Madan Bahal is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Adfactors PR
Existential threats versus exponential opportunity
Crystallum aspicientes.
That’s Latin for crystal gazing.
Crystal gazing is a risky business.
Only fools indulge in long-range forecasting, according to a very wise man.
Navigating the future is like navigating a river.
One can only see until the next bend… and be prepared for surprises around the next bend.
What is visible now in the PR river?
A range of factors that will have a bearing on our profession and the business.
Factor One:
The impact of technology, particularly AI tools: a no-brainer.
For all the narratives being floated about the benign nature of AI, we have to come to terms with the impact on most white-collared jobs including professional services.
From software services to healthcare, from law firms to consulting, from advertising to media to public relations, a potential tsunami of redundancy is on its way.
Fewer employees required, and potentially a deflation of wages in roles with repetitive tasks and content generation.
The (unprepared) PR practitioner, perpetually complaining about the lack of a seat at the decision-making table, may be further marginalized.
There is only one new seat available for the PR professional.
The seat that says ‘I can help your company navigate complexity of all types”
That’s why I mentioned Complexity Counsel, at the end of Part A: making sense of the situation; proactive intelligence; offering custom solutions beyond the standard toolkit; ability to deal with the new influence paradigms: that’s the new survival kit for businesses.
The opportunity for consulting has finally been delivered by market forces.
Factor Two:
Consolidation.
While acquisition by networks cooled off in the last couple of years, new categories of players are driving consolidation.
These are the Private Equity players aggregating PR firms to build scale or large law firms and consulting firms adding a PR/IR firm to their offering.
Recent high profile examples include:
The investment in Swiss PR firm, Framer, by Meritech Capital, to build a pan- European platform
The acquisition of Europe’s leading public affairs firm Interel by the law firm Dentons.
The acquisition of WPP stake in FGS consulting at a valuation of USD 1.7 billion by KKR.
Over time, I expect PR firms going for listings.
Factor Three:
Investments
Client-agency relationships and the agency remuneration models are overdue for change in India (and around the world!)
There are a number of new value-added services which will have to be outside the fixed retainer model.
Myriad reputational challenges and critical issues will necessitate an increase in budget allocations – both in-house and for the consultancy.
In India, the average retainer of USD 5,000 simply isn’t enough to manage reputation risks in a digitally empowered country of 140 crore people, unmatched socio-cultural-political diversity, 1000s of newspapers and television channels, low journalistic rigor and slow judicial redressal for reputational harm.
Existential threats? Or exponential opportunity?
Indian PR agencies stand on a razor’s age.
Those who are quick to adapt and evolve may be around to witness the continuing drama.
There is a lot of misattribution about what Charles Darwin actually said, but let me end with what I think makes common sense, “According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”
Read more about their journey and thoughts in the book Surge. Get a copy at bit.ly/surgethebook