Tourism is more than a business or just an economic activity

What do you mean by tourism?

I often wonder at the word ‘tourism’; perhaps the only business or vocation which has ‘ism’ prefixed to it. Often I have talked about tourism as an economic activity and the governments, and the private players in the hospitality or travel business, limit it to those material understanding of the term that does not carry any impact.

There are countries who have boosted their economies through sheer understanding it as a cultural concept that enhances a visitor from another land to get connected to the area…intrinsically. Some of the places enhance joyful experiences, while others create soulful and spiritual satiation.

Countries and organizations wanting to explore the potential of tourism, need to understand its spiritual and humane aspects. Despite the fact that Mary Jane Corbett, the mother of Jim Corbett is given the credit for popularizing Nainital as a tourism destination, 130 years ago.

Another innovator and travel enthusiast, Thomas Cook initiated the concept of conducted tours, but its etymology goes back to Greek in the 1300s where it literally meant turning on a lathe or the French version of drawing circles, too much later in 1832, "surroundings, environment," picked up by De Quincey from French entourage, from tourer "to surround" (16c.), from Old French tour "that which surrounds" (10c.), from en- "  

Specific sense of "attendant persons, persons among whom as followers or companions one is accustomed to moving" was recorded in English by 1860.

Tourism is more of an ism that encourages human-to-human interaction and where the unique natural assets of a place, when maintained in their fullest glory, work positively on the human psyche. Tourism to my mind continues to be a way of life that enchants other human beings who come in touch with those human and natural elements.

Countries like New Zealand, and Scandinavian countries, who have truly understood the concept have created an inclusive culture of acceptance of all human beings. Our Chandigarh’s thematic symbol of ‘open hand’, open to receive and open to give emanates from a similar attribute of tourism.

Tourism is where the mind is free and open to mingling with the local culture in its entirety leaving an indelible mark on one’s heart and soul.

Are our cities ready to create that feeling of trust, openness, and transparency for visitors from other places? Are we proud of the city we live in, and would help an unknown traveler, discover its beauty? This brings into play the entire community of humans who are the ambassadors of the city to reflect that positivity to others. Do our policies conform to this principle?  Tourism is not about the infrastructure and buildings and monuments. Tourism is the way humans interact with other humans as human.

What do you think?

#business #community #environment #experience #culture #hospitality #Tourism #WTO #travel #medicaltourism

Why do corporate think about media alone when talking about corporate strategy?

Talking about the corporate public relations strategy, unfortunately, even the leading journals for entrepreneurs are focussing just on media relations.  

That is the result of a very unfounded, unprofessional, and incomplete understanding of how does public relations work.  What do PR practitioners do?

No wonder, over the years, public relations has been reduced to mere media relations.  

Instead of taking a consultancy stance to help businesses succeed, even the PR agencies, largely, are spending their time in wooing media and pitching stories. 

The current pandemic has revealed the inadequacy of mere-media approach, or an asymmetrical approach to public relations. 

Majority of organisations, whether government or public sector or the corporate sector, found themselves at a loss during the pandemic in the absence of effective communication strategy.   

There was none in fact.   

The inadequacies of internal communication were evident.  The top management was at tenterhook in handling the crisis with a large workforce being rendered jobless with layoffs.  

There is a better need to have a broader understanding of public relations practice, which is a holistic solution-oriented approach through strategic communication. 

Horasis Inspiring Our Future

António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations

Competing in a Leaderless World

Horasis Extraordinary Meeting to be held on Horasis’ new ground-breaking digital conferencing platform on 1st October, 2020. 

Horasis will gather 1000 of the most senior members of the Horasis Visions Community, including several heads of governments and key ministers to overcome the profound economic, political and social disruptions caused by Covid-19.

Horasis is a global visions community dedicated to inspiring our future. Horasis provides strategic foresight to public and private entities who envisage growing into global and principled organizations.

