Bob Grupp: A Good Example of the World Being Remade

Sir Martin Sorrell touched on many things during his 50-minute Annual Distinguished Lecture to the Institute in November, including public relations in the Middle East. Valued at around $100 million, Sir Martin predicted it will grow by a whopping 200 percent in 2009. “Here’s a good example of the world being remade,” he said.

On a trip wedged between the Muslim holiday Eid and Christmas, I traveled to Dubai and Abu Dhabi to meet the public relations community. I discovered that the emergence of public relations is bringing tremendous opportunities as well as new professional responsibilities to the Arabian Peninsula.

The public relations community in the Gulf is energetic and ambitious (and warm and generous). The people are especially eager to build professionalism and earn additional credibility among clients within the region and then across our networked world.

Sixty percent of the population in the Middle East is under 21. Leaders in our profession consider the task of cultivating young, home-grown talent to be the local industry’s biggest challenge.

At a roundtable discussion I chaired in Abu Dhabi, panelists including Rebecca Hill, the new executive director of the Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA); Haroon Sugich, Managing Director of TRACCS; Ahmed Bin Ali, VP of Corporate Communications at telecommunications giant Etisalat, and Jennifer Hardie, Managing Director International at Pinnacle PR training, concluded:

• Professional associations need to use their position and stature to set standards for public relations practice in the Gulf region;
• The Gulf public relations industry is responsible for building local capabilities;
• The industry as a whole needs to educate local clients and other stakeholders about the meaning of public relations and what it can do (eg. it’s neither marketing nor advertising, nor solely media relations and event management);
• Our profession should be in Gulf boardrooms – and this requires the industry to distinguish itself as a strategic business and management function – helping to achieve business objectives and plans;
• Everyone in the Gulf public relations community needs to work together in the interests of improving the industry;
• Local companies and government departments need to demonstrate leadership in developing public relations and communications throughout the region, and to invest heavily in training local talent.

Tim Ryan of Bell Pottinger described the challenge brilliantly in PR Week, saying the Gulf consists “of a people and a region determined to grow their skills and capacity indigenously; to treat their wealth seriously and productively; and to demonstrate to the world what their culture can do.”

The key, local leaders agree, will be finding the balance between responding to the imperatives that govern global business and communications while effectively representing the identity and culture of the Gulf region and its people.

I enjoyed comparing priorities and perspectives with MEPRA’s Rebecca Hill, formerly VP of Communications at Standard and Poor’s. She believes our profession’s fundamental challenge in the Gulf is to uphold the value of public relations and differentiate it from just issuing of press releases to becoming an integral part of company management.

So where, I asked, do you turn for guidance, for academic research and a body of knowledge upon which the local industry can build standards of practice?

“I go to the Institute’s material all the time. It’s a wonderful resource,” she said.

(Being the public diplomat I fashion myself to be, I feigned confusion and politely inquired of Rebecca which “Institute” she might be referring to.)

“I’m referring to your Institute – the Institute for Public Relations. The one based in Florida. The information that it provides our profession is great!”

A good example of the world being remade, indeed, with IPR seen as a credible resource.

As we approach the New Year and struggle to find the resources to continue our important work, let’s not lose sight of the tremendous impact our Institute is having on our profession, worldwide.

All the best for 2009!

Bob Grupp
Institute Trustee and IPRA President, 2008
President, Grupp Global Partners LLC