PR Icons

Vikram Kharvi - Journalist turned PR professional

2009-04-30T02:05:00.000-07:00

Public Relations (PR) industry has started growing in the past one decade enormously. Many educational institutions have started separate courses on PR to prepare the students for this industry. Many educated youngsters join this industry with fat salary. PR is no longer 'Media centric'. The clients expect to get 360 degree brand image, to face the global competition.

The curriculum in the educational institutions do not match with industry needs. The youngsters who come out with book knowledge, need to get integrated with the industry. This could be possible only through continuous updating and learning process.

Do the young professionals take initiative in updating their knowledge and skills? Do the young professionals have a right attitude to connect to the industry? Even when the opportunity is provided, how do they utilise this to their advantage? To what extent senior professionals in the industry take interest in grooming the seniors? Is the learning aligned to the right practices? Do the professionals share the case studies with fellow professionals?

With these questions, we contacted Mr Vikram Kharvi, a Mumbai based young journalist turned PR professional over phone for an exclusive interview. Mr Vikram Kharvi is moderating a discussion group on PR for the past one year and also publishes a PR newsletter from this month. He is one of the few young professionals, who take lot of interest in developing the profession.

Please listen to his free and frank views, by clicking 'play' button in the flash player. (The audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections. If the streaming is not smooth, please right click this link and save the link/target to your desktop in mp3 format and listen)

This audio podcast may also be listened from the following links
Podbazaar
Odeo

Jhon Arokiaswamy - Corpcom to PR Agency

2008-09-16T04:11:00.000-07:00

Whenever any student of PR from the City Colleges approach me for their intern, the first name that comes to my mind is always “Jhon Arokiasamy”, popularly known as Jhon, presently heading the operations of Good Relations at Chennai and Hyderabad. He has a passion for teaching and training the youngsters. Nearly 20 of his trainees are well placed in the industry across the country.

Hailing from a middle class family in a remote village of Andhra Pradesh, he had schooling near Chennai. He was a state level topper in Computer Science in Higher Secondary Education. After completing his Post Graduation in English Literature, he pursued MBA, specializing in HR and Systems.

His knowledge and skill in Literature and Computer Systems helped him in 1998 to start his career as a technical writer and then move on to Corporate Communication function in a software company.

There is always a trend that people working in the PR Agencies like to shift to Corpcom jobs at the earliest opportunity. They perceive Corpcom provides a better package with less of field work. Jhon, after a stint of three years in a lucrative corpcom job, preferred to shift to a PR Agency to develop his strategic and implementation skills.

“As a Corporate Communications professional, I always had a feeling that I had no option than just to agree with the CEO on all occasions. That’s why I realized that I should try being an external consultant. I thought working with a PR agency of repute would help me to learn more. I joined Perfection Relations.”, says Jhon proudly.

In these days, when the PR Agencies find it difficult to retain the customers for more than six months to one year, he is able to retain his customers against all the competition ranging from 2 years to 4 years.

Rashmi Sridharan, (presently a PR executive at Bangalore) who worked with him both as an intern and again as an employee for nearly 8 months says, “ Even as a student, I learnt lot of strategic communication from Jhon. He used to explain to us patiently like a teacher. He used to take the juniors also for pitching the account and for every meeting. He never promises deliverables, which are not feasible. When some of the agencies over promise the deliverables, he used to maintain the reality. I have found many clients preferring this type of attitude and coming to us. His ethical approach has convinced the clients to stay back for years. They like his simple and practical advise, than jargons”.

Jhon has been closely involved in advising, devising and implementing crisis communication strategies and has developed expertise over the years. “It is this function which is the most difficult part of the job; It is more fulfilling to me when it is achieved”, he says with a feeling of satisfaction.

He loves reading books on meta-physics and corporate finance. He wants to develop lot of young professionals and groom them to suit the needs of the industry. He is invited by the various Colleges to interact with students on PR and also as ane examiner for PR subjects.

He wants to be a good leader. “I want to pass on the credit to my colleagues, whenever they achieve something. I do not want to steal their achievement. I still remember Mr Divakar, who groomed me to be a good PR professional in the earlier Agency. He inspired me to become a good leader”, Jhon says with all humility.

Finally when we asked him what he wanted to be in another five years, quickly he replied with confident smile, “I want to become an entrepreneur”.

Chandramouli, a Chemical Engineer looks at the Chemistry of PR

2008-05-06T04:35:00.000-07:00

Recently a senior and an efficient person of a PR Agency, wanted to move to a Corporate for better prospects. Hesitatingly, he revealed this to his CEO over phone. Though for a moment, the CEO was requesting him to continue with his own agency, after realising that the person was moving for better prospects, the CEO gave him the clearance. The story does not end here.

The CEO asked the employee to put his name as a reference in the new company and he sent out a nice testimonial. The CEO also offered to take back, whenever he wanted to join the Agency. He called up his ex-employee on the day of his joining the new company and wished him success.

The CEO is Mr N Chandramouli (40), CEO of Blue Lotus Communications. Mouli, as he is popularly known, gives top priority for the human values and relationship.

This is not an isolated event. "Not only the current employees, but also the ex-employees get personal care from Mouli. Even last week, I got SMS from him" proudly recalls Narrendiran, an ex-exployee.

Any juniormost employee can call him on mobile and take guidance from him. If he is busy, he would call back. (a rarest gesture from CEOs) "Like a teacher, he explains the concepts step by step and makes us to understand", says Poornima, one of the employees of his company.

Mouli, a chemical engineer and MBA, right after his education wanted to become an 'employment generator' rather than 'employment seeker'. For nearly 16 years, he was an entrepreneur in different verticlas like finance, technology and education. Since 8 years, he is in the communication field.

Nearly five years back, he wanted to start his own PR agency. The chemical engineer in him, started thinking of the 'chemistry of PR'. "I entered PR by coincidence, but over a little time, I found that PR was about ‘Who’ you know. It was only about relationships and contacts. In fact many of the agencies have ‘Relations’ attached to their name as a reflection of that. My inspiration to take this up as a business was to transform the concept of PR from ‘Who’ we know to ‘What’ we know. The driver was to try and make professionals be perceived like knowledge oriented business consultants. We have built a business from scratch, growing it from 2 people to 115 people in just 5 years", says Mouli proudly.

The kind of training that Mouli imparts to his people is unique. He invests a lot of time and substantially a large budget on experiential behavioral training, which has great benefits for individuals. "Besides communication techniques, we focus more on human values and human relations", Mouli says.

He is an ardent reader of books. He enjoys travel and discovering new places. He likes meeting people of different culture and learn from them. His favourite book is "Zen & the art of motorcycle maintenance” by Robert Pirsig. The book is like a bible to him. This book is neither about zen nor about motor cycle maintenance. It is all about human values. He has read this book several times. "Each time I read it, it gives me new interpretations of life", says Mouli in a humble tone.

He has a strong social inclination. He believes that more can be done to the society within the scope of work itself. He has developed a system by which each team is mandated to take up a free social client (pro-bono account) in an area of the team’s interest and provide service. "We have done lot of social awareness campaign. This gives us a sense of participation in the social works and satisfaction " says one of the junior employees.

Mouli remains as a 'Brahmachari'. He does not want to get married. His passion and commitment has made him to devote his entire time for the profession. He wants to develop large number of 'knowledgable and skilled youth' for the communication industry. "This is my small contribution to the Nation", says Mouli humbly.

Mouli can be reached at mouli@bluelotuspr.com

Palin Ningthoujam - A young social media enthusiast

2008-04-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

While announcing the concept of PR Icons, we had announced that professionals with a minimum of ten years of expereince only would be considered. After the announcement only, we started thinking about some of the young guys, who have achieved greater things, within short time. Rules are not regid. After all, they are framed by us for our own convenience. We decided to relax the minimum experience in deserving cases.

After the relaxation, the first name that came to our mind was that of Mr Palin Ningthoujam of Delhi. India PR Blog, started by him two years back is a popular name amongst the PR professionals in India.

After completing his PG diploma in Marketing and PR, he joined a PR firm at Delhi in 2002. As a 'kid' in the PR industry, he developed lot of doubts in his mind and was looking for clarifications. He could get it solved through his seniors and friends. But ' social consciousness' in him did not permit him to leave at that level. Two years back, he created a blog India PR Blog and started sharing all the information that are needed for the entrants and professionals in the PR industry.

At that time, when he started the blog, only his friends and himself were the readers. Slowly the word spread acorss the professionals. Today, the blog is read by more than 1000 professionals and students every day. At present, 5 experts are writng for this blog and is ranked within 25 amongst the PR blogs in the world. I am also one of the regular readers of his blog.

He contributes to a number of leading online blogs like Mashable, New Communications Review, and Desicritics. He also writes on his personal blog, Social Media Munching. He is one of the active social media, web 2.0 enthusiast. He is presently working in a leading PR Agency at Delhi offering social media expertise to the clients.

"I love the written word. Starting with Tinkle comics in my 5th standard, my stint with writing goes back a long way. Writing was something I wanted to do. But I also wanted to be in the corporate world and do little bit of creative planning and boardroom talks. So I decided PR was the best choice for me. And I am loving ", says Palin

During his school days, he has shown lot of leadership skills and actively involved himself in the social initiatives. Due to his deep involvement in the career and the social media, he could not find time for social initiatives now. However he has taken up the great task sharing the knowledge for the benefit of young entrants to the profession.

He finds pleasure in driving long distance with his friends once in a month, keeping away from the usual routines.

Palin wants to be among the most knowledgeable PR and social media consultants in the world. He has a significant place in the Global PR industry, in the years to come.

Y. Babji, Hyderabad - A passionate PR teacher cum practitioner

2008-04-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

National PR Day (21st April) Greetings to all the PR practitioners of India. From this day, We will be featuring every week one PR/Corpcom professional. There are many achievers amongst us and are not knwon to outside world. We will be featuring such 'Unsung Heroes and Heroines' and Award winners. This will help the PR fraternity to know them more. Though the minimum experience is flexible, we would like to identify those achievers with more than 10 years of experience. Members may suggest the names of such achievers to me to my personal email id prpoint@gmail.com . In this first edition, we will be featuring Mr Y Babji of Hyderabad

Mr Y Babj (51) of Hyderabad

Whenever a new discussion gets started on a specific subject, the members of prpoint and image management group can expect within few minutes the views of one person in the group with a qualitative analysis of the subject. Anymember will say that is Mr Y Babji of Hyderabad.

Mr Babji, presently working as Public Relations Officer, Khadi & Village Industries Board of Government of Andhra Pradesh was earlier working in various other departments of the Government also. Starting his career as a freelance journalist, the PR instinct in him pushed him to the PR job in the Government. He had the unique opportunities to work with Ministers closely and participate in the policy making of the Government. As against the usual perception of the PR departments of the Governments, he brought in lot of innovations in his work and developed good communication models.

He is not only a PR practitioner. He is also a great academician. After completing Masters degree in Political Science, he graduated himself in 'Law'. His thirst for knowledge did not end there. He completed PG diplomas in (1) Public Relations (2) Journalism (3) Co-operation and Rural Studies and (4) Personnel Management and IR, one after another. One will be surprised that even now, he pursues (1) Master of Science in Public Relations and (2) M. Phil in Political Communication.

Babji is a passionate teacher. He is a visiting professor in many Colleges and Universities in Hyderabad. He is even the member of Board of Studies of Dr B R Ambedkar Open University.

He has been actively involved in the PR movement of India. He is in the National Board of Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), Public Relations Council of India (PRCI), Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI). He is also the National Vice President of Global Forum for Public Relations (GFPR).

He has received lots of accolades and recognitions from various organisations. Today, (21st April 2008), he is being honoured with the 'Best PR Manager" Award by PRSI.

He considers Dr C V Narasimha Reddi, Editor of PR Voice as his Mentor and Guru. "Even at the age of 75, Dr Reddi is active in promoting PR profession" Mr Bobji says proudly. He draws lot of inspiration from him and he has taken him as his role model.

Babji wants to see the PR profession as the most understood profession by the Government and Non Government sector. "What i have achieved is very small, when compared to many other people, like Dr C V N Reddi. I want to achieve something great in the PR industry at the National level", says modestly. He wants youngsters who join the PR profession to develop their KSA (Knowledge, Skills and Attitude) to be more successful.

During his college days, he was one of the best NCC cadets. Every time, he used to top in the 'Riffle shooting'. He is also fond of 'horse riding'. Now he is missing both. Law does not permit both riffle and riding of horse within the City.

Mr Babji can be reached at bobby.shivyana@gmail.com