PRAXIS2022: Getting down to business: Ready to be a business partner?

The importance of partnerships and collaborations is basically to develop a niche for your brand and stabilise revenue generation. In today’s fast-paced environment, organisations need to look for new ways to drive collaborative innovation that delivers what their customer needs. 

So, the reality is: flourishing partnerships don’t just fall into your lap. Building strong, effective partners is one big deal, then you need to a set clear foundation for the business relationships and then nurture them too.

“Getting down to business: Ready to be a business partner?” was the topic discussed by Greishma Singh, Vice President, Customer & Commercial Leadership – Coca-Cola India and South West Asia who started her dialogue by revealing that “PR/Communication is not referred to as a primary business partner, which is strange; and PR is a considered strategic function. “We’re business partners to our customers”, she added. 

Sharing her learnings, the first one she put forth was something out-of-the blue  – “Know your Mother- in-law” and then unveiled the fact that MIL of business is the P&L, because financial literacy is the entry part of business; the equations, algorithms that provide the basic answer – where to play and how to win.  

Then “Understanding the ‘big picture’ is critical”. Elaborating, she pronounced that this can be captured through 3 Cs – Consumer, Customer and Competitor. Understanding the customer and consumer is crucial. Even in online market visits, put yourself in the position of your customer and immerse yourself completely, was her advice. As far as competition goes, most companies face problems in internal focus, and PR can help with that. There is massive power for simplicity and she felt PR and communication is well placed to play this role.

“Empathy” is all about truly understanding where you’re coming from. So she urged – “Broaden your footprints. Not only you win, but business as a whole wins!”

Then followed a conversation with Mukesh Kharbanda, Managing Director – Fuzion. When he commented that “somewhere the core concept of P&L is drowning” and – does it hold true in the case of start-ups?  Her quick uptake was – the start-up environment is shaping every sector in India and P&L is changing over time, but ultimately, you have to be tuned in to P&L. There is no getting away from that.

Any tips to becoming a business partner in the future? Her suggestions were exclusive – Take the old MIL (the finance person) out for lunch; as far as storytelling goes, try perfecting it; and also get a clear understanding of how ‘digital’ is impacting businesses (mainly the businesses you are interested in)! 

PR is all about engaging & cultivating quality relationships

PR is all about how you deal with people both inside and outside the company in an effective way – to engage and cultivate quality relationships. To be successful you will need to master certain skills that range from research to creative thinking to time management and global know-how. What are some skillsets that freshers lack when they join, asked Mukesh, and Greishma’s reply was – “They are actually set up to succeed!” Plus she felt that the traditional ladder of perception is changing, and now there is a respect for diversity of thought.

Impact of Covid on communication

Post-Covid there has been a lot of changes in the communication space. But she pinpointed on a positive note, that Covid did take away many barriers from PR and Communication.  

When asked what was her favourite point in her journey, pat came her answer – “We made a big deal of difference!”

With greater importance assigned to regional language, did language communication play a bigger role now, and what will it be in the future? Resting her confidence on content, she felt – “If you have content ready, the channels will open out”. 

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Shree Lahiri

Shree is the Senior Editor at Reputation Today and hopes to move from one focus area to another in the editions that will be released this year. Having worked in Corporate Communications teams, she has experience of advertising, public relations, investor and employee communications, after which she moved to the other side – journalism. She enjoys writing and believes the power of the pen is indeed mighty. Covering the entertainment beat and the media business, she has been involved in a wide range of activities that have thrown open storytelling opportunities.

She can be reached at: @shree_la on twitter