N Chandramouli, CEO, Blue Lotus

We maintain a very high emotional stake in all our partnerships

Established in October 2002, Blue Lotus handles key clients like Trend Micro, TWS Holdings, India Book House, Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture and Metropolis Health Services. In a conversation with Anushree Madan Mohan of exchange4media, N Chandramouli, CEO, Blue Lotus, discusses the strides taken by the organisation in areas such as technology, association PR, education and healthcare.

Q. What does Blue Lotus stand for? How does it differ from other PR agencies?

The idea behind Blue Lotus was formed quite early, though it took concrete shape only in 2002. Our philosophy inspired the name Blue Lotus – a flower, which finds mention in ancient mythologies. It is said that the flower blooms once in 3000 years and each time it blooms, a period filled with prosperity and goodness follows. As the myth goes, it stands for all that is unerring, true and good. Blue Lotus Communications Consultancy was created with the same philosophy – to do public relations that is unerring, true and good.

We differ from other PR agencies in our approach, and it is our philosophy that guides all our interactions. Be it the media, the clients or our people, we create seamless partnerships. We also maintain a very high emotional stake in all our partnerships.

Q. When was Blue Lotus established? Which all accounts fall under your purview?

Blue Lotus was established in October 2002 and in a short span of about 20 months we have acquired many reputed national and international brands as our retainer clients. We specialise in technology, healthcare, education and association PR – sectors that need to communicate to and impact the common man.

Some of our clients are Trend Micro – the worlds third largest anti-virus company, TWS Holdings – one of India’s leading independent BPOs, India Book House – the oldest and most reputed publishing and distribution house in India, Association of Hospitals – a forum for non-profit hospitals, Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture, a premier chamber of commerce of western India, Metropolis Health Services – a corporate chain of diagnostic and pathology labs. We have picked up 16 retainer clients in this short time

Q. What role does the client brief play in the entire gamut of public relations?

The client is always the primary stakeholder for any PR agency and that equation cannot change. While clients come with many expectations, it is necessary for the agency to manage the expectations of the client. Educating client and creating awareness about the PR industry deserve the same importance as the agency’s awareness about the client’s business.

The other role that the client must understand is that PR is a completely collaborative effort and the PR agency cannot do anything without the client’s complete confidence and comfort in the agency. Many of the ideas are indeed generated through discussions and audits with the clients, and if the client goes on the my-idea, your-idea mode, then even when the agency is great, the PR campaign is bound to crumble.

Q. In your opinion, how does the Indian PR industry differ from the international scene?

In the west, PR has matured as a business. In the US, for example, PR has become a fine art. PR lobbying is what the industry is graduating towards. Litigation PR has also acquired an exalted status. Indian PR is just moving through the median and we will see it going through significant growth in many new areas.

Q. Is creativity a big idea in PR? How innovative can you be within this realm?

Innovation and creativity are essential hygiene factors for survival in the communications industry. Creativity in PR is a combination of knowledge, instinct, research, consumer behaviour study and delivery. Even the most creative idea is no good if it cannot be taken to its logical conclusion. But, I would again emphasise that without creativity no PR campaign can be sustainable or successful.

Sound business knowledge and an understanding of the consumer help you innovate. Another significant learning from my experience is that to change the cut-copy-paste mode of creativity in PR, it is essential to have fresh blood in your organisation. An open agency, which welcomes ideas and creative frictions, is a breeding ground for innovative PR

Q. Which are the areas wherein you feel you can bring in some improvement?

Improvement is in everyday agenda at Blue Lotus. We believe that everything that we do, can be done better. We do this through our weekly M&M (Morbidity and Mortality) meets where we dissect all things gone wrong in the past week. It’s a transparent, open meeting where we don’t focus on pointing fingers, but at solutions to problems.

In terms of specifics, if you ask me whether there was something I would like improved immediately, it would be to do with the sector-specific knowledge of all our people.

Q. Is there a model to gauge the efficiency of a PR firm, in relation to a particular brand, and the ROI acquired on the same?

I think happy clients are the best ambassadors for your brand. I would like to measure the success and efficiency of our agency by the duration they stick with an agency. If you have managed to retain the client for the second and third consecutive years, I think you have a sign of efficiency there.

Another gauge of efficiency is also the number of average years your people remain in your agency. If you have a floating crowd, then inefficiencies are evident. It’s a people’s business, and efficiency of the organisation is directly proportional to people’s stability.

