Personal Relations - A new way for PR - part 5

Klaus Schwab, Founder of the World Economic Forum, says: “The current economic crisis should warn us to fundamentally rethink the development of the moral framework and the regulatory mechanisms that underpin our economy, politics and global interconnectedness.”

Positioned in the positive, there are real commercial, as well as social and moral opportunities for revisiting and integrating values into the heart of PR. New PR, as such, has more of a social entrepreneurship model; it recognises that its health as an industry (the most powerful industry) is inextricably linked with the moral and social health of the world. If ethics or virtues are something it was to do on the side, like Corporate Social Responsibility, how would it successfully engage with the consumer who yearns for empathy, trust, and mutual collaboration?

We only need to look at the meteoric rise of the social enterprise sector (where commercial motives are coupled with a core social drive) in recent years, to recognise that we are all now playing in a different arena. Since the economic downturn began, 56 per cent of UK social enterprises have increased their turnover from the previous year. Perhaps a new PR, grounded in values, solutions and communicating stories through the lens of a human heart, may not just mean a new approach, it may mean new business.

Old PR differentiates between the public face and the private life. Today, there is little distinction in the public’s minds – you are a good, trustworthy person or you are not. Today, there is a brave new vision of PR, Personal Relations. In this world, ethics are not only desirable – they are the necessary foundation for PR to fulfil its social, ethical and commercial potential.

Let us start by adopting this Personal Relations approach with the PR industry itself. Only by being the PR we want to see in the world can we begin to rebuild trust. By sharing the human stories of the people in this great industry, and integrating our personal moral compasses and hopes into our profession, we can strive to make working in PR a badge of honour, serving with humility and dignity, the most powerful entity on earth. <end>

Simon Cohen, is founder and managing director of global tolerance. He has worked directly with HH Dalai Lama, HRH The Prince of Wales, Desmond Tutu, Karen Armstrong and even Wallace and Gromit to fulfil his vision of global tolerance through positive communications. He is an international speaker and trainer on communications and ethics, having spoken and run workshops at international organisations such as the World Economic Forum, UNESCO, Parliament of the World's Religions and TEDx. A staunch advocate for media ethics and a freelance journalist, he is a regular commentator in the international media, and has written for Newsweek, the Washington Post, The Times, the Guardian, and the BBC. Media Week and PR Week have named Simon numerous times as one of the top young media and PR professionals in the UK. He has received multiple awards from UnLtd and the Millennium Awards Trust as a leading social entrepreneur. In 2009, he was included in PR Week’s Powerbook of the most influential people in the PR industry. He can be followed on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/globaltolerance.