Mr. D.S.L. Prasad
Executive Director
Indian Oil Corpn. Ltd, Tamil Nadu
(National PR Day )

“Changing Face of PR”

Mr. Ashok R. Sankethi
CEO, Kaybase.

Memorial lecture in honour of
Mr. Gyan Haksar and Mr. M.Gopalakrishnan
jointly conducted by PRSI and
Dept. of PR, Stella Maris College)

‘Best Practices in Public Relations’

Mr. Ravi Tamilvanan
Managing Director, Manimekalai Prasuram, Chennai

‘Book World Today’

Mr. Gautam Shewakramani
Director, Ras Maestro’s Technology

"Usage and advantages of audio/multimedia guides and
related technology in
Corporate Communication’

Ms. Neena Rajiv Govindan
Branch Manager, Concern India Foundation, Chennai

Ms. Ramya Sunil,
Asst. Mgr-Programmes, Concern India Foundation, Chennai

"How PR plays an important role for an NGO"

"Support Programmes of the NGO"

Mr. Shahidul Alam
Internationally acclaimed photojournalist

”Beyond Words: Transition from Verbal to Visual Culture"

Mr. Huzaifa Khorakiwala
CEO, Wockhardt Foundation & Executive Director, Wockhardt Ltd.
Mumbai

"Business Excellence with Human Values"

Mr. Sunil Kishen
Executive Director,
Southern Region, Air India

"‘Changing role of PR and its challenges"

Mr. D.S.L. Prasad
Executive Director
Indian Oil Corpn. Ltd, Tamil Nadu
(National PR Day )

“Changing Face of PR”

'Public image is very important, says IOCL chief'

D.S.L. Prasad, executive director, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Tamil Nadu, says public sector organisations are sensitive to adverse public opinion and to questions raised by MPs, government departments and consumer activists.

Keeping the oil industry as the backdrop, D.S.L. Prasad, executive director, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Tamil Nadu, spoke about how PR was an everyday activity in some form or the other. Addressing members of the Public Relations Society of India on National PR Day (April 21), Prasad referred to how PR was important in maintaining a public image, how it was a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to maintain relations between an organisation and the public, and how it was a distinctive management function that helped maintain lines of communication.
Dwelling on the changing face of PR and the responsibility of management in an organisation such as IOCL (which had multi-divisions and retail outlets from Leh to Kanniyakumari) to serve public interest, Prasad said that the challenge was to communicate with people belonging to different cultures across the length and breadth of India about the company's goals and policies. “Our image is at stake if we do not communicate properly. We are sensitive to adverse public opinion; public perception affects the image of any organisation. We are also sensitive to questions raised by members of Parliament, by the Food and Civil Supplies Department and by consumer activists using the RTI Act. A conscious effort is being made to bring transparency in administration, clearly stating policies and procedures that come under the public domain. Clear and unambiguous communication is needed and a strong PR arm helps establish a friendly public face,” he said.
Prasad also referred to the challenge to communicate to dealers and employees (30,000 of them in IOCL). Prerna, the IOCL news journal for dealers and distributors, and Indian Oil News spoke about current developments in the company. “The attendant at the petrol pump is the point of contact. The perception is very important. If the customers get a bad impression at a petrol pump, they will never return. If our vision is to be a global energy leader, we have to communicate appropriately and create a sense of belonging,” he said.
IOCL conducts periodic press conferences, one-to-one interviews, shares key performance indicators with employees, dealers and distributors. “From communicating the bare essentials, PR today has to create a positive opinion among the public, provide a favourable image of the corporation. If there is an error in judgment, we review and change,” said Prasad, adding that technology in the form of Internet and Intranet was being used by the organisation to communicate. With customer transactions, public tenders, dealer distribution networks and grievances all hosted online, there was a lot more transparency in running the business, he added.
With customer complaints, it was how quickly they were resolved that mattered. Prasad admitted that managing LPG distribution was extremely difficult, and gave the example of catering to 70 per cent of the 1.2 crore population in Tamil Nadu, with about 65,000 cylinders being distributed everyday through 110 distributors. The demand for cylinders peaked during the monsoon and it was not an easy task to satisfy irate customers, especially women folk who turned out at dealer outlets in large numbers, he said. More than 400 consumer complaints were received daily, he added.
With environmental issues becoming pertinent and public awareness growing, Prasad said that an additional challenge was where to locate bottling plants. “Here again, communication is necessary, especially the huge investment we have made in safety equipment. We cannot afford to lose the trust of the people. Public image is very important.”

