DummySpit

Having run a public relations consultancy for 18 years before switching to academic life, I know how hard it is to balance management pressures while offering top-quality advice and driving the business’s growth.

One UK firm that I admired in the 1990s was Countrywide Communications (now Porter Novelli’s UK operation) which was led by Peter Hehir. They always seemed to be doing the right things as managers; the business grew continuously; they swept up numerous industry awards; their client list was top class – and they had started the business outside London in the Oxfordshire town of Banbury.

Working alongside Peter Hehir as MD of Countrywide’s UK business was Neil Backwith. He has recently distilled his knowledge of 22 years in the consultancy front line into a new book, Managing professional communications agencies – How to double your profitability.

This book should be on the bookshelves of every communications agency manager (not just PR) around the world as it is a very accessible guide to all the elements that make the well-run consultancy business prosper. Backwith divides the book into two sections – managing the firm and its people, and managing client profitability. In the first section, he looks at short and long-term planning, capacity management and utilization, payment systems, key financial ratios and the role of the accountant. The second section looks at new business and maintaining profitability during growth (not an easy task), contract issues, procurement processes of potential clients, deal negotiation and client satisfaction.

The need for this book was illustrated by Peter Hehir at a Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) conference in London in the late 1990s. In a discussion on the need for better management of consultancies, Peter Hehir asked the audience to take a break and respond to a brief for a relatively simple media relations project. When all the answers were collated, the prices proposed ranged from £1,000 to £10,000. This range caused consternation. How could an audience representing many of the best consultancies (small, medium and international) in the UK have a 900% variation in pricing? Peter’s answer was that, self-evidently, most of us were managing our business too loosely and pricing by guess work.

Managing professional communications agencies – How to double your profitability addresses these issues and helps take the guesswork out of agency and consultancy management. The content is sound advice. None of it is in management-speak or heavily conceptualized, although the writing style is overly chatty. Whether you will “double your profitability” as the book’s title claims is questionable but you will have far greater control of your business if you take heed of its advice. Linked with the disciplines of the PRCA’s Consultancy Management Standard, the lessons from this book will make the business stronger – and give greater time to developing creative solutions for client briefs.

Backwith, N.A. (2007) Managing professional communications agencies – How to double your profitability. London: Public Relations Consultants Association.

Price £29.99. ISBN: 978 0 9517397 1 6. Available from the PRCA, Willow House, Willow Place, London SW1P 1JH

After three months of discussion, the Study of the Priorities for Public Relations Research (PR Priorities Study - final report) has been completed. The initial piloting was undertaken on DummySpit in April and led to the setting of 26 public relations topics. These were sent to a Delphi study panel (of experts) in five continents covering top academics, leading practitioners and the CEOs of PR industry bodies. After three rounds of intensive email debate, the Top Ten PR research topics are:

1) Public relations’ role in contributing to strategic decision-making, strategy development and realisation, and organisational functioning

2) The value that public relations creates for organisations through building social capital, managing key relationships and realising organisational advantage

3) The measurement and evaluation of public relations, both offline and online

4) Public relations as a fundamental management function

5) Professional skills in public relations; analysis of the industry’s need for education

6) Research into standards of performance among PR professionals; the licensing of practitioners

7) Management of corporate reputation; measurement of reputation

Ethics in public relations

9) Integration of public relations with other communication functions; the scope of public relations practice; discipline boundaries

10) Management of relationships

Just outside the top ranked priorities are:

11) Client/employer understanding of public relations

12) The impact of technology on public relations practice and theory.

This report is the first completed international study on public relations research priorities (using a Delphi panel) since the mid-1990s and gives valuable insight into the ‘front and centre’ public relations research areas around the world.

The results will allow academics and practitioners to work closely together to improve understanding of public relations and its most effective and ethical use. It is a benchmark that all research plans and funding can be judged by for relevance and importance.

The future of the public relations consultancy was one of the major discussions at the UK Public Relations Consultants Association’s annual conference in London (May 15). Titled ‘Agency 20:20′, a panel of experts surveyed some of the influences that may shape the consultancy business in 12 to 15 years time.

The panel, chaired by PRCA chairman Richard Houghton, included Julian Cacchioli of Galileo Travelport, Jo Ellen Zumberge of MS&L, Trevor Morris of Westminster University and Danny Rogers, editor of PR Week. Among their views were:

- Julian Cacchioli, from a client perspective, said PR services have to be positioned as consultancy and not agency. “Consultancies need to help us where we can’t do the job ourselves”. He added that media relations is becoming a commodity and an agency task. Consultancies can add value by providing advice on strategy, messaging, CSR and “information we don’t have.”

- Jo Ellen Zumberge, wearing an international consultancy’s hat, made a case that the new technologies have changed the nature of the communicative relationship - from mass communication to one-to-one, from press relations to viral messaging, and to develop credibility by conversation. This was leading consultancies towards a more flexible approach in delivery of PR services.

- Danny Rogers, the journalist, was the most conservative of the four panelists because he considered that the PR agency (not consultancy) structure would be similar to today. There won’t be a single model as the diversity of operations will continue. Speed of communication will, however, have shaped many changes in the services with greater emphasis on strategy.

- Trevor Morris, former consultancy boss-turned-academic, nominated marketing PR as the service that will change most dramatically as it will become more of a price-driven commodity than at present. This will be brought about by the switch to online presentation of information. He also noted the decline in the staffing of major advertising agencies (e.g. JWT London dropping from 1000 30 years ago to 200 now) and tipped a similar impact on consultancy staffing.

- Evaluation will become a constant factor, said Jo Ellen and Trevor, because data from online traffic would offer constant benchmarking and give “hard statistics”.

So from this hour-long discussion, some of the characteristics of the PR consultancy in 2020 could be:

• Greater focus on high value-add services
• Expertise on conversation creation
• Smaller staff numbers, with greater depth of expertise
• Very flexible operations; many different organisational structures
• Data-driven instant, continuous evaluation

That’s the snapshot from a preliminary discussion. What’s your view?