Indonesia Hosts International PR Conference in Feb. 2010

Indonesia takes center stage in international public relations early next year when it hosts an IPRA (International Public Relations Association) International Conference Feb. 2-4, in Jakarta.

Theme will be Global Reach International Leadership.

What will make the Jakarta Conference doubly significant for Indonesia is that it will coincide with the assumption into office of one of her own, Dr. Elizabeth Goenawan Ananto, a prominent academician and active IPRA leader for many years, as President of IPRA for 2010.

The conference will look into how PR can help restore trust in institutions and its strategic importance in helping governments and the private sector in overcoming the global economic crisis.

PR practitioners in Asia have a unique perspective in relating to this challenge, faced as their Clients and their environments have been with threats to economic stability, posed by global and domestic conditions, and weakening trust in many established institutions.

Another topic that should be of particular interest to Filipino PR practitioners is Corporate Social Responsibility: Global Application.

Among speakers will be the international PR gurus and scholars, Dr. James E. Grunig and Dr. Larissa Grunig; Robert W. Grupp, 2008 President, IPRA; Richard Linning, 2011 President, IPRA; Paul Holmes, Chairman, Holmes PR Report; Ahmad Fuad Afhdai, IPRA National Chair, Indonesia; Prema Sagar, Founder-President, Genesis Burson Marsteller, India, and IPRA Past Presidents Loula Zaklama (Egypt) and Roger Hayes (U.K.).

Dr. Elizabeth is particularly eager to have her fellow practitioners from Asia, including the Philippines, to come to Jakarta for this Conference.

Following Jakarta will be IPRA's XIX World Public Relations Congress, to be held in Lima, Peru, June 1-3 2010.

Lessons of Ondoy

Ondoy killed, destroyed and left us dazed. It made us realize: in the face of angry nature, we are helpless, we can be snuffed out at any moment. Ondoy showed us how brave, kind, generous and all-giving we can be.

Only in 1986 perhaps did we see our people as united and as selfless in giving themselves to others. The impact of Ondoy has made us more reflective, and humbler.

It is obvious that we have not been all that good in putting systems, structures and training, perhaps budgets also, that might have made Ondoy not all that destructive. In the first hours of Ondoy, my family were frantically making calls to authorities, and got no answer. And they were not, perhaps could not be, around. Ondoy put us all together, helplessly engulfed.

Without absolving government, I would not spend too much time reminding it how it goofed on this one. Instead we would be better off telling it that it must shape up for the next Ondoy, because we will hold it accountable, and if need be to our courts.

We must honor those who perished, and lost property and opportunities in Ondoy. One way to do this is making ourselves smarter, more organized and more amply funded in the matter of disaster prevention, control and impact mitigation.

Another way is documenting and retelling the stories of men and women, young and old, famous and unknown, who risked their lives, and up to now are giving their time and money and to help the victims of Ondoy.

Figures and Statistics As a Basic Need of PR Industry

One of the first questions that investors ask when they size up an industry or a prospective investment site is--how large is your market? How big is its potential rate of growth, who are the key players?

Same thing with PR. In the Philippines, this has been a problem from the very beginning. We do not know how large, or small, the PR industry is, because there are no figures and statistics that anyone can refer to. Nobody seems to know how much the many corporations, PR agencies and other private-sector organizations, and even government agencies who practice PR, actually, all together, do spend annually on their PR projects.

Oh, a PR Agency may know how much it does, as may a number of big corporations, but not many others. Or, if a respectable number do, their figures are not made available to any central organization, like an industry association, where they may be verified, collated and analyzed for

the benefit, first, of PR practitioners themselves, and second, of prospective Clients or investors from here and abroad.

PR expenditures take several forms: actual project costs, fees earned as retainer or as part of project costs, or commissions from suppliers. Taxes are paid on these, and part of income is invested in business development and expansion. PR has its own economics and practitioners develop their own business models.

All together, these constitute factors that determine how large, or small, or progressive or retrogressive, the PR industry in our country is, or will be.

But first, let there be reliable figures on revenues, incomes and expenditures from which PR practitioners derive these. These figures and statistics will help us plan our growth intelligently.

And enable prospective investors to look with greater interest on the PR market in the Philippines.

Cory Aquino: Let Her Light Shine On

Former President Cory Aquino, who passed away early this morning, was exemplary as a leader, because she led by example and she put the lessons we learned from her example right where they mattered: in the hearts of her people.

In her people's hearts, her vision, her rectitude, her moral leadership and the grace of her character, will stay. There these cannot be stolen.

We have a stronger hold on the freedom that she restored in our country, because she dared not relent when its enemies tried to snatch it away.

Cory insisted on governing on the basis of what was right and wrong, and to hell with the consequences.

Our eyes are clear in the face of the craven, the corrupt and the opportunists, because Cory showed it was possible to lead, and to live, by sticking to what we know to be right and just.

A lot of inconvenience there, of course, but she showed us it can be done.

We will miss her clarity and simplicity, and the quality of her devotion to her country. When it was time to go, she did, without fuss.

I liked the grace of Cory Aquino, her utter lack of need to cower or grovel, the quietness she radiated, and the power that comes from a strong sense of self and commitment to the Lord's commandments.

A light has gone out of our lives. Even if only in our hearts, let her light shine on.

