Double standards?

Consultation exercises such as local communities railing against a NIMBY planning application are frequently slated as mere “talking shops” going nowhere.

It was therefore with a degree of scepticism that I accepted an invitation as “A female business owner who will shape the future face of enterprise in the UK” – to join fellow female business owners from the length and breadth of the UK at Westminster to attend a Government consultation exercise and contribute to a strategy document.

Entitled “The 11th Women's Entrepreneurs Enterprise Consultation Event,” the session was led by a panel including the Minister of State for Competitiveness, Stephen Timms. Also present were the good and great from Regional Development Agencies – our highly accountable regional custodians –represented by Seeda (South East England Development Agency) CEO and women’s champion, Pam Alexander.

The elegant room was charged with the energy and buzz of people who are excited about making changes for the better. Some of the inspirational entrepreneurs included Margaret Wood, chair of development agency Wakefield First and founder of award-winning ICW modular glazed systems.

Our particular breakout group, equipped with a Government “scribe”, was tasked with identifying issues and challenges centred on business growth. Responses articulating our aspirations and frustrations flowed thick and fast and included funding, business support – and lack of self esteem. This was duly logged by our scribe and each table nominated a spokesperson to relay our suggestions on how the RDA’s can encourage and support start ups and growing enterprises. Seeking evidence that the panel was wholly accountable and passionate about making a difference, my enthusiasm and energy levels began to wane when my questions (we were also asked to submit written queries) on how the Women’s Task Force initiated by Margaret Hodge had performed against its objectives over the last 12 months, went unanswered – as did a query on how the Government intends to make Business Links across the country accountable.

The following day my cynicism was further exacerbated by nagging doubts as to exactly how our contributions to the strategy would be taken forward when I received a follow up self-congratulatory “thank you” email saying: “Yes, Government has done well over the last ten years (we had not been asked if Government had performed well, badly or indifferently!) and we have an environment in the UK that encourages and supports entrepreneurs”.

Fast forward another two weeks and the rot truly set in with a Sunday Times revelation of free-spending RDAs clocking up the most expensive flights and corporate entertainment on tax payers’ hard earned money.

Making the headlines was Seeda which had wasted over £50k on cars and other luxuries - £18k of which was run up by Pam Alexander whose photograph was prominently splashed across the article.

So much for our accountable and transparent custodians – and I won’t be holding my breath for the launch of the new framework document next spring.

Suffering an identity crisis

Every fortnight I wake up even earlier than normal to join around 10 other professionals and bosses to share best practice, learn business improvement tips and help each other with any issues. Hosted by Andrew Cussons a business coach from Action Coach, Profit Club is sometimes like a glorious breakfast counselling session and at other times a welcome opportunity to advise other businesses and share learnings.

This week’s followed up on our previous theme of identity icebergs. The concept is that to change people’s (and your own) results, actions and behaviours (above the water) you need to work on their beliefs, values, environment and skills (below the water). It’s certainly something we’ve experienced at Quest – and something we continue to work on. Up-skilling as well as operating with common values and beliefs is a core facet of our business. Casting off self-limiting beliefs and delivering on an ethical platform are definite ‘Quest-isms’.

Our discussions struck a particular chord with me having confronted my own self-limiting beliefs by completing a marathon. Having never previously taken on any serious physical challenge – nor committed myself to such a time-consuming and all-enveloping training regime – I was able to achieve a major life milestone. I cast off my previous belief system that I could never achieve such a tough task and focused on crossing the finish line.

So, how does learning about identity icebergs add to my working life? Well, I think it demonstrates a valid point for PR. Let’s extend the analogy and say that PR is the above-water for a company – its own internal mechanisms are played out by the below-water part of the iceberg. By quite literally getting under the water of our clients and understanding their business vision, values and abilities, we hope that what we’re portraying is an accurate reflection of the truth.

For some in PR that’s not always the case. Companies have approached us to cover up or fudge issues to protect them from media flack and I can happily say we have so far turned them down. Why? Because how can we stand by our own ethical value if we don’t extend that to our clients. Presenting the public with a false impression of a company or person is tantamount to lying – not something I am comfortable with (or, quite frankly, very good at.)

And me? Well having cast off my self-limiting beliefs I have unleashed a new demon – how to satisfy my new craving as an exercise junkie. So, I’ve joined a gym – not the cheapest experience ever but hopefully one that will enable me to continue pushing myself and dispelling further personal myths.

