And the Chanakya Awards go to.....also PR Hall of Fame List - 2016

Here is the list of the coveted Chanakya and prestigious Hall of Fame awards presented at the 10th Global Communication Conclave held at Kolkata on January 22 & 23, 2016

National Chanakya Awards 2016

S No	Chanakya Award	Organisation/Person	Designation
1	Corporate Citizen of the Year	Ujjivan Financial Services, Bengaluru
2	Excellence in Project Management	NTPC Ltd, New Delhi
3	Innovative Leadership	Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, Kolkota
4	Media Personality of the Year Print Media	Susmita Mukherjee	Senior  Editor Times of India, Kolkota
5	Communicator of the Year- Corporate Communications	Mr.Indrajit Bose	Executive Director (Corporate Communications &Branding) IndianOil, Marketing Division Mumbai
6	Communicator of the Year- Documentary Films	Maya Chandra	Maya Films Bengaluru
7	Communicator of the Year- Art & Culture	H.A. Anil Kumar	H.O.D, Department of Art History, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru
8	Social Leadership	Dainik Bhaskar	Bhopal
9	Entrepreneur of the Year	Dr. Mohan Krishna	Founder, Cheers Group
10	Business Communication Trainer   of the Year-International	Vinod  Menon	Art of Living International Center, Bengaluru
11	Business Communication Trainer   of the Year- National	Dr. K.V. Nagaraj	Professor,Mass Communication, Mizoram University MIZORAM
12	Business School of the Year	International School of Business&Research	Bengaluru
13	Business Leadership of the Year	Canara Bank	Bengaluru
14	Magazine of the Year	Business World	MUMBAI
15	Publisher of the Year	Delhi Press Magazine	NEW DELHI
16	Academic Excellence of the Year	Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge	Secunderabad
17	Best PR Agency of the Year	SOBHAGYA Advertising	Kochi
18	Most promising PR Person of the Year	Sanjoy Kumar Mukherjee,	Senior Public Relation Officer, Kolkata Port Trust, Kolkata
19	Most promising PR  Agency of the Year	PR 24X7 Network Ltd	Indore
20	Most promising young Entrepreneur of the Year	Saurabh Uboweja	Founder, CEO & Chief Brand Strategist  Brands of Desire Delhi
21	Juries Special Award Communication through Yoga	Aurum Media Pvt Ltd	Lonovala
22	Juries Special Award  PR Person –Corporate Communication	Latha	PRO KSRTC Bengaluru
24	Juries Special Award for International Academic Excellence	Sunil Kannath	Director & CEO  Europe Study Centre Pvt. Ltd Kochi
25	Excellence in HR	Sunil Munshi	Director (Personnel)  Andrew Yule and Co. Ltd Kolkata
26	Communicator of the Year- Crisis Communication	Prashanth Pathrabe	Director Film&Television Institute of India, Pune
27	Juries Special Award for Photo  Journalism	Amitabha Bandyopadhyay	Special Correspondent, Ananda Bazar Patrika, Kolkata
28	Juries Special Award for Business  Journalism	Shri Dilip Bisoi	Special Correspondent, Financial Express, Bhubaneshwar
29	Juries Special Award for Economic Journalism	Shri Jyant Gupta	Assistant Editor, Times of India, Kolkata
30	Excellence in good governance and Administration	Dr Shalini Rajneesh IAS	Principal Secretary, Backward Classes Welfare Department. Govt of ktka,  Bengaluru
31	NRI Awards Indians who brought name to the country abroad	Biju Kassim	Managing Director Gadgets International& Sirius Retail Solution, Dubai
32	NGO Of the Year	IDL Foundation	Bengaluru
33	N.D. Rajpal Memorial Award Communicator of the Decade	Deepak Jolly	Vice President Venturing and Emerging Brands Coca Cola India&South West Asia
34	Dr K.R. Singh Memorial Award	L.R. Sailo	Former Director of Information& Public Relations, Government Mizoram, Aizwal
35.	Media Personality of the Year Electronic Media	Ms Shweta Rajpal	NDTV, NEW DELHI