Covid Vaccination Availability, Changing World of e-Commerce, AI as Force for Good, and Rekindling Education Post Covid-19 are some of the important topics that will be discussed at The Horasis Extraordinary Meeting on 1st October.

“The world will not go back to a ‘new normal’ using a simplistic resetting of legacy systems,” said Frank-Jürgen Richter, Chairman of Horasis. “Extraordinary times demand extraordinary transformation. All public, private and social sector leaders must collaborate to design strategies to lead society through these trying times.”

Top Speakers from around the World like Nana Akufo-Adda, President Of Ghana, Ajmal Ahmady, Governor Of The Central Bank, Afganistan, Nina Angelovska, Former Minister of Finance, North Macedonia, Shaukat Aziz, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pierre Buyoua, Former President of Burundi, Tarun Anand, Chairman and Founder, University Business Schools, India, Vivek Atray, Former Director IT and Tourism, Chandigarh, India will chair a session on "Competing in a Leaderless World" starting at 01:30 PM IST. 

Some other speakers include Shashi Tharoor, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, Satya Brahma, Chairman, Network 7 Media Group, Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, India and many more will help the global community to Unite. Inspire. Create.

What Public Relations is Not! And What it is.

Public relations suffer from a deep perception crisis, and right from the academics to media, to corporate leadership, have diverse views on what this profession is all about. 

One can gauze the understanding of the chief PR person of a public sector organisation when he, sharing his "success" story, mentioned that the best PR lesson he learnt was to take care of his boss's dog, his wife and his kids and he never ever he had any problem in his career since then. 

This shocking revelation in front of an audience left the veterans speechless, while many others just wondered at such a disclosure.  Not his fault since in many public sectors and government organisations, earlier, provided a promotional avenue to their clerical staff to get into public relations whose primary job used to be running an errand or managing the reception. 

In the last four decades of my engagement with diverse fields of communication, right from being a journalist to public relations practitioner and visiting faculty to various educational institutes, it remains an enigma for many, including some of the corporate where PR does not go beyond 'Press Release' or media relations. 

There are numerous myths that surround the profession even today to a large extent, though senior communicators and businesses are taking serious note of the practice. 

Several professional bodies like the Public Relations Council of India, Association of Business Communicators, International Public Relations Association, and Indian PR Consultants Association, are making efforts to educate the management and introduce the professional practice. 

Young communicators opting for public relations often fall prey to the whims of the uninformed management leadership and are relegated to tasks far below their roles. 

In fact, the practice of public relations profession began with their role as firefighters in an hour of crisis but a young professional Ivy Lee put to rest the misbeliefs in the minds of the managements that PR is not to hide the truth but to be honest and truthful and proactive in sharing information with stakeholders. 

Public Relations is not: 

• Advertising
• Liaison
• Lobbying
• Propaganda 
• Ensuring publication of Press Releases in media
• Manipulating facts (spin-doctoring)
• White-washing/Hiding facts, especially during a crisis  (fire-fighting)
• Entertaining media people and keeping them in good humour

Public relations practitioner is a professional who is trained to manage communication effectively between an organisation and its stakeholders (or 'publics') to achieve desired results. 

Multi-Dimensional

A professionally trained communicator with knowledge of psychology, sociology, public administration, anthropology, linguistics, behavioural sciences, management principles, technology, data mining, business environment auditing, with a vision to judge the future impact of an organisation's existence,  can make people, corporate, public bodies, the governments, effect the change, what Mahatama Gandhi said, "you want to see in the world".  

The Changemakers

The young communicators entering the professions must feel proud of the fact that they are the changemakers who can bring about the desired change in the lives of the people, their perceptions, and their thought processes, just through sound communication techniques.

PR is all Pervasive

Organisations thrive through their stakeholders, which are diverse and different for every organisation.   Their study and communication consumption patterns defines the organisation's success story. How the stakeholders perceive a brand, an event, a person, depends upon the successful communication strategy. 

