PR discussions: Re: [prpoint] Performance 90%; Public Relations 10%

That precisely the core. Nice to read and in agreement.
vnp

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:39:30 +0530 wrote
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hi all

There used to be a popular saying "Success is Inspiration 10%; Perspiration 90%". That means 90 percent hard work is needed to achieve success.
For more than two decades, I have always been using a slightly modified version of this popular saying in all my lectures on Public Relations (PR). The first slide of my presentation will be always "Performance 90%; Public Relations 10%". I always insist that PR is not a substitute to performance or to hide the non-performance.

After analysing the results of the recent assembly elections, including those held last year, i thought of sharing my views in this forum.
These trends have proved that 'noisy communication' exercise without performance, cannot improve the perception of the stakeholders. The results have also amply proved that communication exercise needs to have the support of 'performance'.

Though, I may not like to mention the names, i find many of the Indian corporates make huge noise, without being backed by performance. These companies will not survive long time. Many of the CEOs also do not understand the logic behind this. I have observed that in India, we have three type of situations:

1. Less Performance; more noise or PR
The failure of Satyam is a good example. With lot of skeletons in their cup board, they engaged themselves in huge PR exercises. Even they converted their CSR activities, as a PR exercise. Ultimately, these PR strategies did not help them, when their empire was falling. Even few of the Multinational banks are in this category.

2. High Performance; No PR
This is also a dangerous one. In India, we have more such companies. Even many of the reputed companies in private sector and all public sector organisations fall under this category. Many of them do not have proper PR and Communication policy. As long as the organisation runs smoothly without any difficulty, they do not face any problem. When they start facing crisis, they end up in creating mess and huge loss to the organisation. This results in reputation loss also.

Here I can quote Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL) as an example. They have world class scientists. They have built the Power plant with word standard at Kudankulam. Because of their lack of response for the protests in the initial stage, today, the project remains unopened for more than 6 months, incurring a daily loss of Rs.5 crores, besides, shortage of power supply to Southern States. Till date, they have not initiated any communication process.

3. Performance 90% and PR 10%
This is an ideal situation. I used to compare this with the good apples, being polished and then kept in the show case of the retail store. Bad apples being polished and beautifully packed is like the first category discussed above. In the long run, people will lose faith. This is like a company making hype without performance.

Good apples, not being polished and packed well may not draw the attention of customers. This is like the 2nd category of companies, discussed earlier. Such companies with good performance with no pr strategies may lose lot of opportunities and attention. The loss of opportunity to their company, is also a loss to the nation.

In Politics
The same logic applies to politics also. In the past few years, voters have started watching the leaders. In the past few years, performing governments have returned to power. Non performing governments, have been sent out. The performing governments have to do this 10% PR to package their performance and to get the maximum mileage.

SrinivasanPrime Point9176650273