“The Public Relation department is the heart of the company”

As part of Global PR & Communications Month, Deep Talks with Global Public Relations Leaders series is delighted to have as interviewee, Prita Kemal Gani #PRCommsMonth

 By José Manuel Velasco

I call Prita Kemal Gani as “the Queen of Public Relations”. I believe she deserves that tittle as a recognition to her contribution to the development of the profession. She was the first woman to chair PERHUMAS, the public relations association of Indonesia, and she leads as founder and CEO the LSPR Communication and Business Institute. She supports the ASEAN PR Network and is always willing to collaborate with the Global Alliance. But beyond those merits, Prita is a leader who generates affection through her great generosity and humanity.

José Manuel Velasco (JMV): You have a strong background as promoter and leader of a PR school. How must be the educational journey of a PR professional?

Prita Kemal Gani (PKG): The educational journey of a PR Professional can come from many disciplines, but the most important thing is that they should have communication skills. Communication skills or technique can be learned by a PR person besides the discipline from the educational background they have, for instance: financial studies, hospitality studies, from oil and gas experience, engineering background, medical background, all one OK.

JMV: How has the PR profession changed in the last ten years?

PKG: To me it has remained the same, because PR is to win the people’s heart. Public Relations is to inform the organization’s achievement & tell the story of the company, so the concept of PR standard remains the same, but what has changed is the media of Public Relations. Now, with the new technology, PR works are more instant, fast and sophisticated, nevertheless the PR work must be accurate, legitimate, appointed. So, meaning the media of Public Relations now become much more easier, but at the sometime also not easy to deal with the fast false information.

JMV: Could you share a short story or anecdote related to your vocation?

PKG: I have so many experiences already, I have been working in PR world since the very young age. I founded the school of Public Relations 30 years ago. But the most is my experience as the chairperson of PERHUMAS, the PR association in Indonesia, I think that is the highest. The height of my career in Public Relations. It has opened the door for me to lead the ASEAN PR Network as I have the chance to meet and get to know all the PR leaders across ASEAN. It has brought me to the world of PR globally, that’s the time I joined Global Alliance for seven years. I am even the first woman to chair in the history of PERHUMAS even until now.

The anecdote story, actually there are many great PR woman, but woman are very hard to achieve the top career in PR, because women is a wife, a mother, a daughter, that has a lot of responsibility in domestic. While men have a lot of liberty in doing work for PR, it could sometimes be beyond office hours. So, I want to share this also with my experience as being a woman, a mother, in fact with autistic daughter, and as a wife of a Javanese man, who culturally have to serve the husband, and a daughter to my mom. So, I still find time to manage my domestic duties and career and business. I think we should have strict time management and organizational skills, that is the skills needed as a PR person. And one secret that I can share is that because of I have so much passion in Public Relations that I really love and I want to share with many people, to my team and also to my students, it’s been my dreams since I was in a young age that I wanted to be a PR professional and I wanted to be a fine young woman since then.

JMV: What does the PR profession give you?

PKG: I think it taught me to see the value of relationship and friendship. PR people, we have a lot of in common and similarity in terms of building relationship and seeing things in the same perspectives. Also having a common angle in handling things like goodwill, persuasions, inspirations and desires.  With Public Relations we make the world smaller, PR professionals connect instantly because we all have a lot in common. And we connect like friends and family.

JMV: Please define the purpose of the PR profession?

PKG:  The Public Relation department is the heart of the company. That is why the PR person is a very important person in the company. First to unite internally, by informing the company’s purpose, planning and objectives, and secondly, the PR department needs to tell the external or the public about the company’s objective, purpose and about the company’s missions. So, both internal and external will be well informed and well connected by the PR people.

JMV: In some countries we call the function as “communication”; in others, “public relations”. Do you see any differences or are both the same job?

PKG: First Public Relations is to inform and also to engage that is why the name is Public Relations, relation is relationship and engagement. And then also to inform the public and to get engagement with the public. But Communication is deeper than Public Relations. Communication is two ways, when we say there is a communication meaning there is a dialogue. It means there is a discussion, there is an openness so I think PR should be part of communication.

JMV: How should we approach ethics in communication?

PKG: Ethics in communication is very important. The information given should be the information that we are responsible for the content, meaning we get the information based on research and based on both sides not bias, not one sided, then we also need to prepare the words that actually proper, polite and in a good manner, not hurting other people or create conflicts. Ethics in communication is also if not for adding or lessening the information or manipulating the information or plagiarism. The most important thing in ethics in communication is to be responsible for the content that we present. We should be very careful in delivering the information.

JMV: How digitalization is impacting the PR job?

