What ails Indian public relations?

Dr. C.V. Narasimha Reddi, Editor, PR Voice, shares his concerns about the PR industry.

●        The greatest pitfall of Indian public relations is that instead of being two-way communication, it operates by and large only as one way communication without any provision for effective feedback information mechanism and measurement.

●        As a management discipline, public relations is expected to reach every section of the public such as employees, shareholders, customers and assess their feelings. Unfortunately, public relations professionals rarely meet the stakeholders for one-to-one interaction to know their pulse towards organisational policies and programmes. We tend to reach them only through representational media like pamphlets, house journals, newspapers, TV, posters, confining to media relations rather than presentational media face-to-face.

●        Public relations in India is suffering from identity crisis. Other professions like journalism, marketing, advertising, finance, human resources etc. are called by one name., whereas public relations is given different names such as corporate communications, public affairs, corporate affairs etc

●        Lack of professional educational qualification is another major pitfall of this profession. About 60 percent persons working in this profession entered without any  basic qualification in public relations. And that public relations courses are offered only in a few educational institutions. A major challenge is lack of professional public relations education in the Indian Universities.

●        Though India lives in her villages, public relations survives in urban India without any machinery at the grassroots.

●        Lack of standard public relations textbooks, case studies, induction and inservice PR training, and public relations research are other characteristics that hinder the  growth of public relations profession and demands professionalism.

Mission : A Paradigm Shift for PR

What public relations profession needs today is a sense of mission. Public Relations Mission is the need of the hour to shape the future of this profession. Who will design the future plan? It is the primary responsibility of the national PR professional bodies and the educational institutes that are preparing the public relations students to design ‘Public Relations Mission’. What should be the areas of mission? Let us debate both on pitfalls and future mission

Flash Mob in PR

Flash mob has been effectively used by many organisations where in a busy market place or a mall, all of a sudden, a group of people would start dancing to the music or performing a coordinated action gig, and then suddenly disperse.  It is a derivate of 'smart mob' concept where groups of people communicating through mobile sms or twitter would gather and perform; and some may work out a big discount from retail store through collective bargaining.
Here's a group of Chandigarh youth break into a dance gig in the midst of a busy Sector 17 market plaza. It's a treat, and hats off to some of the young media guys who devised it.

What 2011 was like? Have we forgotten it?

Well into 2012 we might have forgotten how 2011 was like. Here's an excellent recapitulation by Google.

Chandigarh wakes up to Mail Today

I woke up to the thud of the bundle of newspapers that arrived in the morning.  As I reached the mailbox through cold foggy morning, it was a pleasant surprise to see the bold masthead of MAIL TODAY, peering prominently through a dozen newspapers that I get to see.  Lo and behold, it is the Chandigarh edition.  It was in the air for sometimes, and I am pleased to find the English tabloid from India Today to give some exciting newer and different perspective to the news happening in this city that is the hot seat for three governments, Panjab, Haryana and UT of Chandigarh. 
But surprisingly the press release on 'exchange4media' press release announcement says that  "the content strategy of the Chandigarh edition would be similar to that of the Delhi edition with complete focus on national news and no local news from Chandigarh". That comes as a shocker but I think that is a typo, because after all Chandigarh edition will have to have the local news. 
However, I am looking forward to seeing as to how local it gets.  Will it be reaching out to the local industry, businesses and professions, and voicing their concerns and celebrating their successes?  Most of the local editions have failed to do that, and the latest to do that had been THE ECONOMIC TIMES, that has dispensed with the local business stories in its region's page.  With the service industry and commercial activities on an upswing in the city involving a large number of upwardly mobile young professionals, we hope MAIL TODAY would cater to them. 