Wikipedia: to PR or not to PR?

Having become a relative newcomer to the online encyclopedia-cum-community-interest-learning facility Wikipedia (I’ve been a passive user for a while but this week I actually made some additions), I continue to stand in awe at its socialist ideals and range of information available.

Allowing all of us to share our knowledge – and most importantly to have that questioned, challenged and refuted – it brings to the fore to the power of the internet and its means as a communication tool. However, its openness can also be its downfall.

Run by a collective of worthy and good-meaning truth seekers called the Cleanup Taskforce their job is to ensure accuracy and settle disputes. Canny PR types have capitalised on this rather hands-off approach to use Wikipedia as another powerful, ‘objective’ voice to promote clients. Key messages, abridged histories and ‘salient’ facts drawn together ensure their clients’ reputations are safeguarded.

Earlier this year, Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales told the PR industry where to stick its attempts at controlling corporate messages on the site’s pages. And, while I agree that our industry’s involvement may well rail against Jimmy’s principles of well-meaning individuals adding, editing and updating for the sheer fun of it, I fail to see the problem. In launching an online, open-access forum for debate and discussion, it seems disingenuous to think that those of us who manage messages and devise and implement media campaigns to showcase our clients, wouldn’t want to do the same across new media.

Its checking mechanisms and Cleanup Taskforce may well be kept more busy than previously, but how does that differ from the role of sub-editors on a newspaper whose job is to ensure accuracy of message and language. PR and journalism operate a symbiotic relationship and newspaper editors and their subs have the job to check that we submit – and get printed – isn’t totally PR-speak and is a factually honest account. Wikipedia’s high morality shouldn’t be treated as an excuse to batter the PR industry – many of us recognise the power we have in forging opinions of our clients in the public eye and treat that with responsibility and respect. Please, Jimmy, treat us with the same respect and get your own house in order to keep the more flagrant elements of our industry under control.

Finally, as to my own additions: having looked at other towns’ and suburbs’ pages I felt Pudsey’s was under-represented. My role: to ensure Pudsey’s page is as positive a representation as possible. The desired result: who knows, maybe my little area of Leeds will be the next up-and-coming ‘burb!

On a totally separate point, Lynne Franks seems to be losing it. I wonder if she still feels promoting the work of SEED is worth it.

I'm a PR guru, get me in there

So, Lynne Franks – self-styled PR guru – has entered the Australian jungle in this year’s ever-popular ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’. Initial arguments with the world’s first supermodel and uber-cosmetically-enhanced Janice Dickinson have made excellent viewing and headlines across the country.

Laying herself open to the snakes, spiders, assorted animal appendages nd Ant and Dec’s comedy links, Lynne has perhaps – more so than most PRs are prepared to – opened her true self up to the world.

No-one that I can remember (bearing in mind I watch a LOT of them) has ever left a reality show championing its honest portrayal of their inner beauty. The vast majority become acutely aware of their myriad personality flaws and how they frequently clash with their fellow contestants. Lynne Franks, as a PR practitioner of some years knows all too well, managing a client’s messages is a powerful way of ensuring their target audiences understand their product or service and choose to buy from or engage with that company.

Revealing your most intimate self on national television would certainly go against mine – and I’m sure many other PR professional’s – advice. Once you reveal all, it’s a long and slow road back to discretion and control. When advising clients in handling media interviews and liaising with journalists I encourage a strict adherence to key messages and ‘brand identity’ while incorporating as much personality, personal interest and ‘colour’ to ensure a journalist takes on the story. Ticking off a list of the important points and taking a lead in an interview means clients receive positive coverage and their messages reach their target audiences.

Lynne’s latest incarnation is as a ‘lifestyle guru and visionary’- offering the world advice on the changes is today’s and tomorrow’s world as well as encouraging and supporting women in enterprise. Admirable aims and no doubt her raised profile will allow her a louder voice in getting out those messages. But it puzzles me that someone who is so tuned in to the workings of international media, the merry-go-round of our modern-day celebrity circus show and how to orchestrate and manage all of that would throw themselves into the lion’s den so willingly.

I look forward to being proven wrong by Lynne Franks as she succeeds in accomplishing a win-win from her rumble in the jungle. Her spats with Janice Dickinson – and the consequent negative media interest – may reveal otherwise.