ABCI website gets new look

Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI) has redesigned its website.  Easy to navigate and impressive, the website is full of information, archives of past achievements and activities, and coming events.  The brochure inviting nominations for the 52nd ABCI Annual Awards to be held at Mumbai in September is already up and, just like earlier years, one can look forward to a galaxy of brilliant speakers.
Congratulations to ABCI's President Yogesh Joshi who continues to provide his creative leadership and bring together the communicators in the country on to this single platform for meaningful interaction and contributing to the knowledge base.

Yogesh Joshi is Regional Representative of WCF

One of the most dynamic communicators of our country, Yogesh Joshi, Chairman of ABCI and Head of Tata Chemical's communications in Mumbai, has been nominated as the Regional Representative of prestigious World Communication Forum (WCF), with its headquarter in Davos.

He is the first and the only Indian to be nominated to WCF. As regional director for South Asia, he would be spearheading the communication movement in India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, etc. 

Reciipient of many awards and recognitions, Yogesh Joshi  was shortlisted from among 1500 communicators from across the world, to head the south Asian regional initiatives. 

"I have several plans which I shall be unfolding shortly," he said in a telephonic discussion today.  The biggest advantage for the communicators in this region would be the opportunity to interact with international speakers with WCF, he added. 

We are proud of his elevation and surely, we are in for good times ahead. 

ABCI challenges Communicators to be the Leaders in Innovation

Dr,C.V.Narasimha Reddi
Editor, Public Relations Voice
(Thanks to our regular contributor - a noted public relations professional of India, Dr. C.V.Narasimha Reddi, we have another brilliant round up of the recently concluded ComFest-11

Two major communication events of national importance ‘ ComFest-11 Winds of Change” and ABCI 51st Awards – For Excellence in Business Communication” organized by the Association of Business Communicators of India in Mumbai on11 & 12th November were not only a cynosure of all business communicators and public relations practitioners but also galvanized them to be change agents and leaders in innovation to transform India as a global economic player.

Dr. J J Irani former Managing Director, TATA Steel whose acumen and technological innovation has made TATA Steel the lowest cost steel producing company in the world has set the tone of the conference with his inaugural address on “ Tomorrow’s Corporations” and said the future companies must be licensed by the community for their survival. Anti-Kudankalam Nuclear Power Project agitation was quoted as an example to emphasize the need for community approval. He suggested that the most significant contribution, that an industry could make was by identifying itself with the life and problems of the people to which it belonged and by applying its resources, skills and talents to the extent that it can, reasonably spare them to serve and help the poor: “Employees will choose corporations which care for them, investors and customer will prefer to buy from ethical, socially responsible corporations, Islands of prosperity cannot survive in a sea of poverty, if markets must expand the poor must also become customers’ were the other highlights of J. J Iran’s keynote address.

M.S.Swaminathan, pioneer of Green Revolution who was the Chief Guest at Awards function complimented the ABCI for its excellent record in unfolding the hidden talents of business communicators by presenting prestigious awards and told the audience that he had an inspiring evening in his life in the midst of national change makers and lifetime achievers. He pointed out that with the growth of Indian economy there was also a phenomenal growth of business communication. However, he cautioned the communicators that their commercial message should be integrated with social, ethical values and integrity to ameliorate the 121 crore people of India .

Earlier Yogesh Joshi, President, ABCI welcoming the guests said that the Com-Fest a festival with a difference when national change makers interacted with business communicators to convert them as change agents. As many as 952 nominations were received in the 32 categories of awards. ABCI President observed such a number of nominations was a national record and also indicative of growing competitive talent in the field of business communication.

Sylvester da’ Cunha the creator of the Amul Brand was proud to say that a country like India which was starving for milk became world’s largest milk producer. The catchy slogan ‘ Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread with Amul Butter” caught the imagination of the Indians, he added.

M. V. Nair, Chairman, Union Bank of India in his keynote presentation informed that the bank was inaugurated 93 years ago by Mahatma Gandhi as a bank of Swadeshi Promoters. In a world of constant change, the Chairman Union Bank felt that employees’ mind set should also change to implement the vision, mission and core values of the bank. Communication he said was an important input in change management that should be handled by public relations practitioners with utmost personal communication skills.

