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Francis Ingham keynote to MIPAA 2011 PR masterclass
TRANSCRIPT OF KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Delivered by Francis Ingham, chief executive of the PRCA on 20 June 2011 at the Audi Quattro Rooms.
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Thank you Al
It's a pleasure to be here, and to have been invited by Al to speak at the opening of this morning's session. Particularly as this is the first MIPAA event I've attended since MIPAA formalised its links with the PRCA, becoming a PRCA sectoral group and taking a seat on the PR Council.
I hope that our relationship will be a long one and a successful one too, delivering MIPAA members the best of both worlds -MIPAA's continuance as an independent, vibrant body, alongside its link to the industry organisation I have the pleasure of running.
Al and Heather asked me to touch on two broad areas this morning -the challenge we face around PR's reputation in the Boardroom; and the challenge we face in recruiting the best talent.
I think in many ways those two challenges collectively define PR's route map for the yeas ahead.
Strategic roles
Over the next two months, we'll release two pieces of research that I think will help us significantly here.
The first is our census of the industry. Delivered in conjunction with PR Week, it will not only be the definitive snapshot of the numbers and make up of our industry -it will also provide detailed practitioner insight into the challenges they face.
The second is our research with non-communications senior professionals -CEOs and the like. It will, we are confident, give us the most detailed data ever collected about how senior decision makers view the impact, expertise and reputation of our industry.
We think that collectively, those pieces of work will provide significant insight over the next few years. And they will guide our work to help our industry achieve its potential.
Because as an industry, over the past ten years or so, we have been magnificent at saying how convinced we are that we should have a seat at the Boardroom table. And at bemoaning the fact that we often don't.
And we have been awful at actually obtaining that seat.
So I think that there are four things we need to do:
- Start addressing issues of strategic reputation management rather than tactical delivery
- Embrace and embed robust evaluation standards
- Own the digital space
- Attract the best talent
Strategic management
The recent Holmes Report research on this issue makes interesting reading. Polling senior global communications executives, only 40% are in the senior management team -yet over 80% of general business executives say that PR is the function that most influences corporate reputation.
Now I hesitate to say this, but the Americans are far ahead of us in analysing the need to move from the tactical to the strategic; and in moving that 40% figure.
Though it is a few years old, I have yet to read a better explanation of our problems, and a roadmap of solutions, than the Arthur Page report ‘The Authentic Enterprise'.
Its conclusions are sensible and strong. That we should be the central players in defining values; that we should be the leaders in managing stakeholder relationships; that we should own the issue of trust; and that we should own the digital space.
Let me address that last point in a little detail.
Digital age
Last week, Golin Harris announced a global restructuring. Its aim is to remove internal, artificial barriers, and to move from being just a PR agency to being a broad-based communications one, able to offer the full range of communications disciplines. Including -crucially- digital.
It's a bold move, and if it works, it will I'm sure, be imitated by many within our industry.
And it reflects a truth that is relevant to all of our industry -in house and agency alike. Clients and colleagues do not see the internal divisions we often live by. They just want services delivered; advice provided. If we are to be credible in the boardroom, then we need to be the one stop communications and marketing shop for clients and CEOs.
Now David -whose expertise in this area I very much respect- will address how internet mediation changes the role and value of PR. But I want to offer my own take on this too.
Until we master fully the digital change that is continuing around us, and unless we able to demystify what it means, we won't fulfil our potential.
I think that many providers of digital support and advice do their clients a disservice. They realise that clients often do not understand what it is they need, and rather than educating them, they just humour them.
That's a mistake, and we won't own digital until we recognise it and address it.
Evaluation
The next area we must address has to be evaluation. Our failure to agree uniform and robust evaluation metrics is astonishing and deeply damaging.
Unfortunately, I have to disagree slightly with the title of Mike's comments -that column inches and AVEs are DEAD. Well, if they're dead now, I'd hate to see them alive. Because they remain, from our research, far and away the most popular documented evaluation model in our industry.
Now don't misunderstand me -I want them to die. But their survival is guaranteed for so long as clients want them and internal colleagues understand them. The challenge we face as an industry is undermining what has become embedded. And convincing our clients and colleagues -and let's be honest, convincing ourselves too- that we should invest in evaluation. Because far too often in my experience evaluation is expected for free.
That's why we were delighted to partner up with AMEC, and to announce last week the creation of a global kitemark of evaluation quality, based around common principles, and to be marketed through the 15 countries that have adopted our Consultancy Management Standard.
Talent
The other obvious area of need is around talent.
Now there's been much talk recently about the need for the PR industry to become more diverse. That our industry is inherently and consciously biased against people from certain backgrounds. That we have a ‘problem'. Let me be entirely honest with you -while I do not doubt the motives of those who say this, I do question their judgement.
I think that PR is one of the most colour and gender and sexuality blind industries in our country. It values and rewards talent and creativity. I have genuinely yet to meet a single senior person who has the biases described. So I think to start out by crucifying ourselves is absurd. It addresses the wrong problem.
What I do believe we should address -and where I do think we can usefully make progress- is the question of how people who choose not to work in our industry perceive us; and to what extent we are reaching the very best talent available.
And that's something that the PRCA Board is committed to doing. But in making sure our industry is attractive to the absolutely most talented people in the workforce, we don't need to start out beating ourselves up -or to go down the route suggested by some of chasing after quotas.
Interns
Finally, interns. It's a relevant and instructive issue, highlighted by the Government; divisive within our industry.
We recognise that there is a balance here -in tough economic times, the temptation to seek cheap labour is strong. And the professional body that advocates its members increase their cost base runs obvious risks.
But we do believe that the search for talent means that we should encourage our industry at the minimum to, well, observe the law. And the law is clear that long term internships bring with them the minimum wage. As an employer, we at the PRCA observe that law, and we encourage our members to do the same.
But here's the hitch -the politicians who made that law, and who berate private industry for their attitude towards interns don't observe the law themselves. And that's ridiculous. The day that Nick Clegg laid into unpaid internships was also the day that Lib Dem HQ was revealed to be advertising for unpaid interns -and indeed is still advertising for unpaid interns.
There is a useful site called w4mp. It carries numerous adverts from MPs and other public affairs practitioners. It also -usefully for us- archives all previous adverts.
5 MPs are currently advertising for unpaid staff; and since May 1st alone, 16 have done so.
We are currently indexing all of the MPs who in this Parliament have ignored the law on interns -and we will be referring each and every one of them to the Parliamentary authorities. Because such rank hypocrisy shouldn't go unchallenged.
Conclusion
So -those our own thoughts on the future -an industry that stops talking about why it should be on the Board, and instead proves why it should be on the Board; that starts doing strategy rather than just tactics; that embraces evaluation and owns the digital space; and that makes proper efforts to chase talent.
That you taking the time to listen to those thoughts. I hope they've been of some interest.