Two Books on Philippine Radio

I have just bought two highly welcome books, both on the history of Philippine radio. One is "Appropriation of Colonial Broadcasting", A History of Early Radio in the Philippines, 1922-1946, (2008), by Elizabeth L. Enriquez, and the other is Stay Tuned, The Golden Years of Philippine Radio, by Ben Aniceto and Friends (2007).

Dr. Betsy Enriquez was a radio and TV broadcaster and a professor of broadcasting and media studies at U.P. for many years. Mr. Aniceto was a broadcast stalwart who ran AB S-CBN's Channel 2 until the declaration of martial law in 1972.

These two books should gladden not only students of broadcast media but also those who have been entertained and instructed by radio all these years. Dr. Betsy gives radio's development in the country a historical perspective. Commercial radio started and flourished here during the American regime and can, therefore, be viewed as an instrument of American colonial policy.

Mr. Aniceto discusses landmark developments as well, and provides personality profiles of the scores of managers, announcers and entertainment personalities who have figured in the history of Philippine radio.

Radio has been a dominant provider of news, opinion, entertainment and mass information in the country for almost 80 years. Before the advent of TV in the 1950s radio was the most far-reaching and maybe most influential medium of information and opinion hereabouts.

Dr. Enriquez asks a couple of intriguing questions in her book. "Does our more recent colonial past adequately and simply explain why Philippine broadcasting sounds and looks like American broadcasting? What may be the impact of this situation on the consciousness and sense of identity of Filipinos?

Mr. Aniceto puts together here articles by other broadcasters and features and vignettes on the numerous personalities and programs that dot the history of radio in the Philippines. Everybody seems to be here. Whether or not that makes for an exciting coherent history, or story, is another question.

But blessed is Ben for having told in his own, active- participant's, way his take on the story of this vital thing called Philippine radio.

Why PR Is Upbeat

Public Relations people are basically optimistic, gifted with a positive outlook. When I ask my fellows about their prospects in our PR business, hardly any one says things are down, or will be worse.

In fact, in spite of numerous challenges in our business, they are hopeful. We are never deterred, let alone feel vanquished. If there is one thing that I have learned in this business, it is that the opportunities for doing better often outweigh the problems.

One explanation may be that PR, precisely is largely designed for creating new and better opportunities for business, helping solve and create strategies for growth, through building and enhancing positive relation ships with customers and other sectors. Even when sales are down, business will have need for creative strategies, which are increasingly the province of PR.

Instead of being downcast PR practitioners these days are hopeful, because they are busy. New fields are developing that offer fresh opportunities, including, for instance, medical tourism, and the heightened demand for PR in the use of digital media.

IT and health care PR, higher demand for which we predicted more than 10 years ago, continue to be top-level services. PR, more than ever, is used in helping sustain and enhance brands, in restore trust in business and political and institutions and strengthen CSR as strategy and commitment. And, of course, marketing communications and issues and crisis management continue to be availed and grow in sophistication and influence.

I am speaking here of PR in Philippines. Though PR practitioners generally work in the background, I know that they do significant, though often unheralded work. Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP Group CEO, spoke late last year (Institute of Public Relations) of the "remarkable renaissance " of PR. PR companies have had much to do with this.

Sir Martin said, "PR companies have learned their lessons. They are more professionally managed and spend more time on staff retention and incentivisation. Clients' satisfaction is valued. Quality and financial controls are firmly in place."

I am proud of working in a PR agency.

CSR in PR

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a natural in the Philippine setting. Helping out inheres in the Filipino character. Every one looks out not only for himself and his family, but for his community as well.

This defining feature of the Filipino psyche and of community life is expressed in the spirit of the bayanihan, depicted in a painting, or photo, of a group of men carrying on their very shoulders a whole house, maybe not more than a bahay-kubo, as it is moved from one location to another.

The Filipino spirit says-- when the community needs my help, I will be there, even if all I can give is part of the weight of your house on my bare shoulders.

Not that the Filipino has had to need much calling.

As life is poor, there is always need to pitch in . Natural calamities, poverty, the challenges to a society trying to transition to higher levels of growth, the diaspora of breadwinners, problems of peace and security, and the inability of government and society to answer to urgent needs of an expanding population, have increased the demand on all sectors--including business--to help society.

At first, business in the Philippines decided that CSR was something it had to get into, because corporations existed not only to make profits. Which was, and still is, correct. But in the first stages of CSR in the Philippines, in the 1960s and early 1970s, the need was not as pressing and all-encompassing as it is now.

Now business has to accelerate and expand its involvement, make it more real, more relevant and appreciable. This means it has had to devote more knowhow, or science, if you will, aside from genuine compassion, to make CSR more truly meaningful in the country.

CSR organizations and NGOs are called on to be more focused, and accountable.

Fortunately, Public Relations has been part of the development of CSR in the Philippines. The late PR practitioners Jose Carpio and Oscar S. Villadolid, both of San Miguel Corporation, played key roles in the organization (1970) and promotion of the vision and work of the Philippine Business for Social Progress.

Hardly any serious PR program is approved without a CSR component. In many cases, entire PR programs are CSR programs. What used to be called do-gooding is still that, except that now ever bigger resources, more energy and organizational knowhow and stronger focus on service delivery are expended and applied in CSR work by more individuals and organizations annually.

Public Relations practitioners, not only of big and established corporations, but even of small ones, are committed to CSR as a corporate way of life. They regard CSR not only as something that they must do, but that they hugely enjoy doing. It is after all, part of their make-up as individuals, as people of business and as citizens.

(N.B. Painting above is by Jun Virtusio).