PKG: The job for a PR person in digitalization is not easy. Although there is a beauty of being PR in the digital era, we can now communicate to the media people by sending press releases via email, with photos, videos, and also by sending invitation digitalized. It makes life easier. In fact, we can do press comms virtually, we can have media gathering over hybrid systems and we can communicate with journalists from all over the world much more easily. What makes it difficult in this digital era, everything becomes instant and fast. So if there is a new development on an issue or during the crisis time or during the progress of something we are doing., sometimes we have to race the information that we are going to deliver and the public gets information from many sources, as now anyone can be a citizen journalist. Also in this digital era, we also have to combat hoaxes and sometimes the fake news looks like real or reality so we have to be fast. And the beauty of this digitalization is that a PR person can now be a media owner, having its own media channel from social media. We just need to learn how it works so the channel of our media will be interesting to many people including the media people.

JMV: What do you think is our main challenge?

PKG: In the early years a PR person only took care of the company’s reputations but now the PR person should also take care of the company’s welfare, meaning the PR programme should support the staff and the internal organization to become solid, be compact and have great team work and be productive. So, the company will produce good products. Because the employees are happy and well connected from one to another. The PR person should also help the marketing team to make the product more liked by the customer, because the customer will understand the product made by a good organization or made by happy employees.

JMV: Is the PR function threatened by marketing?

PKG: PR will not threaten marketing. Because the task of the PR department is not to sell but to make the product become saleable. So, PR definitely supports marketing and marketing will also need PR because “At the end of the day people will buy from the people they like…” Because no matter how good the product is, no matter how beautiful the packaging, no matter how easy the distribution and no matter how low the price, people will still want to buy the product from the company that they like.

JMV: What do we need to elevate the profession? That means, for example, to be recognized as a C-Suite function?

PKG: We can elevate the professions by giving more training to the young PR professionals. First to have confidence in themselves, then to encourage the young PR to do more research. All PR programmes should be based on research, otherwise it will just be like us pouring water to a glass full of water. Also the young PR Professionals should have analytical skills in order to be able to give consultations of the findings from the research so the company will become they will look up to and trust the PR person. And then this young PR Professional should be able to have good interrelations in the company so their presence in the company becomes significant. If their presence in the company is significant it means they are needed and they are important, of course they become part of the C-Suite.

JMV: Is the profession really globalized?

PKG: I think PR is the first profession that is really globalized. Because we cannot only work internally, for instance a brand like Johnson and Johnson, these baby products already existed for more than 100 years. The people using this product for their babies have trusted the product and have trust in the company because it has existed for more than 100 years. This is not only the marketing saying that the baby needs baby shampoo but it is also a communication to the customer for the people to buy the baby product which is very trusted and that this product is trusted for newly born babies.

JMV: How is addressing the profession the growth of Asia-Pacific?

PKG:  The profession grew rapidly in Asia Pacific based on linked PR professionals have grown rapidly all across the region. Not to mention so many communication schools, based on APRN Data here are the number of universities with faculty of Communications and Public Relations in the region: Malaysia, 17; Singapore, 6; Thailand, 24; Vietnam, 13; Laos, 1; Myanmar; 5; Brunei, 2; Philippines, 13; Cambodia, 12; Australia, 10; New Zealand, 4; and Indonesia has 210 Universities offering faculty of Communications. The total number of PR Profession in Indonesia is 226.000. Ad, finally, PR Professional Graduate from LSPR – Jakarta : 15.279.

The profession is growing each year as more and more graduates of communication students enter the world of Public Relations profession. I believe now is the time for PR people to learn from each other across the region, while before what we learn about PR are always from the western Public Relations.

JMV: What are the different attitudes needed by a PR manager?

PKG: A PR manager should have a good reputation, should be punctual, committed, accurate, honest, should be transparent, have governance, should be a likeable person and be liked by many people.

JMV: And skills?

PKG: A PR manager must have the following skills: writing, speaking, must have organizational skills and skills in research and analyzing and, if possible, also can speak other languages. And should be creative and innovative.

JMV: Draw the ideal organization for a PR department.

PKG: My answer is the following drawing:

JMV: Which managerial skills should improve or develop a PR manager?

PKG: PR managers should improve and develop their communication skills and organizational skills.

JMV: What would you say to a trainee on his/her first day of work?

PKG: Firstly I would say that you are entering the most exciting career which is Public Relations, it is going to be a really exciting world. So be prepared for the journey, the ride of your life, with turbulence and like a roller coaster with ups and down and be still, relax and enjoy the ride.

JMV: And the same to a senior manager over 50 years old.

PKG: You should begin to teach and share your knowledge in Public Relations to many young people, should share your skills and experiences. And be a role model.

JMV: You are very involved in the development of the GA. What message would you send to our members?

PKG: To GA members, please ensure and really use GA as a platform to get to know another PR professional around the world and learn from each other, to attend GA conferences, virtual or offline events and to make sure that your skills and knowledge as well as adding new information and be an updated person and relevant in the industry.