Q. What are the biggest issues that hinder the growth of the PR industry? What are your suggestions to combat them?

Blue Lotus has witnessed a huge surge in the demand for PR services over the last few years. I think the paradox is that the biggest hindrance to the PR industry comes from within. Over-promising and under-delivering is a permanent plague of the industry causing disgruntled clients who often lose faith in PR.

I think that that the only way to combat this is through introspection. The industry needs to look inward and find ways to create best standards and practices. Further, each agency must realise that it plays a much larger role than just that of a business. Every client and media interaction must be knowledge-based else the PR industry will begin to stagnate.

The second biggest problem is that the lack of good professionals available. The education system needs to stress on more hands-on training for its students to be able to churn out ready-to-work professionals. To create better professionals, it is necessary for the industry to collaborate with the academia to give the students hands-on training even while they are studying.

Q. As a business model, how is Blue Lotus positioned? What kind of a growth do you see as far as revenue figures are concerned?

We are less than 20 months old and our revenue growth as well as our expansion has been going at a scorching pace. We started with an idea, a few people, no money and a 200-sq ft office back in 2002, and we are currently a 25-member organisation with capitalised annual turnover of over Rs 7 crore. If we look at our growth and the clients in the pipeline, we are confident of growing to about Rs 20 crore of capitalised billings with a headcount of around 50 people. We also expect to increase our presence to seven cities by December.

Q. Is there any kind of benchmarking at all that goes on in the PR realm?

There is no formal benchmarking and any agency with a critical mass of people and clients thinks it’s the best of breed. International association is one criterion for benchmarking, but that’s only by default, in the expectation that the international partner would have done a due diligence before choosing its Indian partner.

A recent survey among PR agencies conducted by a management school recently revealed that 15 of the so-called known agencies, all thought they were the leaders in terms of turnover and workforce. Such a revelation actually puts the industry at a huge disadvantage because the agencies don’t even know where they currently are, so how will they know how to reach where they want to go?

Q. Is media management a lot more difficult in India than elsewhere?

I personally don’t think so. It’s the same worldwide. I think the PR agency–client–media interaction is a unique and rare win-win-win situation. The client and the agency want to see the client’s name on the front page, but the correspondent wants to see his or her byline in the same place too. All three are working towards the same purpose anywhere, irrespective of the country that they are from.

If the interactions with the media are based on knowledge, then I think all media interactions become easy. We completely insist that all our people continuously upgrade their knowledge levels in industry-specific areas to be eligible for media interactions.

Q. What would you call a milestone success in your journey so far? < P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Each client was a milestone for us when we started. Then, churning clients from the so-called big two of technology PR was a milestone. After that, it was when one international technology major called in 12 of India’s best PR agencies for a pitch and awarded us the contract, it became an even bigger milestone and an internal benchmark success. After that, the milestones changed in shape and size and it became the type of clients that we acquired. When recently a WPP Group advertising agency (in spite of having its own PR wing) recommended us to one of the oldest pharma companies in the country with a Rs 1000-crore turnover, it was a milestone achievement for Blue Lotus.

We strongly believe that money is only a by-product and will happen automatically if we do our business right, so we really have no financial milestones.

Q. How does one start off as a PR official? What are the credentials required to be a good PR professional?

course in public relations or corporate communications or journalism is a good start point. But before that, I think it’s the mindset that is most essential. For a person to be a good PR professional, you must have the managerial skills, resilience, adaptability and ability to make decisions when tough, competing situations face you. A constant search and thirst for knowledge makes a complete PR professional.

Q. What kind of a growth pattern do you predict for Indian PR firms in the near future?

The PR industry is growing at a very encouraging pace of about 35 to 40 per cent annually. There are already many international PR agencies going in for local partnerships bringing in best practices and international systems to the industry. The time to come will see many more international agencies setting up base here. In the near future you will see a lot more specialised agencies focusing on the high growth sectors of health, technology, biotechnology and finance. I personally think that the best is yet to come.

Q. As far as the structure of Blue Lotus is concerned, what kind of a team do you have on board?

Blue Lotus has a very flat structure. We have Senior Associates and Consultants reporting to me and all of them head teams of 3 to 4 Junior Associates each. Expertise and not experience has been our preference while choosing candidates. We have a young, dynamic and highly motivated team, which is put through a two-month culture induction before they are put into any activity.

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