So the public relations practitioners should learn the fundamental nuances of communication tools, techniques and tactics, while the managements need to learn to harness the hitherto unutilised or underutilized Power of PR. 

 

Business Model for a Successful Startup

Every time is the first time. And every new customer you meet, it is the first time that you would be making your presentation.

The key is to create your pitch to every prospect with the same spirit, hardwork, efforts, to establish your credibility.

Here is a sure-shot formula for success in your business, i.e. WxWx3Ws+H

a. The first W is the Why of your business. Mission of your organisation or your offering. Why are you in the business you are in. Be clear. Be specific. Till the time you take it beyond your own self, you won’t find the true mission of your work. This is the core, the entire spirit of your engagement, or in short, the purpose of your being.

Each one of us is Born to Serve others. Ask yourself, how does your product or service is making a difference in the life of others. What problems it is going to solve?

b. The second W is to be multiplied, because this is another crucial element to your success. Who? Who are the people whom you intend to serve. These are the people, your customers, for whom you have devised the product. Do you know all these ‘people’ who are going to make a success of your business? They are both internal and external.

Internally, they are your cofounders, collaborators, investors, board of directors, and the entire team members, down to your office boy and tea-wallah, sweeper, etc.

Externally, the ‘WHO’ form the largest chunk who are the reason for your existence. Your distributors, dealers, channel partners, logistics support, vendors, retailers, customers, and their families, the community,
the media, the government, financial institutions, etc.

Once you start drawing your list of ‘Who’, you will be surprised to know how you need to create strategy to reach out to all those people.

c. Theeafter we have 3Ws, i.e. What, When, and Where. They relate to your product/services, the team of experts, your USPs and technical advantages over competition, when can one get them (or the timing factor) and where.

d. The H, How, explains the process you are going to adopt to solve the people’s problems. In the online domain you would find thousands of replicas of various products, but only one amongst them excels and shines just because of the excellence in execution, which is the differentiator.

When you pitch to your client, your presentation should not be more than 6 to 7 slides, because no one has the patience and time to go through lengthy presentations.

Your passion and knowledge about your product and how it connects with the prospective customer, would not require longish explanations. Keep them Short and Sweet.

The first slide, Why would take care of your values and objectives, while your research on Who would matter the most.

Before the pitch, study your customer/prospect whom you are going to make the pitch.

Don’t keep it general.

Modify it to suit specific issues that your prospect is facing, which would require a little research about the organisation to whom you are approaching. Address their specific needs, and you have hit the nail.

Take care.

 

10 Business Tips for Startups

 Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay 

Here are the ten business tips for startups. 

1. Start with Why. If you are already in business write down the reasons or purpose of your business. Why are you in business? What niche area you are serving? What are the pain points that you intend to solve? How your business would address specific issues.
2. How you are different? Explore the businesses in your domain…the competition. What are they doing and what are their marketing strategies? What is the USP of the products in the market? Have you innovated?
3. Strategy to Excel: Compare your product/service or offering vis-a-vis the competition. How it is or going to be different from others? Are you building into your system some ease-of-usage, better turn-around-time, or improved quality with same or less pricing? What shall be your USP?
4. Design Excellence: Is there an improved design? In product, packaging, delivery, usage experience?
5. The Team: Do you have the team on board which are not square pegs in round holes.? People matter. Having the right team for each process is essential.
6. The Right Resources: Do you have the right financial resources to implement your plan, your ideas, and innovation? Who shall be providing the resources for your success? What kind of partnerships you shall evolve?
7. Do you know your customers? What are their psychographs and demographics? What are their preferences? Why should they be using your product? How do they make their choices?
8. What is the market size you intend to cater to? Local, national, or international?
9. Your Business Environment: Your organisation is affected and impacted by the business environment; be it government policies, economic or political situation, social or cultural considerations, international trade, etc. Are you aware of it as to how you can operate within existing business environment?
10. Communicate: List out all your internal and external stakeholders who matter to your organisation, your product or services. Be specific and develop communication strategy that resplonds to their needs, and which can influence them positively and create a favourable image for your organisation / brand.
    
