Public Relations and Communicators Blog

The #UberShame and subsequent cascading bans on the $40bn valued, cab-hailing app, and the vigilante-or-extortionists #RohtakSisters are the two occurrences that everyone is talking about in the past week across India. Admittedly the sequence of happenings in both cases have been quite extreme, shocking the nation into discussion, debate and argument, on every known platform, by every person who wanted to make a point. I did too. Uber did not do relevant background checks of its drivers while promising ease and safety to its passengers. They flawed, and it is not a easy flaw to forgive - especially for the traumatized girl who suffered the consequences of their 'oversight'. The government did come in and recommended ban of Uber till the proper procedures were put in place and licenses were acquired. Other such cab services also suffered similar consequences. Many states followed through the ban. Uber, the giant which often got away when uttering unutterables was suddenly vul...

Indeed, these are wonderful times we live in. I prefer to call this the Disruptive Age - an age where almost anything, anyone (and not to mention, any country) can disrupt even century old concepts, beliefs and businesses. An era where the old gives way to the new with ease, a time when anything is possible! This era has also seen a resurgence of some old business concepts like public relations which have reinvented themselves and have taken a prominent central stage in all other businesses. Till some years ago, it was rare to find someone who understood public relations, and today while many understand it, not everyone who does uses public relations to do what it is meant to do, viz to build brands. Reputation is the most basic building block of brand image, and public relations is arguably one of the most reliable tools of reputation building, making it indispensable to brand building in the current disruptive era. For practitioners of PR in India, 2006 will be considered a watershed...

Think for a moment! If you were to do a business, be in a profession or a job that you loved, something that was a passion and you considered worth doing; would you ever think early retirement or rush home early from work? ‘Doubtful’ is a certainty, to say the least! A few years ago, I perchance drifted across a book titled ‘To Sail Beyond the Sunset’ in which Robert Heinlein’s character, Jubal Harshaw, said something that left a lasting impression on me, and ergo, naturally, on the way I look at life. Jubal says “Happiness lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing. One man may find happiness in supporting a wife and children. And another may find it in robbing banks. Still another may labor mightily for years in pursuing pure research with no discernible results.” “Note the individual and subjective nature of each case. No two are alike and there is no reason to expect them to be. Each man or woman must find for himself or herself ...