Mr. Ashok R. Sankethi
CEO, Kaybase.
(Memorial lecture in honour of
Mr. Gyan Haksar and Mr. M.Gopalakrishnan
jointly conducted by PRSI and
Dept. of PR, Stella Maris College)

‘Best Practices in Public Relations’

'It's consumers who decide the worth of a brand'

At the memorial lecture held in honour of Gyan Haksar and M. Gopalakrishnan, Ashok Sanketi, CEO, K-Base, while talking about the intrinsic value of brands and brand-building, says it is good work that pays in the end.

Gyan Haksar and M. Gopalakrishnan (along with R.K. Baratan) were not only instrumental in establishing the Public Relations Society of India, Tamil Nadu Chapter, on a firm footing, but also responsible for pioneering PR education in Madras.
At the annual memorial lecture held in the memory of Haksar and Gopalakrishnan, R.K. Dharan, national vice president (South), PRSI, urged Stella Maris College PR students in the gathering to acknowledge the challenges, explore the kind of communication needed in the future and come forward and show others the way. He stressed that steps must be initiated to get universities to look seriously at PR as a curriculum.
Recalling his long association with Haksar and Gopalakrishnan, Baratan said he was privileged. “They will always remain the main pillars behind the PR movement in Madras. They had vision, were prepared to work to achieve it, and made sacrifices to make PR education a reality in the University of Madras. We must also recognise that it was Stella Maris and the Government Arts College who put the PR course through,” he said. Sundari Krishnamurthy, head of the PR department at Stella Maris, added that it was Haksar, Gopalakrishnan and Baratan who brought the outer world to the college.
With a background in managing brands, Ashok Sanketi, CEO, K-Base, a research-based consulting firm focused on HR and brand-building, spoke about the intrinsic value of a brand, an entity that stood for a set of values or qualities, according to him. “It can be a product (Parle, Maruti), a company (ICICI), a corporate group (the Tatas), a country (India, Germany, Japan) or
a person (Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Shahrukh Khan). Every human being stands for a set of qualities,” he explained. Giving his own example, Sanketi said he had a short temper and was trying to change, he was still poor at client servicing… “Everything I say or do has to be consistent with the brand image I want to project of myself.”
Going on to explain the traits individual brands represented, Sanketi said that although Tendulkar epitomised endurance, excellence, top-of-the-line achievement and continued ambition, he was not as great an ambassador since he had failed to speak out on issues, choosing to remain silent. Steve Waugh, on the other hand, was a great ambassador, with people knowing his involvement in charities in Kolkata.
“We should know the kind of brand we should stand for. The name or the logo is just the external part. Brands may differ in size and impact but are still brands nevertheless,” Sanketi said, adding, “What a consumer says about a brand matters more and creates more impact for the brand. Intended formal communication contributes only 20-30 per cent of what a brand stands for. It all depends on what consumers say, and that takes a long time. The core brand messages and the ones relayed must be the same.”
Sanketi pointed out how successful companies had taken time to grow.
WalMart took 40 years, Coke 100 years, Maruti 25 years and the Tatas
100 years. “Every brand that has had a meteoric rise in two or five years crashes as well. When you grow too rapidly you are not setting the systems in place to nurture the brand,” he pointed out.
Sanketi had a couple of pertinent points to say in the end: “We need to regain respect for achievements that cannot be measured in money terms. Nobody seems interested in good work being done. All interest is in how companies are making money. It's good work that pays in the end.”

Mr. Ravi Tamilvanan
Managing Director, Manimekalai Prasuram, Chennai

‘Book World Today’

'Where has the reading habit gone?'

Ravi Tamilvanan, managing director, Manimekalai Publications, says that although there are several publications and books in Tamil, not as many people are reading as one might think.

