Communicator: The Change Leader

Dr.C.V.Narasimha Reddi
Editor, Public Relations Voice

India, in past decades, has been the world number one in starvation deaths, imports, foreign aid and that it was even considered by Westerners as a nation of snake charmers, saints and ‘ Sanyasis’. In the 2000s, our country was transformed from a chronic underperformer to a potential superpower. India will overtake China as the fastest growing economy and that it will be world No.1. economy in 2020 according to Economic Times. This will also take India’s GDP Growth to 10 per cent.

World’s Biggest Communication Network
What is the secret of this success? May be many! However, ABCI Com Fest 201`0 organised by the Association of Business Communicators of India as part of its 50th Annual Awards function in Mumbai on November, 10 & 11, 2010 proved that ‘ the Communicator as the Change Leader’ has been the key promoter, and persuader par – excellence behind the spectacular success of India in the field of economy. Being the largest democracy in the world, we should not forget that India also has the biggest public communication network in the world, that facilitates the growth rate.

Against this backdrop, innumerable issues such as creating innovative industry leaders, emerging India as an economic super-power, dimension of business communications, positioning of brand Indias, public information infrastructure for global leadership, communication support in solving problems confronting the nation as a big challenge were discussed at length by well known CEOs and communicators.
Act First , then Communicate!

R.Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons Ltd, who inaugurated the Com Fest said that in the 140 years of history of Tatas only five CEOs who headed the company were responsible for its success. They had long term vision. What is needed today is of good industry leaders with great commitment, vision and the ability to communicate and influence the stakeholders. The greatest ability of a leader Gopalakrishnan observed was his communication skills to persuade and influence the people without authority. While dealing with public communication, the Executive Director, Tatas said that, Actions must always precede the communication effort. Act first, then communicate for better impact was the slogan given to communicators.
Gopalakrishnan advised the communication and public relations fraternity that they must bring to the notice of the management the reality of consumers’ viewpoint about a product or service including the corporate brand.

Good Communicators.

In the session ‘creating industry leaders through communication’, Sanjay Chowdhury, Chief of Corporate Communications , Tata Steel, said that basically change leaders have to be good communicators. The world is crying for good leaders. Business organizations need leaders at every level to sustain the growth and meet the global competitive marketing environment. Ability to deal with the people is the greatest attribute of an industry leader which can be imbibed only through communication skills.

Dr.Mathew Hibberd, Director, Communication Studies, University of Sterling, Scotland, UK who dwelt on ‘ How Can Communication Professionals Create Outstanding Leadership in Industry, observed that education and communication are some of the attributes that make great industry leaders. A session that attracted considerable attention was the one addressed by Dr.Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission, who spoke on ‘ Is India Emerging an Economic Super Power? Describing India as the fastest growing economy in the world, Dr.Narendra Jadhav detailed as to how India which faced macro economic crisis in 1990s, transformed itself into a global economic player with several achievements to its credit.

Four achievements indicated by him included:
1.Growth rate heading to 8.5 per cent;
2. Incidence of Poverty line came down;
3 Foreign exchange reserve improved with about 300 billion dollars;
4. India today became a net lender to international Monitory Fund ( we purchased 200 tons of gold). However, negative area of Indian economy is that in human development index our country ranks at 134 out of 174 countries. This could be improved by spending more on education and health services, he added.

In the session devoted to Media Expectations from Corporate Houses, Kumar Ketkar, Editor, Loksatta said that business media in India developed because of globalization; more coverage then was given to the corporate world in business media. Dealing with what media expects from corporate houses, the editor Loksatta observed that business media is keen to publish the socio-economic change taking place after liberalization. In this context, the corporate world must feed the media with the latest infrastructure and technology being used for the development of the country.

P.M. Sinha, Chairman, Bata India Ltd., who spoke on Communication Fundamental for Turnaround’ has pointed out that employees should come first in the corporate communications strategy, for it is they who act as ambassadors of the company with external stakeholders. And every manager must become a good communicator by adopting global marketing strategy with the principle Think Globally and Act Locally.

Gerson DaCunha, renowned media expert who dealt with the crisis of pesticides in CoCa-Cola and worms in Cadbury, told the delegates that worms in Cadbury was not due to defect in manufacturing but the problem was that of cold storage. Retailers, later were advised to store in refrigerators.

Public Communication Infrastructure
Speaking on ‘ creating and leveraging communication infrastructure for global leadership’; Sam Pitroda, Adviser to Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure, that attracted the attention of the delegates the most said the Indian information infrastructure with over 70 crore telephones and other telecommunication gadgets, provide information network to 100 crore people. Describing Mahatma Gandhi as the greatest communicator, Sam Pitroda advised public relations professionals that they should adopt Gandhian techniques of communications to reach the people at the grassroots, with public information network available in the country.

ABCI Com Fest-2010, with the theme – Communicator – the Change Leader is indeed a trend setter and it could be a model for professional bodies to design a new communication strategy in making India as a global economic player. The entire credit for the success of Com Fest 2010 and ABCI 50th Annual Awards Nite goes to Yogesh Joshi and his committed team who gave a new dimension to ABCI as the strongest professional body in India.

India is also going to be the largest English speaking nation surpassing USA. If every manager is a communicator, corporate communication with a suitable strategy and appropriate toolkits and tactics has a vital role to play in the success of every organization be it government, private or an NGO. The greatest challenge for today’s communicator is how to use the public information infrastructure and PR tactics in reaching the stakeholders.

Are we true professional with communication skills to meet the challenge of global communication?. According to one survey Indian public relations communication profession has grwon ‘ quantitatively’ but it is yet to grow ‘ qualitatively’. It is in this context, Com Fest 2010 clearly indicated that if the communicator is the change leader, the change leader himself or herself must be true professional with all communication skills,- reading, writing, talking and listening. Media strategy is yet another important aspect for public communication which should be in tune with the Indian environment. Public Relations Voice suggests a five point strategy to professionalize Indian public communication set-up:

• Public Relations Education, Training & Research
• Adoption of Multi-media strategy with the combination of interpersonal media, folk arts media , mass media and new media
•  Integrated public relations communication strategy as to reach all the stakeholders – primary, as well as secondary publics
• Adoption of professional code of ethics based on professionalism moral ethical values and spirituality
• A strong professional body in ABCI, PRSI, PRCI, GFPR to professionals the discipline

50th Annual Awards Nite
Apart from the Com Fest, the ABCI organized its 50th Annual Awards Nite which was a star attraction to showcase the professionalism of ABCI in recognizing the talents of Indian business communicators. ABCI is the first professional body in India to organize 50 annual awards nites one each in a year since 1960. In fact, it is a mark of prestige to get an ABCI award, which is considered an ‘Oscar of Indian Communications’ industry. Awards were presented in 32 categories from internal magazines, wallpaper, photo feature, annual reports, e-zine, corporate website to digital media.

Eminent Communicators Awards
In addition to 32 categories, ABCI also presented 9 individual awards to renowned communicators of India in different fields such as:
1. Promising Business Communicator
2. Business Communicator of the Year
3. Communicator of the Decade
4. Excellence in Business Journalism
5. Excellence in Financial Communication
6. Excellence in Marketing & Brand Communication
7. Excellence in Strategic Business Communication for non-business communication professionals
8. Global Business Communicator
9. Lifetime Achievement Award