By Eric Wamanji
Recently I came across the lamentations of one George Odera on how the corporate world is relegating PR & 
Communications into to the abyss. Odera posits that this is the height of ignorance considering the critical role PR & Communication plays in the bottom line especially through the construction of an amiable image and reputation. He believes such organizations are shooting themselves on the foot.
True. There is no denying how critical PR is to an organization – the PR chap has the capacity to mold and turn around an otherwise ugly outfit to something profoundly admirable and consequently profitable.
The only problem is that the profession has been infiltrated by hounds of masqueraders who are giving the good job a bad jab.
That is why there is no denying that the woes that bedevil the communication departments are self-authored. We have elected to be lethargic as we become shrewd masters of outsourcing. The new trend so beloved to mask our ineptitude, is also a fertile ground for graft. It defeats logic why while riding on high perks we cannot even craft a simple sentence for a press release or make a simple design for a brochure, or even just take simple pictures…the list is endless – we must call the agency guy.
Someone would rightly say that PR is management job and not necessarily the craft. True. Still, you cannot manage that which you don’t know. Cloaking ourselves in the management cloth is a cheap way of concealing our incompetency and insecurities and that is why boardroom operatives sometimes are hard pressed to be supportive.
Brokers
The short of the long is that our current crop of emerging practitioners is simply a consortium of brokers. We lack in strategic thinking and more often than not we will be scheming, gossiping and conniving as we protect our turf. We have become pathological liars and stink like a skunk from the hair to the toe – nothing really great to write home about ourselves.
If I’m the management, I’m not so sure I would really love to employ a middleman whose work is to dial the agency chap. We have failed to take the trouble to connect the dots that link our businesses. We cannot demonstrate the intellectual contribution that we bring to the enterprises. We are so much at home tying balloons, laying red carpets and performing such humble function as ushering, serving tea, and pampering executives – jobs that can easily be done by my Class Three niece. We are still stuck in the old rut of lovely smiles and beautiful faces when in reality the profession has changed rails from looks to the brains.
Your typical PR guy does not have any skill or craft to speak of. Yes, we may have done our undergraduate in communication, still that ain’t enough. If you asked for my honest opinion, most of us are pretenders to the communication throne. We cannot assert our skills either in writing, speech making, persuasion, photography, filming, strategy or anything. We are like the biblical houses built on sand. The dearth of such skills is the source of all this tribulation.
I went to a university where students of PR considered it a bother and even a waste of time to study global politics, writing, economics or religion. The students loved one course – that which involved organizing an event. That class was ever full. The final exam was to organize a mock event. And you should see the way money was easily raised to buy cakes and soft drinks. You should have seen how happy we were tying balloons, putting up flowers and playing laud music. To us, that was PR in action.
Another reality that is gnawing to the soul of PR and communication enterprises is the cartel like conglomerate that is in existence today. There is a conspiracy in town of where to outsource, when to outsource and what to outsource. The danger of this reality is for all to see – mediocrity and runaway graft.
Swamps of corruption
No doubt we have created our phantom companies which we fight vehemently for, to win tenders. We are in cohorts with suppliers to inflate prices for our cuts. This is the cancer that is afflicting this enterprise. While your everyday press guy has the word ‘ethics’ dangling back his mind as he searches for a story, his cousin at the PR office can hardly define what ethics is.
True, I agree that communication is a critical player in any outfit. However, most management lacks the basic understanding of what PR is and who should be a practitioner. And that is why management will be swallow hook, line and sinker any crap it is told about PR & Communication. That is why some organizations will settle for third-rate practitioners so long as one has a title communication in the certificate. Some management still think that communication is propaganda for whitewashing. Others still think communication is good media coverage. Others think it is about serving tea and talking nicely. Being a mister nice guy does not amount to PR. Nay.
PR is about intelligently understanding the trends, economics, politics, social issues and local and global discourses and then designing actions and messages that are in sync with the reality. And that is what the wannabes in town are missing out on the critical point.
I empathize with Mr. Odera’s agony of how communication is still misunderstood, disgraced and disregarded. That anyone can claim expertise to the enterprise is in no doubt, considering the many times lawyers, marketers, and sociologists have entrenched themselves into it and squarely insisting their expertise.
The talent, the craft and the art that comes with communication; its very science is too intricate, too critical to be left to every charlatan who claims its position. Time’s up for the real professionals to stand up and clean the crass.