    These are just some of the tips that a business management pro should look into. These may not be complete, but 10 most crucial pointers to start with for any startup, or an existing organisation. 

CorePR: 5 Things You Need to Do

CorePR: 5 Things You Need to Do: Holed up at home?   Everyone is.  World over. It could be a blessing in disguise. For many of us, who remain busy day-in...

5 Things You Need to Do

Holed up at home?   Everyone is.  World over.

It could be a blessing in disguise.

For many of us, who remain busy day-in-and-day-out in our worldly pursuits, hardly get time to introspect.

All of us are on Fast Forward Mode.  There had not been any Pause button in our lives. Come what may.  Until now.

As curfew and lockdown has forced us into our homes, it is time to reflect and do things that you always wanted to do, but never did.

Here's a list of 5 things that you should be doing every day.

1. Maintain a Journal
Pick up a small notebook, diary or download 'Keep', a Gmail app on your mobile to take note daily.
The morning ritual should be to jot down what you intend to accomplish today.   Have a schedule.  Go over it and get into action.

2. Get Ready
When you are locked down and no one is there to look you up, you tend to relax and stay in your night suit.   Getup in time.  Get Ready.  And start working on your 'to do' list.  If you are working, reflect on the new things you would do at your job to make work much more efficient and productive.   And if you are an entrepreneur, it is time to plan and prepare a strategy to take your business to newer heights as soon as the normalcy returns.

3. Learn a New Skill 
You wanted to play a musical instrument, set up a blog, or learn cooking....just go ahead and do it.  Enough YouTube videos are available to revive your hobby or learn a new skill and utilise your time more fruitfully.  For entrepreneurs, this is the time to look for more opportunities for your enterprise to grow.

3. Reconnect with a Friend/Colleague/Relative
Haven't we lost touch with the people around us?  Many have not talked to their parents. Though they might be there on social media, remember, there is nothing like getting in touch with them and reconnecting.  You would simply love it. 
For business people, stay in touch with your employees and customers.

5. List Your Gratitude
Before sleeping gets back to your journal and jot down your list of Gratitude.   All the people you talked to, all the loving care that you got from your family, the food that was served to you, the air that you breathed and a whole lot of things you feel you are grateful for.  Thank the Almighty for all those gifts that you received today.

There is much more that every one of us can do.   But in the next 21 days, this is the habit-forming schedule if practised regularly, religiously and with a commitment.  It would turn you into an amazing person.

Indian wireline broadband pricing likely to fall by 50%; segment to generate Rs 80,000 crore over 5 years

Indian wireline broadband pricing likely to fall by 50%; segment to generate Rs 80,000 crore over 5 years

Journey of CorePR since 1986

Thirty-three years of managing communication for diverse industry sectors and organisations makes me look back with satisfaction for having helped organisations, brands, and individual celebs including authors, garner limelight for themselves in a highly competitive world.

CorePR was born in September 1986 as a one-man startup (the term did not exist at that time) which gradually graduated into a private limited company. 

That was the time when little did corporate know about public relations as a profession or business, except a few beyond Delhi.  But that was the time when some of the big corporate like Crompton Greaves and Pepsi were looking at Punjab and gave me the opportunity to begin. 

Already I had met several leading PR professionals in reputed companies across the country during my stint in PR with a German company, which included Mr KS Neelakandan, Vice President at Pfizer, Mr Ajit Gopal, the PR head with Indian Airlines, Mr Anil Basu of Goodyear, who had helped in my journey as a PR practitioner. 

The firm belief that effective communication practice can help resolve any issue  in the world, whether it is improving employees sense of belonging, internal communication, training the stakeholders, or reaching out to different external audiences like customers, financial institutions, or the need for changing the government's policies.  The holistic approach to communicate the right message in a desired format through right media at the right time, made the difference. 