In a thought provoking presentation “Maveric in Motion”, the advertising legend Alyque Padamsee said that 50 per cent of Indian population whose age is below 25, the third largest young group in the world paradoxically was ruled by another 50 per cent of the population who are above 60. This dichotomy is a challenge. If we look to the future, he said we must involve youth as our target audience.

Neelima Mishra, Ramon Magsaysay awardee who spoke on the transformation of rural women through self-help groups said the communicators must understand the needs of the audience and communicate with them through the media accessible to them. Being a village girl, she could transform women by identifying their aspirations towards better life which earned her an award of the type of Asian Nobel Prize.

Among others, who interacted with delegates include: Roger Pereira, world renowned PR Consultant, Hudson Samarasinghe, Chairman, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and Jayant Pendharkar, former Global Head, Marketing & Communications TCS Ltd.

10- POINT GOLDEN RULES
A 10- Point Golden Rules could be drawn from this ComFest as a follow up by the Public Communication Professionals

1. Public Relations and Business Communication professionals must act as change agents by identifying the changing socio-economic scenario.
2. Communicate both with internal and external publics as to make them partners in reaching the corporate goals

3. Counsel the management to adopt corporate ethics with social responsibility as good ethics leads to good business

4. Adopt public relations ethics in tune with corporate ethics to gain credibility for public relations messages

5. Public relations, advertising and marketing must work in unison coupled with information technology in building and positioning the brand of global relevance and also to occupy a unique place for the brand in the minds of the target audience

6. Public relations and business communication professionals must become leaders in innovation to professionalize the discipline

7. Break the tradition and ageold customs to change for the better future

8. Reward success, reward failure also, but also punish ‘ inaction’

9. “Occupy Wall Street Campaign” a division between the one per cent rich and 99 per cent poor is blooming all over the world. Communicators must understand this movement and advise managements to share their profits with the poor.

10. The last but the most important lesson that one should learn from ABCI Awards is “ compilation of best public relations case studies”. As many as 129 awards were given in 32 categories whose achievements could be converted atleast in 10 best case studies for the benefit of both practitioners and academics.

ABCI Leader in Innovation
India today needs a strong public relations professional body and leaders of national repute to advance the profession in the service of the society. Yogesh Joshi, a thoughtful, committed, self-effacing and inspiring man who now heads ABCI proved beyond doubt that any professional body if moved with a good leader and team spirit can do wonders for the growth of the profession. The successful conduct of ComFest and 51st ABCI Awards with about 1000 nominations along with National Change Makers like M S Swaminathan and international standards bears an eloquent proof to the fact that ABCI has now become a model and trendsetter for other professional bodies in the country. An award winner in the category of house journals commented ‘Yogesh is now ABCI Leader in Innovation’ which I think he richly deserves.

www.corepr.com

ABCI challenges Communicators to be the Leaders in Innovation

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

(Thanks to our regular contributor - a noted public relations professional of India, Dr. C.V.Narasimha Reddi, we have another brilliant round up of the recently concluded ComFest-11
Two major communication events of national importance ‘ ComFest-11 Winds of Change” and ABCI 51st Awards – For Excellence in Business Communication” organized by the Association of Business Communicators of India in Mumbai on11 & 12th November were not only a cynosure of all business communicators and public relations practitioners but also galvanized them to be change agents and leaders in innovation to transform India as a global economic player.

Dr. J J Irani former Managing Director, TATA Steel whose acumen and technological innovation has made TATA Steel the lowest cost steel producing company in the world has set the tone of the conference with his inaugural address on “ Tomorrow’s Corporations” and said the future companies must be licensed by the community for their survival. Anti-Kudankalam Nuclear Power Project agitation was quoted as an example to emphasize the need for community approval. He suggested that the most significant contribution, that an industry could make was by identifying itself with the life and problems of the people to which it belonged and by applying its resources, skills and talents to the extent that it can, reasonably spare them to serve and help the poor: “Employees will choose corporations which care for them, investors and customer will prefer to buy from ethical, socially responsible corporations, Islands of prosperity cannot survive in a sea of poverty, if markets must expand the poor must also become customers’ were the other highlights of J. J Iran’s keynote address.

