PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR) FOR ENTREPRENEURS

PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR) FOR ENTREPRENEURS

A good public relations (PR) strategy can be one of the most cost-effective marketing tactics to grow your business. Many startups and entrepreneurs often overlook or are unclear about the benefits of PR when creating their business plan. When properly implemented and at the right time, effective PR results in long-lasting relationships, credibility and trustworthiness of your brand built over time.

Marketing vs. Public Relations (PR)

The distinctions between marketing and public relations (PR) have blurred with the emergence and shift to digital media. Today, both disciplines share similar objectives and activities. In many organizations PR falls under the marketing umbrella. Marketing includes the full range of brand communication from advertising to sales through public relations and corporate social responsibility.

Public relations encompasses tools, processes and external relations used to engage and communicate with the public. The goal of PR is to establish credibility, create and build brand awareness, generate interest, provide information, and stimulate demand.

In 2012, the Public Relations Society of America developed a crowd-sourced definition:

"Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics." – PRSA

How Public Relations Can Help Grow Your Business

The power of PR is the ability to establish credibility of your business from a third party. When consumers observe media coverage of a product or service, it has much more perceived value than traditional advertisements. People are six times more likely to pay attention to news stories and more likely to believe endorsements in editorial content nine times more than advertisements making the same claims. Good media placement can dramatically increase sales and contribute to your overall bottom line.

Here are various ways PR can help an Entrepreneur

PR can draw attention

2.      PR can generate interest

3.      PR can stimulate desire

4.      PR can enhance credibility

5.      PR can raise brand awareness

6.      PR can make executives more valuable

7.      PR can highlight company differentiators

8.      PR can drive leads.

  

Is Your Business Ready for PR?

Knowledgeable marketing and PR communications consultants know when it’s the right time for your brand to connect with the media. Engaging with publicity services when you are not ready could result in disappointment, waste of valuable time, unnecessary expenses and can damage your long-term communication plans.

Here are some things to ask yourself and your team before launching a PR campaign:

1) What are the objectives of the project and public relations initiatives?

2) What makes your brand unique and stand out from the competition in the marketplace?

3) Do you have proven results and/or proof of concept?

4) Can you handle the traffic that the media can bring? (Customer service, production, server technology, etc.)

What Is CORPORATE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT?

Corporate performance management (CPM), also called business performance management (or sometimes enterprise performance management), is an “umbrella term” used to described the methodologies and processes that help you manage the success of an organization. You can think of corporate performance as the collaborative accomplishments, successes, and failures of an organization. In Driving Corporate Performance, you will explore the critical link among strategy, performance measurement, organizational design, and corporate governance. CPM is important for every company, but especially those looking to:

• Remodel their budget.
• Reduce costs.
• Better align KPIs.
• Upgrade their organizational strategy.
• Improve the financial planning process.

It’s important to note that CPM is a subsect of business intelligence—and it’s not a strategy in and of itself. In order to be successful with CPM, companies must implement a framework to see that their corporate performance is actually being managed.

In order to do this, different strategic frameworks and management methodologies are employed. One of the most notable is the Balanced Scorecard—which, as you may know, is a strategic planning and management system that takes several organizational viewpoints (aside from only the financial angle) into account. Organizations are also using EFQM Excellence Model, MPO, and Six Sigma. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are typically used to measure the success of these frameworks in action.

Corporate Performance Management Vs. Human Performance Management

These two concepts are often compared and confused, so I’ll do my best to mitigate some of the uncertainty.

Human performance management (HPM) is subset of human resources. It seeks to improve employee productivity, satisfaction, and operational capability. To measure your success with HPM, you might look at employee reviews or turnover rates.

Corporate performance management, on the other hand, has nothing to do with employee reviews—it deals entirely with how you communicate, align around, and execute your organization strategy. You’re able to do this through frameworks that support CPM, which are most often subsets and of approaches to business intelligence as a whole (like the Balanced Scorecard, which we talked about above).

When you hear the term “performance management,” it is important to ask if someone is speaking about corporate performance management or human (individual, employee, staff, etc) performance management.

Why Is CPM Important?

Recent studies have shown that strategy execution is the number one area of focus for senior executives today. And CPM is a way to help ensure your strategies get executed. By integrating organizational goals, metrics, and projects, your company is aligned around strategic priorities and can focus on the key drivers of the business.

Because this is so critical to the C-suite, many organizations now have a department dedicated solely to strategy or performance management (occasionally merged with project management). These offices, sometimes called the Office of Strategy Management (OSM) or Project Management Offices (PMO), handle measures, reporting, strategic projects, alignment, communications, and strategic planning…all under the guise of CPM.

In fact, this is becoming such a popular and well-received concept that performance management is becoming a true profession. There are even certification programs to help individuals become true experts in performance management.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

Internal communication takes place within an organization, for example, communication between employees. The purpose of internal communication includes:

• giving information
• gathering information
• clarifying issues and points
• Influencing opinion and attitudes.

Oral communication is a common form of internal communication, for example in a group or one-to-one meeting. Nowadays, electronic communication is growing in importance. This can involve written communication, such as an e-mail, text or tweet, or oral communication via video conferencing. Enterprise uses a variety of communication methods. For example, employees are introduced to the company’s values and systems through induction events, company meetings, posters (visual reminders of values), the company website and its intranet. This multi-channel approach enables Enterprise to communicate its core values to its employees. These messages include:

• ‘Our brand is the most valuable thing we own. Our reputation and the powerful brands we build together are our most precious assets.
• Personal honesty and integrity are the foundation of our success – our employees accept responsibility for demonstrating our true commitment to the highest ethical standards.
• Customer service is our way of life.
• We work hard and reward hard work.
• Great things happen when we listen – to our customers and to each other.’

