Money is found in dangerous places

Since co-founding Environics Communications in 1994, leading the new Edelman Korea in 2002 and most recently establishing the new Edelman Japan in 2005, I have learned that there can be no profit without risk, and if a PR firm wants to be successful, the team must remember that nothing is gained if nothing is dared.

Taking smart risks comes naturally at Edelman. After all, 'Entrepreneurial Spirit' is one of our corporate values.

Many of our employees know all about risk, because they had the entrepreneurial courage to join a new company just starting-up, and now we can see the positive reward of these collective risk decisions through the development of the company that our people are helping to co-create.

Edelman will continue to take informed risks to secure our future in Japan; here are just two examples:

1. Differentiation

We will continue to risk by daring to be completely different than all the other PR firms as 'the agency of change,' and that includes aggressively marketing the firm to stakeholders. Why? Because too many PR firms all seem the same these days and the Japanese market is hungry for the new kind of Quality-obsessed PR agency Edelman has deliberately chosen to become. Perhaps you have heard about 'Differentiate or Die'; positive differentiation is essential to modern marketing and so we will keep promoting our premium brand of intellectual capital-driven PR.

2. Ideation

We will continue to always keep thinking of daring new ideas for our clients, and then take the risk of presenting our thinking to them. Weekly internal account team meetings at Edelman should always generate one new idea to serve the client better, an idea we are not afraid to express. The question for us should not be a timid 'What if they don't like it?' and we should not be thinking negative thoughts like 'We've never done that before.' That's the easy way out, a cop-out.

Instead, we should ask confidently: 'What new idea will the client like that improves the quality of their PR?' and be thinking more about our ambition to win approval in a positive way rather than dwelling on a fear of rejection. Then, we should present the idea so that the Client can see that we are counselling them in a clever way to add value, not just 'going through the motions' like their last risk-averse agency probably did.

Sometimes clients might not like an idea, and indeed all risks don't succeed, but we get wiser because we learn from the experience of trying in the first place. Risks can be dangerous, they can be extremely rewarding. Danger can be stimulating and in facing it through risk-taking, business life is far more exciting and profitable (financially and psychologically).

The last thing we need in the Japanese PR industry is another cautious agency....'playing it safe' would stall our profession's momentum and worse, it would make life pretty boring for PR people.

So, let's keep finding money in the dangerous places where we know our way around and feel confident owing to our continuously improving competence as PR people proud of what we do.

Bob Pickard applies his two decades of public affairs and PR experience to the task of building and serving the firm’s expanding community of clients in Japan and Korea. In these countries, Edelman has grown ten times larger during the past five years and today it is the leading global PR consultancy in North Asia.

A founder and Representative Director of Edelman Japan, before Bob was Managing Director of Edelman Korea, which was named Edelman’s international ‘Office of the Year’ in 2004 & 2005 and was also recognized as ‘Consultancy of the Year’ at PR WEEK’s 2004 Asia-Pacific PR Awards.

Since 1990, Bob has developed, managed, and implemented effective communication strategies for a diverse spectrum of leading global organizations. An experienced crisis communications practitioner, he has also media trained several hundred executives in America and Asia.

Before joining Edelman, Bob was executive vice president of Environics Communications, a PR agency he co-founded in 1994. There he led the expansion of the firm’s business into the U.S. market, serving as general manager of its New York-area office. Earlier, Bob was a vice president at Hill and Knowlton Canada. A member of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 1992, he served on the staff of senior federal Cabinet ministers, including Canada’s 16th Prime Minister.

A Toronto native and current resident of Tokyo, Bob has travelled to 39 nations (including all 50 U.S. states). He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies from Queen’s University and is a frequent conference speaker (e.g. APEC, EIU, WEF) on CSR issues.