It was 1:45 PM and waiting in the school hall was making me very antsy. I watched with steadily rising blood pressure as couples leisurely trooped in for a school session and cursed dad for my on-time fetish and son for his ban on skipping the session option. The session eventually started an hour late and the headmaster thanked the busy parents of high school for attending. Some time later the counselor introduced the concept of the fish philosophy. I had read the book and was all ears but a co-parent nudged my shoulder..”hi! you are working right? must be so busy how come you came for a mid-day meeting?” My “no not really” smile in fact encouraged her to continue “my husband’s sooooo busy,I didn’t even insist he come.”

This time I let out a hmmm so she deflected to the parent on the other side saying, “really how can the school call meetings at 1 PM, it’s the time I’m so busy to which the other lady agreed vigorously adding “Such a problem”. The counselor meanwhile was saying, ” I know you are busy and held up Outlook current issue on do you connect with your child and said “I know we have busy lives but you all must read this article”. By now I was fuming….my friends know me to never use the word and find that I meticulously wean the habitual “busy” people out of my life…but then you would say that’s my problem. It sure is but the purpose of writing this piece is that we all should unravel this Business of being Busy .

In his book Semantic Antics , How and Why words change meaning , Sel Steinmetz says “business” used to refer to being busy, but it gradually broadened to encompass many kinds of occupations. Now it’s fair to ask why don’t take the word at face value. Busy means just that..busy …occupied , not available right now…It’s because of what the word has become…Some use it as a polite brush off, some as a shield as a not available to you to and others just to pay back in the same coin. The most intelligent, creative and busy (dictionary sense) people I know are never ever busy ! They always take calls, they always return calls they can’t take, they always revert on time and almost always have a really good reason to being “busy”, a reason you can empathize with and thus begin to respect their time next time you approach them.

The fish philosophy session was meanwhile on the 3rd value “Play” and the counselor asked “So when did you all have fun last? I whispered to myself 2.20 PM ! ..the parent sitting next to me checked her watch (it was 2:22 PM) and looked at me enquiringly…I just shrugged. Later in the one on one sessions the counselor said, ” I heard what you said.. Did you really have fun ten minutes back?..Yes of course, you were speaking of one of good books I had read..my sms showed a friend trying to frantically reach me and sending vague smileys..the ladies sitting close to me were discussing how busy they were and I found it fun to be ‘free” enough to adsorb all that was happening around despite knowing all the jobs that waited for me back on my desk. ! The counselor gave me such a warm smile I skipped on my way out..

The business of being “BUSY” has occupied my mind forever. On the company Intranet I recently started a discussion string “Volunteering needs free time or a free mind ?” and the sum total was that Busy is a mindset not a state of being..or a mental state a job (or even personal life) keeps you in. For a very long time and even now sometimes I wonder what happens to us that we managers begin throwing “busy” around. Its more important in the context of Communications and Organizational Culture that the word become an anathema. Like Mark Twain said… Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover…And those people who do this i.e explore, dream, discover don’t do so on annual holidays. they do it everyday! Inspiration is all around us , in people ..with whom we are just too busy to interact with.

In the business of public relations, the media often tells us that when they have a query they need answers, we are busy but when we have a plug then we are free to pursue this single point agenda with them for days on end. There is more evidence of the misuse of the word in middle level managers. Last year I was on a compaign to get it off as many people’s daily verbal list as possible and it reflected in one of the articles on HOD skill sets where I then foolish enough to say bluntly. ” Busy is a four letter word! It keeps you away from experiencing people and events which have the capacity to make a positive impact on your professional and personal life. So don’t use it to defend your bad time management. Don’t replace “busy” with “I don’t have the bandwidth”, “I’m snowed under”. Tough job you have so stop whining - you are paid more, so you have more pressure to handle and thus more accountability too.” (you can read full article here)  That was last year. This year I’m more diplomatic primarily because habitually “busy” have very methodically been downgraded from Friends to Acquaintances to a Do I know you at all list. I have all the time in the world to do all the things I want to do…with all those who want to do it with me..

Now the epitabh (sic English) my previous blog entry received too much TRP I would say for a first one in fact led me to think maybe I should have written on a more non controversial topic instead. All that goes in the name of “breaking news” , especially nowadays when the end of life becomes the country’s soap opera, “journalism” generates some very strong emotions which showed up in the feedback.