HALL OF FAME 2016

S.N	Name	Designation
1	Ajay Pawar	Senior General Manager (Corporate Communications) Godrej Properties Ltd.
2	B.K. Asmita	Facilitator- Brahmakumaris
3	Ajay Sharma	Founder & CEO Storynomics
4	Asok Kumar Gangopadhyay,	Senior Public Relations Officer  Eastern Railway
5	V. Chandrasekar	Ex Senior Assistant General Manager, Air India
6	Himanshu Kapadia	Sr. Vice President, Corporate Communications and CSR, Aditya Birla Group.
7	Naresh Kumar	Asst. GM, Corporate Communications (POWERGRID)
8	Sanjay Tripathi	Mr. Sanjay Tripathi, Dy. General Manager (Corporate Communications), IndianOil, Western Region
9	Sabitha Natraj	Head of Corporate Communications, Southern Region, IndianOil

PRCI Mysore Chapter Rejuvenated

10...9...8...The Count down for Global Communication begins

Reaching the top – the Navratna Formula

PRCI Veteran C K Sardana describes the Nine key points 

to remember to perform and then outperform!

 

A batch of 276 Engineer Trainees joined a leading Public Sector Undertaking in 1978. After undergoing six-month training at Corporate HRDI, they were posted in different Units and a few in the Corporate Office.

After nearly 30 years, one reached the top position as CMD, five became Directors and twelve became Executive Directors. Out of the balance, about 30 left the Organization and remaining could reach middle level position at Corporate/Unit levels.

How come, only one out of 276 ETs reached the top? In his case, as also in the case of five Directors, there must have been something outstanding. Which were the outstanding traits? Let me elaborate.

Sustained self development -- There is a word in Japanese -- Kaizen -- which means Continuous Improvement. Japanese, as a people and as a nation, follow this dictum. This was the guiding factor for the above Six persons. Through self-study and observation of the 'achievers' style of thinking, responding and operating, they developed themselves not just in knowledge but in the practice of the knowledge gained. 

Enhancing professional qualifications -- During the job, they looked out for institutions running specialized courses, through distance mode, in key Management areas like International Marketing, Law, OR, HR, Financial Management, Entrepreneurship etc. They joined those Courses and thus obtained an edge over others.

Exposure in/through leading institutions – They always looked for specialized courses – short term and long term – in institutions like IIMs, IITs, Universities – and persuaded the Management to sponsor them. Institutions included world-renowned Harvard Business School in USA. They attended those courses thereby enhancing their self development leading to gaining name and fame as ‘achievers’ and also those with ‘potential for higher responsibility’.

Movement within the Organization -- Initially, each ET was allocated to a certain Department. Having spent a few years in that Department, they offered themselves for posting in other Departments including Finance, HR, Marketing, Administration -- to name a few. Here they learnt the nitty-gritty of those functions thereby equipping themselves for varied and higher responsibilities. 

Membership of professional bodies – They became active members of professional bodies like AIMA, ISTD, Institution of Engineers, IEEE, Quality Forum etc. This brought them in close contact with professional in various fields thereby enhancing both connections and connectivity required for upward movement.

Reading success stories – Success stories of top corporate leaders like JRD Tata, Dhirbhai Ambani, V. Krishnamurthy, S P Wahi, to name a few in India, and Ford of USA were their favourite books. It was not casual reading but looking for outstanding traits, taking notes and preparing action plan for implementing them in their own life. They kept self-monitoring as a regular exercise.

Body language – This includes communication skills. No matter how much one knows the subject, what is more important how does he communicate that to the peers, seniors and those who matter. The latter form impressions from the content and the method of communication. Such impressions help selecting among so many candidates the best for higher positions.

Remaining in focus – Remaining in focus is different from remaining in limelight. The latter may produce animosity among various aspirants for higher positions and, therefore, should be shunned. Instead, remaining in focus should be aimed at.

Confidence in self and in associates – Without this, no one can rise. The six achievers, mentioned in the foregoing, followed  a sustained programme of developing their self confidence and also confidence in associates. This helped them reach much higher levels than those who had also joined the Organization at the same time.(The author is Former General Manager/BHEL/New Delhi. Email id: casardana@gmail.com)

Earn Your Award, Don’t Ask For It!

