Wanted a genuine PR professional

The given headline here might give the impression of a routine vacancy for the job, but actually it does reflect much more. As a matter of fact, it also reflects an industry in dire need of genuine professionals. Around thousand plus companies in India who have hired various Agencies for the purpose of brand building are the worst hit in the absence of professionals. And media is not ready to take the industry and its practitioners who can’t differentiate between, news flash, news update and news break. The PR industry is really groping in the dark and mediocrity is ruling the roost.

In India who are the PR professionals in the first place? And how many of them have any depth or background in the Brand Management. There are dropout journalists, failed marketers, and a bunch of people who failed to make it big in their given professions. There is another breed of smart operators who started as a low profile second or third assistant of a PR or Corporate Communication professionals and grew up on the sheer merit of playing one against the other in the industry or otherwise playing into the hands of a lobby or two.

It works till the time you continue to operate in a system where favours have openly been exchanged. But when confronted with the demanding clients who mean serious business, these so-called professionals are left just shooting in the dark. Just imagine the Deputy CEO of a PR Agency criticizing a PR contract without realizing that it was he who actually finalised the deal. This happened when he got flak by the junior colleagues for the Agency working on a pharma client where targets are unrealistic. Unable to explain as to how things could be improved, the “boss” criticized the contract as being unrealistic. It left all the junior colleagues baffled. If the person who signed the dotted line of the contract calls it unrealistic, then why did he go ahead with the deal in the first place?

The fact of the matter is that these so-called “bosses” are there not on the merit of their professional competence. Nor have they risen from the ranks in the industry. They have just managed to survive at one given mediocre Agency by the cardinal principle of sycophancy and hence can’t e expected to understand the challenges of PR. No wonder, in the so-called training session of such “smart” agencies, what actually is being discussed is the story of rabbit and tortoise. I wonder whether they seriously need motivational stories or have not been taught all this in the schools.

Another top “boss” of a PR Agency was once found asking the junior most colleagues that what KPI (key point information) is. The said person has got a journalistic background and it was all the more surprising since in journalism that is the most common route to do an industry story. Now if a trainee level colleague will be asked such stupid questions by the seniors, how will the industry shape up as a knowledge driven sector? No wonder such seniors only learn through trial and error method that KPI is used only “in our organization”. And juniors are not to be blamed here since they have just begun their career and have hardly been exposed to how the professional world functions. Their survival instinct hardly encourages them to look beyond the given spectrum.

If the PR head of an Agency is so scared of facing a demanding client that she keeps asking junior colleagues for ideas to counter the client, then it is pathetic. There is a difference between exchange of ideas and evading behind your juniors. Sometimes the situation becomes hilarious when a junior is asked by the senior as to how to calculate a column centimeter. These people need to be told that there are much better paid professions than PR. But then it seems that PR has fast emerged as the last refuge of drop outs with people from as diverse background as hotel management and medical landing into the profession.

Professionalism can’t be expected of such bunch of mediocre and very often it so happens that over enthusiasm to do pro active PR often results into generating negativity for the client. I remember some time back it was the initiative of a PR Agency to get the PepsiCo product Quaker Oats certified by the Indian Medical Association. The story was pushed into the media without realizing the consequences. “If the Quaker Oats is a healthy food option then why the hell does it need an IMA certification”, media wanted to know. There were reports that the IMA has been sold into the hands of a multinational.

And in the wake of the controversy, PR Agency somehow backed out of the entire deal. Of course, industry grapevine has it that there was blame game within the organization and seniors conveniently put the blame on the junior executives. After all, PR is the only science without any definition. No wonder, it is also an industry where seniors don’t lead from the front, so it seems.