Why parastatal PR is so appalling

Strangely enough, however, and in complete contradiction to the adage that a workman should never blame his tools, the public relations people at places like SAA and Eskom are not really to blame for these abysmal performances that masquerade as corporate communications, SAA over the past few years has lost any number of excellent PR people and right now Eskom have someone competent in Fani Zulu.

So, if SAA and Eskom are employing good people, why on earth is their PR so shockingly bad?

Simple answer

The answer is quite simple. SAA, Eskom, a lot of other parastatals as well as more than just a few big private sector companies, have this completely misguided notion that when a crisis occurs only one person should talk to the media and that's the PR person.

What they don't realise is that PR was never ever structured that way. PR people are there to facilitate communication between the company and its public. And the only way for companies to communicate is through their chief or other senior executives.

One can of course, understand why chief executives at places like SAA and Eskom make their PR people face the music. They quite simply believe that this is the norm.
And the danger of this is that human nature dictates that it is much easier to fiddle with the truth when you are making someone else tell it.

The temptation to 'bulldust' one's way out of trouble is almost overwhelming for the average chief executive. I have been in these meetings when there is a crisis and more often that not, among the first things CEO's and other execs look for, are excuses.

Lies, damn lies!

And often a desperate search for excuses leads to them coming up with all sorts of weird and wonderful reasons why the company concerned was not even vaguely responsible for whatever caused the crisis.

And given that PR people very rarely sit on boards of directors, they are simply told what to say and much as they might protest, it is generally more than their job is worth to argue with the powers that be.

Until they realise that twisting the truth so easily becomes blatant lying. So they resign.

Hopefully, there will come a time when PR people resign before having to suffer the consequences of doing their superiors' dirty work. It's a harsh decision to take but one that is becoming a necessity now to stop this corporate communications rot.

Not part of plan

And the only way to stop this rot is for boards of directors to insist on proper crisis communications strategies being put it place. Making the poor PR person carry the can should not in any way, be part of that plan.

Chief executives are ultimately responsible for what happens in companies or to companies. They should, by the very nature of this be responsible for talking to the media or any other stakeholder both internal and external.

In a way reminiscent of that in which SAA handled the strike some months ago, Eskom has made a complete ass of itself.

Chief executives clearly have absolutely no idea of what positive communication is all about. They seem to believe that it is unthinkable to admit any kind of mistake or problem at all costs. Even to the point of making their PR people lie in their teeth.

Ironically, now more than ever before, admitting a mistake, standing up and taking the blame actually scores an enormous amount of brownie points.

Fed up

Because ordinary citizens are so fed up with having the wool pulled over their eyes, they actually respond extremely positively to honest admissions of guilt. So much so that they find these refreshing to the point of increasing their trust in a company.

The people who run Eskom, SAA and other such organisations in South Africa should take note of the rather strange phenomenon that is happening more and more the world over: companies admitting to mistakes they haven't actually made just in the interests of scoring popularity points with the public for being so endearingly honest!