srini, such lovely insights your posting has provided.
my thanks to bish for sharing such interesting info about Philippians.
i would never have come to know about this, otherwise.
request others to share not-so-privileged info about events and people.
it will make an interesting reading and a lesson for us to be forewarned and
forearmed about our practices.
cheers
ashok
On 10 December 2012 06:01, Bish Mukherjee ABC <bmiabc@hotmail.com> wrote:
Srini and Ashok's views are spot on.
Hiring a PR agency in the US is quite common and useful. Since you need a licence in the US to do lobbying, we can't do these jobs ourselves without going thorugh either diplomatic channels or through other licenced agencies.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines had hired a PR firm to boost her image in the US as she was labelled as "charisma-challenged". Burson-Marsteller was sgned up for US$800000 plus out of pocket expenses of US$200000 making it a total fee of US$1 million per year for 3 years starting from July 2001. Richard Pratz was Burson-Marsteller's PR global advocacy head at the time. Richard had unmatched credentials of working as media manager for President Bill Clinton and later as staff director for Senator Hillary Clinton.
I was in Manila and was speaking and chairing at an international conference there soon after this ground-breaking agency appointment was announced. There was a lot of media hype on how the Government of a poor country was splurging millions on what they called "Gloria's Lobbygate". During an open session with the media I was asked my views on whether spending US$1 million by a developing country like Philippines on its President's image makeover was justified.
Taking the stance that it was 100 per cent justified, I did explain that it was not merely the President's charisma that was being engaged by the PR agency but rather creating a fullsome favourable climate within which the entire country and its people are seen in a better light by the international public. In fact the agency's brief included bettering economic, trade and media relations and building the much needed investor confidence in the US. 62 publications featured my comments in some form or the other.
Thanks to stupendous support from the agency, President Arroyo not only got excellent media coverage but also appeared on the Time magazine's cover more than once in the next decade of leadership that she displayed with astute abundance.
But the story has a sting in the tail though. Because Burson-Marsteller was perceived to be close to the Clintons and therefore the Democrats, the Philippines Government appointed another agency with leanings towards the Republicans. Bannerman and Associates were contracted for US$200000 per year to help lobby improve US-Philippines relations by influencing Reublican members of the US Congess.
These agency appointments proved to be so successful that their contracts were renewed year after year as ongoing contracts for several years.
Cheers,
Bish
Bish Mukherjee ABC
Misha NetworkChennai: 91-9884063009; Sydney: 61-438290348
To: prpoint@yahoogroups.com
From: ashoktnex@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2012 21:40:49 +0530
Subject: Re: [prpoint] ET Report on Gujarat Govt. engaging lobbying firm APCO
srini,interesting stuff you have sent across the wires. modi is a very progressive leader atleast on the economic front even if his communal credentials are questionable by some political quarters. but his work on the economic front and the work he has done for gujarat far outweighs any communal slant that may be launched against him by any opposition party.this is the age of image management. as a professional practising image management for some indian transnationals and some european MNCs in the last 10 years , let me tell you my first hand experience -- its worth every penny spent, and lobby firms , yes, you have no idea of the clout they enjoy in the USA, they can swing opinions in the senate/representatives houses and also the public.about two years ago, i had the occasion to work as an image management professional on a contract for the all india rice exporters association, a 2 billion US dollar industry, which has now put Indian in the forefront as the world's No 1 exporter of rice beating Thailand in the race.Two major problems i was called upon to handle -- one a european threat to ban basmati on specious ground that it had residues of pesticides and insecticides, basmati disappeared off the shelves of major shopping malls in europe starting with germany, it threatened to spread to other europlean countries and also the USA, all major markets for India. the usual suspect, Pakistan allegedly hired a firm to spread canards. We nailed it and but for the support of the Commerce Ministry we could not have won the battle which lasted more than six months and sleepless nights for me and others in the association. i was the acting director of the association as also the image management advisor at that time..Second again, a threat from Iran which sought to ban Indian basmati on the same ground, but we disproved their claims and indian imports were allowed. powerful agencies were at work probably at the instigation of Pakistan to run down indian rice. Neither Rice Exporters, who had all the money, nor the Commerce Ministry, which had all the money under the Basmati development fund, thought it fit to hire any agency but managed the crisis themselves -- i am sure if it had gone out of hand both of them would have hired a lobby firm or a PR agency to handle it. the basmati development fund handled by the commerce ministry with funds from exporters has a corpus of nearly one billion us dollars.But the most serious threat was a lobby went to work in the US senate and it started spreading rumours