Perception Minders Could Invaluably Benefit from Re-inventing their Own Unique HR Strategy

By Mwangi Wanjumbi – Newtimes B. S. CEO & Chief Consultant/Trainer

The continuing occurrences in the Public Relations Industry in Kenya have inadvertently vindicated some observations that I have made in different forums. When interacting with senior organizational staff, I have always reiterated that employees can be double edged competitors. Further, I have insisted that great care needs to be taken towards ensuring not only high level of staff retention, but also brand integration with respective organizations. Needless, to venture into the intricacies, these internal stakeholders, are important organizational players who are notably privy to organizational secrets and all that matters in doing business.

On the other hand, they form part of the competitive forces, particularly with regard to the supply of services, more emphasis being laid on the thought process. They provide either labour or the knowledge resource, whichever is deemed appropriate depending on the nature of the organization. More importantly, they are invaluable sources of creativity and innovation especially in talent driven industries. Nobody is now better placed to realize this more than the Kenyan P R industry, as we have now been made aware. It is not clear whether the industry has been caught napping or it is the modus operandi, which has been overtaken by time.

In the meantime, the scenario brings to mind a recent meeting with a former schoolmate of those days who I will refer to as Mwereri. Those days, he was a brilliant student who had special interests in acting and drama. Despite eventually becoming an engineer, Mwereri never abandoned his acting interests even past university. In this light, he set up a side business, which involved search of acting talent that led to lucrative performance events. At some stage, Mwereri converted the same into a full time business, complete with fixed facilities as well as traveling theater. How did he fair?

After quite some successes, which stretched to a few years, Mwereri started encountering trouble with his teams of actors. At some stage, they started demanding additional fees just before commencement of the plays, especially whenever they notice a full house. In worse case scenarios, some of the actors could completely fail to turn up to perform their parts, leading to cancellation of the events for the day.

Worse still, performance contracts were not easily enforceable particularly on actors who had little interest in or respect for professionalism those days. Eventually, Mwereri had no choice. He just had to abandon his interests in acting and drama and concentrate on the engineering work that he had trained on.

This scenario compares very well with the occurrences in the lucrative PR industry that is still in its growth stages. Like in the case of Mwereri’s acting business, the PR industry is largely talent driven. We have learnt from the press that renowned and established PR companies have within short spans of time, lost as much as half the whole workforce.

And the loss of staff is not even enough. The outgoing staffers leave with the assigned accounts to establish their own businesses. Alternatively, the same are pouched by the competition together with the accounts at hand. Hello! What is happening in this highly personalized and talent driven industry?

Close scrutiny indicates quite a number of challenges in the industry. Some can be explained through real life observations. My very earliest episode on television was the British wrestling, which I got used from my days in high school. It was very interesting with tastes of very swift and agile sportsmen endowed with high levels of endurance. The game was sometimes lazed with some ruffians who would ruin viewers’ entertainment.

Luckily, there was the very able and respected refereeing, which could bring everything to order, even if it meant disqualifying some of the hooligans. In fact, those of my generation may easily recall such fellows as Kedo Nagazaki, Jim Bricks, Kid Mackoy, Big Daddy, Masabula, British Bulldog and many more.

In the recent years, the American wrestling, which particularly attracts the youth, has stolen the show. It is rough, ruthless and driven by real ruffians who will go to any lengths to conquer their enemies. This game brings unenviable injuries and occasional deaths. In fact, the game looks very unreal for life, for some of us. In which scenario then do we place the goings on in the PR industry in Kenya?

As an outsider, I have no idea how the industry works. But, much as competition could be healthy especially for the customers, there seems to be no rules of engagement within the industry. In fact, do strategic alliances (not cartels) exist in the PR Industry? It is actually worrying, how an industry that brings decency to the way others do business, can be unable to control perceptions about themselves.

Personally, I am compelled to think that the PR industry could have been invaded by traders in form of business men and women. Ordinarily, many are only fixated on the bottom line. In that case, the players are more interested in short term gains of spending the absolute minimum and pocketing the rest. In other words, the attitudes on the bottom line may conflict with brand blending and investment in long term and talent driven benefits.

Good people of the PR Industry! Need I say more?  Obviously, the solutions to the challenges bedeviling the different firms are right on the various doorsteps and therefore within reach. But, please seek and embrace the same.  If the current trends continue unabated, many could easily be cornered into submission like Mwereri. Luckily for him, he had a fallback occupation. Meanwhile, enjoy a splendid and truth driven week.