OPINION: PR and communications professionals will mediate the Asian Century

Much has been made of Asia’s economic growth and the resultantly profuse opportunities for multinational businesses. Realising those opportunities, however, requires a high degree of communicative and strategic expertise. This is, in itself, an opportunity for PR and communications practitioners to facilitate the transition into Asian-focused business models.

Any such transition must leverage the unique strengths of Asia without compromising the values and methods which make us effective professionals. Treating Asia as a homogenous region tends to obscure these strengths. However, we risk undermining the effectiveness of our own methods if we try too hard to “shape” them to each discrete Asian country and culture—the enormity of this task will overwhelm even those with vast experience in the region.

Instead, communications practitioners ought to focus on two critical enablers of success in all Asian markets: building culturally apt relationships; and harnessing widespread appetite for innovation and change. Moreover, we can accomplish this through the best-practice approaches we already employ, with core communications principles of openness, honesty, engagement and respect. Rather than trying to be experts on Asia, Western communications professionals should see how our own expertise can add value to its business landscape.

Cultural mediation

PR and communications practitioners face four main opportunities in approaching Asia.

First is the opportunity to help generate more revenue growth and successes for our clients, through access to Asia’s vast and ongoing boom in business development and consumer income.

Secondly, we are in a position to improve how our clients do business in Asia, by providing counsel on how change factors in the region—for example, China’s CSR requirements for multinationals—can be best managed by internal operations and brand propositions alike.

The growing significance of employment in Asia constitutes the third opportunity for communications professionals. Heavy recruitment programmes for cost-effective labour mean businesses are focusing more on branding themselves as “employers of choice” in Asia through evolving communications channels. Digital recruiting, for example, has become particularly popular in China, but through China-only sites rather than global businesses like LinkedIn. Businesses also have increasing responsibility to ensure their use of regional talent conforms to global best practices.

Finally, we can improve our own communications services delivery by leveraging specialised skills and talent pools throughout Asia. By distributing certain tasks—particularly support and technical operations—to the various Asian markets that specialise in their completion, we not only boost our timeliness and proficiency in those areas but also free up our communications practitioners to focus on the core aspects of their work. In my own agency, for example, we have reduced costs and produced new revenue opportunities by sourcing specialist data and writing services from India and more recently establishing a digital hub in Malaysia.

Creating the way

Cultivating strategic relationships is essential to realising all these opportunities. Regardless of how their characteristics vary among different countries, these relationships form the basis of all business actions and influence throughout the region. By approaching our partners and contacts in Asia with professional respect and openness, practitioners can ensure these relationships are durable and based on good faith between all parties. Good business requires open communication whether in Asia or the West.

Of similar importance is tapping into the appetite for innovation throughout Asia. While businesses in Western markets often see change as a risk, Asian businesses and talent view it as a chance to improve, grow and gain advantage. Fostering that sense of innovation can directly support employment branding; ensuring its expression can position our clients as regional and global leaders.

As communications professionals, we operate at the juncture of business and community. The relative newness of dialogue between global business and Asian communities presents a clear need for our expertise, one best served by a professional focus on quality, innovation, openness and honesty.