It is, perhaps, an opportune moment to meet with BKSH Associates CEO Scott Pastrick. Just days earlier, Pakistan president Pervez Musharaff had declared a state of emergency in the country, vaulting BKSH’s star client - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Benazir Bhutto - onto front pages and TV screens across the globe.
In his office in Washington, DC, Pastrick does not appear overly perturbed. He cannot, he says, speak much about the Bhutto account. But it is surely no coincidence that, while Musharaff’s actions are questioned on a daily basis, Bhutto - despite the stain of two failed premierships - is hailed by Western media as the troubled country’s only true saviour.
The decision to retain BKSH, then, has certainly helped the PPP sway Western perception and, perhaps more importantly, the US Government. For many Asian governments and political factions, the route to influencing political and public perceptions in the West lies in retaining one of the high-priced lobbying firms that are part of the landscape in Washington, DC.
The US Department of Justice makes much of this information public. It makes for interesting reading. BKSH’s sister WPP agencies, Quinn Gillespie & Associates (QGA) and Hill & Knowlton, have both lobbied for the Government of Pakistan this year in the US capital. Taiwan, unsurprisingly, is comfortably Asia’s biggest spender when it comes to public affairs in the US. And anyone with a passing interest in Asian politics will be aware of the bang-up job that Edelman conducted on behalf of deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra earlier this year.
Precious little, however, is ever disclosed about the lobbying efforts conducted on behalf of Asian companies. This is, probably, because, as Pastrick points out, many are still too low-profile. “It may be that they are much more sensitive about their visibility,” he says. “They don’t want to be seen as self-interested in changing the minutiae of the law. We see this in a lot of Asian companies - they don’t actually want you to be aggressive.”
The two countries whose companies have the most to gain are India and China, where cash-rich corporations are eyeing new pastures on which to graze.
To date, China Inc’s experiences with lobbying have been fairly dismal - demonstrated by CNOOC and Haier’s high-profile failures to acquire US companies in 2005. “Companies with serious issues who avail themselves of lobbyists have a greater chance of success,” explains Ogilvy Government Relations MD Wayne Berman.
“Government is too massive to walk in blind. Hiring a lobbyist or an advocate who understands the politics and process is something that any prudent manager would have to do when contemplating a new market entry.”
In New Delhi, WPP is predicting increasing demand for cross-border lobbying services. Local PR firm Genesis Burson-Marsteller has, accordingly, inked affiliate deals with BKSH and QGA in a bid to improve this kind of offering for Indian MNCs.
At the same time, of course, there may be a benefit for foreign MNCs looking to improve their government relations in the Indian capital.
But Pastrick is reluctant to claim that the culture of lobbying is ripe for importation into India. “Culturally, it’s too new unless the Government builds rules and mechanisms to make it more trans- parent,” he says. “Until then, it will keep its reputation of being fixers.”