In February, the PRSI Chennai Chapter played host to Ravi Tamilvanan, managing director, Manimekalai Publications. The proceedings were conducted in Tamil, a first for the PRSI. Tamilvanan's father was 'Kalkandu' Tamilvanan, and brother, Lena Tamilvanan, both of whom had contributed to Tamil literature.
Expanding on Indraiya Puthaga Ulagam (Today's Book World), Ravi Tamilvanan said that the reading habit was on the decline and that efforts should be made to get more people to read. Every individual should devote at least 15 minutes a day to read a book; books provide knowledge, enhance creativity and transform lives and, indeed, books were the best companions, he said.
Tamilvanan pointed out that the number of Tamil books and magazines equalled those in English, yet the increase in volume of printed material had not proportionately increased the reading habit. According to him, the interest in reading novels at one shot had waned.
Even book fairs seemed to kindle only temporary interest, but at least visitors purchased books.
The printing industry had progressed a long way, Tamilvanan said, adding that the advent of the computer had revolutionised printing and that it was now possible to print a book of 1000 pages in a short time. Despite computers and the internet that provided a lot of knowledge, book reading was a healthy habit and gave the reader immeasurable pleasure and knowledge, he said. “Nowadays, people devote more time to watching television programmes and less time on reading. Reading good books can definitely change the course of one's life,” he added.
Tamilvanan also dwelt a little on PR,
on aspects such as friendliness, recognition, regard and appreciation, all of which went to creating goodwill for an individual or organisation.
S Muthiah, author and chronicler, and former chairman of the PRSI, Chennai Chapter, explained the difficulties faced by publishers, especially Tamil publishers. He gave the example of a book published in English at a higher price (than Tamil) crossing several editions, but the same book in Tamil priced at half not getting even into the second edition.

Mr. Gautam Shewakramani
Director, Ras Maestro’s Technology

"Usage and advantages of audio/multimedia guides and
related technology in
Corporate Communication’

'It's the multimedia experience people want'

A start-up in the tourist audio and multimedia guide, business is not a run-of-the-mill venture. Ras Maestro's Technology, a firm incorporated a year ago, has been given the exclusive mandate to produce audio and multimedia effects for UNESCO World Heritage sites such as the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Khajuraho and Sanchi. The firm is also likely to provide the service in a host of museums in the country.

Heading Ras Maestro's is Gautam Shewakramani, who is also a mentor and investor in MIT Sloan student teams pursuing entrepreneurship ventures and field studies in Asia. Talking to Public Relations Society of India, Chennai Chapter members about the uses and advantages of audio and multimedia guides and related technology in corporate communication, Shewakramani listed the translation of information flow (from newspapers, magazines, blogs etc.) as one of the challenges for PR practitioners. Whether it was students (including potential recruits), government and trade organisations, employees, business delegations and VIPs, potential customers, internal stakeholders, suppliers or vendors, communicating a cohesive message consistently and sharing the core corporate identity (company values and culture, sense of corporate citizenship), was a challenge, he said. This needed the coalescing as it were of impressions and images created in events, projects, tours, sales conferences and seminars.
“It's your responsibility to communicate the company behind the brand, coordinating external events, handling crisis management and dealing with the external and internal world,” Shewakramani said, “The problem is corporate communication teams strive for reach rather than impact. We design corporate communication to be relevant to everyone but in today's day and age, when receivers of information like to think they are in control of information, it doesn't work.”
Shewakramani called paper-based tools (brochures, pamphlets, sales material, press releases) a necessary evil that would not go away. Online tools such as emails and Web sites could be archived and social media such as Facebook and Twitter were not exploited enough in India, according to him. Events such as seminars, symposiums, sales meetings and press conferences he termed as expensive ways to communicate, something that could not be done all the time. Lectures, training and HR practices also provided ways of communication but it required a senior person dedicated to it.
Shewakramani stressed that audio and multimedia technology helped deliver a consistent message across diverse multi-generational user groups and, therefore, it had more impact and reach. Its easy-to-tweak delivery mechanisms (smart phones, for example) made it a useful tool during campus tours for visitors, training for new recruits, shop and factory floor tours. However, with technology in the hands of the user, anything was possible, even a video showing a bad day at office could be uploaded by a disgruntled employee.
“You don't have to dedicate human resources here. The advantage is multimedia
technology helps create a consistent corporate message to the external and internal public. It uses engaging and interactive media. It allows user control over information flow. The message is delivered through non-textual channels resulting in greater recall. The subscription-based model helps track the success rate of communication, and you also know who is listening to what and when. The technology creates interest in the company and its success. It also provides easy portability of material on to different platforms,” explained Shewakramani, adding from the point of view of his business, “The philosophy is to help the visitor understand key messages and position him to make discoveries. You make it a personal experience. Giving them something that they choose to receive in a medium that is convenient for them peaks curiosity to a level where they go back and choose to get the message that you are spending crores of rupees to try and get to them. You don't have to do that anymore; they are going to come to you."
Earlier, welcoming the gathering, Suganthy Sundararaj, chairperson, PRSI, Chennai Chapter, said that the role of communication specialists was expanding and referred to Fortune Magazine naming PR as one of the ten fastest growing streams in the coming ten years. “PR is being integrated with other marketing functions and skilled crisis management people are in great demand as companies strive to create a good image. PR is becoming a major initiative in many organisations, a role historically undervalued. Corporate communications is a relatively new concept,” she said.

