‘Reputation and trust are going to be business priorities in the stakeholder paradigm’

Having nearly two decades of experience in issues management, communications, public relations and editorial across industries, Munavar Attari has hands-on experience in working with senior business executives on complex stakeholder and consumer reputation related problems. Currently, Attari is managing director at FleishmanHillard India and has overall P&L responsibility for all clients and offices.

Exchange4media had an insightful conversation with Attari in which he shared his views on numerous aspects including one of the most discussed topics 'DE&I'. He also spoke about FleishmanHillard India's global contribution, growth strategy for the near future and the company's overall strategy for India to capitalise on the trends.

Excerpts:

You have been in the industry for two decades. How have you seen industry evolve over the years?

The evolution of the PR industry has been intrinsically linked to some of the broad developments or events that have happened in India over the years.

The first inflection point that I can immediately think of was 2007-2008 crisis after clients started taking public relations far more seriously immediately after the dust started to settle. Now the transitions from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 is calling upon PR firms to strategise their service offerings.

The creator economy is now mainstream as well and clients are looking for solutions and I think agencies like ours has something unique to offer.

The current paradigm of stakeholder capitalism is calling on agencies to reinvent themselves in terms of what they can really bring to the table. We are seeing brands succeed when they have stakeholders and purpose at the centre. PR will only grow in importance and relevance as volatility and uncertainty increases in the world; that’s a given.

What is FleishmanHillard India doing to leave an imprint on the global stage?

A lot of our work done in India has received regional and global recognition in the past few years. So, that is one way in which FleishmanHillard globally looks towards India as one of the markets where a lot of creativity can happen. India has also done strategy work for markets in Africa and Europe. This is another testimony of the growing importance of FleishmanHillard India in our global mix.

What are some key factors in navigating DE&I initiatives to shape a company's brand value? In what capacity is the organisation contributing to the same?

FleishmanHillard has been an early DE&I adopter even before it became a buzzword. It is integral to many of our employer-branding campaigns and internal communications campaigns. Our most recent study helped us further understand this space. Two data points that stood out for me and reiterate the importance of DE&I are that 94 percent respondents cited at least one action that companies could take to showcase an authentic commitment to DE&I and 90 percent expect companies to act and communicate about DE&I. Therefore, we are betting on this to become an even bigger part of what we offer going forward.

How is FleishmanHillard's overall strategy for India geared towards capitalising on the trends?

FleishmanHillard India does well where the client briefs are fairly complex and the work is expected to be integrated by the nature of it. We have sharpened the saw as far as our digital and influencer engagement offering is concerned and that is now integral to all that we do. We want to focus on opportunities where there is a real, complex reputation problem to solve.

How does FleishmanHillard plan to grow further in 2023?

We will focus on the depth of our client relationships working closely with clients where we can deliver real value. We want to concentrate on strategic, long-term relationships where there is an opportunity to work with the senior leadership as well.

Running a profitable agency is a top priority, and it is in the interest of our clients as well. This is because profitability is what enables us to deliver quality resources, work and provide exceptional service that we promise. We can do this only if we are running a healthy agency, which is profitable at the level that is expected out of us. Only then we can consistently invest in our core strengths.

What is your vision for the next 5-10 years?

Imagine that we are trying shed away the old parts of the business and build new ones while increasing the passengers in our rapidly moving car. It is a sprint inside a marathon. So, answering very long-term questions will always be tricky.

What I can tell you is that PR will be a board-level priority more than ever before in the new stakeholder paradigm where pressures of regulation and reputation are only increasing.

As these trends take shape, the communications function will have to act very differently and that’s what we are equipping ourselves to capitalise on in the coming years. FleishmanHillard’s unique offering is Media + Platforms, which is an integrated ecosystem uniting media relations, social influencer, advocacy and digital platform expertise into one innovative community. This is powered by analytics and algorithms to deliver maximum impact for clients.