But that apart most of the feedback tackled different portions of the blog and was generally in agreement, some comments were truly kickstarters to a thought process and Im going to tackle them in some later blogs. One colleague actually equated me in my journalist avatar to a much much senior colleague who truly was …for want of a better term …aweful kind of egoist. It is therefore correct what he said later “what hurts is to see that most of them (journos) make the generic mistake of clubbing all corporate communication professionals in one mould. Like you said there are different types of journos, similarly there are variants in CC professionals too.” Another colleague however says the exact opposite because her mentor used to say the same thing about working with journalists. A very astute colleague is pretty much agreeable with Line function bit and says she is currently heading an experimental pilot communications position which is bogged down by none of the previous process driven parts of the function anymore. Our friend Palin on the other hand is also saying the same thing but not exactly that. The point which I think is worth talking about is the scope of Corporate Communications? What pricesly are the Key Result Areas. What pricesly is the mindset..Lets talk about this in the coming days based on how many people post their curiosity on it

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… ??!!!???

Some of the best brains in the PR industry today have no formal qualification for doing their job. They hold no diploma from any communications institute nor any management certificate. But when it comes to PR strategy and execution, organizations seek them out. What is it that they do? Do they have some practical lessons that can become a part of every institute’s curriculum? I could think of five such points a PR school could adopt to make their students ‘future ready’. They are listed below, in no particular order. And if you are studying at an institute this information might be useful before you start job hunting.

1. ‘Presentation Skills’ – One of the most important weapons in any PR pros’ arsenal. You are judged by how you speak and present your ideas. Clients and colleagues form lifelong impressions within five seconds of you uttering the first sentence. In fact once my boss had whispered to me in an ‘X Files’ kind of tone: “They are always watching you.” Therefore before you accept your diploma, ensure your presentation and public speaking skills are top notch.
   
2. ‘P2P Networking’ – Here PR students have an unfair advantage over others. If they look around in their communications institute they will see editors, senior reporters, special correspondents of the future learning the ropes in the journalism classes. Right now they are approachable and ready to be friends. Ten years hence you will just read their by-lined article or see them on the prime time news. So start making right friends right now.
   
3. ‘What to do and what not to say’ – As a PR consultant, you are in touch with company heads and senior management, and there’s a ‘certain’ behaviour expected from you. This may include how to handle difficult questions, how not to offend people, how to shake hands, how to initiate and carry on a polite conversation, how not to get unnecessarily provoked etc. It sometimes takes years to master the art but the sooner we make a beginning, the better it is.
   
4. ‘Dress up and play the part’ – A PR consultant inspires confidence in her clients. They seek her advice and trust her judgement. Again, this is a skill honed over years but you can start immediately by dressing up the part. Always be aware of the silent signals you give about your personality by the way you dress up. I once heard an industry veteran say: “Before you pass out of your institute, ensure you have at least two business suits in your wardrobe.”
   
5. ‘Sell yourself, gracefully’ – Promote yourself and do it with style. For example, even as a student you can share your business card at formal occasions. It can carry your name, contact details and institute address. Learning early how to effectively use sites like Linkedin.com is also an asset that will go a long way.

I am sure there are institutes that already have these lessons in their curriculum but there are others who can think about them. After all a little practical work never did anyone any harm.

I am sure many of us have heard about ‘Art of Living’ and the difference they are making in many peoples’ lives. Today, I am introducing ‘Art of Leaving’ and trying to leave a thought so even while you leave, you can live forever in minds of organization and its people. It is said by some unknown (at least to me…) poet that, “Jahan jahan se guzare hum, na mitane wale kadmo ke nishan chhodate chale aaye hum…” Effective leader or manager is one who leaves a legacy of great work and capacity to produce better results.

My post is not original and it is inspired by couple of instances I have come across in recent times. It is also inspired by couple of books I have been reading in recent times. Timing of this post may lead to few possible thoughts in many peoples’ minds but that’s ok! We do not wish to comment on speculations. Change is inevitable and people who are on my ‘Google Talk’ list already know that I am busy carving dreams with my force. We will talk about it in next few weeks.

Any management job is quite a thankless job. Not all successful management guys are earning bunch and bunch of money and getting rims and rims of newsprint. There are many people like us who are quietly making a difference to a business, to a profession or to a society by becoming engines of growth or change. If you want to leave and still live forever, the first thing you should be doing is leave when you are not required to. Don’t leave because you are tired for burned out. Look at Arun Sarin; he’s leaving at right moment. When everything is going for him, he’s leaving and in the process he is surely going to leave a legacy and a vision for the organization which will surely shape future of Vodafone across the globe.

