorships to government and non-government organizations, did heavy lobbying and even went for legal remedies as and when required to protect its business interests. Sounds contradictory? yes, it is. Organizations develop strategies based on the nature of the businesses they are in, market dynamics, the impact those may have on the society, the involvement level of socio-political stakeholders and most importantly - management’s vision and ethics the company wants to follow.

In most cases, this job is assigned to an insider. I know a well known multinational company which entered India two years ago hired a public affairs professional even before they hired the CEO for India operations! The companies, which outsources the public affairs part does it for reason and is based on their specific needs. Let me give you an example, I know a US headquartered company which follows a strong code of ethics and when they were planning their India foray, they discovered that they have to bribe few officials in order to obtain certain permissions from few of the government departments (I felt ashamed while writing this but it is a known truth. I am not saying that corruption is not there in US or UK but the level of corruption we have here is sad. Here people expect money to do the job that is part of their duty!) and since they could not do it directly (and their project was getting delayed) due to the code of ethics being practiced by them worldwide; they hired the external consultants who managed the things for them and they paid a fee for their services. (You are free to read between lines) - well this is also part of public affairs. This reminds me of a particular sign I read behind a truck while I was driving on a national highway 8 couple of years ago, It read “Sau main se nabbe be-imaan, phir bhi mera bharat mahan” - when loosely translated it reads, “90 out of 100 are corrupt but then also my India is great!”

This week we end this post here. Your comments are welcome.

Next week: How to become a successful public affairs manager: a practical guide.

Tech Tags: pr public+relations india

Whenever we use the word ‘affair’, our mind starts working overtime thinking about sultry Bollywood romances or those office gossips you might be hearing inside elevators or in corridors, but here we are going to talk about the affairs of a different kind. In today’s edition of Thursdays with Tushar, we are going to talk about the business of Public Affairs.

Let’s do a ‘google’ on Public Affairs:

Public Affairs: Pub-lic af-fairs: plural noun: general matters:Issues that affect people generally, or issues arising from the relationship of the public to an organization such as a government body or a financial institution ( takes a plural verb )

noun:definition:field of study: the study of issues involving the interrelationships between the public and major institutions such as government ( takes a singular verb )

This is what I found while googling for a definition of Public Affairs from one of the web dictionaries. Pretty simple, isn’t it? Is practising public affairs as simple as it sounds here? In the next few posts we will learn more about public affairs and how it is being practiced in India.

Many of us witnessed the ‘licence raj’ in our country for many years and every businessman had to deal with various government departments more often than his counterparts in other countries, to create and manage the business. Considering this, if we go by the Darwin’s theory of evolution, I can bet many of us Indians would have better public affairs management capabilities than any of the races exist on this earth.

Now, we are in end 2007. The economy is fairly liberal and market forces are devising the business models. Global businesses are coming to India and Indian businesses are going global. People like Mukesh Ambani and L N Mittal are threatening the white members of billionaires list. The need for structured public affairs practice has increased manifold. Today’s businesses not only interact with consumers, suppliers, shareholders but are also greatly influenced by the socio-political stakeholders like government, NGOs, and last but not the least the media. Businesses need to pay attention to the requirement of these stakeholders in order to avoid any disapproval in the society which may result in to financial losses as well. In simple words, public affairs management is about creation, management and maintenance of organisation’s relations with these socio-political stakeholders.

Every business will have a different set and subset of these socio-political stakeholders. They all come in different sizes and shapes. For example, if there is a government in the list - there are various governments, which may affect your business - central government, state government, local government. If there are NGOs in the list, there could be plenty of players: International NGOs, national NOGs, state NGOs, local NGOs, gali NGOs, nukkad NGOs and so on…

When we meet after a short break next Thursday, we will talk about various tools used in public affairs management in the country and how effective they are.

Next week: Tools of Public Affairs

Tech Tags: pr public+relations india