Ms. Neena Rajiv Govindan
Branch Manager, Concern India Foundation, Chennai

Ms. Ramya Sunil,
Asst. Mgr-Programmes, Concern India Foundation, Chennai

"How PR plays an important role for an NGO"

"Support Programmes of the NGO"

'Community welfare: an area that lacks quality PR'

NGOs need PR to raise money, to describe services to beneficiaries and to inform the public about accomplishments, says Neena Rajiv Govindan, branch manager, Concern India Foundation. Ramya Sunil, assistant manager, programmes, speaks of how villages in India do not have even a laboratory to test blood.

Concern India Foundation is an NGO whose motto is 'helping people help themselves' and to support the most vulnerable sections in communities.
A non-profitable charitable trust headquartered in Mumbai, Concern India, established in 1991, works with more than 175 development-oriented grassroots NGOs in education, health and community development. Aspects of formal education, functional education as well as special education are given importance, and for community welfare, livelihood programmes are conducted and legal guidance is given to distressed women.
Addressing members of the Public Relations Society of India, Chennai Chapter, Neena Rajiv Govindan, branch manager, Concern India Foundation, who specialises in women and child welfare, and Ramya Sunil, assistant manager, programmes, spoke about how PR played an important role for an NGO.
Govindan said that their focus was vulnerable people in society, with particular emphasis on women and children, the mentally and physically challenged, the aged, people in slums, working construction sites, in prisons, semi-rural areas and tribal hamlets. In 2009-10, Concern India Foundation touched the lives of more than 2,00,000 underprivileged and more than 82,800 people benefited through its various community development programmes; 46,600 lives were touched by providing children and the youth with literacy and education; and the Foundation was also able to change the lives of more than 24,000 mentally and physically challenged children.
“NGOs need PR to raise money, to describe services to beneficiaries and to inform the public about accomplish-ments,” Govindan said. Concern India Foundation uses its Web site, press coverage and annual reports as PR tools.
Giving examples of the work done by the Foundation, Sunil named Kallapanchery and its surrounding villages where the focus was on providing quality healthcare and support for children. She lamented the fact that the one primary health centre in the village hardly ever functioned, with a nurse or a doctor turning up once in a while. It was the clinic set up by the Foundation that catered to more than 4,000 people, she said.
Sunil also spoke about how the rag pickers in Palayamkottai and Tirunelveli were the target group in a community development initiative, where part of the objective was also to improve the environment through domestic waste management. Twenty-five rag pickers were trained in domestic waste management and taught how to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, she pointed out.
A plain-spoken Sunil told the audience that despite technological advancement people in India were still stigmatized. Away from the large cities, many in the semi-urban and rural areas had to battle tuberculosis, which continued to be the main problem, according to her. “Even pregnant women are not aware of complications in pregnancy and many women die during labour. There are no laboratory facilities even to test blood,” she said.

Mr. Shahidul Alam
Internationally acclaimed photojournalist

”Beyond Words: Transition from Verbal to Visual Culture"

'Is the power of creating imagery in responsible hands?'

Taking pictures is a popular activity. The family album is a visual chronicle, an important entity as such. Today, the camera is not an expensive tool and the activity of taking pictures is not limited to the well-off, says Shahidul Alam, a top-rated photographer based in Bangladesh. The sophisti-cated digital camera is easy to operate. Taking pictures is more a fun activity in which everybody is involved. But for the newspaper photographer, it is serious business, it is all about credibility, responsibility and telling a truthful story, he says, adding that technology is changing the metaphors and levels of engagement we have.