The best part remains in PR practice, especially working with small enterprises and startups who have a long journey to traverse, to seem them achieve their goals through effective communication practice. 

From the initial years of concept selling and educating clients about the PR Power, till date, the outcome-based approach to address specific pain points has continued to reap tangible results for our clients.   

How to Elevate Your Startup with PR

Emboldened and inspired by the 'Startup India' many startups are emerging, and youngsters especially, are enthused to setup their own enterprise.  At the early stage, the promoters are more concerned about their product, streamlining operations, hiring the team, and looking for funds to give wings to their ideas. 

However, in all this exercise, PR - the Power Tool to empower any organisation, remains ignored, and those who consider it, keep it on the back burner, since it holds the least importance in the initial stages.

How can PR help a startup grow?

BUILDING BRAND 
The moment the founders conceive the idea, the role of PR starts to help them define the organisational's mission and vision.  They can help in getting the visual identity of the organisation created effectively which can communicate the concept to diverse audience.

INTERNAL INTEGRATION 
Integrating all stakeholders within the organisation is the first step that PR professional can help put together by establishing robust internal communication channels, both formal and informal, for complete transparency, and keeping everyone on the ame page.
Shared goals contribute to the internal strength that gets projected to the external stakeholders strongly paving way for startup's growth.

EXTERNAL IMAGE MANAGEMENT
Every aspect of the branding for consistent reproduction and projection needs expert imaging specialist as also take care of the communication needs of external stakeholders, be it collaborators, technology providers or knowledge partners, financial institutions and individual investors, government institutions and academics, to name a few.

Every group's communication needs to be strategically designed to achieve the desired objective.

MEDIA MANAGEMENT
One of the significant partners for any organisation is the print and electronic media.  Though most founders are young and social media savvy, the importance of print, radio and television channels cannot be discounted.   Even in the print categories, there are dailies as well as vertical or industry specific periodicals that need to be targetted to share your story.

The PR professionals work with the startups to provide them media exposure as well as design opportunities for them to showcase their story through speaking assignments in professional conferences, social clubs, community meetigs, etc, that also adds up to some media coverage.

Good stories published in media also gets public support and supports talent hunt.

FUNDING
Getting the startup founders ready for pitching and presenting to the investors is another key area where properly pitched stories make a difference.  All the buildup through marketing communication, media coverage portfolios, help in generating investors' confidence in the startup.

Engaging PR agency or professionals right from the very beginning can only change the entire scenario for a startup. 

What is the Big Idea?

Communicators agenda for the next decade
 

The big agenda for the next decade is communication.  In this information age of big data, the nuances of the science and art of managing communication have also changed.  drive growth, change, and success for organizations, governments, and nations.
On the global front, technology is shaping the trends and artificial intelligence is communicating with the people in a big way transforming the way we live, enjoy and work, besides, of course, redefining the relationship between an organization and its various stakeholders.
Another major trend sweeping the global economies is diverse technology-driven flow of information  breaking barriers between brands and consumers, employers and employees, necessitating evolution of every business to keep pace with new technologies and redefine management of internal and external relationship.
The Big Change is that every professional, and every business is transmuting into thought leadership domain, to combat the competition and excel.  The organizations would have to turn into learning ones in order to maintain dynamic relationship with its various stakeholders in the midst of rapid technological changes.
Earlier, the communication strategists monitored business environment in a limited way within their existing ecosystem focusing on specific ‘publics’.  The future now depends upon evolving processes and systems to track insights into consumer behavior with a need for customizable responses at the individual level.

The old paradigms of ‘slow and steady wins the race’ has since long shifted to agility, measured with turnaround response time.

