New Delhi is the venue for 27th All India PR Conference

India's capital gets ready to play host to delegates from 15 countries at the 27th All India Public Relations Conference, a three-day event that will be called the International Public Relations Festival. A number of subjects pertinent to public relations will be discussed at the Conference.

Quest for Leadership: Role of Public Relations' is the theme for this year's All India Public Relations Conference, the 27th, to be held at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. The International Public Relations Festival, as it will be called, is being hosted by the Public Relations Society of India with support from International Public Relations Association-India and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, which consists of 58 national public relations associations with 160,000 members. While the PRSI has chapters spread across the country with vast membership, IPRA has 986 members from 96 countries.

The three-day (December 2-4) event will showcase India, its peoples, tradition, culture and the country's potential to be a world leader. Senior PR members from more than 15 countries will address the delegates, who are expected to be
500-strong. The delegates will represent government media, advertising, marketing and, of course, public relations.

The Festival will provide access to information regarding industry, regional or international conferences or seminars, case studies and benchmarking research. It will also examine the global standards on ethics, universal accreditation options,
curriculum and the body of knowledge relating to public relations.

Distinguished speakers will focus on subjects such as inculcating professionalism in PR, challenges of accountability and communication, government communication, the growing need for ethics in public relations management, public relations
education, impact of technology on public relations, employee morale and communication, leveraging on employee strength to build brands, aligning human resources with the mission of the company, system improvement and ISO 9000 accreditation in public relations, public relations in the cooperative sector, and media ethics.

The Festival will also recognise and award outstanding talent and creativity in the publication of house journals, bulletins, brochures and annual reports as well as the production or conduct of mass awareness campaigns, corporate campaigns and
corporate films. Awards will be presented to companies, public relations consultants and advertising agencies under the respective categories. The deadline for receipt of entries is November 10, 2005. The participation fee of Rs 1,000 will have to be sent along with the entry in the form of a demand draft favouring "PRSI International Public Relations Festival", payable in New Delhi.

What is a profession? It is a unique body of knowledge bound by a code of conduct that can be enforced by a professional body. A profession has a certification process and a clear symbolic identity. Based on these “five pillars”, do HR and PR qualify as professions? Clearly, they do not, although they are understood as functions, vocations and processes. The absence of professional status yet is the common thread linking the two functions. This formed the thrust of K Pandia Rajan’s “creative exploration” at the Public Relations Society of India, Chennai Chapter forum where he used facts and figures to buttress his point.

Taking the case of HR first, Pandia Rajan, managing director, Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd., said that HR, worth $ 210 billion worldwide as a business, was represented in India by five national bodies; there was no single representative body yet. “If the 146 labour laws could be integrated into six, it would lead to a different labour-management equation. Contrast this with IT, a lot sharper profession where there has been an attempt at precision since birth and which has one representative body, NASSCOM. Thus, functions that do not work towards precision tend to become a profession over a much longer period,” said Pandia Rajan.

HR, according to Pandia Rajan, has had four distinct phases of evolution. It had the welfare identity between the early 1930s and the late 1960s. The 1970s and 1980s saw the “legalistic phase” when industrial relations and union management came to the fore and the HR person needed to know labour laws better. Those were the days of “macho guys” and women hardly entered the fray. HR became largely a personnel management function in the 1990s when more women joined. Today, it is going through what Pandia Rajan referred to as the “me-too phase”, that is wanting to be equated on equal terms with marketing and finance. In any case, 40 per cent of company boards have an HR director, from two per cent in 1984. In fact, finance and marketing have less representation, said Pandia Rajan.

“What has changed? Is it all about getting things done? Well, companies are now beginning to see an individual as a human being, not as a tool for productivity. The power balance is shifting to employees, especially in certain sectors where human power is valued,” explained Pandia Rajan.

Do professions emerge by themselves? “The process begins when you make dignity-generating boundaries. To move towards professionhood, a collective must get to work and define itself with dignity. PR, though not a profession yet, as defined by the five distinct pillars, can still be a critical and powerful function, a source of competitive advantage and it is recognised as such,” Pandia Rajan pointed out.
Mincing no words, Pandia Rajan stated that PR still carried a negative connotation, of the PR person being a fixer (someone who can get things done somehow). Much like how the HR person was equated with power, potency and a certain element of dubiousness. The function had a sense of peripherality in terms of not being critical. “The reality in India and even in Western countries is that the PR person only provides the atmosphere for someone else to communicate; very few PR heads are empowered by management. “Are you really a spokesperson or are you just a shadow of somebody else?” he asked the audience.

While the knowledge economy was driving HR quickly toward professionalism, the opening up of the Indian economy was driving PR toward the same destination. Citing the example of Ma Foi, Pandia Rajan emphasised that “there was one hell of a confluence between HR and PR”. For instance, to promote employer (client) brands, Ma Foi staff would go on a PR drive, visiting college campuses to ensure students attended interviews.

“Unfortunately, the temptation of attracting numbers to its (PR) fold seems to have reduced the need for identity. We need to work towards the five pillars if the image of the profession is to go up. The process of evolution itself has power,” Pandia Rajan was convinced.

