Commentary

If there’s one person I wouldn’t want to be right now, it’s the CEO of SMRT.

Affecting more than 130,000 train passengers, last week’s 3 major MRT incidents over a period of 3 days has spurred public backlash. The recent wave of negative publicity that has surrounded SMRT is a lesson to larger organisations to ramp up their Crisis Management Strategies - if indeed they do have one.

Many companies in Singapore ask: “Is digital marketing really for us? Isn’t social media a marketing gimmick that targets youngsters?” However, the question to ask is no longer “Should we?” because it is rapidly becoming a ‘We must’.

I believe Singapore will eventually experience a severe earthquake. I’m not a pessimist; I’m a realist. You can't live 400 hundred kilometers from a major earthquake fault and say there is no risk of earthquake.

I was at a coffee shop in the Aljunied district of Singapore enjoying a nice plate of braised duck kway chap. The duck rice stall owner (let’s call him Ah San) came over with a frown and sat down with me and he lamented over the gloom future ahead in which the media was reporting.

Imagine if you could communicate to all your staff with a tool more productive than email? Where your staff in Singapore could watch, learn and communicate with colleagues in the next office, next building or your regional HQ half way across the globe.

Born in Singapore and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area (don’t worry, I came back to complete my National Service), I guess you can say that I’m pretty familiar with the two places. Although there are obvious and discernible differences between Singapore and the Bay Area, they’re quite similar for the most part.

So, you’ve got this fantastic product or service – and you want everybody to know about it. But you are not sure how to get your message across to the general public or specific audiences. You’ve asked yourself the question Public Relations or Advertising? The relative impact and objective of each are very different. Public relations can benefit over time from—and is designed to work in conjunction with—advertising and specific marketing initiatives. One major and obvious factor that differentiates advertising from public relations is that advertising is paid placement. Public relations, on the other hand, is free editorial placement. Public relations campaigns leverage the power of the media to promote your business and products to the general public. The difference between the two rests in your ability to weigh the benefits of a PR campaign against the benefits of traditional advertising. If a newspaper or magazine decides that your product is article worthy, you will enjoy publicity with no out of pocket costs to the media. The media outlets themselves bear the expense of air time or print space because in their eyes, they are reporting a newsworthy item to their viewers or readers. There is a myth which says the media will most likely only run your story once. Not true. An expert PR consultant can ensure that the story can be spun into new angles. A great story can snowball. Imagine getting nationwide or international exposure, absolutely free. This can be done by issuing a well written press release, writing a feature placement or pitching a story that appeals to the editor. Writing a press release is usually accompanied by the essential key messages, FAQs, a company profile, a fact sheet with succinct information, your Biodata etc – all packed together in a Media Kit (file folder) which is then presented to the journalist. Sending off a well-written press release with the right information has a lot of advantages. It can dramatically increase your sales, expose your company to the masses, and greatly enhance the image of your business or products. You also have content control over what is published contrary to the myth. The journalist that takes on the assignment or decides to interview you may have all the say in the length, word choice, and format of what is being reported about your product or service. But an expert PR consultant can help you spin the story so that the information is presented in a fair and accurate manner. The expert PR consultant is also able to prepare the client for an interview by pre-empting many of the questions to be expected from the journalist. In some cases, the PR Consultant can even ask the journalist the questions in advance. At times the journalist may not provide specific questions but the PR consultant will be told that the interview will hover around a certain topic, making it easy for the PR Consultant to pre-empt the questions. Be honest with yourself: How many times have you seen an advertisement in a magazine or a newspaper and you show skepticism about the product's reliability? Advertising is all about the hype but is there any truth in it? Even if it’s all true, how would anyone know if there’s no third-party endorsement? When you read an article about a product – say for example, a new luxury car or a computer - in a printed media source, you are usually more inclined to think that the product is trustworthy especially if it has been reviewed by a journalist. So are you going to belief the advertiser word by word or would you prefer a third-party endorsement from a journalist? Readers trust independent authority figures including reviewers, columnists, journalists and broadcasters. An article about your business has far more credibility than an advertisement ever could have. The article carries more information and depth, and everything you wanted to know has already been answered in that article. This is public relations. It takes the value of advertising and builds upon it based on enhanced impact. Editorial is third-party opinion, so the impact is considered three times that of a paid advertisement.  