that basmati exporters and growers in India were using child labour and wanted to ban the entry of indian rice into the USA. i was part of a two member team that was negotiating with a US lobby firm in New York directly and also through genesis to kill the rumours. But the costs were thought to be enormous, the US agent wanted 20,000 US dollars a month to carry a campaign with US senators to remove the fears. Genesis wanted US $ 3,00,000 per month but said it would operate through its US ally.But the commerce ministry told us not to spend such exorbitant sums and that it would handle the matter diplomatically and they did it successfully. we were even hiring a film company to make a 15 film documentary to show how no child labour was used and that the entire process of rice sifting/thrushing/packing was all automated close to international standards. But the need did not arise.today is the age of lobby firms and image management companies --- you cant handle a crisis without them, not all trades in different countries have their governments backing them. in india also , because rice exporters are themselves a powerful lobby in the north, govt backs them, but what is the plight of small firms and msme's who go into export business , can they hire lobby firms or image management firms or get the government to support them in a crisis ? i doubt.cheersashokOn 9 December 2012 16:46, Prime Point Srinivasan <prpoint@gmail.com> wrote:
hi allEconomic Times Report
Yesterday's and today's ET have carried a big story on how Narendra Modi engaged an International Lobby firm APCO to get more investment. This news item has sent out a strong message on the future trends of Public Relations / lobbying.Discussion in our group 10 years backExactly 10 years back on 2nd December 2002, I triggered a debate in Image Management group and prpoint group on how at that time Pakistan Government engaged a lobby firm. At that time, we debated whether the non performance of military Government can be whitewashed by engaging a lobby firm. At that time, i had quoted a media report that Pakistan Government engaged a lobby firm on payment of US $1,80,000 per annum. Please see the link for reference.Since Image Management group is an international group with global members, some of the PR experts from US shared some interesting information at that time, privately. While, Pakistan and China engaged lobby firms in US to project their countries, India never cared for such image building. It even got reflected at that time in US media. While Pakistan's charges against India was well covered in US media, Vajpayee's counter charges did not get due attention. (Both Indian PM and Pak President were in US on the same day).Later, I also discussed with some of the senior bureaucrats of Indian Govt., who stated that Indian Foreign Service officials never allowed any PR/Lobby agency to work for Indian Government. Since these bureaucrats took upon the PR role themselves, they could not handle professionally. Later I also shared such information in the groups in early 2000.At that time, I also advocated that Indian Government should engage professional agencies to project the image outside India.Ten years later...Now, after 10 years, I find that one of the State Governments has engaged a global Lobby firm APCO to project the State Government outside the country and to attract more investors. ET also reports that Gujarat has hired them at a cost of US$25,000 per month. ET also reports that Gujarat got the benefit of global investments, in the Vibrant Gujarat Campaign.Probably this is the first of its kind in India that a State Government engages a lobby / PR firm. A couple of years back, when Nira Radia started this type of lobbying, because of her unprofessional approach, the whole industry got a bad name.Is it the beginning of a new trend?On seeing the success story of Gujarat, the other State Governments may also be willing to engage lobby firms. I feel this may set a new trend in India. Probably, the PR industry is getting another space in India to operate. The new opportunity of 'lobbying' may bring in new challenges and risks both inside and outside the country.Indian PR firms are yet to get core competency in this type of new opportunities. Instead of leaving the ground to one or two MNC companies, the top PR Agencies in India like Adfactors, Perfect Relations, Genesis, GRI and others also may develop the core competency in this type of 'Lobbying' with suitable partnership in American and European countries.More transparency neededAlready, debates are going on in India that Wallmart has spent huge money illegally in India to get an entry. It is time that the Government also enacted some laws recognising the Lobbying function to bring in more transparency, and to prevent bribery.We have covered about Public Affairs and Lobbying in October 2010 issue of ezine PreSense. You may download the ezine from:I invite members to share their views. If some members do not want to share the views openly in the group with their name, they may contact me over phone / mail and give me their input. I will share with other members, without revealing the identity.SrinivasanModerator9176650273
--TN Ashok
Corporate Consultant,(Public Affairs/ Media Advisories)Resident Editor, Industrial Economist,Contributor, Business Line,Ex Economics Editor, PTI,Ex Communications Advisor,Alstom Group of Companies SA France+91 98101 88700+91 88005 35205+91 11 2271 3192
TN Ashok
Corporate Consultant,
Corporate Consultant,
(Public Affairs/ Media Advisories)
Resident Editor, Industrial Economist,
Contributor, Business Line,
Ex Economics Editor, PTI,
Ex Communications Advisor,
Alstom Group of Companies SA France
+91 98101 88700
+91 88005 35205
+91 11 2271 3192
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