M.S.Swaminathan, pioneer of Green Revolution who was the Chief Guest at Awards function complimented the ABCI for its excellent record in unfolding the hidden talents of business communicators by presenting prestigious awards and told the audience that he had an inspiring evening in his life in the midst of national change makers and lifetime achievers. He pointed out that with the growth of Indian economy there was also a phenomenal growth of business communication. However, he cautioned the communicators that their commercial message should be integrated with social, ethical values and integrity to ameliorate the 121 crore people of India .

Earlier Yogesh Joshi, President, ABCI welcoming the guests said that the Com-Fest a festival with a difference when national change makers interacted with business communicators to convert them as change agents. As many as 952 nominations were received in the 32 categories of awards. ABCI President observed such a number of nominations was a national record and also indicative of growing competitive talent in the field of business communication.

Sylvester da’ Cunha the creator of the Amul Brand was proud to say that a country like India which was starving for milk became world’s largest milk producer. The catchy slogan ‘ Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread with Amul Butter” caught the imagination of the Indians, he added.

M. V. Nair, Chairman, Union Bank of India in his keynote presentation informed that the bank was inaugurated 93 years ago by Mahatma Gandhi as a bank of Swadeshi Promoters. In a world of constant change, the Chairman Union Bank felt that employees’ mind set should also change to implement the vision, mission and core values of the bank. Communication he said was an important input in change management that should be handled by public relations practitioners with utmost personal communication skills.

In a thought provoking presentation “Maveric in Motion”, the advertising legend Alyque Padamsee said that 50 per cent of Indian population whose age is below 25, the third largest young group in the world paradoxically was ruled by another 50 per cent of the population who are above 60. This dichotomy is a challenge. If we look to the future, he said we must involve youth as our target audience.

Neelima Mishra, Ramon Magsaysay awardee who spoke on the transformation of rural women through self-help groups said the communicators must understand the needs of the audience and communicate with them through the media accessible to them. Being a village girl, she could transform women by identifying their aspirations towards better life which earned her an award of the type of Asian Nobel Prize.

Among others, who interacted with delegates include: Roger Pereira, world renowned PR Consultant, Hudson Samarasinghe, Chairman, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and Jayant Pendharkar, former Global Head, Marketing & Communications TCS Ltd.

10- POINT GOLDEN RULES
A 10- Point Golden Rules could be drawn from this ComFest as a follow up by the Public Communication Professionals

1. Public Relations and Business Communication professionals must act as change agents by identifying the changing socio-economic scenario

2. Communicate both with internal and external publics as to make them partners in reaching the corporate goals

3. Counsel the management to adopt corporate ethics with social responsibility as good ethics leads to good business

4. Adopt public relations ethics in tune with corporate ethics to gain credibility for public relations messages

5. Public relations, advertising and marketing must work in unison coupled with information technology in building and positioning the brand of global relevance and also to occupy a unique place for the brand in the minds of the target audience

6. Public relations and business communication professionals must become leaders in innovation to professionalize the discipline

7. Break the tradition and ageold customs to change for the better future

8. Reward success, reward failure also, but also punish ‘ inaction’

9. “Occupy Wall Street Campaign” a division between the one per cent rich and 99 per cent poor is blooming all over the world. Communicators must understand this movement and advise managements to share their profits with the poor.

10. The last but the most important lesson that one should learn from ABCI Awards is “ compilation of best public relations case studies”. As many as 129 awards were given in 32 categories whose achievements could be converted atleast in 10 best case studies for the benefit of both practitioners and academics.

ABCI Leader in Innovation
India today needs a strong public relations professional body and leaders of national repute to advance the profession in the service of the society. Yogesh Joshi, a thoughtful, committed, self-effacing and inspiring man who now heads ABCI proved beyond doubt that any professional body if moved with a good leader and team spirit can do wonders for the growth of the profession. The successful conduct of ComFest and 51st ABCI Awards with about 1000 nominations along with National Change Makers like M S Swaminathan and international standards bears an eloquent proof to the fact that ABCI has now become a model and trendsetter for other professional bodies in the country. An award winner in the category of house journals commented ‘Yogesh is now ABCI Leader in Innovation’ which I think he richly deserves.

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