For the PR fraternity involving communicators in every area of operations have a challenge at hand to become a part of the BIG change.   The success would depend on getting into the loop of dynamic learning, making decision, and executing or responding. Digital world has already opened limitless opportunities. It is time to stay attuned to the rapid transformation and how organizations are evolving with the new technology, where communicators need to interpret big data, understand the patterns and create response triggers to address the issues involved. This would determine the success of the PR practitioners, and their organizations. 

The time is ripe for the PR practitioners to join in this vital conversation at the 13th Global Conclave at Jaipur, to create a winning road map for the future.

(C.J. Singh is a corporate communication consultant with over three decades of experience as a journalist, broadcaster, author, corporate brand manager and consultant, having founded one of the first PR consultancies in Chandigarh way back in 1986.  The article was published in 'Kautilya', the journal of the PRCI Young Communicators Club in its February 2019 issue, published during the 13th Global Communication Conclave held at Jaipur, India)

Communication professionals to mobilse funds for Kerala

#keralafightsback - Communication professionals to mobilise relief funds

Mobilising its mite for the Kerala flood relief, national communicators’ body Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) has decided to donate the entire ‘early bird’ fee collection for the forthcoming 13th Global Communication Conclave to be held in February next, with the theme PR – What’s the Big Idea?

PRCI will donate the collection to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, said PRCI chief mentor and chairman emeritus M B Jayaram. The Conclave venue will be announced in the next couple of days.

PRCI has fixed the first early bird registration fee at Rs 3,000 per delegate for the two-day Conclave and it is valid till September 16, 2018. The registration form and he payment gateway details are posted here.

PRCI has appealed to all communication professionals to generously donate for the #keralafightsback project and send the word across their organizations and clients as well. “This is the least that we can do for the flood-ravaged Kerala,” said Kumar.
The previous Global Communications held by PRCI have seen large participation and delegates number crossing 500.

Headquartered at Bengaluru, PRCI has close to 30 chapters and floated a global platform called World Communicators Council with the aim of bringing communication professionals from various spheres on a common platform.
PRCI has successfull launched social communication projects such as #MissionMumbaiLocal, #SaveParsikHill, #PotholesRforever and #IamMangroveIamDying.

With #keralafightsback, PRCI salutes the true resilient spirit of Kerala - Gold's own country.

Communication professionals to mobilise relief funds

PRCI global conclave fee for CM’s relief fund

Mobilising its mite for the Kerala flood relief, national communicators’ body Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) has decided to donate the entire ‘early bird’ fee collection for the forthcoming 13th Global Communication Conclave to be held in February next, with the theme PR – What’s the Big Idea?

PRCI will donate the collection to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, said PRCI chief mentor and chairman emeritus M B Jayaram. The Conclave venue will be announced in the next couple of days.

PRCI has fixed the first early bird registration fee at Rs 3,000 per delegate for the two-day Conclave and it is valid till September 16, 2018. The registration form and he payment gateway details are posted here.

PRCI has appealed to all communication professionals to generously donate for the #keralafightsback project and send the word across their organizations and clients as well. “This is the least that we can do for the flood-ravaged Kerala,” said Kumar.

The previous Global Communications held by PRCI have seen large participation and delegates number crossing 500.

Headquartered at Bengaluru, PRCI has close to 30 chapters and floated a global platform called World Communicators Council with the aim of bringing communication professionals from various spheres on a common platform.

PRCI has successfull launched social communication projects such as #MissionMumbaiLocal, #SaveParsikHill, #PotholesRforever and #IamMangroveIamDying.

With #keralafightsback, PRCI salutes the true resilient spirit of Kerala - Gold's own country.

Beyond the pink-shirt, partying phenomenon!

PRCI – The Communication Exchange

PRCI – www.publicrelationscouncilofindia.com – is a pan-India Communication Exchange with presence in 30 Indian cities and towns.

This premier network connects PR, Media, Commercial and Public Service Advertising, Marcom, Academia in Communication and students; organises at national and regional levels events like conferences, discussions, lectures, training programmes, apart from annual global conclaves for sharing experience and facilitate continued exchange of knowledge among professionals.