When you are ready to leave, take your team in confidence. Share your vision with them. Show them the change and lead from front. It is important for them to know that even if you are not going to be around they have to carry forward the good work and foundation created by you and make you feel proud. I always carry this wonderful quote in my mind with me, which I don’t remember verbatim but it goes something like this – “A manager is not known by the work team does when he’s around but he’s known by the work the team does when he is not around.” I always believed in that and this is a time when I wish to thank each and every individual who has worked with me in my past 15 years and carried forward the legacy of change we have envisaged together. A big thank you to all of you my friends!

Leaving in style is something I have always enjoyed. I have left organizations or offices when they were in better shape than when I joined them. People who have worked with me or know me will vouch for this statement and they have seen how I enjoyed legacy of creating many offices/organizations from scratch and turning them into profitable business ventures. Leave in style, so your style lives forever. I still receive calls from many of my past clients saying that they miss me and I feel really proud about it.

Leaving a job or organization is not bad but leaving when things are bad is bad. So, if you are planning to leave because you didn’t get a raise this year – don’t leave. If you are planning to leave because you shifted your office and you didn’t get a desk you always wanted – don’t leave. If you are planning to leave because you are not satisfied with your team’s performance – don’t leave. Leave when you get your raise. Leave when you get your desk. Leave when your team is at its best and delivering a peak performance. Winners do not quit. Be a winner, leave but always live in heart and soul of the organization. I repeat my last week’s question – do you have it in you?

PS: This should act as an eye opener for few of so called leaders in our industry about whom I wrote in one of my early posts. You may read it here.

Has it not been debated before? Yes, it has been. Have we not wasted enough cups of coffee arguing over it? Yes, we have. So, are we ready to bury and tombstone the topic? No, not in the near future.

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…

PowerPoints can often make or break a career and we need to master the art of creating good looking PowerPoints, especially if we are working in the corporate world. Here are some good reads and tools from across the web and the blogosphere to help you get started in creating a good design.

Remember like experts say, creating a good PowerPoint is a work of art - the visual appeal and construction of words should harmoniously depict and help in what you intend to say.

1. Office 2007 - Firstly, before anything else, lets get the weapons and ammunition right. I kept on repeating this but the US army is the top armed forces in the world not because the Americans are stronger than the people in other countries, but majorly because of the superior weapons they have. So taking that into account,  how about upgrading our own hung MS Office 98s and XPs to Office 2007 (Microsoft is not my client), if you are not already. The visually appealing shapes, templates, and designs you can create so easily in Office 2007 will seem like impossible in the other previous versions of MS Office.

2. Templates - You can use the MS Office themes and download more from here. However one problem with using these templates is that everyone uses them, so your presentation looks like a college student’s homework. You can break free from the default flashy and extra colorful Microsoft templates and use your own templates. Check out the designs of some award wining presentations here. You don’t need to be a master designer. A white background is suitable for almost all types of presentations. Here is a simple one I have used way back, in a plain white background with one picture.

Ok I realised it looks much better on the PowerPoint, but nevertheless to prove a point, I am not deleting it.

3. Layouts - Chuck the standard layout designs and create your own style. All slides need not have the standard layouts throughout, meaning you can move around where you put the text and the pictures. For myself, I stopped using the default ‘Title’ and ‘Title and Content’ layouts long time back, because I see that layout in every other presentation.

For instance, for proposing a event speaker opportunity to a client, this slide below should be sufficient. The presenter has to know the details of the events at his/her fingertips, or have it in a piece of paper though.

3. Fonts - Personally I prefer Calibri. Yes that’s the default font in MS Word in MS Office 2007. It is a sans serif font, the family that is preferred by experts.

Regarding the font size, everybody has his/her own views on this. Read on what experts say about font here at Digital Inspiration. Though a 30 point font size might not be practical for our PR plan and pitch proposals, I suppose font size shouldn’t go down beyond 16. I said this considering what works basis the sizes of most of the conference rooms I encountered. But this might not be ideal for events. So when Guy Kawasaki says 30 font size, probably he must be refering to big events where he give his presentations at.

4. Content - Most experts agreed on writing in phrases, not complete sentences. One or two phrases per slide should be enough. Now the problem with such presentations is that they need expert presenters. For those of us who are few years into the business, we cannot start talking for 5-10 minutes by looking at a picture. Sure I can talk about my blogging habits for hours, but not on the IT consulting industry’s issues and trends in India, unless I have done a big homework. But hey, maybe that’s the clue - homework.

5. Pictures - Pictures are the soul of the presentation. Without pictures, presentations become such a drag and corporate blah blah. Right pictures help bring out an idea more clearly for the audience. I also read somewhere, maybe Seth Godin’s blog, that your words on the slides are for the intellect of your audience, your pictures are for appealing to their emotions. Anything to grab that contract.

