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PRCAI Mini Summit
Bangalore, December 14, 2004
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| Over 60 people attended the
morning session, with almost equal representation from
PR Consultancies and corporates. |
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Introduction
The morning session started with a presentation by Prema
Sagar, President PRCAI. She presented the achievements
of the Association over the past year and the plans for
the near future. Among the achievements she listed the
drive for enlarging the membership base, the successful
implementation of the Preferral programme, the training
programmes that PRCAI are currently implementing and the
completion of the CMS certification by two member consultancies.
Among the future plans was the implementation of the PRSAT,
which will be applicable to all PR practitioners at all
levels, to standardize skills and institute benchmarks
in the human resources area for the industry.
The Consultancy Management Standards Award was given away
by Mr. Narayana Murthy. The first two consultancies who
have cleared the audit are Text 100 and Genesis PR. |
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Keynote Address
The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Narayana Murthy,
Chief Mentor, Infosys, the largest software company in
India, and also one of the most respected worldwide. Mr.
Murthy shared his experiences while taking Infosys to
the global market and the role of communications in meeting
those challenges.
He spoke about the increasing integration of economies,
the intense competition this invokes, the choices that
are available to customers, or vendor partners and the
need to be nimble, smart and hardworking. |
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In business success will only come if Indian companies
are able to create global brands. And the PRCAI would
have a special role to play in this effort, mainly by
opening channels of communication with major stakeholders.
Globalization offers more opportunities in larger markets,
but products and services become commoditized and margins
tumble. Only a great brand equity can make a differentiation.
Indian businesses have to communicate their core values
to international audiences and at the same time, build
those values internally.
Talent today has many international choices and it is
important to communicate the core values internally as
well. Samsung, for example, faced exactly this problem,
and addressed the negatives through strong employee communications
to establish its image as a company one should be proud
to work for.
In Infosys, there is a Brand Equity Council whose job
is to measure where the brand is currently and showcase
the achievements of the company. This is an ongoing process.
Corporations must follow the highest degree of good governance,
which will reflect in brand building. In turn, this attracts
international investors. Involvement of top management
is an imperative. |
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| Infosys has initiated some
steps to keep the brand alive and vibrant - |
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Recruit the best talent, empower
them, build a culture of excellence, respect and
dignity for every individual |
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Be sensitive to local cultures, the differences
between the 'high context' Asian cultures and the
'low context' Western ones |
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Global Academic Interface - Visits to 300 top
US universities every year and communicate the Infosys
value system, strengths, future plans, internship
programmes, |
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Interaction with governments and their agencies
- need to be heard and known, bring in moderation
in government thinking where required, add value
to government decisions and policies, and demonstrate
that Indian companies are second to none in their
commitment to the society |
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Transparent vendor partner programme - total
commitment to each other in terms of quality, cost,
payments and communications |
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| Mr. Murthy ended the address
with advice to all corporates to communicate with all
stakeholders. He warned that companies need to walk the
talk and stakeholder respect will only come from what
the companies actually practice. Perception will change
only when reality changes. Communication can make small
differences in perception but cannot alter reality. |
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The iflex case
This was presented by Mr. Peter Yorke, Country Manager,
iflex. Globalization was thrust upon iflex, as most of
their products were exported. When iflex decided on an
IPO, there was a sudden need to communicate across countries.
The issue was that India was not known for good product
quality, better known as good service providers. Iflex
decided to position itself as a specialist in the financial
domain, with excellent products and services.
There were a number of cultural challenges - like media
briefings over mobile phones while on the move in the
USA, the more ceremonious briefing over lunch or tea in
Japan, not sending heavy PDF files in Kenya, and a different
approach in Nigeria.
The PR exercise focused on building strong key messages,
which were to be disseminated by all country heads simultaneously,
placement of product stories, prioritizing markets and
hosting road shows. |
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| The problems iflex faced were
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• Churn within the PR
agencies
• Little attempt to capture, document
and manage knowledge |
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Mr. Yorke ended with a story
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"A PR guy went to heaven. There was a long
queue. But St. Peter left his place and came personally
to conduct the gentleman to the top of the line. The man
was surprised and asked why the special treatment. St.
Peter replied that we have added up all the hours you
have billed to your clients and find that you must be
at least 195 years old!" |
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| Mr. Ashwani Singla made a
presentation. |
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The CEO Panel
The topic for discussion was the communications
challenges of business in the context of globalization.
The participants were Mr. Ravi Uppal, ABB, Mr. Kanwaljeet
Singh, Cargill Seeds, Mr. Samual Selvakumar, Hutch and
Mr. Dharen Chaddha, Momentum Consulting. The session was
moderated by Nandita Lakshmanan.
The first point discussed was India's role - is India
being recognized as a protagonist or is it merely in the
sidelines. |
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The world is a huge marketplace,
it is also a digital market, sourcing goods from across
continents. This marketplace is today open to us.
It is important to first analyse what Brand India means.
Is there anything called Brand India? Do we need a brand?
The first globalizers are beginning to find out that the
country's brand rubs off on the company's. Many countries
were hostile towards Indian brands.
Brand India is seen today as low cost process innovation.
Indian products are seen as cheap but not the best.
Things however have started changing. Our best ambassadors
are the middle class Indian engineers who have moved westwards
and taken their Indian values with them.
India has leapfrogged into the technology age, and now
needs t change the perception that it is a provider of
cheap labour. This is the route Japan followed in the
40s and 50s and Japanese brands are among the best in
the world today.
India is still a very small player in the world market,
with only a handful of companies who have established
themselves abroad. The media however, hypes up these achievements
till we all start believing that India has a strong presence
abroad. We need to guard ourselves against this complacent
attitude. We need to upgrade our infrastructure to global
standards first. |
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| All the panelists agreed that
globalization has brought many benefits - |
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Exposure and the building of a cosmopolitan
population which is comfortable anywhere in the
world |
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Benchmarks against global brands. Many companies
are removing the "made in…" tag
- the standards are uniform no matter where manufactured |
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Interaction of Indian companies and MNCs, both
important in a borderless world |
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| There was unanimous agreement
that communications in general and public relations in
particular has a critical role to play in the globalization
process. |
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