Interview of Management Mix Consulting and Training Company CEO Raffy Semerdjian to Mediamax and Banks.am portal

Raffy Semerdjian is a Board Member of the European League for Economic Cooperation (Brussels), a Founding Board Member of the Middle East Quality Association (Dubai, UAE). He is a Scholar and Visiting professor at different Universities including Saint Joseph University in Lebanon, Gulf University for Science & Technology in Kuwait, University of Paris 9 Dauphine in France and the American University of Armenia. He has developed a Guide for Managing Organizations (9-5-4) and for Human Resources Talent Management (Talent-Mix).

- Mr. Semerdjian, in the previous interview with you we discussed the generalized character of the Armenian Manager. This time, I suggest narrowing the scope and speaking about PR Managers. In your opinion, is the classical definition of a PR Manager concordant with the perception by which Armenian companies are being guided today?

- There is a misconception in Armenia between the function of PR and the real PR. PR is one of the methods of Marketing. In Armenia PR is mainly done by the 1st figure in the organizations and it is not really a function. Rare are the companies that develop a real PR policy and dedicate specialized human resources and financial resources. However, in Armenian companies that have a PR Manager, the latter is mainly responsible for the Agenda of the CEO, for having dinners, or organizing events for the CEO or the Chairman, and sometimes receiving some guests.

- It’s obvious that due to various factors the responsibilities of PR Managers can vary. Nevertheless, what are the main functions of PR Managers, the proper implementation of which will turn the PR-Manager into the “face” of the company?  Do we have many such “faces” in Armenia today?

- The PR Manager should develop a strategy that will support the corporate marketing activities for achieving the corporate vision developed by the Board or the unique decision-maker in organizations.

The PR Manager should implement different activities related to Marketing for increasing the image of the company, its products and services and its staff. All telecommunication companies, most of the banks and some major industrial companies or holdings operating in Armenia have such executives.

Major organizations have PR Managers, even though sometimes their title is not necessary a “PR Manager”, they are sometimes assistant of the CEO, or Marketing Managers or CSR Managers.

 - Along with representing the interests of the company, the PR Manager should be ready to publicly, through Media, “manage” the customers’ moods, which often can be objectively pessimistic. How should the balance be maintained in this case?

- The PR Manager should report directly to the CEO or even to the Marketing Director, and one of his tasks is to monitor the Media, organize events with Media representatives.

The Media tries usually to catch some scoops, the scoops can be favorable or unfavorable to the company, and the role of the PR is to capitalize on the positive results and achievements of the company, and try to make some improvement paths from disadvantages.

I remember that a few years ago, one of the telecom companies was having a major problem with scratch cards; the Media was reporting the problem; thousands of unsatisfied customers were complaining in the service center and the PR Department was reporting that all customers would be reimbursed and special value gifts would be given to the customers. So, the PR Department played a major role to transform this negative issue into a positive one towards the national audience.

One of the banks had some negative results for 2012, but this bank opened new branches in Armenia and new representative offices abroad; the role of the PR Manager should be to focus on the achievements and on the future expected results, by respecting the business ethics indeed.

- Which are the specific professional skills that the PR Managers of financial organizations, particularly the banks, should have? On the whole, how do you assess the PR activity of the banks, including on the media field?

- In our “Management Mix” Model (the graphic presentation is above - author) we develop the following:

- knowledge: they should know the company mission, the vision, and strategies. They should know the market, the competitors, the ruling laws and the regulations.

- skills: they should have planning skills, monitoring skills, market intelligence skills, communication skills,

- abilities: to act and react very fast; to collect, analyze and disseminate data and information.

- As a rule, PR Managers who don’t work with the Media “wake up” only when there emerges a necessity to refute unfavorable, but often true, information about them. In this context, how justified is the “official” PR and isn’t it a “losing” PR?

- As clarified earlier, PR Managers should be proactive, should have plans and indeed Plan B’s also, and I wouldn’t call them losers reactions; sometimes they have to react.

PR Managers should be like midfield players in football; usually they attack and make goals, but they also stop attacks and even sometimes during corners enter into the goal line and defend it during corners.

- It seemed that foreign companies would bring a new PR culture with them to Armenia. However, the experience shows that even some Armenian banks representing large international groups can act in a very “original” way. Unfortunately, cases that do not meet the business logic are not an exception. What can you say in this regard?

- I also share with you the opinion that most of foreign companies acting in Armenia don’t have the real commitment to PR, except for some well-known names such as ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK, telecom companies or Yerevan Brandy Company, and also some others. Nevertheless, as you said, most of the foreign companies and a lot of local companies are far away from the modern concept of PR and they use traditional methods presented in my introduction.

- What do you think, how should the Media outlet build its work with one of the leading Armenian banks, which sends press releases now and then and is very active on Facebook, but when one needs a feedback from the bank it turns out that the bank doesn’t have a PR Manager? And this can last for several months.

- With the initiative of Banks.am, you can invite the Union of Armenian Banks, interested organizations and representatives of the Media to a round table to discuss these issues and create a “common declaration” on some points for facilitating the communication between the Media, the banks, the audience and the readership.

- How would you evaluate the activity of specialized PR structures operating in Armenia? Can they fully substitute the PR functions of the company, especially the work with the Media? Don’t you think that in order to work correctly on the media field the PR expert should be well familiar with the internal “kitchen”?

- There are some PR companies that are active on the Armenian market, and most of the time they are doing a good job. However the market is very small and the banks do not prefer working with PR companies that are working with their competitors, that’s why these companies do not develop. The best variant is that banks try to develop their own PR Strategy.

- We can often hear the opinion that the Armenian companies, including the banks, don’t want to spend money on PR, or maybe they do spend but not in a targeted way?  

- PR is not cost, it’s an investment and it really depends on the mission and the strategies of a bank. Universal banks have to be more active with the Mass Media, and sometimes they should develop specific strategies for the regions and not only for Yerevan or major cities.

The bank can adopt alternative strategies for inviting their private customers to some events, conferences and round tables with limited participants. One of the well known foreign banks has invited its major customer to Formula 1; another bank, an Armenian one, has invited his elite customers to Football World Cup finals. These are modern ways of reinforcing the links with the customers.

As some final words I can say that there are a lot of PR ideas in Armenia, some of these ideas are being implemented, and decision-makers should be more committed to develop good relations with the Mass Media, by developing a comprehensive PR strategy, since PR can be measured with its Return on Investment.

Raffy Semerdjian was interviewed by Khoren Ormanyan.