I was both honoured and humbled to be elected President of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communications Management at the AGM in São Paulo, Brazil in April.
Having started my term on 1st July, I wanted to take this early opportunity to connect with and update our most important stakeholders – you, the 65 professional member organisations. The lifeblood of Global Alliance, you are our bridge to the almost 300,000 practitioners and academics we represent in more than 120 countries
In recent months, while serving my responsibilities as Chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, I had the opportunity to talk with colleagues from five continents and I have participated in PR conferences in Portugal, Norway, Spain, Argentina, Philippines, Indonesia and China. The first conclusion I drew from these experiences is that communicators speak a common language. Although there are different degrees of development, the profession is globalized.
If there’s ever a word to kill a conversation, it’s ethics. Despite our job being all about reputations, we’ve not given ethics the importance and time that it deserves. This is changing, thanks in part to the efforts of a number of associations, including the Global Alliance, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ), the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), there’s a renewed focus on putting ethics at the heart of what we do and why we do it.
Corporate Communications and public relations have a new major challenge.And this challenge has a precise date: 25 May, 2018, the day when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force.The regulation focuses on the clear and unequivocal protection of people and the dispersion and use of their personal data.
Recently I read with great interest a business journal article about the importance of core focus in organizations. It mentioned the airline industry and in particular, discount airlines, which have been around longer than we might think. In the United States, an organization called People’s Express was among the first of its kind to offer “no frills” air travel. More recently, regional carriers like Southwest and JetBlue have taken this idea to new levels of success. However, with all of their success, others have tried this approach unsuccessfully.
When I was a child, I dreamed of travelling all over the world. After reading a book called, "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World", my imagination soared. At the time, the world comprised 130 countries, some grouped together around the idea of Europe, one that was extremely attractive to a Spaniard. A few decades later, the world is divided into more than 200 territories that have attained the category of states (193 are members of the United Nations) and another 60 are pursuing independence with the goal of achieving statehood.
Brazil is facing the most significant crisis in its history. The country has experienced a great deal of economic turmoil and unprecedented social, political and ethical instability. This has also generated a serious crisis in Corporate Communication because of the impact that these issues have on the country’s identity, image, reputation, its people and institutions. The current situation offers a challenge for communication professionals who will operate in Brazil under the watchful eyes of the global community.
At the core of the Global Alliance (GA) mandate is the raising of global standards for the profession. That is why the GA partnered in 2010 with the Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) to map out the road towards a global framework in education. Since then we have continued our partnership with the CPRE and are now set to launch new a new education framework which was last published in 2006. A lot has changed since 2006 and so will this new set of recommendations for education in public relations.
Any internet search on the acronym VUCA shows that it is an immensely popular topic in business schools and business journals right now. There are reams of articles on leadership in the VUCA world.First used by the American military to describe the extreme conditions encountered in Afghanistan and Iraq, VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. Now it is applied more generally to the environment in which we all live. I believe this has special relevance to the communication profession. So what lies behind the acronym?
One of the most powerful global influences on the public relations industry is the rise of smartphones. According to the 2015 Global Mobile Economy Report, half of the world’s population now has a global subscription, compared to just one in five subscribers 10 years ago. The mobile ecosystem is a tremendous economic driver; in 2014, the mobile industry accounted for 3.8 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP).
2016 has given us all the reasons why we – as an industry and as the Global Alliance – need to stand strong in 2017.Firstly, globalization has been called into doubt: The debate about how globalization can be a force for good, has often turned into one about how it can be reversed. In news- as well as locker rooms across the world, the question seems no longer how, but if we want the exchange of people, goods and ideas. Secondly, emotion often beat expertise in 2016: fake facts, real fears and false hopes have fired up public debate, instead of arguments crafted to sustain relationships and understanding.