Intranet

Enterprise has recently developed a new intranet system called ‘The Hub’. This replaced a purely information based system. The Hub enables input from employees at Enterprise’s locations across Western Europe and North America. This channel of communication supports Enterprise’s core value – ‘great things happen when we listen’. The benefits of The Hub are that it enables:

• Enterprise to transmit company news and information easily to employees
• employees to share best practice through discussions, meeting notes or ideas
• employees to collaborate on projects in groups without using convoluted e-mail communication
• a reduction in the number of announcement e-mails that have to be sent out to the employee base.

Induction

Another internal communications strategy at Enterprise is its ‘on-boarding’ program for new employees. As well as a company induction, new recruits receive a personal congratulatory welcome letter from the managing director. Letters are also sent to their parents and partners to congratulate them on their child or spouse’s success. This re-enforces the family-orientated culture at Enterprise. Importantly, this also begins to build a foundation of cultural understanding. This continues to be reinforced through further internal communications as employees develop their careers.

What is TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT?

What is TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT?

Total Quality Management is a management approach that originated in the 1950s and has steadily become more popular since the early 1980s. Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company’s operations, with processes being done right the first time and defects and waste eradicated from operations.

Total Quality Management, TQM, is a method by which management and employees can become involved in the continuous improvement of the production of goods and services. It is a combination of quality and management tools aimed at increasing business and reducing losses due to wasteful practices.

Some of the companies who have implemented TQM include Ford Motor Company, Phillips Semiconductor, SGL Carbon, Motorola and Toyota Motor Company.

TQM Defined

TQM is a system of management based on the principle that every member of staff must be committed to maintaining high standards of work in every aspect of a company's operations. In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services, and the culture in which they work.

TQM is a management philosophy that seeks to integrate all organizational functions (marketing, finance, design, engineering, and production, customer service, etc.) to focus on meeting customer needs and organizational objectives.

TQM views an organization as a collection of processes. It maintains that organizations must strive to continuously improve these processes by incorporating the knowledge and experiences of workers. The simple objective of TQM is “Do the right things, right the first time, every time.” TQM is infinitely variable and adaptable. Although originally applied to manufacturing operations, and for a number of years only used in that area, TQM is now becoming recognized as a generic management tool, just as applicable in service and public sector organizations. There are a number of evolutionary strands, with different sectors creating their own versions from the common ancestor. TQM is the foundation for activities, which include:

• Commitment by senior management and all employees
• Meeting customer requirements
• Reducing development cycle times
• Just in time/demand flow manufacturing
• Improvement teams
• Reducing product and service costs
• Systems to facilitate improvement
• Line management ownership
• Employee involvement and empowerment
• Recognition and celebration
• Challenging quantified goals and bench-marking
• Focus on processes / improvement plans
• Specific incorporation in strategic planning

This shows that TQM must be practiced in all activities, by all personnel, in manufacturing, marketing, engineering, R&D, sales, purchasing, HR, etc.

Why should a company adopt TQM?

Adopting the TQM philosophy will:

• make an organization more competitive
• establish a new culture which will enable growth and longevity
• provide a working environment in which everyone can succeed
• reduce stress, waste and friction
• build teams, partnerships and co-operation

Principles of TQM

The key principles of TQM are as following:

Management Commitment

• Plan (drive, direct)
• Do (deploy, support, participate)
• Check (review)
• Act (recognize, communicate, revise)

Employee Empowerment

• Training
• Suggestion scheme
• Measurement and recognition
• Excellence teams

Fact Based Decision Making

• SPC (statistical process control)
• DOE, FMEA
• The 7 statistical tools
• TOPS (Ford 8D – team-oriented problem solving)

Continuous Improvement

• Systematic measurement and focus on CONQ
• Excellence teams
• Cross-functional process management
• Attain, maintain, improve standards

Customer Focus

• Supplier partnership
• Service relationship with internal customers
• Never compromise quality
• Customer driven standards

The Concept of Continuous Improvement by TQM

TQM is mainly concerned with continuous improvement in all work, from high level strategic planning and decision-making, to detailed execution of work elements on the shop floor. It stems from the belief that mistakes can be avoided and defects can be prevented. It leads to continuously improving results, in all aspects of work, as a result of continuously improving capabilities, people, processes, technology and machine capabilities.

Continuous improvement must deal not only with improving results, but more importantly with improving capabilities to produce better results in the future. The five major areas of focus for capability improvement are demand generation, supply generation, technology, operations and people capability.

A central principle of TQM is that mistakes may be made by people, but most of them are caused, or at least permitted, by faulty systems and processes. This means that the root cause of such mistakes can be identified and eliminated, and repetition can be prevented by changing the process.

There are three major mechanisms of prevention:

1. Preventing mistakes (defects) from occurring (mistake-proofing or poka-yoke).
2. Where mistakes can’t be absolutely prevented, detecting them early to prevent them being passed down the value-added chain (inspection at source or by the next operation).
3. Where mistakes recur, stopping production until the process can be corrected, to prevent the production of more defects. (stop in time).