Today companies would rather have a consultant Come in and give independent advice Instead of having a massive P R Department.

It has taken us half a century to establish the profession of, public relations in India. Going by this incredible track record, I wonder how much longer it will take for the corporate world to understand the true import of public relations consultancies. The public relations consultant is perceived by corporations and institutions, both public and private, in much the same manner as the six blind men viewed the elephant. In fact, the consultant is not just looked at as different parts of the limbs of the poetic pachyderm of folklore, but as different sorts of animals.

Sly Fox
The one who specializes in government liaison is the sly fox, that promises to smoothen the Passage of a project through the corridors of power, but extricates huge sums of money from the client in the process. He is the fixer, a person with enormous clout, who could make or break reputations. For the people who know the fox, this is the only sort of public relations that a consultant can do.

Stallion
Then there is the stallion that manages events. Strutting about with celebrities, he gallops in and out of corporate boardrooms, once more like his fox counterpart, conceptualizing and executing mega budget events while making huge sums of money himself.

Faithful Dog
A third type of animal comes in the form of the faithful dog, His Master's Voice, the inveigling consultant who is a reactive sort of chap, who will execute rather than ideate, who will be low level "advisor", but in reality come across almost as an employee, rather than an outsider.

Rhinoceros
And then there is the rhinoceros, who is bigger than life, has a wonderful thick skin and can get any kind of news into the newspapers and magazines, either because he was a former journalist, or because he has built up his media contacts over the years through a judicious mix of wet lunches, cash for copy, and the ability to weather brickbats about being a corporate lackey. With such varied zoological perceptions, where do we manage to snatch credibility for consultancies that give what we would like to term Integrated Communication Solutions?

The Corporate Realities

While advertising has established its rightful place in the corporate firmament of communication, public relations professionals still have to contend with that immeasurable factor of value for money.

The reality is that there are a large number of exceptionally qualified people who have developed into public relations consultants, either by setting up their own outfits and trading on their reputations, or by joining the public relations wings of advertising agencies or by being appointed to start and manage public relations consultancy conglomerates who want a base in India. Their job is not an easy one given the fact that while advertising has established its rightful place in the corporate firmament of communication; public relations professionals still have to contend with that immeasurable factor of value for money. Not only is the quantification of the benefits of public relations exercises a difficult one, but also it is also further compounded by the fact that the beneficiary is not at all convinced that a consultant can give him what the CEO, could have figured out himself.

Ritam Communications
I will give an instance of how I myself started Ritam Communications. As a Public Relations Manager of a key transnational, Indian Aluminum, I was quite content to be part of such an organized structure, which could deal with public relations in a planned manner, particularly with the backing and PR knowledge of its parent company in Canada. But as I started being exposed through the numerous public relations professional development seminars under the aegis of the International Public Relations Association, first as a general member and then as a member of the Board of Directors of IPRA, I found that fifty percent of the members were consultants. This was an amazing figure, as the perception so far had been of PR people as managers of corporate communication, not as entrepreneurs and independent counsels.

So, in taking the plunge and getting out of the comfortable cocoon of a corporate set up to become an independent advisor, it meant sacrificing the tarred highways for a less beaten path.

So, in taking the plunge and getting out of the comfortable cocoon of a corporate set up to become an independent advisor, it meant sacrificing the tarred highways for a less beaten path. But it could happen because the intention was to bring to bear on the new consultancy service all the two decades of experience garnered not just through working in a large corporation, but also in writing, teaching and talking on the profession. These are necessary if we are to become the Promod Mahajans to the new breed of CEOs who want risk-taking consultants to advise them on making a significant mark in a highly competitive environment. The fact that this is happening is a measure of the maturity of the profession which accepts that there is a high demand for qualified public relations advisors who show sound judgment, logical thinking, creative capabilities and strategic planning techniques. The building and sustaining of image and credibility of companies is today done by consultants who have become the devil's advocates, who can catalyze, determine and evaluate the corporation's -- and also the CEO's -- many communication requirements.

The consultant should ideally combine his experience and objectivity with the in-house knowledge and access of the in-house practitioner to be able to give the corporate communications exercise both credibility and workability.

