Rajiv Ahuja is the Head of Corporate Communications at Khimji Ramdas group. He an MBA with a Mechanical Engineering background and has been working for the last twenty seven years.
Starting his career selling & servicing farm equipment, he moved to marketing services after acquiring his MBA and then worked in advertising and PR in India for almost fifteen years in diverse industries, before taking up his current position with Khimji Ramdas, six years ago. In an
exclusive interview, he speaks to Oman Vistas on Public Relations in Oman.

How important are disciplines like Corporate Communications, MarketingCommunications and Public Relations in an organization, especially in the Oman context?

Where ever there is business the importance of Communication & Public Relations cannot be over emphasized; since the very nature of business is to engage with different constituencies
these disciplines form the bedrock of any business process. Here, in Oman also, there has been lot of change in last six years I have been here and one can almost track the evolution of this
function and the importance that is now accorded to it.

Do you think Public Relations come of
age in Oman?

We are on our way but still have a long way to go. There are broadly two aspects to PR. One is where you talk about a new launch, new opening and you give out a press release that goes
to media. Increasingly, newspapers and magazines have shown interest in going deeper in to what is been given, which is an encouraging sign. If you look at the more mature international
markets they would like to go investigate every aspect, even before they report it and have no qualms in giving out negative report either. Here in Oman, I don’t think we have reached
a point where media is ready to take the risk of giving out negative reports.

The other aspect of PR is when there is a need to address negative reports in the wake of a business crisis or a customer crisis of confidence. A corporate communications specialist’s skills are most required at such a juncture; to ensure that the prevailing negative perception does make truth a casualty or in spite of the mistakes made the company is able to salvage the situation and reputation.

Unfortunately, there is no investigative reporting done in this part of the world. Nobody is really trying to find out why things are not working or what really went wrong, etc. So, really if I were look at the kind of status communications as a function enjoys, I would say that the importance undoubtedly is there but is poised to grow even further as the media scene evolves and matures. When the stimulus is different, then your responses are will have to match that too.

What according to you is good public
relations?

When we say public relations we often get confused with press relations. Press is important but when you are talking about Public Relations you are talking about all your constituencies- customers, distributors, principals , bankers etc, which again I feel has a long way to go here. We tend to focus more on the press aspect and tend to ignore all the others; or maybe suppose that the press will be able to take care of others, which to my mind is shortsightedness.

It’s no brainer when you ask if customers are important. We at Khimji Ramdas believe that if the customer has something to say, then he should be given top priority. Let’s take the customer
complaint handling process for instance - the route at one time would be either he will call you up, which is a tiresome process because you can be led to a number of people who could be passing you on from one to another; or he would write a letter which we all know is not a
preferred activity any longer.

So, how does one open a channel of communication with ones customers. We found one easy and exciting route, only two years back when we started our Corporate Blog (www.khimjiblog.
com). When I started it, it was meant to disseminate company promotions, or other interesting trivia. I didn’t now know that it could actually become a channel for people to be able to voice their problems, complaints and surprisingly their praise and appreciation too. But we found, we had suddenly established another link with the customer and bridged a gap in an extremely efficient and responsive manner.

I have taken up the role upon myself to make sure that every complaint registered through the blog is taken to its logical conclusion. An initial response within twenty four hours gives him the time frame by which we would be able to resolve his complaint. The complaint is not closed till the customer communicates to us in writing that he is satisfied. Believe me, the process is working beautifully. That, to me is good public relations; because CRM is an important aspect of PR too. Just because there is no negative public reporting you just can’t sit down and say well its all good. Obviously, there are problems and you have to manage it. The coming of age of PR is a matter of time, because ultimately more and more maturity will come into the market.

We see an increasing number of handouts being published in the daily newspapers everyday. The bigger advertisers seem to more generous editorial space in the newspapers. How would the reader gauge the believability factor of such writeups that appear in the newspapers?

Of course, the credibility factor takes a beating. It is for the publications to think how much of space you give to handouts or how regularly. I feel news worthiness should be the criteria to accord space in the publications. But then its more easily said than done in markets where
the media is dependant largely on advertising revenues for its survival.

What type of an organization can
benefit with good Public Relations?

All type of organisations, even if it’s an educational insitiution or NGO. For, e.g. recently we organized a press conference when our group through our educational wing called Khimji Training Institute tied up with Symbiosis Institute in Pune, India, for a MBA programme in Oman.
The information was well received and we have a number of queries since it filled a need gap. Even when we work with a charitable organization we follow it up with PR so as to be able to
garner more support for them. All kind of organizations can benefit for well thought out communications strategy.

What is the better for any organization? Internal PR specialist within the organization or hiring of a professional PR company?

I think it depends on the needs of the company but ideally, having a combination of both is best. If you have an internal person, he understands the organization so much better, and can
fashion well the tone and tenor of the communication which best reflects the personality of the organization. Every organization has its own image and culture; the same should be reflected in
all its communication too. An Internal PR specialist can actually make sure that this element is taken care of. For large organisations that are in the public eye, its very important then they have an internal PR specialist, in addition to hiring the services of professional PR companies.

Let me reiterate something which I believe is of utmost importance. To me PR is not only Press Relations, but covers a large spectrum of activities. I also feel when we have a large retail presence like Bait Al Alam, Pizza Hut, Khimji’s Mart etc, the PR person has to make sure that
he is in touch with the customer and is aware of the ground realities too. I can say good things about my company but if the customer who comes and interacts with the sales person at the showroom, has a different experience and feels that words do not match the service offered,
then what good is the PR? How credible would I be in the long run?

I feel that PR person, even though it may not be part of his job description, has to go down to the market level and actually make sure things are happening there too. Yes, it may not possible physically at all times, but then mediums like the internet, blogs, etc can help to bridge the gap in maintaining good public relations.