In February 1991, a young representative from Hong Kong came to Rajiv Desai to discuss a new venture called Satellite Television Asian Region (STAR). He represented a new Hong Kong based company, and wanted to know if distribution systems existed in India to carry satellite-beamed television signals into people's homes. Star TV was one of his early clients.

President, IPAN

An industry veteran, author of 'Indian Business Culture' (1999), President of IPAN Public Relations, Rajiv Desai feels PR industry's focus should change from facilitating visibility to facilitating transparency.

Desai has worked with Hill & Knowlton, prior to starting IPAN. He has been a media adviser to Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 and 1991 parliamentary election campaigns. In 1993 and 1994 he was an adviser to UNICEF representative in India, and was active in an advocacy campaign to further the cause of compulsory primary education in India. In year 2000, Sonia Gandhi, appointed him, to serve as a counselor in the media department of All India Congress Committee.

In an interview with Nikhil Gupta of exchange4media, Desai talk about the fundamentals of PR, government's news sense, the challenges and core values of IPAN.

We have a very close working relationship with Hill & Knowlton. I used to work at Hill & Knowlton, many years ago. We are all part of the same family, which is the JWT family. Many years ago, Hill & Knowlton was acquired by JWT and that was acquired by WPP, so we all belong to the same family. Apart from this, we had very close personal ties with them as well. And we have a relationship that includes, helping them with their clients in India, helping them make pitches for clients elsewhere with a regional focus, participating in various training programs and so forth. In terms of ownership JWT owns IPAN.

Our major clients include Government of Dubai, Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), HLL, HCL Technologies, we also work with Vivendi, we also work with a technology firm -Monster India.

IPAN is the first ever public relations consulting firm set up in India. Our approach to public relations is very different. We believe public relation is about identifying and creating allies. We say Public relations works and we have shown how it has worked in case of Pepsi and Citibank. This stems from one of the earliest communication theories, in the 50's when a group of scholars in the United States decided to do a study in Germany, to determine how did the Nazi's message get across so effectively. They found that messages delivered through mass media, or in any other way can only reinforce beliefs and cannot change attitudes and opinions. So, if you believe that one form of political ideology is terrific, and I come to you and try convincing you about a different ideology, you wont respond to it, but if I come to you and say, your form of thinking and ideology is terrific, then you tend to accept it. What it means to a public relations firm is that you must identify who your supporters are, and then reinforce it with information. This is one fundamental difference in IPAN's way of working.

IPAN believes in long- term focus. We are 14 year old and all of my senior colleagues have been with me for more than 10 years. Same is the case with our client list, HCL has been with us for 12 years, Goldman Sachs has been with us for 7 years.

The core value of IPAN is that there are no quick fixes; all that matters is hard work and a commitment to look beyond the ordinary. And it is this sense of 'business being fun' and challenges that keeps people together in IPAN.

Good PR professional should be a good listener and should have a broad understanding of a variety of subjects, so that he or she can very quickly get the story. They should be able to get it instantaneously, and you can do that by listening and analyzing.

We work with several governments, we work with the Government of Dubai, we also work with the Government of Chhattisgarh. They are already exposed to the modern, progressive trends and issues. So, there is not really much of a difference, except that we find these governments far more objective and far more savvy as to what PR can or cannot achieve. A government department understands a lot better as to what constitutes news.

Well, PR has already changed. With the advent of Internet and new forms of communication, the old business of how many clips did you get, is going to be irrelevant. So, it's important for a company to get its word out as widely as possible and without any faulty interpretation. That means right now if I send this release to a newspaper, they usually edits and what the company puts out is never really adequately represented. And as a result of it most of the companies don't take the press release seriously, because they feel that the reporter is going to change it anyway.

I think in Public Relations, the thrust should change from mere visibility to transparency. Which is going to be critical, we have seen all the problems in the United States and India about companies not being transparent!