It was truly a wonderful presentation, perhaps even a virtuoso performance, if you will. Shahidul Alam, a Bangladeshi photographer and writer with a special interest in education and new media, through vivid pictures, helped members of the Public Relations Society of India, Chennai Chapter, understand how a better understanding of visual culture, and more intelligent visual practice by top management, could transform the readability of a newspaper, resulting in it being a better tool for communication, and leading to greater profitability.
In a fast changing media environment, the competition for eyeballs is intense. Readership patterns have changed. The business has moved on. Understanding what works and what doesn't is not merely a matter of aesthetics and taste, but one of survival. Yet very few in the decision-making positions are skilled in the knowledge of reading images. It was the background to this reality that Alam chose to explain to the audience.
Alam admitted he was not a “word person” and that he often ended up using a language that was not his own. He preferred to use the anecdotal method. “I see myself as a storyteller, as a communi-cator; not really as a photojournalist.
I tell stories through all sorts of ways, more as a performance,” he said, and referred to bringing workshops on photography to communities, to conducting photography festivals on the streets and playgrounds and in markets, and organising a particular exhibition in a Bangladeshi village under a banyan tree that saw many children arriving to see the pictures on display.
“One little girl was insistent on trying to get in; it was very important for her to come to the exhibition. I was intrigued. 'Because my goat has to see the exhibition,' she said. There was a picture of the goat in the exhibition that got the girl to bring her goat. But if there was only written matter on the goat, would she have come?” Alam wondered, making the stark distinction between the written word and the visual medium. “It got us thinking as to how this medium relates to the public at large in a very different way, a medium that engages with the public with a different dynamic.”
According to Alam, the world is moving from a word culture to a visual culture. But he added that except for television, visual language was not used a great deal in communicating (the mobile phone is used mostly for text messages and the personal computer for email and correspondence). “When we try to convey information, we use words and words work very well. When we try to get moods, ideas and perceptions across, we rely more on imagery.”
Alam said that people were often not receptive to visual images and “consumed” what they saw without being conscious of it, what he termed as significant. “We live in a world where consent is manufactured. With the written word you make a conscious decision whether to read it or not. Imagery is a language we are forced to receive whether we like it or not, but at least we must be literate about it. In our culture and education system, no attempt has been made to teach people about visual culture, how it is consumed, how it affects us, and how it shakes our consciousness,” he pointed out.
Alam gave credit to amateur photography and citizen journalism, calling them very important functions, but he stressed that trained photojournalists who knew the grammar of the medium were needed. “Using a camera is less complicated. In a way it is too easy, and that is part of the problem. The fact that I can write does not make me a writer. The fact that I can press a shutter does not make me a photographer. There's a very different process involved, in attaining the skills required to be lucid and convincing. Talented photojournalists have the ability to tell stories the way others cannot,” he explained.
Images gather currency because of their credibility and because they are the “unvarnished truth”. “You are at the place of occurrence, making you by default a witness,” Alam said. Doctored pictures? Of course, yes. “Photoshop is new, but lying is not,” he quipped, and added: “Credibility is important. The fact that you've produced an image is irrelevant. Liars also take pictures. Credibility depends on the person taking pictures, the track record.” He spoke about how the top photographers were in great demand and described the Testino look Madonna was after and how People and Hello magazines paid 15 million dollars for a set of pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. “The pulling power of particular images is so powerful,” he added, showing some celebrated World War II pictures.
The effect of lingering images was far more powerful than what words could convey, Alam said. “We need to deal with technology that is changing the metaphors and levels of engagement we have. Networks are created differently; there is the grabbing of eyeballs. At the end of the day, it is to reach out, finding the right tools and platform.”
Pointing to a picture that had a blind boy in the middle of the frame (a picture he shot in Bangladesh without realising that one of the boys was blind), Alam said that rural and marginal people did not figure in newspapers except when the grotesque happened. “Only the stories of the well-to-do matter. Our stories (of the well-to-do) are talked about, our lives are lived for us through the newspaper. The one option they (underprivileged) have of coming out of anonymity, of existing as human beings, is through photography. It's a huge responsibility, of lifting an anonymous child and making him exist. It's a tremendous power to have, a scary one to have. The same power, we can use or abuse. Are we responsible enough? What do we do with the power of imagery?”

