'Business is all around what you are communicating and what your brand's message is about'

The opening keynote at the 13th edition of India Public Relations and Corporate Communications Awards 2022 was delivered by our honourable jury chair, Jagdish Mitra, chief strategy officer and head of growth, Tech Mahindra.

He opened the session by thanking everybody for the invitation. He said, "First of all, I am a huge fan of this (PR and Corp Comm) community as I have been part of marketing, communications, corporate relations, corporate communications for Tech Mahindra for years. If you are not talking to your internal and external agencies, and not communicating your message, then I don't think any CEO deserves its salt because business is all around what you are communicating and what your brand's message is about."

Mitra further noted that there is much to learn from the PR and comms fraternity for which he is honoured to have a chance to address the audience here. "Not just India but globally, the whole power of communications is significant. No organisation can decide to grow without having a very strong communication strategy which is what people in this room do on a day-in and day-out basis. The majority of PR professionals, around 69 per cent, believe that tech will be key in driving industry transformation. But I think a large percentage of now over the last three months, have started to believe that ChatGPT or generative AI or GPT 4.0, is going to have transformational changes in every industry, including corporate communications. It is a chance for people not to vary about the fact that ChatGPT might take jobs away vs how can one use it (ChatGPT) to be better at their jobs."

"There are about four key tech trends that I thought all of us in the communications fraternity should be focussing on. The first point is big data. You will have to ask how many of us leverage it. Today, the focus is primarily on online impression and reputation that is achieved with the help of big data. Secondly, being visible in the target demographics is of utmost importance in PR. In today's time, the internet creates brand awareness around it. The third point is accelerating the engagement with influencers and lastly, it is all about the visuals. The way forward for PR experts will continue to evolve and become more cross-functional. We are already seeing it happening in terms of expanded content creation and influencer marketing," he concluded the session.