'Technology is also determining the way we are growing as an industry’

The world of public relations is not limited to media alone. During its initial years, the professionals had to be smart, sharp and swift. More than capability and skills, a professional’s attitude mattered a lot. If one has the intent, will and ability to try something new, he/she will always succeed.

To talk more about the growth of the PR industry over the years and what more lies ahead, exchange4media PR and Corp Comm had an insightful conversation with Atul Sharma, managing director, Ruder Finn India, in the eighth episode of ‘PR leadership podcast series’. In this episode, Sharma shared his journey in the PR industry. He also spoke about his contribution as the president of Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI) and some of their initiatives, his key learnings throughout his career and more.

Speaking about his key learnings in his 20-year journey as a PR professional, Sharma said, “I learnt that PR is a people-intensive industry. Right from the engagements that we used to have with our stakeholders to communication council, which we would pass on to our clients, I realised that people would be the foundation. I also realised that building strong teams is going to be a fundamental pretext of how we are going to make a strong consulting firm. If we look at Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, technology is also determining the way we are growing as an industry. I think that is true for every possible industry because technology is changing the way every sector is evolving and growing. In public relations, it is going to be way more pertinent because so far, we have been very manpower intensive, but I see that with new technology change, there is going to be a lot of dependency on automating processes done by people.”

Sharing his experience as the president of PRCAI, Sharma elucidated, “PRCAI is an interesting journey. In 2017, I was thinking of ways to contribute to the overall industry. That is when PRCAI came in. I got elected as vice president in 2018 and in 2020, I took over from Nitin Mantri as the president of PRCAI. I think from there we have made big strides. One of the intent from our side was very clear that we wanted to make sure that PR is seen as a professional, ethical and a prosperous industry. So, I think every intent, every action of ours is guided in that direction. Now PRCAI is a 100-member strong organisation which is focussed on its member firms as well as the corporate communication fraternity. When we started out in 2020, which was right in the middle of the pandemic, we felt how much could we do. Since we all were held up in our homes, we were trying to figure out how to work remotely and to bring association together. We started the practice of weekly meetings. We used to get on zoom and talk about what is happening, how every member is coping with the stress coming from businesses or our own people coming down with Covid.”

Concluding the session, Sharma conveyed a message to the young guns of the PR industry. He mentioned that whenever he sits with the young talents of his firm he always says that one should never rely on external stimuli to learn. “Always keep on assessing yourself whether you learn enough or not. If you are not learning enough, extend your hand. The universe will help you. They should be responsible for their own learning and in case they are not getting the mentoring from their managers, then they should ask for it,” Sharma added.

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