We are back with another great interview with bright
PR professionals from around the world for this blog, “global public
relations”, in-cooperation with the upcoming IV
World Communication Forum – #WCFDavos, that will take place on 10-11 March 2015.
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| Beautiful Berlin |
This
time we had the chance to talk with a very experienced international public
relations professional which has been for decades helping organisations in
Germany to interact abroad & foreign companies to develop relations in
German territory and beyond.
I have the honour to introduce, Guntram Kaiser. Chief Executive Officer,
"KaiserCommunication" GmbH. The international PR agency KaiserCommunication GmbH is the official partner-agency of the World Communication Forum - #WCFDavos in Germany.
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| Guntram Kaiser with the Russian Ambassador in Germany |
Guntram
has more than 25 years of experience in international Public Relations and
Strategy Consulting, Crisis Communication and Issue Management for his clients
in Germany, Russia, Asia and other parts of the world.
In the
1990s, he was Managing Director at the international PR agency
Weber Shandwick in Bonn and Berlin. Among his clients were HEWLETT
Packard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Cyprus Republic, the German
Federal Ministry of Economics, Siemens, the Industrial Development Board for
Northern Ireland and many others.
In 2003,
he founded his own communication agency, KaiserCommunication GmbH in Berlin. Kaiser Communication is the exclusive
partner agency of the #WCFDavos in Germany.
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| Modern Berlin |
Guntram
is a member of the Russian Association of Public Relations (RASO). In 2014, he
was a jury member of the Russian PR Award "Serebrjany Luchnik" in the category
global communication.
Guntram Kaiser is a guest lecturer in Public Relations,
Intercultural Management and Business Management at the Business School of the
Moscow's Lomonosov State University, The Moscow's State Linguistic University and, the Berlin based, EBC College. He is the author of a large number of articles
about Public Relations in German and Russian books & magazines. Guntram is
also Chairman of the Public Diplomacy Initiativkreis e.V.
Guntram Kaiser will be speaking on 10-11 March 2015 at
the VI World Communication Forum in Davos, Switzerland. For the full agenda,
please visit www.forumdavos.com.
INTERVIEW
1. From your large international public relations
experience, how do you evaluate communications done in different parts of the
world? In other words, do you see much difference between successful
communication projects undertaken in Germany when comparing to other countries,
such as Russia, for instance?
Guntram: In my experience, more or less all professionals follow the RACE
(Research, Analysis, Communication, Evaluation) model when establishing a public
relations strategy. This means, they conduct proper research and determine
their communication objective, their target audiences, their communication messages
and so on. In addition, an evaluation of the results is usually taking place everywhere.
I see differences in the implementation. Here, the tools, activities and
measures carried out vary from country to country. This naturally reflects the
different national or organizational cultures, the level of application of new
technologies, the specifics of the media landscape and others.
The Russians have managed to establish a highly
professional public relations industry in less than 25 years and not only in
the two biggest cities Moscow and St. Petersburg. They have excellent
professionals and very good agencies. Their universities develop high level
future professionals. Certainly, the industry is rather new in the country and is
not as deeply rooted in the whole society as it is the case in the United
States or the UK.
2. How do you define the term “International Public
Relations"?
Guntram:
As far as I know,
there is no internationally accepted definition
of the term. Organizers of PR awards often define it as a public relations
campaign involving more than two countries. In the scientific discourse, you
find the definition that it is communication beyond the borders of the home
country of an organization. I can agree will all these definitions.
In my own company, we present ourselves as specialists
in international public relations as we first and foremost help foreign
organizations with their communication efforts in Germany. We also help German
companies in their communication outside of Germany. We work in different
expert groups specializing in the regions the majority of our clients come
from. Our team for the Russian-speaking market consists of six staff members who
speak Russian on native or close to native level.
3. Do you believe in Global Communication that make use of
a unified code for all the countries where an organization operates or in
Cross-Cultural Communication that takes into account cultural differences and
local traditions? Why?
Guntram: I believe that the use of a unified code is more or
less impossible. You usually have to take the situation in the different
countries and regions into consideration. By this, I mean the cultural
differences such as values, norms, symbols, languages, core believes and religion,
to mention only a few. The local traditions, the size of the country, the
density of population, specifics of the consumer behavior and the media
landscape are equally important.
The situation is similar to international marketing.