Out of the top-drawer
Shahidul Alam has several distinctions. He set up the award-winning Drik Picture Library; the Bangladesh Photographic Institute, Pathshala; the DrikNews photo agency; and Banglarights, the Bangladesh Human Rights portal. His work has been shown in leading museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts and the Royal Albert Hall in London. He is a visiting professor at Sunderland University in the UK and an honorary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.
Alam is the first Asian to have chaired the prestigious International Jury of World Press Photo. He was the first Asian to receive the prestigious Mother Jones International Award for Documentary Photography. His work has been published in National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, The Guardian and Le Monde. He is the only Bangladeshi to have been commissioned to photograph a cover picture for Time. In 2009, he was given the rare privilege by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to make an exclusive portrait of Nelson Mandela.
Alam is on the board of the National Geographic Society, and has lectured widely in universities like Cambridge, Harvard, Oxford, Stanford and the University of California.

Mr. Huzaifa Khorakiwala
CEO, Wockhardt Foundation & Executive Director, Wockhardt Ltd.
Mumbai

"Business Excellence with Human Values"

'Only human values can create business excellence: Khorakiwala'

Huzaifa Khorakiwala, CEO, Wockhardt Foundation, and executive director, Wockhardt Ltd, lists seven values that can contribute to business excellence - Gratitude, Forgiveness, Love, Humility, Giving, Patience, Truth. He adds that having Knowledge alone will not help; it is important to Act.

It was Suganthy Sundararaj, chairperson, Public Relations Society of India, Chennai Chapter, who set the tone for the evening, saying that personal ethics can be cultivated but often they cannot be achieved if the person has no inner desire to accomplish them. She listed accountability, honesty and integrity as the three main components that lead to ethical business practices.
Taking off from where she left, Huzaifa Khorakiwala, CEO, Wockhardt Foundation, and executive director, Wockhardt Limited, referred to what he called the four pillars of excellence - Knowledge, Action, God and Values. Khorakiwala regularly visits universities worldwide and interacts with students. Spreading human values and inspiring youth to higher living are his objectives. He has written nine books on the subject and toured 40 colleges in the past four months.
“The goal of the animal kingdom is survival. The human being has to be taught everything; you keep learning all the time. The container of knowledge is endless; we keep getting more and more of it. The beauty of a man lies in his intelligence,” said Khorakiwala, adding that Knowledge has four branches expressing a relationship with God; family; career or livelihood; and giving back to society or humanity.
However, just having knowledge or intellect was not enough; it was important to act, said Khorakiwala. Similarly, there was no point working hard without knowing anything. The best investment, according to him, was one in which duties were performed. Explaining the law of karma or “perfect justice”, Khorakiwala said: “There is a superior power that controls the destiny of everybody. Today's experience is a result of the past and if you invest wisely in the present by following values, the future experience will be good. Whatever I'm saying is a distillation of all the scriptures I have read in the past 25 years. The goal of every religion is to create a better human being.”
Business excellence, Khorakiwala said, hinged on customer delight, investors, society, employees, teamwork, motivation, supplier satisfaction, product quality and branding or image. He listed seven values that made up for business excellence (at Wockhardt, each value corresponds to one day of the week): Gratitude, Love, Truth, Giving, Patience, Humility and Forgiveness.
Khorakiwala stressed that there was no greater duty than the return of thanks. Gratitude he termed as the concept of appreciation which could “increase blessings to an unimaginable level. “In business, the more you express the more you get. Thank employees, customers, the HR department for salary increments and promotions, God for livelihood, and shareholders and suppliers. Give gifts,” he exhorted the audience.
Forgiveness, according to Khorakiwala, was a divine quality. “Forgive minor faults and show the human touch. Train for forgiveness. To err is human, to forgive divine. So, forgive and forget. When you play anger with anger you get hurt more. Whenever there is anger, hate and insult you can react in two ways, either take revenge or forgive. The challenge is to drop pride and ego and admit your mistake. You then win a friend in the long run.”
Describing Love as the most powerful human emotion and loving one another as half of wisdom, Khorakiwala said love encompassed care and compassion, sharing of joy and pain, avoidance of heated arguments or personal insults, and not taking recourse to revenge or vendetta. “When you can inspire people with love, it's the highest form of leadership,” he added.
Humility or lack of pride and ego, Khorakiwala termed as a person's “best dress”. “Respect others, and do not belittle. Keep your feet firmly grounded. Unrealistic ambitions can destroy business. However, humility does not mean lack of self-worth or self-respect,” he said.
On Giving: “When you receive, you are burdened and get grounded to earth. When you give, you are lighter, you feel spiritual, peace of mind and happiness and you rise. The more you give, the more you get. The true worth of a man is what brings him internal joy, not what others think of him or his social status. In business, giving enhances reputation. The goal of life is not external glory but internal peace and happiness.
Khorakiwala spoke on the need to have Patience, to persevere, and to speak the Truth and use virtuous means. “Honour your word and commitment,” he said.

