Innovation only comes when you are abreast with trends: Atul Ahluwalia, First Partners

Technology has changed a lot of things in the public relations industry. Much like moving from the landline phones to smartphones, the public industry has transformed in the way it operates. In today’s world, where everybody is a ‘journalist’ on social media, the focus has shifted to content and narrative.

To elaborate more on the same and other factors, we talked to Atul Ahluwalia, Founding Partner at First Partners, in the second episode of ‘PR Leadership Podcast Series’. During the conversation, Ahluwalia spoke about his journey, achievements, challenges and explained how the PR industry has fostered in the last three decades.

Speaking about his 28-year-long career and how he has seen the PR industry transition in this period, Ahluwalia said during its indigenous period, public relations was essentially media relations and PR professionals were seen as publicists. “Today we are seen as problem-solvers. So we help CXOs in their jobs,” he added.

Making an important point further in the chat, Ahluwalia said innovation only comes when you are abreast with trends.

He also recalled his role as one of the founding members at PRCAI, with which he was associated for four years. He felt that there was a need for better understanding of and empathy for public relations professionals. He emphasised on the importance of an external face to PR and PRCAI so that editors also hold PR in greater respect and so do important stakeholders, including the government.

Concluding the session, Ahluwalia noted that PR so far has been about B2C communication to a large extent. But he believes that the role of PR will now expand across stakeholders. “Multi-stakeholder communication, with different messages and different tactics for different stakeholders, where PR can come in its full form to support important issues in the world, will come forth,” he said.

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