In today’s volatile world of business, corporate reputation is delicately balanced between growth and responsibility, profits and sustainability, aggressive targets and sound governance. How then can it be built, nurtured, sustained, protected? How can better understanding of the stakeholders and influencers improve the actions that corporations need to take? How can practicing the science of public relations influence stakeholder perception? How does the explosion of social media and mobile communication change the way people make decisions?
Reputare is my attempt to explore and prompt a dialogue on this subject within the growing community of professionals in this arena. I invite you to participate in the conversation and share experience to make the discussion richer and deeper.
April 18th, 2013‘ARAB SPRING’ CONTINUES TO BE A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON ARAB YOUTH’
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Cost of Living is a major concern while they remain optimistic about the future of the region.
Recently PSB launched the 5th annual Arab Youth Survey, our largest ever comprehensive look at the attitudes and opinions of young people across 15 Arab countries. The project included 3000 in-depth and face-to-face interviews with young men and women from virtually every corner of the Arab world reaching participants in: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen.
This year’s survey showed the feelings of optimism and pride that spread across the region following the Arab Spring over two years ago continue to be a major influence on Arab youth. 87% say they are prouder today to be Arab and 74% believe the Arab world’s best days are ahead. 71% also believe their governments are more transparent today due to the Arab Spring.
The survey also showed a shift away from traditional values towards modern ones. In 2011, only 17% said Click to Read More
February 25th, 2013Believing in ‘The Science of Persuasion’
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I was interviewed by Adgully (adgully.com) where I have talked about a three concerns of any CEO. Appended the interview for your read. Do let me know your thoughts
Ever since it set up operations in India, Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) the multinational Global Strategic Communication advisory firm has made a steady progress. PSB has corporate marketing, corporate communications and public advocacy as its main practice areas. According to Ashwani Singla, Managing Director and CEO, PSB sees itself positioned differently from other Public Relations agencies in the sense that it is a consulting firm that advises the top management on the aspects of strategic corporate communications. He calls it the “Science of Persuasion” wherein they deal with the three concerns of any CEO: The public image of his/her company, the continuation of its license to operate and the value that market puts on its stock.
Adgully spoke to Ashwani Singla on the current activities and the plans ahead. An industry veteran, Singla in his two decade of experience in the communication & service Click to Read More
January 30th, 2013One Big Idea by Ashwani Singla: PR needs a new approach
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PR’s biggest challenge through the years has been its ability to link its impact to the success of the business or even to the change of public perception, the heart of its value proposition. An invaluable management tool used to create preference has been commoditized. The game changer for PR would be to find the answer to its most significant challenge: How does public relations become an invaluable management tool for the CEO?
I believe the answer to this lies in what I call “the science of persuasion”. We need to put this to work. Let’s break it down. Preference is created when people make a choice consistently for a company, its product or service in comparison to others, which means that they have been persuaded to act in preference to the peers. How does this persuasion happen? Rarely have PR professionals focussed on understanding why and how people they want to persuade make choices?
How often do we have answers to some crucial questions and by any means these are not exhaustive. Click to Read More
November 14th, 2012The Obama Win: Lessons from the Campaign Trail
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The recent win of President Obama was a historical win for it was only the second sitting Democrat President who won a second term since World War II. President Clinton was the first and my former boss and founder of PSB Mark Penn was his campaign strategist. Mark and PSB discovered “the Soccer Mom,” who was responsible for putting him in the White House for the second term.
That taught us the benefit of focus and a sharply targeted campaign that persuaded the audience to vote for President Clinton. Governor Romney mounted a great campaign where he came from behind and almost ran neck to neck that it was just too close to call this election early.
So what worked for President Obama? Here are a few lessons that I learnt watching from the sidelines of this campaign.
1. Define your opponent early. President Obama very early defined governor Romney as an “a businessman out of touch with the Click to Read More
August 16th, 2012Entrepreneurship – A Genuine Genius Called You, Me and Everyone
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I was invited to write for the quarterly magazine of my Alma Marter, International Management Institute. Here’s the same article for you to think it over, it’s a very different take on Entrepreneurship
“Entrepreneurship stands for the people and for seizing the opportunity every single time. And a successful entrepreneur is one who is from the people, one of the people, and yet propped up by the people.”
The former flamboyant French President Nicholas Sarkozy had promised the people of France that his presidency would all be about them; but the citizens of France gradually found out that it was mostly about him and his model wife Carla Bruni.
An opportunity exploited well by Francois Hollande, who ousted Sarkozy to become 24th President of France. “You are much more than a people who want change,” Mr.Hollande struck the right chord with a huge gathering in Paris that had congregated to celebrate his victory at the Place de la Bastille.
There are two key messages that helped Hollande win over Sarkozy, other than prevailing Click to Read More
