PRWEEK: Best practice a regional given, says ICCO panel

BERLIN: Despite the relative immaturity of some of Asia-Pacific's PR markets, public relations is not new in a region where the fundamentals of business have for centuries been trust-based. Golin/Harris non-executive chairman, Asia, Anne Forrest further pointed to the differences between the level of industry best practice and specialisation found in Asia, versus the rest of the world, at this month's ICCO Global Summit in Berlin.

by | 10/31/2003

In a panel consisting of Genesis PR founder and principal Prema Sagar, Ogilvy PR chief executive, Asia-Pacific and EAME, Matthew Anderson and Forrest, she informed delegates that the direct access trusted counsellors had to the CEOs of multi-million dollar Asian MNCs highlighted the credence given to communications at a strategic level.

During the panel discussion on '5 reasons why Asia will overtake the rest of the world in PR' Sagar also outlined the combined challenges facing India's PR industry - the need for skilled talent, transparency and accreditation.

Precipitating the views of Fleishman-Hillard CEO John Graham in one of the Summit's closing panels, Anderson reinforced the value of talent from the Asian PRO's perspective - that speed and loyalty in the workplace paid dividends in terms of business growth.