Danielle Bond was recommended to me as one of the most respected leaders of the Public Relations profession in Australia. After reading two times her answers and reflected about her thoughts, I’m more than happy of interviewing her, because I’m fully aligned with her vision of the PR profession. She calls to cooperate with marketing and to explore the opportunities related to Artificial Intelligence (AI). As managers of relationships, we need, according to her, to put curiosity, creativity and integrity at the centre of our job. Danielle’s current job is chief marketing and communications officer of Aurecon, a design, engineering and advisory company based in Melbourne (Australia). Danielle is also the Chair of the International Executive Board of IABC, a Global Alliance member.

I met first time Toni Muzi Falconi when I was chair-elect of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management. When I asked Toni about his opinion on the situation of the alliance, I was shocked by his answer: “The Global Alliance is dead”. Nowadays the Global Alliance is more alive than ever because Toni’s pessimistic vision pushed me even more to change the path and the pace of the organization (I didn’t want to be the undertaker) and, fortunately, the majority of the GA board shared my plan, especially the current president, Justin Green, who is leading with success the largest PR community. So, Toni’s strong opinions through this interview have the capacity to mobilize our mind to build a better and more influential profession.

After I completed my master's degree in the UK, a new opportunity had come my way that was challenging me to step into a new role. As a new worker in a PR & Communication agency, my main job is to help clients plan and execute PR activities offline. It does not seem difficult, but as a PR person, I know that we do much more than that. I have thought the value of my work, and I will share some of my insight below.

I call Prita Kemal Gani as “the Queen of Public Relations”. I believe she deserves that tittle as a recognition to her contribution to the development of the profession. She was the first woman to chair PERHUMAS, the public relations association of Indonesia, and she leads as founder and CEO the LSPR Communication and Business Institute. She supports the ASEAN PR Network and is always willing to collaborate with the Global Alliance. But beyond those merits, Prita is a leader who generates affection through her great generosity and humanity.

The Internet with search engines, e-books and audiobooks, 3-D printing and virtual reality - these are just some of the predictions made more than 40 years ago by Stanislaw Lem. How Lem’s predictions affect the PR industry? What can we, the PR professionals, learn from the works of this famous Polish writer, philosopher and futurologist?

With its infinite constellations of ideas, thoughts, languages and neverending stories, theories, doctrines, narrative structures, intertextuality, correlations, signs and symbols, codes and channels, technologies, technics and procedures, specializations and applications, communication reveals itself as a distinct universe, and a sine qua non condition for the emergence of human civilization, as well as for its survival.

Richard is a leader of the PR industry not only for managing the world's largest agency, but most of all for sharing his thoughts. It is a luxury to begin with him this series of interviews with global leaders of the public relations and communication industry, with the aim of nourishing ourselves with ideas that contribute to elevating this profession, which is more necessary than ever to handle the challenges faced by organizations in the century of digitization.

As public relations leaders and managers it is our role to create an environment that is based on kindness, empathy, trust and creates new ways to work in a COVID world. To do this we need to understand the mental health, resilience and wellbeing of those we work with.

Early this year PRINZ surveyed members about their mental health and wellbeing and the findings were consistent with what we have seen in other countries in the world:

Before the COVID-19 `crisis, behavioral health problems such as anxiety, stress, and depression were widespread, constituting a leading cause of diminished well-being and paying an enormous toll in the form of absenteeism, reduced productivity and increased healthcare costs.

“I hear that the workload, hours and demands in a PR/communications career is really tough. Is that true?” This question, or some variation of it, is often posed to me whenever I speak at a student event, or when I meet an aspiring communications professional. It happens so often that I have come to expect it. Previously, I have not thought much of it. I even wore it as a badge of honour, where I was one of the few that not only survived, but even thrived in the profession.

The PR industry is an industry that focuses on influence. What we do exerts more influence on the people around us and the world than other industries. Therefore, with the Covid-19 pandemic still raging, I think health is generally divided into physical health, mental health and social health. Today, I would like to mainly talk about "the social health".

Uncertain times like the ones we are living due to the COVID-19 have transformed not only our every-day life, but the way companies continue operating and the workforce as well. It is common to hear employees are either exhausted, stressed or even depressed while working from home or in hybrid model. For that reason, taking care of the emotions and the mental health of the employees has become central for companies nowadays.

When Portugal reaches the target of 70% vaccination of the population with one dose, companies are gradually expecting the normality of their employees' lives, believing they are on a good shape for everyone´s wellbeing.

When we talk with leaders about the moment we are living, and the impact on the business, the opinion is common. The impact is clearly negative, registering a 30% decrease of financials results, compared with 2019.

Thank you to all Global Alliance members around the world who accepted our call for action and engaged in the conversation and promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace and societal environments.

The actions ranged from many members coloring their logos with the rainbow colors in support of the LGBTQIA+ community, webinars, written articles, videos, social media posts, newsletters, Clubhouse rooms, surveys and guidelines focused multiple angles of the wide range of these themes.

I am the chairwoman of the Spanish Women’s Executives Club in Paris. A club driving forward diversity, at the service of the Spanish women executives community in France. The diversity & inclusion month of the Global Alliance for communications & Public Relations Management leads me to reflect on the origin of this club, its mission and values.

The answer to this question sadly skews towards myth. According to the 6th edition of the Missing Pieces Report, conducted by the Alliance of Board Diversity (ABD) in collaboration with Deloitte, 82.5% of Directors among American Fortune 500 company boards are white. That leaves little representation from other ethnicities or races, with only 8.7% being African American/Black, 4.6% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 4.1% Hispanic/Latino. This fact results in a huge contrast with the United States increasingly diverse demographics and, most importantly, their strong buying power.

As the CEO of Effect BCW and President of TÜHİD /Turkish Public Relations Organization, I feel proud to be a second term board member of Global Alliance which has now 14 female members in a total of 21, making it an ecosystem that is mostly shaped by women. But of course, these women are not selected just because they are women; they are simply working hard for our industry and representing national NGOs.

After 16 months of very difficult and challenging times around the world, thankfully we can now all look forward with high hopes to large-scale vaccinations globally throughout 2021.

I feel it only right, on behalf of Global Alliance, to first take this opportunity to pay a special AGM tribute to the real heroes on the front line of our health services, care workers and scientists and indeed to acknowledge our own profession’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The era of disconnecting business from values and social issues is over. In the age of endless choice and comparable prices, consumers treat brands as partners who should fit into their world view and care as much about the world as they do.

The three main trends in communication that gained much traction during the last COVID year and I expect them to develop even stronger this year are human centricity, on-line communication/ digitalization and emphasis on reputation and social responsibility.