Take care of your employees’ safety and health and they’ll take care of your business.

Just for a moment, I'd like everyone to take off their advertising hat and become a consumer, with passions, needs and preferences. Think about a brand which you feel a particular connection with, one that helps you fill a need in your life. Not only that, it has to be one that has stood out from the competition because of the creative messaging used to promote it so that it connected with you emotionally. In fact, you feel so strongly about this brand that you rave about it to your friends and family, because you want to share that feeling with them.

I’ve spent a lot of time in Singapore over the last few months, presenting at sustainability and energy conferences. From SMU and SIEW, to EnviroAsia and the ‘Eco Ideas’ forum, I’m greeted with the same query, “what is a sustainable business?” Good question!

Are you frustrated by countless attempts to receive media coverage? Do you hear crickets after approaching a publication with an article or pitch to cover an event? Trying to secure editorial coverage can be a frustrating process, but one that is essential for the growth of most companies. Editors are inundated with phone calls, emails, press release and media packs every day, so you need to ensure you stand out from the masses. Obviously, different media outlets will be on the look-out for various approaches, but these 10 tips could help see your article, event or product launch finally hit the headlines. 1. Do your research. This is the Golden Rule. You absolutely must understand the publication you are seeking editorial coverage in: their target demographic, their average reader, their style, etc. Read up on their 'regulars', usually columns or sections, which are repeated in a pattern each edition. If you tailor your pitch to fill these regular spots, you're likely to get noticed faster. Find out if the publication prints seasonal articles or if they do any themed editions. If you don't do your research, it is painfully obvious - and your email is going straight into 'deleted' folder. 2. Don't be impersonal. Addressing the editor as “Dear Editor”, “Sir/Madam” or, “Media Friend” in an email is mostly seen as laziness. It’s more or less understood in a bulk emailing situation, but will still feel impersonal (hence why it’s a good idea to pick and choose who your press releases go to). It takes 30 seconds to Google or phone the publication to find out the editor’s name. Even worse? Getting their name wrong. 3. Approach them with multiple unique and relevant angles for your pitch. Editors need to know why it is important for their readers to know about something; and not simply because you believe it's important. Who is their publication targeted to? If a magazine's average reader is a 35-year-old mother, then pitch your story with an angle that relates and includes them. Steer clear of re-hashed materials and unimaginative ideas that play to clichés. 4. Don't fill your press releases with jargon. Keep it simple. Most editors want to be approached with ideas that are easy to understand. It sounds strange, but editors don't want to have to 'think' about what you're trying to convey. If it's too hard for them to wrap their heads around quickly, it's unlikely their readers will be able to either. 5. Know the publication's deadlines. There's nothing worse than receiving an interesting and unique pitch for something time sensitive, after the relevant edition has already gone to print. 6. Catch the editor's attention in your first sentence. Ever picked up a newspaper or magazine article, read the first sentence and thought, "I'm bored out of my mind"? That's what it's like when an editor receives a dull, dry and non-creative pitch or press release. Grab their attention! Go on! 7. Be polite, don't spam and don't get attachment-happy. It sounds so simple, but the number of times editors are greeted with a hasty "hello", followed by a flurry of information without so much as a "how are you?" is phenomenal. Everyday manners are important, and a professional, friendly and relaxed phone manner is even more so. In addition, don't clog up the editor's inbox with press releases and don't ever send multiple large attachments in the introductory email. It's almost certain they will get trashed or put in the "I'll read it later...maybe" folder. If an editor is interested, they will contact you for more information. 8. Try to build a professional relationship with the editor. This is not difficult to do, but many people don’t go the extra mile to build beneficial, professional relationships with key media players. Networking and contact building is one of the most important parts of an editor's job. If an editor shows an interest in your pitch, suggest meeting up for a coffee to discuss it further. If you get a good response, you can start to ditch the formalities and continue to pitch stories, many on an exclusive basis to sweeten the deal. Don't disappear once you have got the coverage you want - continuing the relationship will only serve to benefit both parties. 9. Don't be afraid to ask questions. If you don't know, ask. It really is that simple. Do you need to find out the print deadlines? Do you want to know why your pitch was ignored? What material might a publication be looking for in the future? Yes, many editors will be extremely busy and may struggle to answer all your questions right away, but if you explain that by further understanding the publishing process you will be able to cater better for their readers, you might get noticed next time. 10. Keep trying. If it doesn't work the first time, keep trying and don't be discouraged. Make sure you change your approach each time - it will most likely pay off in the end. 

Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine – Lord Byron. I was walking in morning on the beach in Mumbai, India. I saw a group of people standing in a circle, with one person acting as a leader. I found that someone will cut a joke or tell a humor; and everybody will laugh loudly. This was a laughing club whose members try to meet at least twice a week.

Diversity in the workforce has an increasingly global relevance, but there is much debate both here in Singapore and abroad about how it can best be achieved in business. In our second Hays Journal we examine how gender quotas are very much the public face of the diversity agenda, but many remain sceptical about their effectiveness when it comes to driving performance, change and share value. Some organisations fear that a box-ticking approach to recruitment is not compatible with the aim of acquiring the very best talent. Others say that set quotas harm the notion of promotion on merit, can lead to ‘tokenism’ and can simply result in the same women taking on more boardroom roles, rather than bringing in new blood at higher levels. For example, in January 2008 Norway imposed 40 per cent gender quotas on boardrooms. But as one senior HR executive put it to Hays Journal: “Anecdotally, the experience of Norway is that it has not gone well. They’ve just got the same women moving around and taking on more boardroom positions. It has not solved the problem of why there are not more women in business.” Other critics of the Norwegian experiment like to point out that many female directors appointed since 2003 only hold non-executive roles, while the mandatory requirements disguise a lack of female managers in the country. Nevertheless, Elin Hurvenes, founder of Norway’s Professional Boards Forum, says: “A lot of chairmen and investors were deeply opposed to quotas when they were introduced. The feedback from the conference (of Norwegian business leaders and politicians to assess the effects of the quotas) was that while they were still opposed to the idea in principle, they were in fact very happy with the results. So it was a mixed message.” Beyond quotas Yet the perception remains that not enough is done to promote gender diversity. In a recent Hays survey, 62 per cent of over 300 Singaporean respondents thought organisations do not do enough to help women reach the top or that more could be done. Quotas aside, without a genuine engagement and willingness to embrace diversity and inclusion when it comes to hiring and promotion, organisations risk falling into tunnel-visioned ‘group thinking’. But inclusion goes beyond gender box-ticking. If employers are actively encouraged to seek out candidates who will bring different perspectives and ways of problem-solving to the mix, the net result would be that more women – as well as more varied cultural backgrounds – would hold senior roles. This brings the focus to the benefits diversity can bring a business. A genuine engagement and willingness to embrace diversity and inclusion when it comes to recruitment and promotion leads to the business benefit of different ways of thinking. But sometimes, it can require a shove from above, such as quotas, to encourage employers to make diversity reality. This all being said, it is important that we also focus on mentoring young women to help them to aspire to senior management and board positions. As with high performing male talent in an organisation, women need to be identified and encouraged by being given the same opportunities to develop their skills and experience to prepare them for a life at the top. We would advise companies to start the development process early and establish steering groups, active mentorships and coaching or networking programs to allow women to discuss ideas, plan their career path, access career development and settle into new roles.  

A poll of employee attitudes in 14 countries has ranked Singapore bottom in terms of overall workplace happiness. The results place Singapore last in in three major areas – we least enjoy going to work, are the least loyal and have the least supportive workplaces. Adding weight and significance to the last point another recent Singapore poll showed of the top three things that people wanted at work recognition and praise came in second ahead of money and benefits. Mark Kay Ash sumarised the situation perfectly. “There are two things people want more than sex and money -- recognition and praise.” Recognition and praise are indeed high octane fuel. When we receive a genuine compliment, it makes us want to go the extra mile for the person who bestowed the compliment. If this were not important to us, we would not be treasuring all of the mementos of awards, plaques, appreciative notes and emails, and other tokens of appreciation that we receive over the years.

In just over a generation in Singapore, I have seen the emergence of 3 types of stores that I would frequent. As a kid way back then, it was such a treat to go to the neighbourhood “Mamak” Store to get my daily fix of candy and snacks for a mere few cents. Then in my adolescent years (definitely not my best ones as a typical awkward teenager), a weekly visit to the Department Store to gawk at the myriad of products under one roof was a real highlight. Today the store of choice is not one in which I have to travel to, in fact it travels with me wherever I go, the App Store.