Nandita Lakshmanan is the Founder and Chairperson of The PRactice
The Future is Ours to Keep
The world is undeniably in flux. With over 50 elections taking place globally in 2024, the urgency to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, and the escalating climate crisis among other challenges, the stakes have never been higher. Besides, the nature of jobs and expectations from leaders across organizations and institutions is changing. In this lies the opportunity for Public Relations practitioners to balance applications of technology with foundational principles of stakeholder engagement, making PR indispensable to organizations and institutions.
We will face unprecedented ethical dilemmas in the next decade. With ethics, transparency, and trust-building underpinning the very premise of public relations, there is potential for us to drive critical conversations and shape the world into a better place. This is a tall order, and it calls for a complete upheaval in our thinking as merely last-mile communicators.
Public Relations views every opportunity and challenge from a 360-degree lens. This is because we (ideally) keep stakeholders at the centre of decisions, an imperative to navigate 21st-century market realities. If I were to predict the future of our profession, I would paint a blank canvas, for the existing reputation of our profession may be somewhat muddied, confused, and limiting.
The future is promising, but it requires a shift in our own mindset and a decision to lead, not be led by perceptions of what public relations means and does. A few predictions:
- Public Relations will be recognised and sought after as a management discipline and will emerge as the new management philosophy/principle. A new language for Public Relations, which is assertive, critical, and transdisciplinary, will emerge.
- Increased deep research in the field will produce frameworks and models that are evidence-based, impact-oriented, and multi-stakeholder in approach.
- Emergence of practitioners and thinkers who bring serious and independent points of view to the forefront will be considered “voices of reason” in a state of intense flux. They will join and create think tanks, be more involved in the policy-making process, and lend their expertise to decision-making at the highest levels. This new breed of fierce and deep thinkers will be modern-day ethicists.
- More Public Relations practitioners will move into management roles, leading organisations and institutions as CEOs. Brazen profiteering will die as the norm as a new world order emerges. This is both an opportunity and a challenge.
- Technology will continue to evolve. The use of data with precision and ethical behaviour will be sought after, and advice will be sought on deeper matters of closing the gap between perception and reality.
The future of PR is one of adaptability and leading from the front. By staying true to the core principles of stakeholder engagement, embracing technological advancements, and committing to ethical practices, public relations can emerge from the shadows of ambiguity and irrelevance. The goal is to build a better future, one where businesses and institutions act as stewards of trust and agents of positive change. The challenge is significant, but with investment and a change in our own mindset, the future is ours to keep.
Read more about their journey and thoughts in the book Surge. Get a copy at bit.ly/surgethebook