The latest fad in the world of Public Relations is for a person with at least ten years of experience to quit his or her corporate job or consultancy job and get into entrepreneur mode by starting a firm. While this is great for the individual I’m not sure it bodes well for a profession that is just about coming of age. I have received five messages on Whatsapp, LinkedIn and email in as many weeks about five different people starting out this summer.
While I definitely think there is a need for another half a dozen good PR firms as there is a dearth of those, I do not think the way forward is for individuals to just start creating firms overnight with 2-3 clients paying them a lakh each per month.
I wish these individuals come together and create a joint venture. I joked on Twitter the other day that at the going rate we would have 52 consultancies by the end of next August at the rate of one being launched every week.
Why is it not a good thing? Here are at least seven reasons –
I can list at least seven reasons why they are good. But I will leave that for another day or for someone who just started out to respond to the points above through a perspective that is different. Until then, all I can say is best of luck to those who have been there and all the best to those who have just started!
– Amith Prabhu
Amith is the Dean of the School of Communications & Reputation (SCoRe)- A post graduate institute of Public Relations built by the Indian PR community. He is also the founder of the PRomise Foundation which organises PRAXIS, India’s annual summit of reputation management professionals. He can be reached @amithpr on twitter.