At the end of the day, organizations have to decide to which extent they can
standardize their communication and to which extent they have to adjust it
according to the concrete situation in the different countries. Most of the time
the compromise or solution is standardized differentiation.
Especially multinational organizations would certainly
prefer a geocentric approach in their communication with a unified strategy all
over the world. Therefore, one can often observe a change of the hired agency
after a while. A few years a multinational organization works with an
international PR agency or network until it realizes the deficits. Consequently,
they change the strategy and hire local agencies, which also has its
disadvantages. Hence, they return to the former approach of hiring an
international network and the cycle starts again.
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| Freie Universität Berlin |
Guntram:
2003 was indeed not the best time to start an agency. After 9/11 in the United
States, the number of assignments from the American market dropped alarmingly.
As a result, all German Public Relations agencies, including the big networks,
were focusing their acquisition efforts on Germany. That made it hard for a
newcomer to find a niche.
Therefore, I decided to follow three essential
positions: First, we stuck to the full service concept to which I was used to
from my days at Weber Shandwick. Second, we did not limit ourselves to one or
two industry sectors. Third, we positioned ourselves as a company that
specializes in serving international clients and international projects.
Nowadays, the majority of our clients come from Asia
and the Russian-speaking countries. Also, the German Federal Foreign Office is
an important client. We prepare and implement familiarization programs and
visits for international journalists and also bloggers for them.
.JPG) |
| Guntram Kaiser with the Malaysian Ambassador in Germany |
I am very proud that the Malaysian Timber Council, the
umbrella organization of the Malaysian timber industry, has been a client of
mine for 20 years this year. For them, we are doing the whole range of public
relations tools including media work, trade fair presences, publications,
seminars and workshops, online activities and governmental relations. I believe
that my team and I have done a great job over the years helping both sides.
The
Malaysians wanted to continue exporting their tropical timber products to
Germany while many Germans called for a boycott of tropical timber. Now
Malaysia is selling sustainably produced timber to Germany and Germans are
still able to buy tropical timber. This bridge building aspect is part of my
philosophy on what PR can and should do, especially when it comes to managing
issues.
Another rather interesting project and client is the
international media project “Russia Beyond The Headlines” of the leading
Russian newspaper Rossijskaya Gaseta which we represent in Germany. The idea is
to publish printed newspaper supplements in leading international daily newspapers
and online articles about Russia, offering insights beyond what the Western
media is usually covering.
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| Guntram Kaiser at the Frankfurt Bookfair |
In Germany, we cooperate with Handelsblatt. Our
function is to promote the project in Germany by establishing media
partnerships, presenting the project at major exhibitions or trade fairs such
as the International Tourism Exchange ITB in March every year in Berlin or the Frankfurt
Book Fair in October every year.
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| Frankfurt Skyline |
In this project, I am interpreting my role
more as somebody who brings both sides, the Germans and the Russians, together
to advocate a dialogue. After all, currently both sides disagree on a number of
issues and dialogue is badly needed.
5. KaiserCommunication is the exclusive partner-agency of
the World Communication Forum in Germany. Could you tell us for how long have
you been involved with WCF and what are your observations regarding the Forum?
Guntram: This is the first year I am working with WCF. I was fascinated
by the project from the first moment I heard about it from Yanina
Dubeykovskaya. It matches my philosophy and approach 100 percent.
It fits into
my concept of working internationally with my agency and fully meets the
positioning of my company. I am looking forward to meeting all the high-ranking
international public relations specialists from almost all over the world in
Davos in March.
6. Could you please talk about your role as Chairman at
the Public Diplomacy Initiativkreis? What are the core mission and key
objectives of such initiative?
Guntram:
The members of our
initiative and I are of the opinion that
every citizen who has something to say, be it as part of an organization,
as a journalist or even as a private person, can be seen as a representative of
his or her country. We think it is important to engage in dialogue with each
other and thus achieve something valuable together on whatever topic or issue.
This is our understanding of good public diplomacy. The Public Diplomacy
Initiativkreis is an independent initiative with the aim of fostering tolerance
and international understanding on all cultural levels.
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| Berlin Reichstag |
To achieve our aims, we organize intercultural
projects and information tours for foreign journalists in cooperation with our
partners from politics, science, media and business. In 2014, we organized
among other events a roundtable discussion about the fall of the Berlin wall, which
commemorated its 25th anniversary last year, for a group of
communication directors of Scandinavian medium sized companies. Keynote speaker
was a leading German journalist who attended the famous press conference at which
the opening of the border was announced.