Just a thought 

By Geetha Shankar*

I grew up and earned my trophies, neither the 1^st nor the 2^nd   but more often the 3^rd or the consolation or sometimes a certificate of participation. I still have those. They mean a lot to me, because I worked hard and gave my heart out for them. Nothing was "FREE"!

Oh boy….  What a transition I see in a few years..…. Today, Everyone expects an award just for walking through the door, or an award just for showing up and even waking up at 6 AM!.  People crave for awards without doing anything to even demand an award.

How many of us would say “I did not do anything to win the award and I don’t deserve it. Let someone who deserves get it”.

The concept of ‘work extra hard’ and excel at something to get an award or special recognition is diminishing.  

One should demonstrate that one has really done something great to deserve an award.

Everybody deserves some recognition, but not everybody can get  the same recognition.

This  " I-deserve- an-award" approach  sounds very, very selfish and it reflects absence of self-esteem.

On  the contrary, I for one very strongly feel that  there should be  emphasis right from an early age by parents, teachers, peers To build that element of self-esteem.  There has to be a paradigm shift from the material perspective of awards to earning respect, dignity and just having someone say they are proud of you.

I think we have a lesson or two to learn from the selfless voluntary work that has poured in during the recent Chennai calamity. That is the level of selfless work that I am talking about. These are the people who actually deserve awards. Can Award givers raise the bar?  

It’s for all of us to think – think positively.

I am nowhere trying to belittle anyone nor am I trying to hurt anyone.

Just a thought!  That’s all, folks! 

(*The author is National Chairperson of YCC and Director – Governing Council, PRCI)

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Tech, Taka Tak!

Dear Friends: Wish you all a very Happy New Year. As new year dawns, the countdown for PRCI’s Kolkata Global Conclave-Digital-What Next – begins. I thought of greeting everyone who is looking forward to this great event with a suitable message and decided to offer the following. Warm regards.- S. Narendra

• Digital Now - What Next –2016 - Gleanings from Tech Sources

Fortune magazine December

23rd   by Adam Berry: 2015 witnessed the  birth of live social streaming with apps like Periscope and Meerkat. Facebook also entered the field and boasts of 800 million video viewers a day, more than YouTube. In 2016 users will be able share ever more vivid ,real -time experience. Expect to see more immersive videos, as publishers and even brands catch up and begin creating more content.  A true, fully immersive headset Oculus Rift is slated for release opening up even more interesting possibilities for news feeds. Oculus  VR has already released  a new social app called Oculus Alpha for use with  a Samsung  Gear VR headset, perhaps the first truly social app of  Facebook’s new technology. Expect to see live streaming reach a whole new mainstream audience.

The Other trends are:

1. VR or Virtual Reality has come to social media, The Star Wars The Force Awakens clips were a hit on social media. In a way video on social media grabbed the tech headlines in 2015.

2  Social shopping takes off

Facebook, Twitter@Twitter,  Instagram, Pinterest have now in-line buy button, giving a big push to commercial functionality to social media. Social media  in China and Korea  have been having such buy buttons for long. According to a survey, 4 out of  5 persons ( in US) say posts from friends influenced buying decisions. This goes to underline the growing importance of social media in marketing.  

3  Social media at work- New Training Opportunities

Facebook at Work  by Facebook and others  for using social media in the office will compel businesses to incorporate social tools to work plae.The social media skilsl gap at work will impact businesses. Both for internal communication and customer interface of firms and front line employees are not up to the challenge, A Harvard Business Reviewer study said only 12 5 of those who uses  social  media  said they used them effectively. Social media training will take off in earnest.

  4   Social media  as  a major  channel for customer service gets a lot better. A new study showed that of 500 top retailers, only 20.5 % answer questions send via Twitter and 54.5% respond via facebook. Facebook and Twitter have upgraded their customer service functionality. Twitter lifted its standard 140 character limit on DM  or  direct  message. It also launched a beta version of Messenger Business, offering a new avenue for real -time personal conversation with customers. Facebook claims that  its Messenger has about  800 million users .

