My white sneakers definition of PR is telling a corporate executive or a politician what he or she already knows but doesn’t want hear, and doing so in such a way they pay attention and do the right thing.
There is no great secret about the profession I have been planted in for much of my life (with the exception of a dozen years in journalism): I call it the practice of common sense, though various schools that teach the discipline might disagree.
Over the years, I have met very few people in executive positions with a tin ear when it comes to public relations. Most are pretty smart people. That’s how they scrambled up the success ladder.
However, many, when hit with the irrefutable logic of common sense, choose that which is expedient, unsavory, callous, ill-conceived and often illegal.
Put Ukraine’s leadership over the last two decades in a Petri dish, swirl it around, and this would be the resulting culture. The folks in shiny suits and hair looking as if it were formed of Plaster of Paris surely know right from wrong and smart compared to loony.
They either just don’t care, they are out of touch or they have sycophants for advisors. Or, they are, indeed, among the rare breed that are truly challenged when it comes to basic public relations skills and the ability to channel common sense. Oh, there are two other categories: The absolutely evil and the irreparably dumb.
I really don’t know which of these maladies – perhaps it is a combination of several – afflicts the Viktor Yanukovych presidency.
Most of the world looks on in amazement as Yanukovych creates a Joan of Arc martyr out of a woman he defeated in a fair election. Now, his popularity has an anvil tied to it while the jailed former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, sees hers slowly ascending.
This goes beyond common sense, and it makes a sham of political sense. Where does he get his advice? The Sci-Fi Channel?
My characterization extends beyond the political structure to those who tend to be written about in Forbes – as well as in the Kyiv Post – as the richest of the rich. Sometimes they are known as oligarchs, though that nomenclature is stretched too far at times.
What possessed the wealthy owner of Sukhodilska-Skhidna mine, Rinat Akhmetov, not to show up when 28 miners were killed in an explosion oin July? Could it be hubris, detachment, or simply lacking care? I don’t think so.
Anyone who spends as much money as he does to improve mine safety, and who gives more than a passing nod to corporate social responsibility, could not be absent without leave when it comes to compassion.
In a crisis, the person sitting at the head of the food chain is the one that should be on the scene and visible. It is not sufficient that one be compassionate. He or she also has to show compassion.
In the case of the recent mine disaster, I am going to blame it on the most convenient person at the water cooler, the PR guy or lady. It is their job to give frank advice, even at the risk of being fired.
This is where that thing called common sense comes in.
If I had been the adviser during such a calamity – as I have been on occasion – I would have barged into Akhmetov’s inner sanctum and emphatically said: “Boss, get your arse out to that mine.”
I might have been more diplomatic. But you get the point.
Kyiv Post CEO Michael Willard can be reached at [email protected].