In April 2014, we were one of the first who organized
a platform to discuss the situation in the Ukraine from the perspective of
communication on the various sides. Special guest was Igor Mintusov, one of the
top Russian Public Affairs specialists.
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| Astonishing Moscow archictecture |
7. You are guest lecturer in Public Relations,
Intercultural Management and Business Management in Universities in Russia and
Germany. What do you think is important to consider in Public Relations courses
academic curriculums in the present times?
Guntram: The public relation courses I currently teach are
normally part of bachelor programs for students in the field of international
business management. My students are not specialized public relations students.
They are more the general managers of tomorrow. I mainly explain to them the
role of public relations as part of the communication mix. We practice the
establishment of a proper public relations strategy, and we talk about how to
carry out successful media work and the increasing role of social media.
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| Guntram Kaiser in one of his lectures in Moscow, Russia |
The above are also basics for curriculums for public
relations specialists. However, preparing good public relations specialists is
a big challenge nowadays because of the many facets that play a role in this
profession today. When I joined the PR business some 25 years ago, the main
demands were to have a good general knowledge, be open-minded, be able to
interact with the media and to have good writing and organizational skills.
These days, you have to know the English language at nearly a native speaker
level, you have to understand all the new technologies, not just social media
and the internet, and be able to apply them. It is very difficult to squeeze all
of this in an academic curriculum.
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| Moscow by night |
8. What is Intercultural Management? Is it connected to
crisis communication management?
Guntram: Intercultural Management is all about managing
cultural differences properly. It has become a key factor in being successful
in international business in light of globalization. There is an increasing demand
for businesses to understand and manage the diversity in values, perceptions, views
and behaviors.
Facilitating a successful and efficient communication between
cultures is one of the elements of intercultural management. It is a
precondition for less conflict in the interaction of personnel and customers
across borders.
It is well-documented that statistically over three
quarters of international acquisitions and alliances fail due to cultural
differences. Many companies have made massive losses due to the mismanagement
of international projects. The poor, inadequate or entirely missing
communication in these cases has contributed to an even worse situation,
bringing us to the link between intercultural management and crisis
communication.
9. How important are “Intercultural Awareness” or
“Intercultural Communication” frameworks in the field of crisis communication?
Guntram:
One can and should
look at it from both perspectives. On the one hand, wrong communication and
missing intercultural awareness can cause or deepen a crisis. A couple of years
ago, Nokia closed down a production site in Germany, leaving approximately 2000
people without a job, and moved operations to Romania where the costs were
lower.
After a long period of complete silence, Nokia explained its decision
strictly based on financial arguments, not showing any empathy to those who
lost their jobs. This caused immense protest from the powerful German trade
unions but also federal, state and local politicians. The solidarity of the entire
German population with the former Nokia workers was huge. The damage to Nokia’s
image was immense.
On the other hand, communication in a crisis has to consider
different cultures. A very prominent example is the catastrophe in the
Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011. In Germany, the disaster has led to the
decision to shut down all nuclear power plants by the year 2022 and the Green
Party saw an immense surge in popularity. In other countries, the reaction was
less emotional and less influential on the public’s perception of nuclear
power.
10. Have
you ever heard about the term “Intercultural Crisis Communication”? Does it
make sense in the current times? Why?
Guntram: It is an emerging field, which
has received increased attention over the last years, especially after the
Fukushima catastrophe. In fact, there was a huge difference
between the Japanese authorities’ perception of their crisis communication and
the global media’s perceptions on the Japanese authorities’ crisis
communication. This has a lot to do with cultural differences.
We have many situations nowadays that representatives of different cultures
perceive differently. It requires cultural awareness, sensitivity and goodwill to
handle these differences properly if one wants to avoid a crisis or contribute
to a proper handling of a crisis. To me, it makes a lot of sense to pay more
attention to intercultural crisis communication. The most attractive aspect
lies in the potential to avoid crisis situations.
Keep an eye here for
future interviews with C-level PR executives from around the globe.
Join
us in Davos on 10-11 March 2015 for the VI World Communication Forum - #WCFDavos - www.forumdavos.com.
Follow me on Twitter @FlaviOliveira
BR
~ and keep on smiling :-)
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