It’s amazing that ‘big’ companies you’d expect to have a public relations function don’t have one. Companies that are ‘big’ names in the business world, who operate multi-million dollar profits, and who seem to have a high profile.
I discovered this when I was contacting companies to get specific contacts for public relations practitioners. “Oh”, the receptionist would say in an off-hand manner, “We don’t have a public relations department you know. HR takes care of that.”
In one case, a multinational, industrial chemicals company had delegated the responsibility for public relations with an administrative assistant. Now, I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but I doubt that this administrative assistant has the wherewithal to handle situations, which would test the mettle of an experienced public relations practitioner. Guess that’s where the consultants come in.
The range of how the public relations function perceived and treated offers much room for discussion. The real question is how important is PR in a company’s organogram? Moreover, how unimportant is it that some ‘big’ companies don’t see the need to hire a qualified professional to carry out public relations duties?
But as Frank Jefkins said in 1977, “every organization has PR whether it likes it or not”. Whether a company has an official public relations function or not, it has a relationship with publics, which is just as important as the planned/ controlled relationship fostered by official public relations programmes.
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Hi Kare, It’s Dimitris. Nice site and very interesting comments on PR! I’m pretty sure Kunal will be jealous! Check my site out at:
http://dimitris-christofileas.blogspot.com
Take care