Here is a glimpse of wide range of PRCI’s professional projects: 

YCC

A special Young Communicators Club (YCC) for galvanizing young boys and and girls pursuing mass media communication programmes in various  universities campuses across India. PRCI and YCC jointly hold series of knowledge experience and research sharing activities in association with various university campuses.

CHANAKYA

PRCI publishes the CHANAKYA magazine for networking with its members and serve as a vehicle for sharing  knowledge and experience.

PRapport 

We support an extraordinary e-mag called PRapport. By not being  a weekly, fortnightly or a monthly, but a virtual 24x7 online publication, it aims to fulfil  the needs for quick updates of events, communication and media trends and thought leadership articles by communication industry stalwarts as well as the youth. PRapport enjoys a about 50,000 page views across the US, Canada, UK, France, Portugal, Russia,  Gulf, Singapore, Australia, apart from India!

Daughters’ Day

Even as India’s women power is growing, there is the complex issue  of the ‘missing girl’. In a modest bid to shed a positive light on the issue, PRCI  celebrates  Daughters’ Day on June 1 – the official date of birth of late Indo-US astronaut Kalpana Chawla. We try to showcase girls who excel in education and other fields. We have adopted few girls through various established NGOs to ensure their uninterrupted education till at least SSC or High School.

WCC

Our  national network –PRCI- has taken steps to expand internationally by  recently promoting  a global platform – World Communicators’ Council (WCC) – with Chapters in UAE and Sri Lanka. Soon, WCC we hope to spread our wings to many other countries, including Australia, UK and the US.

World Communicators’ Day

Communication and society and its communicators, existed long before technology entered to expand, extend and speed up communication. To focus limelight on the contribution of communicators and the importance of the communication discipline and  profession, PRCI initiated World Communicators’ Day to be celebrated on October 28 – the day the world’s first Press Release was sent out by Ivy Lee in the US in 1906. The occasion is marked by  a series of events, pan-India, including sessions on the art of press release writing fit for  the  contemporary multi-media world.

Social Communication

In a yet another unique initiative, we launched a Social Communication campaign to deal with issues of concern to the communities around us. Our campaign – Mission Mumbai Local – was adjudged as the PR Milestone of The Year at America’s PR World Awards. The campaign focused on the plight of suburban train commuters of the island city .This  was again a positive campaign for highlighting the road ahead.

Similarly, we met with great success in our campaign  #IamParsikHill, IamDying as the drive helped create enough awareness about the plundering of the hills on the outskirts of Mumbai. Four leading environment NGOs supported the cause.  This was a public awareness and advocacy campaign  conducted on the eve of hearing of a PIL before the national Green Tribunal. The Tribunal later ruled that no quarrying can be done without environment clearances. The district environmental appraisal committee has now reported that quarrying has crossed the permitted limits, thus putting a virtual full-stop to the plundering of the hills.

Green Is for ever: PRCI has done away with presentation of bouquets to honour our guests. Instead, we introduced Green Certificates to be handed over to the guests at our Global Conclaves, with the promise that a sapling will be planted in the name of each of them and the plants will be maintained at designated places.

Guest Faculty Pool

To supplement and complement the faculty at various institutes/universities teaching  media and mass communication, PRCI has begun to maintain a Guest Faculty Pool. Drawn from across all communication streams, the members of the Pool visit the colleges to impart practical training and conduct case studies.

Global Conclaves

PRCI holds  its annual  Global Communication Conclaves each year with a different thought-provoking theme. The Conclaves go beyond the conviviality partying  through  Manthan sessions (introspective and insightful) in which eminent persons from different fields interact with delegates.

CHANAKYA Awards & PR Hall of Fame

PRCI felicitates industry achievers with its signature awards under the Chanakya series and it is the only communication body to welcome and usher in  industry professionals into PR Hall of Fame. Our much-sought-after collateral awards help promote talent.