Mr. Sunil Kishen
Executive Director,
Southern Region, Air India

"‘Changing role of PR and its challenges"

'It's judicious to reveal facts, says Air India chief’

Public Relations or another term associated with it, Corporate Communications, means different things to different people. Over a period, the role of the PR or corporate communication practitioner has undergone a sea change. Sunil Kishen, executive director, Air India, Southern Region, says
the change was necessitated by various developments that have taken place in management ethics, corporate structures and, indeed, the environment. He stresses the importance of transparency and ethics in PR. Trust goes a long way in promoting a positive image of an organisation, he says.

Speaking to members of the Public Relations Society of India, Chennai Chapter, Sunil Kishen, executive director, Air India, Southern Region, said that the management of companies and conglomerates had moved from family-managed entities to professionally managed enterprises. Management styles had changed, which in turn had altered thinking at various levels, as far as external and internal communication was concerned.
Rising expectations from customers, shareholders, government, media, industry, suppliers and others had made it very challenging for companies. Today, even employees expect organisations to share more information. “If earlier, it was considered 'prudent to hide', today it is thought wise to 'judiciously reveal',” he pointed out.
If 1947 marked a special milestone in India's history, when the country gained Independence, 1991 was a significant year as well it was the year that India decided to liberalise its economy. After four decades of a regulated economy that was inward looking and impeded growth, India finally opened itself to the world. The opening was aided in part by a communication revolution that seemed to be sweeping the country. The opening up of the Indian economy necessitated a different approach by organisations and institutions; they needed to redefine strategies both in terms of business as well as communicating with the public. All this brought about a revolutionary change in the thinking and approach of PR practitioners, Kishen said.
Post-liberalisation, institutional investors began eyeing India and the country very quickly emerged as a major investment destination in the world. “Institutional investors rely more on aspects such as culture, leadership, human capital, communication, brand and reputation, rather than on economic indicators such as profit and loss,” Kishen said, adding that PR or corporate communications should be equipped to manage such assets.
Kishen stressed that PR played an important role in getting positive media coverage for a company and its products. “It is observed that positive media coverage followed by advertising can make consumers pay attention to an advertisement, with three times as much focus, compared to when an advertisement has no media support. Media is a powerful tool that can deliver in-depth information consumers demand, which is impossible to deliver in a 30-second television slot. PR is an essential component of the marketing mix and it is vital in building credibility, relevance, trust and lasting relationship,” he explained.
Dwelling on how new communication tools had revolutionised PR and corporate communications, Kishen said blogs, Facebook and Twitter had changed the way people interacted; together they influenced consumer behaviour like never before. Companies which did not recognise the need to engage stakeholders using such forms of communication naturally lagged behind. Indeed, media too paid attention to blogs that mattered, and Kishen provided examples of how some blog posts had resulted in negative publicity for companies.
Kishen also emphasised that the PR practitioner today needed to be a sort of generalist who had a broad grasp of the country's politics, economics, socio-cultural structure, technological development, and environmental challenges, even micro aspects like tax policies, employment laws, regulatory and trade restrictions, tariffs, inflation and wage rates, minimum wages, working hours, unemployment, credit availability, cost of living, population growth, emphasis on safety, global warming, Internet applications, use of fuel, recycling of waste and pollution.
Developing a team to respond to a crisis situation and also developing proactive as well as reactive responses was crucial, Kishen said, adding that identifying the roles people had to play during crisis was immensely valuable. “The challenge for the PR practitioner is to contain the crisis and preserve the reputation of the organisation. Ethics is important in building a strong reputation. PR practitioners must be transparent and ethical; this will help lasting relationships with the media and other stakeholders. Trust goes a long way in promoting a positive image of the organisation.”