I also have another point. If you don’t write much, you don’t reveal much of your ideas in written if you need to leave behind a copy of that ppt at the end of the presentation.

Alos, Ellen Finkelstein says a very valid point that bullets are boring and if you write in bullets, people start reading them and stop giving attention to what you are saying. She says instead of having three bullet points in one slide, you can break them into three slides.

For examples this slide ….

can be broken into this…

this…

and finally this….

You can find pictures for your presentations on Google Image Search. Or if you worry about copyrights, then Stock Xchng provides free images. For Indian images try Dinodia.

6. Golden Rules to Remember from the Masters - I won’t say much here. Read on from the masters. These are my two favorite posts on PowerPoints. The first is a ten tips list from Garr Reynolds. The second is a post from Seth Godin giving his superb tips. Be sure to check these two links out.

Also are 10 points to learn from the world’s best PowerPoints contest as a checklist. Then here are 10 do’s and don’ts from Micrososft Small Business Center.

7. Tips and Tricks -  Learn how to frame your presentation on a Word file and then later import it into a ppt, with formatting intact here. This will be good to just concentrate on the content without going for the design in the initial stage. Then there are also more tips and tricks on this page as well.

More PowerPoint readings - The PowerPoint FAQ.

Do you have any tips to share, or some nice powerpoint slides toshow off, well share the tips on the comments. You can upload your slides on Box.net or some other place and share the link in the comments. If we have enough of the nice ones, we will list them out on the blog together.

“Agencies seldom get sacked for blunders; it’s the small irritants that ruin you,” said my boss. We were on our way back from a client’s office and the ‘small irritant’ was ‘our’ habit of being late for meetings. This was a few years back when I worked as a trainee on a 9 to 9 shift, and was not allowed the privilege of a retort, especially not a witty one. While I was regularly showered with the above-mentioned pearls of wisdom, I also got slammed for not doing my homework. This mostly meant that before heading for a pitch meeting I had forgotten to take correct and accurate directions to the venue. Such was the cruelty in those days…

I am sure, dear reader, you have faced, or are facing, similar trauma in your work life. If yes, I will share with you something that will forever change the way your boss sees you. She might even recommend you for a triple and out-of-turn promotion. It’s called “the idiot-proof guide to taking directions to important meetings with your boss.” It’s childishly simple and after I share it with you, you would probably want to slap my back and say, “Bro, why didn’t I think of that before!” Excited? Come a little closer to the monitor and let me whisper it in your ear…

The trick is to use t.e.c.h.n.o.l.o.g.y. This means becoming very familiar with one of the many map sites – Google Maps, Yahoo India Maps, MapmyIndia, Wikimapia and so on. Before heading for any meeting in unknown territories do search for the building or the locality. Believe me it will save you a lot of acquired headache. So far so good and very simple (and you are probably thinking, ‘I do this all the time’). But tell me, dear reader, are we making the very best use of tools like Google Earth and online maps to give your career a boost (if you know what I mean)? Think, think.

Ok, let me cut to the chase and tell you something interesting. The next time you give directions to the rendezvous point to a journalist for that important one-on-one, be brief. Let’s assume your client is in Nicholas Piramal Tower, Lower Parel, Mumbai. Chances are the journalist already knows the place. In case she has no clue, don’t confuse her by saying, “it’s near Wellspring Hospital” or “near Senapati Bapat Marg”. Simply say, “Type 18.9997, 72.8248 on Yahoo India maps or Google Maps. You will know exactly where I will be waiting to receive you!” Help her by further by adding, “Please use the satellite option to choose your own landmarks.” And don’t forget to reply to her thank you by saying: “Happy to help!”

The point is that instead of giving and receiving complicated directions we can ruthlessly kill ambiguity by just spelling out our lat/long coordinates. Precise and crisp. But where do we find them? If you use Google Earth and zoom to your office building, they will be displayed on the bottom left of your screen. If these same coordinates are actually put down on your business card, life would be a bed of roses. In fact in the near future it might become common for you to add your lat/long on all business communication, along with your address, phone number, email ID etc. Hard to believe? Let me tell you the story of how some of us never believed that sissy email would one day poison our good ol’ snail mail…

And now for the icing on the cake – If you have a GPS enabled mobile phone your chances of becoming your boss’s favourite jump-up manifold. Just key-in the coordinates of that building hidden in some cranny of some bylane in the most congested part of any city, and you will be admired for being punctual. It so happens that armed with the humble lat/long you can actually guide your boss, or anyone else for that matter, to anywhere in India or in any country. You just need to be a little creative and present her this idea. Because as she might have told you during your appraisal, “It’s not the big things you do that take you far; it’s always the small contributions you make every day.”