25 Years of Our Journey!

10th of September in 1987, I had put in my papers resigning my corporate communication job in a German company, after six years of exciting work.  Armed with the new knowledge and experience I felt the need for the small enterprises to benefit from the public relations services.  It was an unheard of concept at least in Chandigarh, since only a few PR consultancies existed at that time in the country, and that too were limited to big metros. .  It was a shocker for most of the journalist friends at that time, who nevertheless wished me luck.  And on 13th September CorePR was born. 
As we look back these 25 eventful years, and long association that we have enjoyed with many of our clients, we wish to thank all those who believed in us, and trusted our capabilities.  It is gratifying that we continue to travel together with most of them even today.  And credit goes to my last employers for taking us on board as their PR consultant that helped us venture into the arena and sustain ourselves for more risks. 
Having started my career as a journalist, and moving over to an entirely new field of corporate communication, nearly three decades back, I have seen the growth of Public Relations profession in the country.  At a time, when only handful of PR agencies existed in the country, we entered a virgin domain in a region, where the concept itself was a novelty and when PR was considered as a unwanted service with no significant tangibles to prove. 
Twenty five years back, there were no computers, no mobiles, fax machines.  With limited telephones and the telex number that we obtained from the post office, and a manual typewriter with reams of paper and carbon paper, (as xerox was still experimenting with duplication), we were in business.  Imagine the time when each press release was first vetted from the client, retyped with corrections, got signed, and then delivered to the newspaper office manually.  That was the time when exposed film rolls were carefully packed in black sheets of paper, and sent through the roadways bus to Delhi for the use of Doordarshan.  There were no flights from Chandigarh and no Shatabadis. 
That was the exciting time as we faced one challenge after another and emerged winners, together with our clients. 
I recall the help of numerous PR professionals who helped us through this journey. In our initial years, I wish to pay tribute especially to the legends of our PR profession, who always lent their year to hear me out and mentored.  Some of these stalwarts included,  the then PR Director of Pfizer Mr. K.S. Neelakandan, Greaves Cotton's PR Manager Mr. Sushil Bahl, Good Year's Anil Basu, Indian Airlines' PR Director Ajit S. Gopal, Groz Beckert Saboo's Managing Director R.K. Saboo, Molins India's managing director Subhash Bijlani, and of course, our first client besides my former employer, the management of Crompton Greaves, to name just a few.  
Working with these stalwarts, opened up unlimited opportunities for us to understand how effective communication changes lives and empowers people to grow and succeed.   Thank you every one as we reach a significant milestone of our journey.  Thank you for lending us your shoulders so that we can stand on them and scan newer horizons.  

Media should report unreported India: H.K.Dua

Member of Parliament and former Resident Editor of The Tribune, Mr. H.K. Dua, addressing the students and faculty of  Whistling Woods International School of Communication at Chandigarh, vehemently underlined the media's role to provide adequate coverage of "unreported India".
There are millions of people who are unemployed, starving, and living below the poverty line, whose voice must be reported and covered by both the print and electronic media, he averred.
He lamented the fact that our Parliament, our executive and our judiciary have failed the society and have not been adequately doing justice to the people they represent, and therefore, only option left for them is to go to media, which increases the responsibility of media persons.
"We are accountable to people and we should not betray them", he reiterated. And every journalist's 'dharma' is to maintain credibility by being truthful and report only the facts instead of coloring them with bias.
Jyoti Kamal, bureau head of CNN-IBN in the city however came up with defence for the electronic media saying that even tv channels are providing adequate coverage to the 'unreported India' though it has to strike the balance between what's more demanded by the viewers as established by various baseline surveys and feedback, and the issues that face the common man.
Vivek Atray, former director of public relations and tourism, information technology for UT Administration for many years, however pointed out that looking at the convergence of  technologies the most significant skill set required would be writing appropriate content for diverse media.
CII Chandigarh Council Chairman Vikram Hans pointed out the lack of necessary skill sets amongst fresh pass outs from different institutions that the industry needs, and complimented Whistling Woods for providing students the opportunity to interact with students during their studies.
Dr. Ujjwal Chowdhury, Dean of WWI School of Communication very ably articulated the vision of the School and how the students are being empowered to balance academics with experiential learning.
Somnath Sen, Vice President of WWI, and Maitree Ramaiya provided insight into the film production, and corporate communication respectively.
I had the opportunity to share dais with the stalwart communicators, and it is indeed gratifying that WWI School of Communications has started an MBA in Communication.  This was much needed considering the fact that in any organisation or business, the man, material, machine, and money management is made possible only through effective management of communication for which the country needs experts to strategise.  Public Relations as art and science of managing communication, and as a management function, it can not only  help any organisation improve its brand image but also contribute to its productivity, profitability and convert it into a winning organisation. 
I'm sure the debate that brought together the media people on one platform provided fair idea to the younger generation aspiring to enter into the field of communication, the challenges and opportunities that exist in the field.  Congratulations to WWI for their endeavours.