Forty per cent of deaths across the world is caused by heart attack. By 2010, India will have the maximum number of heart patients and by 2015, 60 per cent of cardiac deaths will be in India where today there are 91 heart attack deaths an hour. A quarter of heart attacks arise without symptom. Although 80 per cent of blockages in the heart lead to surgery, 80 per cent of cardiac surgeries are unnecessary. And 90 per cent of Indians cannot afford heart surgery. These were some interesting statistics Dr Pratiksha, Institute of Preventive Cardiology, Mumbai, threw up while interacting with members of the Public Relations Society of India, Chennai Chapter.

“Heart disease is one of ignorance. We wait for it to happen. Since it is silent and sudden, prior investigation is the only way to detection,” said Dr Pratiksha, a cardiologist who has specialised in other systems of medicine as well (IPC’s Chennai branch is at the Devaki Hospital). “Invest in your health, in a better quality of life. Prevention is better than surgery,” stressed Dr Pratiksha, explaining why IPC chose to educate the common person about heart disease and remove the fear of heart attacks. “Prevention has always been neglected in this area. When the focus has been on prevention, such as in the case of leprosy or polio, the success rate has been high and the exercise has proved cost-effective too,” she added.

Blood pressure, cholesterol and abdominal obesity are danger signals. The human heart, basically a mechanical pump, supplies blood to the entire body and beats 100,000 times a day. Over a period, clean arteries get clogged. Dr Pratiksha cited an example in England where examination of children who had died in car accidents revealed blockages in their hearts, an indication that blockages could develop even during teenage years. With ageing, blockage formation is as common as hair greying. In Cleveland, Ohio, a survey conducted among heart donors in the 41-50-year age group indicated that 70 per cent had blockages.

“The more stress you take, the more spasm your arteries go through. Therefore, relaxation or yoga is important. South Indians have a greater tendency towards developing heart attack. Perhaps, they are too serious and should learn to relax more and enjoy life as the North Indians generally do,” Dr Pratiksha quipped. She exhorted PRSI members to adopt the “zero attack path”, what she called “natural bypass” or “developing a healthy capacity within”. “Surgery alone will not help. In fact, angioplasty and bypass surgery are temporary, quick-fix methods that should be considered only as a last resort. By following a daily regimen of a brisk walk, exercise, yoga, meditation and an anti-oxidant diet, and thinking positively, the disease process can be reversed,” she pointed out.

Nanditha Krishna emphasises a point while fielding questions from the audience

Managing Change - a new challenge in today's world

Never change your ethical or moral borders and maintain equanimity no matter what happens, advises Dr KP Misra, senior cardiologist, Apollo Hospital, Chennai.

Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.
                                                  Swami Vivekananda

Change is never a new challenge; it is as old as the sun, moon and the stars and is the very nature of existence. These were the opening remarks of Dr KP Misra, senior cardiologist, Apollo Hospital, Chennai, as he set about explaining to members of the Public Relations Society of India, Chennai Chapter, how to manage change in today's world. Dr Misra, with over four decades experience in cardiology, is better known as a speaker who has the gift of holding the audience spellbound. And he did not disappoint the members.

"Perhaps the only constant is change. However, it is the speed of change and the type of change that overwhelms us," he said, explaining how developments in science and technology were compressed in the past 100 years or so, and how the IT boom had changed the world forever. "When developments of a 100 years overtake all that has happened over four millennia, there is little time for adaptability. The result is stress," he said.

Referring to Herman Hess's book, Siddharth, Dr Misra narrated the story of Gautama, the central character, who after wandering all over in search of true happiness, finally reaches a river by the side of which sits Vasudeva, an old man living in a hut nearby. "What makes you seem so happy and contented?" asks Gautama. "I learnt everything from this river," Vasudeva replies. In six words, the old man brought out life's philosophy to the youngster.

The river changes all the time, with water flowing continuously. Nevertheless, the river's two banks or borders remain constant always. "The ethical and moral values are the borders. You must operate within these borders always," Dr Misra said.

Dr Misra stressed the need for equanimity in the face of change and stress. "Do not get disturbed, no matter what happens. Remember, the problem you are facing would have happened to somebody else before. Challenge with conviction but never with rancour," he said, citing the instance, first of Lord Rama, who, on the verge of being enthroned, maintained his poise and equanimity when banished to the forest for 14 years, second, of Mother Teresa, whose humble response to winning the Nobel Peace Prize (1979) was 'The poor have been recognised; let us pray and get to work', and third, of Mahatma Gandhi, who calmly fought communalism in Noakhali (West Bengal) at the time of India's Independence'.

"Have a positive attitude to life. Do not get overcome by emotion or fear of failure. Every problem can be solved if you sit and think with a balanced mind. All that you need to do is to engage your mind in alternative or lateral thinking. However, aspire only for what you can achieve. Appreciate your potential as well as your limitation," he cautioned.

Citing the example of JRD Tata who earned everyone's respect and admiration for his conviction and courage, Dr Misra told the audience that values in life such as honesty, integrity and truthfulness were more valuable than valuables in life. "Do not be deterred by corruption and violence or be tempted by short-term gains. Instead, be a dreamer like Walt Disney, who, in spite of going bankrupt 17 times, had the gumption to dream," he pointed out, adding, "Face life head-on. Create history. Ask yourself, 'Am I here to be second all the time?'"

Seshasayee addressing the audience