It was way back in the sixties that Professor John Kenneth Galbraith wrote his New Industrial Society. His treatise looked far ahead, and it is incredible that his Technostructure is so well in place today. This structure "changes our view of who runs the modern industrial enterprise; for the owners and managers, it substitutes the complex of specialists and technicians who in fact exercise the decisive approach." Indian corporations have begun to realize that, like their counterparts in the West, the need to downsize has become crucial and thus the hiring of counsels on all fronts becomes a better way of getting out of large bureaucratic structures. Rather than have massive public relations departments, today companies would rather have a consultant come in and give independent advice, one who can interact with the CEO on a one-to-one basis without having to go through a maze of paperwork and predetermined in-house concepts.

Methodology
The best methodology today is for consultants to see their role as a complementary one, which does not exclude the internal public relations department. The consultant should ideally combine his experience and objectivity with the in-house knowledge and access of the in-house practitioner to be able to give the corporate communications exercise both credibility and workability. .

Lobbying
What do the different consultancies do in India? I began this article by giving the public perception of consultants. It is not far from the truth. There are consultants and consultancies that concentrate just on what in America is the fine art of lobbying. We need to formalize the system of lobbying to bring it out as a part of doing business, rather than an underhand activity. Yet others concentrate on corporate share issue management, which encompasses building image prior to new issues and the totality, in fact of marketing this issues-whether it is to the general public or to existing shareholders or even to employees of the company. Some have the expertise to go into the mergers and acquisitions business.

Event Management
Other consultancy set-ups are specific about their events management expertise. Some specialize in design and yet others are big on media relations. Yet others pro- fess to be full service agencies, encompassing advertising. My contention here would be that in order to position themselves and gain credibility with companies, PR consultancies of the future in India should be highly specialized in certain fields, define the terms of reference of their work with clients and have a working philosophy.

There are consultants and consultancies who concentrate just on what in America is 'the fine art of lobbying. We need to formalize the system of lobbying to bring it out as a part of doing- business, rather than an underhand activity.

At a time when advertising agencies are looking to expand the scope of their activities to have separate public relations advisory set-ups as a hedge against the bad times when clients clam up on high adspends, I would like to see them giving constructive advice on image building. A case in point is the success story of Shining Strategic Design, set up in Paris by Shombit Sengupta. He has concentrated not just on revamping logo design of companies, but first going into market research of its perception and then designing and recreating the logo to fit in with product reach. The exercise done for Britannia has been extremely successful. I have brought in this aspect of creating logos as an opportunity area, because corporations do not realize how important it is to plan this from scratch. The sad reality is that only a handful of companies pay the prices asked to go into such an exercise, which is not a high price, considering its ramifications on the company's image, branding and positioning with all its publics.

All Work, No Pay
Which brings me to the whole point of how public relations consultants are paid in India. There is no proper system in place. The idea of charging by the hour is laughed off by most CEOs. But it is a very realistic benchmark. Most consultancies in other countries use the simple rule of dividing the annual "salary" of a consultant by the number of hours he has worked during a year. So, if a consultant were to earn, say Rs. 5 lakhs per annum, and we took 1800 hours per year, his hourly pay would be Rs. 277 and he would (by western norms) bill clients at three times that amount or Rs. 831 an hour. If the time spent on a client is just two hours a day or twelve hours a week (excluding Sundays), the amount is Rs. 9972 per week, or Rs. 40,000 a month. Quite fair?

Free Advice

PR consultancies of the future in India should be highly specialized in certain fields, define the terms of reference of their work with clients and have a working philosophy.

The Indian reality does not look at it fortunately, or unfortunately, in such cut and dried terms. Most of the time, consultants end up giving hours of free advice, and do not find a way of billing in the most equitable manner. The moral of the story: structure your own relationship with the client in proper monetary and time terms as well as in defining the scope of work that will be done for him. Companies respect a businesslike approach and PR consultants will also benefit in the long term by measuring out their advice in coffee spoons like legal counsels do.
Courtesy P R Voice

Rita Bhimani, is an independent Public Relations Consultant, who runs her own PR firm, Ritam Communications. She is author of the book "The Corporate Peacock.. New Plumes for Public Relations" and has spent over twenty-five years in the profession through the "Practice, Preaching, Penning and Preening" of PR as the blurb on her book puts it.