5. 2015 saw SM or social media evolve into everything platforms-one- on-one messaging to video sharing, customer service and more. In effect SM is becoming a natural component of everything people do according to Ryan  homes,CEO of Hootsuite.

6. Going digital is not longer an option. Nor is it to be looked upon as a technology to be deployed.  It must become a MINDSET for people, organisations, businesses. Previously it  was considered as best practice to measure people and organisations on the basis of IQ.Later EQ was added. In the present world dominated by cyber technologies, IQ+EQ+ DQ have become the norm. DQ is digital quotient.

 Digital Echo-Chamber of Social Media and other trends

Mark Barrenechea CEO of Enterprise Information `Management Firm offers his take what to expect in  2016 .

More automation and machine to machine networks, devices, agents and sensors and people will join the Internet of Things (IoT).

Corporates will compete more to acquire data, attempt to monetise data, analyse  and innovate. As businesses try to master big data, improve analytics, enable customers to consume products and services and expand digital delivery of services, it will lead to the next big industrial revolution.

Social media increasingly will become marketing forums. Facebook has one billion active users in a month, 300 Twitter subscribers post 500 million Tweets in 150 countries daily. Managing social reputation and being actively engaged will top priorities.

Good news is that businesses can monitor and one participate, However, one has  to be listening for adverse notice and positive rating.

Challenges to News Organisations

VR or Virtual Reality is creating a minor storm in news organisations, especially the broadcast networks. 360 degree video and Chat apps have transformed news content.

Several news Organisations have released a string of VR projects and immersive videos, showing an enthusiasm for building VR apps. Social media have begun to support 360 degree videos on their platforms making news organisations to look for innovating their video news coverage.  These are mobile friendly, a social product and take the viewer  to the place where the action is. These are early days in digital Journalism revolution. The challenge is to create public awareness about 360degree video and educate them to experience the new product. Some news outlets like WSJ City from London is available on only mobiles. BuzzFeedNews app has its own editorial team ,uses emoji.Again it is only for mobile users.

Periscope has injected a social aspect to live -streaming by allowing viewers to send questions and comments to broadcasters in real time. It encourages sharing of images and moments online. Periscope and facebook’s Mentions together with willingness of news organisations  are creating a new ecosystem of Journalism

Chat apps such as Whatsapps have become news gathering tools. So far they were looked upon only as news dissemination outlets but now they are being used for getting user generated stories, including news tips. A recent example was the Earth quake in remote Nepal. One broadcaster said that their coverage was enriched by videos, and eye witness accounts sent on such apps by viewers. BBC had similar experience during Paris and Bangkok bombings, The text messages from people alerted news organisations much earlier than the news agencies.

In UK, half of audiences of five newspapers are mobile only. The mobile first mindset that set in 2015 will expand, according to experts. News organisations until recently used to look at Mobile as an extension of the Web. But in 2015 news  for and on mobile  came into its  own, according to a London based professor of Journalism, Jane Singer.

CNN’s  Inqa Thordar says news outlets are looking to build their own 360degree players rather than depend upon social media such as facebook,

Mobile Office to Replace Cubicle

Millenials will enter the management ranks and will reshape the world.

Young leaders will emerge out of millennials who would enter businesses. They will radically alter business and it practice and workplace will be reinvented. The mobile office will replace the cubicle. Study of disruption will become much more important. To cope with digital revolution, competition and partnerships will work in tandem.

Digital is not just a technology but it is also a mindset. Immediacy and disruption and scale will be the topics to watch out.

India-Paisa wasool Challenge

Fcaebook has embarked on a massive, controversial campaign to expand access to the internet among  indias population with its Basics. Google (Joined the Indian Railways for broadband service), Microsoft and others are also eyeing expansion.  But in India free video is the norm, making it hard for streaming services like Netflix and download services (free down leads from You Tube is getting restricted ) to make any headway in pay per use business model. Adding to the Indian market challenge is pervasive piracy.   And those who are willing to pay do not have credit cards,- the winner so far has been  You Tube which has operated in  India since 2000( source: New York Times 27/12)