Dear All, So nice to see professionals in the communication business are taking part in discussing the merit of the PR bodies in India. I sincerely feel that it is high time that the PR bodies take the initiative of guiding the youngsters in the PR Industry. They should focus in fulfilling the aspirations of the youth in this great profession. What are the aspirations of the youngsters in the industry? People have realized that standards in the PR profession is scaling up on a daily basis. While traditional PR is widely practised, there is a clear indication that the industry is moving towards the digital medium. No doubt that traditional pr will continue to be practised, but there is a huge knowledge gap among the youngsters about the digital medium. If the PR bodies take up this issue and try to train the youngsters about the digital medium it will do a world of good to the industry. PR agencies abroad are considering India as one of their very key destination. It throws up the challenge to the youngsters in the country to match the standards of their peers abroad. You may never know, there could be a time in the near future where an employee of an MNC pr agency in India will be requested to shift base to Europe/America to service one of their key client or asked to travel abroad to handle a project. So it is essential that the standards of work, knowledge and skill sets doesn't differ from one country to the other. So I hereby request the authorities of the PR bodies in the country to focus on developing and nurturing the youngsters through frequent seminars, workshops, unconferences, etc where the knowledge can be shared mutually. In the Chennai chapter of GFPR we are focussing on empowering the youngsters, create a knowledge sharing platform and grow together. Regards, Sakthi Prasanna.
--- On Fri, 8/7/09, Narendran A <naren_vna@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Narendran A <naren_vna@yahoo.com>
Subject: RE: [prpoint] Re: Why Indian PR bodies PRSI, PRCI, ABCI are not professional?
To: prpoint@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, August 7, 2009, 10:01 AM
| Hi Wish to share my expereince. We did form Chennai PR club couple of years back. We organized workshops free of cost (we collected money for lunch alone). The first one was a success, the second was good and third one did not get audience. In spite of repeated calls and smses people from our own community did not show interest. Only event which had good response was when we brought media and pr together to discuss issues and challenges. Senior PR professionals do not show their face at all for any conference. If this is the case we can never prosper..... ....... best regards Narren
--- On Thu, 8/6/09, Xavier <xavier@prhub. com> wrote:
From: Xavier <xavier@prhub. com>
Subject: RE: [prpoint] Re: Why Indian PR bodies PRSI, PRCI, ABCI are not professional?
To: prpoint@yahoogroups .com
Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 1:11 PM
Well said. The bane of PR industry in India is that like you rightly pointed out we have these associations which are more self promotion platforms and populated by populist programs. Have been quite amused when they celebrate daughter's day and the like asking what is the connection to the profession of PR?
But the sad story alas does not end there. The true professional biggies (Founders of the large firms) are too busy protecting their turfs, swelling their coffers that they have very little time to think of broader industry development, investment in growing or maturing the industry and most importantly in the development of qualified young professionals and middle management which this industry sorely needs. And the last but not the least, a section of the newcomers are to blame as well. Highly attitudinal and full of impatience, they never focus on investing in learning and a long-term gradual growth plan. They want it all on a platter and yesterday not even today without even bothering to raise their finger. I think we have a lot of well meaning individuals with domain expertise and deep knowledge who can and will contribute to this industry. We need professionals who are hard working, have high integrity levels, don't bring their individual biases to the professional altar and who will spare some of their time to give back. The reason why I have stayed away all these years from these associations and events is simply because of this frustration. Though am otherwise active lecturing in institutes, speaking overseas and in India at conferences etc. The only thing I can say is that the future is bright for communication in India because there will be innovative entrepreneurs who will redefine and strike their own paths (like murthy/infosys did to IT, mittal/bharti did to telecom etc.) It's they who are the real hope. Said it in an article in exchange4media 5-6 years back and am consistent on that even today and will be so a decade or two down the line as well. Warm regards, Xavier Prabhu
From: prpoint@yahoogroups .com [mailto:prpoint@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Tushar
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 11:44 PM
To: PR Point Group
Subject: [prpoint] Re: Why Indian PR bodies PRSI, PRCI, ABCI are not professional? Dear Rashmi:
I thank you for initiating this debate. I have been thinking about this for a long time. Kindly bear with me for posting my frank views. But thought it is my responsibility to respond to your mail in the larger interest of the young pr professionals in India .
The answer to your question is very simple. They are not professionals. I know each one of these associations and how they are being run by oldies and government PRO babus! They create and manage such associations for their own benefit, you scratch my back and I will do the same to yours. The so called awards they give out falls under the revolving category - One Association guys give awards to Other Association office bearers and the other association guys return the favor. The end objective is to collect trophies from each other and flash it to the world that we are contributing to the development of profession.
They DO NOT represent the industry. I consider myself as part of Industry (In fact, my wife strongly believes that I am the Industry! - well here the meaning of industry could be hard work :)) leadership and I DONT see any value being added by them to me or my business. Why should I even bother about such associations. Each one of them are headed by people above 50s, working in government PR departments or in companies which are closest to government when it comes to bureaucracy.
I am on board of PRSI, PRCI and ABCI, no one has ever invited me to attend any meetings or there is no communication from any one of them to me on whatever they are doing and why and how? how can you expect them to reply to you or anybody who is looking for information/ membership.
Expecting them to have updated websites is a far fetched dream. These organizations are for the benefit of the few individuals who run it.
Please DO NOT believe that they represent Indian PR industry, which is much better than it is being portrayed by my colleagues on the group. I work in the business and I know who we are and what we do. We are as good as anybody in US or UK , just because they are there - they don't get a right to bitch about Indian businesses or Indian leadership. If they are so good, why they are in a mess while Indian businesses are booming. There are lots of pluses and minuses everywhere but just because there are few unprofessional people around, you shouldn't label the entire industry as unprofessional.
The best way to acquire knowledge is to find your own way and get in touch with people who knows much better than any of these associations do. You don't have to depend on such (un)Professional associations to advance in your career.
Well, all the best in your search for knowledge. My advice: Learn yourself and be 'Eklavya' who any day was better than Arjun.
Take care & all the best.
Tushar
Mumbai |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment