Thinking Holy Week

I have never read it, but all this past half century, since a professor of mine, who had completed a short course at Oxford and became, and still is, a Carmelite nun, mentioned  the Gerald Vann lecture on The Two Trees, I have been captivated by the image. Gerald Vann,  a Benedictine priest, was a celebrated British  theologian. 

In 1948, he delivered a series of  broadcast lectures entitled The Two Trees. There are two trees in our lives: the first  in the Garden of Eden,  from which we fell from grace, and the other, the tree on Calvary, where Christ met his martyrdom.  

We struggle through life, with our imperfections and sins, allured by the glow of the first tree.  Its green boughs and refreshing shade entice us and we reap unearned riches, lose our honor us human beings, and "die in a ditch like a dog" (Pasternak). 

Or, with faith and grace, we win the salvation of the second tree. We suffer for our sins, but we are given the means  and the power to renew ourselves. 

The beautiful thing about the Passion of Christ and the joy of  Easter is that they are ours to garner and be enriched with. 

We do not have to  be saints or heroes; we just have to be our humble, believing and paying-our-dues selves. We have to be giving and forgiving folks, generous with our belief in the goodness of others and contrite when we make fools of ourselves, which is most of the time.

I was a boy when I first  heard of the Two Trees. The two trees stand tall, each with its promise, and a beautiful picture of the sadness, and also, and finally, the glory of the life and passion of Christ. Happy Easter!

IS PR Worth Doing?

The only way we can answer this question is by actually showing that what we do is effective and has made a difference.  Has  the program or project that we embarked on yielded positive, or negative results, in terms of numbers that will show, for instance, changes in our targets' attitudes,  or perceptions and other forms of response? Or, as they say,  has the needle begun to move?

Measurement and evaluation, quite a growing concern in PR practice,  gains added importance these days. When the chips are down, as in when budgets are lower than they have ever been,  PR practitioners must even more clearly prove that their programs are garnering the  desired results. 

Dr. Walter K. Lindemann wrote and updated a few years ago a paper (published by the Institute of Public Relations) setting guidelines  for  measuring the  effectiveness of PR programs and activities. Dr. Lindenmann  promptly clears up what measurement and evaluation  aims at: "to improve and enhance the relationships that organizations maintain with key constituents."

It is a learned enlightening paper that I feel is even more relevant today. Dr. Lindenmann writes, for instance: "There is no one, simple, all-encompassing research tool,  technique or methodology that can be relied on to measure and evaluate PR effectiveness... Be wary of attempts to compare PR effectiveness to advertising effectiveness... The PR measurement and evaluation process should never be carried in isolation, by focusing only on the PR components. Wherever and whenever possible, it is always important to link what is planned, and what is accomplished through PR, to the overall goals, objectives, strategies and tactics of the organization as a whole."

Time was when we were able to keep Clients largely or solely on the strength of the media presence that we generated for them.  That time is past: now we are called upon to deliver a more rigorous discipline to the process of deciding on whether what we do in PR really makes sense and gets positive results. This is just fair. 

PR for Our Hometowns

I have sent letters to the mayor of the hometown of my late father, where I have a mango farm and a house, offering PR services to the town, pro bono. Before this, during the term of a previous mayor, I had called on the tourism officer, again offering my help in organizing visits to the town. I never got any reply. It's a pity, because the town, I believe, has a lot of things it can and should be proud of. This is the land of my father and forebears.

This is an area where PR can play a role. Our towns, cities and provinces, and their people, are what make our country. They are where native initiative and ingenuity are put into play. These are where our natural resources and the bulk of our manpower reside. They are the sources and enhancers of our culture. They are where our growth as an economy should be nurtured and developed.

And yet what and how much do we know of them?

PR should help our towns put across to the rest of the country the initiatives they are taking to further economic growth, and how they develop their resources and industries. PR can help enhance in our towns and provinces pride in their history and the accomplishments of their people. How many towns in our country have their own museums, or public libraries? Why do we allow old houses and buildings to fall into decay? How many of us PR practitioners have given of our time and resources to the towns of our fathers?

PR folks will need to provide their services for free, especially to their little towns for these will have no funds for the kind of thing that we do. The push that PR can make in our towns and provinces could, however, well be the impetus that would stir so many of them from drowsy anonymity.

My father's hometown? I think I will do PR for it, in any case.

The Engaged CEO

What a world the CEO has to operate in today! Whereas the bulk of his job in the past required not much more than assuring that his or her company operated at a profit and stayed out of trouble,  now he has these,  and  infinitely a lot more. The CEO of today has to be a conscious leader, not only of his company,  but also of the community and the society that he lives in. 

The CEO of today has to be a deeply engaged man. He must be guardian and enhancer of the values and vision of his company, apart from being insurer that it makes money for its stake holders. 

The engaged CEO must lead in mapping out long-term plans, but also, especially during difficult times, in the day-to-day, to a certain extent. On the CEO rests the responsibility that the corporation survives and thrives. He must, therefore, be the one to marshall all the creative forces in the organization. 

Above all, he must insure that these are made to work according to its basic values and vision. The engaged CEO must be in many places, not the least of which is his community and society.

He is not a selfish top-performing potentate, but a sharer in a society of many others like him. He is ideally thoughtful and studious, committed and totally given to the task at hand as well as the future. He is of the likes of Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Manuel V. Pangilinan, who are deeply engaged CEOs, excellent in their turf, and fully giving of themselves to the society that they are a part of.

Building Alliances in PR

The signs of unwellness are coming in droves---bailouts of big international corporations,  layoffs, lower growth rates, lower spending and   reduced incomes. We should view this with great concern, and as  a warning that in our business of PR, we cannot be sure  of how long  we will be insulated. 

When our Clients are themselves feeling the pinch, how long can  we stay secure? Some of our brethren in the advertising agency business have announced that they will let go of managers and staff.

One lesson I have learned through the years which has helped see us through hard times is keeping and strengthening alliances. Clients are our first allies, and they prove of huge value when the chips are down. When we serve them right, they give us more business, because it is in their interest to do so. Why would they  look over the fence when you are here, ready and able to help?

We also go out of the country to seek allies, and luckily we have found them--individual clients, organizations that can refer us to prospects,  and other PR and other advertising agencies. Even old Clients from decades ago, or old schoolmates, and relatives and friends, have helped us find and develop business. They write about us, or tell their friends about us. 

A PR Agency can thrive only with an excellent track record.  A  network of alliances, both in and outside our home territory is part of its corporate asset that will keep enhancing that record. 

Again, Rebuilding Trust...

It could not have been coincidence. This week, in the U.S., two eminences who appeared before the U.S. Congress to answer questions by legislators on the Obama stimulus package,   pointed out the need for rebuilding Trust.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the U.S. Senate: "The American people have lost faith in the leaders of our financial institutions and are skeptical that their government has, to this point, used taxpayers' money in ways that will benefit them."

Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs Group, said in the House of Representatives, on Feb. 12: "We have to regain the public's trust and do everything we can  to help mend our financial system to restore stability and vitality." (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 12 2009).

We could very well be saying the same things in the Philippines. While we, as individuals, may be resolved to stay strong and keep on enhancing our performance, say,  in business and the professions,  we still  need our institutions to hold us together. We will always need leaders to look up to. We will always  need to believe that those we see as blundering, faltering  and going about motivated by  greed and dishonesty are far outnumbered by those who are good and will stay true to their oath as public officials and  their commitment as leaders of business, community and society.

We earn trust by what we do, and not by what we claim. PR can help rebuild  trust in our leaders by laying out to them the power of  corporate governance and of genuine public service. Authentic leadership means those in whom we have invested Trust must serve us, and not themselves. It means curbing greed and self-aggrandizement, and keeping in mind, quite up high there, what will be good for our employees, stakeholders, and our community. And what is according to law and to regulations.

Better, the difference between right and wrong.

It will be difficult to tell our leaders, in government and business, who could well be our Clients, that they must toe the line and help restore trust in our institutions. We in PR, must, nevertheless, try. The price for not doing so may be unbearably high. The biggest,  most imaginative economic recovery plan  any one can put together may be of not much use if those who will be tasked to deliver it  will not have what it will take. Our Trust.

The PR Job This Year:Hunkering Down

This year, we in the PR Agency  business really have to hunker down, and work like we never did before.  Just a few weeks ago, I thought I had it all figured out--use the old formulas that worked before, and hope for the best. But...how can we resist facts? 

Hardly a  day has passed since the beginning of the year without  one or more companies announcing layoffs, losses, lower profits or reduction of work shifts. That  old reliable of the Philippine economy, the remittances of our OFWs, is said to be bound to be lower in coming years. People have begun to lose jobs. When Intel announced in January  it was closing up its plant in Cavite,  after several other big firms had laid off  employees or declared redundancies, I said, we really must brace up. Who's going to be next?

I would say let us hold hands, and look deep into ourselves, into how we do things, and see how we can keep improving our work. In the PR Agency business, we are what we deliver,  and the value that we add to Clients' business.  Clients will try to stay with us, as long as they themselves are viable and need us. The critical point is proving that not only are our counsel and services needed, but that they are indispensable. 

Keep strengthening the hopes of our personnel, especially the young ones. Let us hold on to them, even if ourselves, the owners and managers, have to give up some of what we have. 

Jack and Suzy Welch wrote in October last year something about connecting with our people. "We're not talking about walking the hallways saying 'hi.' We are talking about building visceral relationships by hanging out where the work gets done, talking and listening, eye-to-eye."

Let us show our people  how to expand on some of what we learned through our early struggles---that Clients are kept and sustained by the strength, relevance and value of the programs and initiatives that we present them. Clients need timely ideas that work and help them realize value, enhance their reputation, and  win in the marketplace. 

And to deliver these, we need  to keep people,  who will help us  think with quality and work with commitment and idealism.