Social Media: You can touch and feel our presence on  social media platforms- face book & YouTube: PRCI NOW. Twitter handle: @prcitweets. And, of course on PRapport.

Honey Singh's songs scare away wild pigs

Different behaviorial scientists have experimented on the impact of various wild and domesticated animals from time to time, and while many of them do respond and like a certain type of music, especially the classical one, the heavy metal and certain type of sharp music does not go well with many of them.
The fluke worked in a village in Uttrakhand, when the villagers thought of playing some loud rock music, especially the fap singer Honey Singh's songs that scared the hell out of the wild pigs who have opted out of it.
The wild pigs were spoiling the crop and hence the move.
The villagers wanted to make human presence known to the wild ones, and nothing better than communicating their territorial rights than playing music though I don't know what made them chose Honey Singh. 
Did they try other forms of music? 
Or was it their sixth sense that Honey Singh's rap was scary enough to take care of the problem.
Worth researching further. 

"Transform" is the only PR Trend

Photo Courtesy: Pexels

Transform: The Core Strategy for PR Professionals

As I explore the various professional views on the emerging trends, the key message for the PR practitioners, that has been very aptly provided the thematic treatment in the forthcoming 12^th Global Communication Conclave at Pune in March is “Transform or Perish”

#Transformation is the well-planned strategic action to manage change, and upgrade oneself to meet the changing exigencies in the business environment.

It is time also to have a relook at our own professional standing and practice.  PR being the science and art of managing communication for an individual or organization, the science of communication is an imperative change that needs to be understood and imbibed, and I won’t mind calling the PR practitioners as PR or Communication Scientists.

Looking at the transformation needed in managing communication is to understand some of the emerging trends in the industry, which include :

• Making the best use of Big Data and data analytics.  Research shall continue to be the mainstay for the organizational success. Deploying data analysts would be sine qua non to predict future courses and meet customer needs.
• Artificial intelligence would continue to evolve to assist in analyzing brand conversations;
• Emerging intelligent chatbots may help engage with different stakeholders and even developing creative content under keen supervision of the PR scientists.
• Paid versus earned media continues to baffle many PR practitioners since paid print media is often detested or kept out of media strategies, while huge sums get allocated on ‘influencers’ marketing, which is also in a way is turning out to be a paid online channel.  Need is to analyise the key stakeholders and their media consumption instead of just playing the number game.
• Ethics in communication would help us get back to the basic and build credibility and trust in our professional practice would be the key to strengthening reputation and public image of any organization.
• Fight obsolence in PR education and training would be another key initiative or professional bodies to match the changing industry needs.
• Mandatory membership of professional bodies like PRCI and participation in training and education sessions in order to earn minimum annual credits as a part of Continued Communication Education & Training (CCET) programme, would be another transformation to be brought in so that professional practice is upgraded. 

Standardisation can help win people's trust

Each year the World Standards Organisation brings into focus the significance of standardisation that can help improve lives and, this year, it says, standardisation can help cities become smart cities.

One of the key elements in standardisation of visual identity of the city.  Many cities around the world have created their own unique identity through distinct logos  that represent the ethos of the city and vision of its leadership and people living there.

Chandigarh for instance has Open Hand monument to represent the city, and similar identities exist across the globe.

And consistence use of those visuals across all communication helps the organisation develop a close trust and credibility with the people.

Fadilah Baharin, CEO of Department of Standards Malaysia, and member of the International Organisation for Standardisation, says, “I believe standards instil trust. Standards are no longer about product differentiation but about creating a uniform experience that gives your customers confidence in your products and services. The differentiation and marketing edge now lies in how successfully your brand or organization has been able to build and nurture consumer relationships that are sustainable, solely by promising the same ‘quality’ and ‘experience’ every single time.”

The same holds true for any organisation.  Standardisation in visual identity is the first step towards winning confidence and trust of one's stakeholders.