PR On The Rise In The Era Of Information

Kathy Bloomgarden, Global CEO of Ruder Finn, speaks to BW Businessworld’s Rupkatha Ganguly about how the regime of change holds enormous scope of growth for the PR Industry and how important the Indian market is for the company.

2016 has been a mixed year for India. What has been the effect on the PR industry?
India is one of the fastest growing markets. Other markets such as China that companies felt would be important for them are starting to slow down. So I think India is the shining star at the moment. Coupled with positive statements of the government enabling broadband access, the latest initiative of Reliance Jio is going to make a big difference. The PR industry will have a great opportunity to grow.

What are your future plans? What do you see as the key drivers of growth for this business?
PR has a chance to become a much more important function today than it was in the past years because when PR first started, it was viewed as a nice set of activities but not necessarily a business enabler. What has accelerated PR now is that it has become a really crucial function within companies and society. PR is now the opportunity to change, to leverage new ways and explore the full range of digital. Challenging yourself, disrupting yourself is essential nowadays, else you would be left behind.

How do the internal creative campaigns that you hold for companies help you ‘disrupt’ yourself?
When you believe you have reached the end of your journey in terms of being innovative or creative, you really have a problem. It is important to teach people to keep wondering what is next. ‘What’s next?’ is also one of our themes in the agency. It is on our website, and we try to train people to keep thinking what if this were to change, to keep playing with scenarios to bring out creativity. If you are constantly curious about how the world can change, you keep disrupting yourself.

Why is trust so important to become a leader?
You have to trust the people around you when you are going through a period of uncertainty. In this uncertainty, you have to trust the leadership of the business community. Data shows that CEOs who communicate through social media channels are more trusted, because the audience feels there is no filter, as compared to if a communication appears on a company website or newspaper. Trust has become fundamental.

How has the economic slowdown in China affected PR industry in general and Ruder Finn in particular?
The economic slowdown in China is part of a shift from manufacturing to consumption economy and PR actually does good in the situation. With increasing urbanisation trends in China, rising middle class with access to healthcare, and very e-commerceoriented population, it is a really good market. Communication helps people to have access to the more global opportunities and to have more knowledge and information. So PR is doing very well.

rupkatha@businessworld.in