Viraj Kalra on World PR Day

Why Public Relations (PR) is important?

There are two sides to who you are. One is the identity side, and the other is the image side. Often, we are very sure of what we are taking to the world, what we are taking to the market, how strong a product is, and how strong a brand is. But it only resonates with the rest of the world when it gets communicated. And it's still identity-oriented communication when advertising or paying for the medium. But where true image building happens is when it is a third-party endorsement, which means PR. And I think that's the biggest reason or the most important reason why PR is a medium which is unparalleled because true credibility building or true respect building or true trust building only happens when a third party endorses it without you having put money to buy that space and thus PR is irreplaceable.

A lot of other media and marketing tools can do identity building, but PR is your best bet for building images organically.

Q. On Strategy vis-a-vis Implementation. In a world where everyone seeks quick results, especially leaders, there is often a rush to dive straight into the implementation phase of a plan. However, how important is strategy to you in this process?

So, there's a popular saying that strategy eats everything else for breakfast. I do believe that, most certainly, because if you're only implementation-focused or if you're only execution or operation-focused, often a time you can be a headless chicken unless you have the direction unless you have measurability unless you have something more significant than just medium term or short term to focus on. And that's where strategy comes in. So that's a 70-30, where 30% of a leader needs to focus on strategy and 70% on ensuring par-excellence execution. It is 70-30, but it does not mean the 30 is less important than the 70.

The 30 comes first, and the 70 comes later. So that's my take on it—strategy first, execution later. Although it may only account for 30% of your bandwidth, it is the first part of your bandwidth that needs to fall into place, so that's how important it is.

Q. If you were to advise a leader of an organization, perhaps your client, what PR guidance would you offer them?

That's a very good question, which has been my key takeaway from my first job. So, I started my career with Perfect Relations, and I worked very closely with Dilip and Bobby. There were a lot of meetings that I would shadow them in, and in some of these meetings, I had the opportunity to meet some of the biggest names out there, corporate honchos and socialites, and with all of them, I realized that there are two kinds of people.?

Some leaders are very focused on shaping their public image based on agency recommendations or stereotypical expectations of how a CEO or celebrity should be perceived. However, others strive to align their public image with external expectations and their own value system. These thoughtful leaders, who balance perception with authenticity, earn my utmost respect.

A worthy PR or personal branding exercise occurs when a high degree of your authenticity and a high degree of your value system remains intact, and you find ways of projecting it through a good PR exercise or through a good image-building or image consulting exercise. So long as your authenticity shines through, I think that's where long-term brand-building successes are.