Is it the era of the new generation mobile phones?

I can't but marvel at the new Iphone launched by Apple. It is a revolutionary phone with touch screen features and the fastest 3G Technology. It has the GPS, Microsoft Exchange, the latest applications, the ipod and not to forget the internet. Seeing such a phone one would wonder is there really a need for the computer? One can get all the latest news, download books and videos and even find their way around if they are lost. What better device can a PR professional carry with them at all times? It's any professional person's bible. What's more it has the coolest of applications and one doesn't have to pay for all of those, lots of them are free too. You can track your weight and what you ate on of their weight loss applications, it's not like you have to wait to get home and login to your machine to track your food intake. Even for a busy professional it has an application where you can speak and send perfectly formatted text emails, just using your voice. There is recorder where you can record discussions, memos and interviews as you meet people. It truly is a fascinating gadget and well worth the price I think if one is serious about their saving time in their professional careers. http://www.apple.com/iphone/

PR in our everyday life

One would wonder how we use PR in our day to day lives. Let me ask you this, when we talk to somebody or relate an event about something that we have seen on television, don't we tell that person our perspective or our point of view in our own words and explain the same event back to them. What we are basically doing is giving our opinion on something that has transpired previously. We don't really end up giving a word for word narration of the event as what was said or as was seen on television. Giving an opinion about something is what is called PR in lay mans language. Quite possible a bunch of people may disagree and counter that by saying that unless facts and research is done it is not PR. But to think about it, don't we use PR in our day to day affairs. We talk about crisis, we talk about branding, imaging and selling of an idea, is that not what we do in our daily lives? Another example would be that of the TV series HOLLYHOAKS, when we talk about the series, we talk about the image of a particular character as played in the series based on the complete show we have seen so far and that's how we tend to discuss that while talking to another person.

So do you think it's really right to say we use PR in our everyday lives?

PR and Communication Crisis

What is communication and communication crisis? Communication is a sub specialty of PR. It's main aim is to provide safety to individuals, company and the organization against any naturals disasters that might occur surrounding the employees of the organization. For example the Tsunami which occurred in the Indian Ocean in December,2004.

The most important communication is that with the public and the employees. It's important for them to have all the basic information like contact details and the seven step kit which is especially very useful if a company is in a crisis.

http://www.globalprblogweek.com/archives/7_musthave_elements_.php

If it's a natural disaster then we need both the government and the WHO (World Health Organization), private organizations, local and international voluntary organizations and the local community to all act as one and fight that disaster so that an epidemic can be avoided. Another aspect which is very important is the GIS and remote sensing in Disaster Management for scientific reasons. Television, radio and satellite are all ways to inform the public before hand that a calamity could take place and such communication management could save the lives of many people that might have otherwise been affected by the calamity.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ICT_for_Disaster_Management/ICT_for_Disaster_Prevention,_Mitigation_and_Preparedness#ICT_for_Disaster_Prevention.2C_Mitigation_and_Preparedness


A PR person can easily be the mediator for the public, as someone who gives all the required information, helps those people who need help and eventually be their voice too.

Satyam computer and the aftermath of its fall out

Satyam Computer Services was started in 1987 in Hyderabad, India, by Mr. B. Ramalinga Raju. The main businesses of Satyam computers were IT services and consultancy. It is also listed in the New York Stock Exchange. It is located in about 67 countries all across the world and employs more than 40,000 people world. It came into a crisis in January 2009 by the founder and CEO of the company, Mr B. Ramalinga Raju.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyam_Computer_Services)


In January 2009 the stock exchange of India showed that Satyam's shares had dropped drastically and were going down every minute. The CEO of the company publicly announced his resignation and also informed people that for several years in a row the company had overstated it's profits.

Another important aspect of Satyam's fallout was that the employee were wondering if they will loose their jobs considering the enormous uncertainty in the company. But the EX CEO of the company, sent out an email reassuring the staff that all their jobs are secure and even though the company was involved in a fraud, no body will loose jobs. There was little respite but it still didn't calm their nerves. They needed direction, a leader who could save their company and show them some stability. That's when the Indian government intervened and showed them some direction and in negotiations with Mahindra and Mahindra asked that the company take them over.


Today Satyam's current CEO is Vineet Nayyar who is part of Tech Mahindra, Kiran Karnik who has always been a part of Satyam, is their Board Chairman, and Anand G. Mahindra is their Vice Chairman and Managing Director who again is part of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

After the fall out of Satyam, 50% of the shares were bought by Mahindra and Mahindra, which is another IT consultancy firm within India.

The fact remains that even after it went through so much turmoil it is still known as the best company to work for and remains a very young and up coming company. The foreign investors are still continue to use Satyam consultancy and it's IT services.

http://www.satyam.com/

How Urban are we?

In today's world where every day a new slang is invented, it's hard to keep up and keep in with the conversations. It makes you wonder are you so out of sync? What can you do to keep up. That's when you hit the internet 'googling' for these new terminologies. It's no surprise that there is a dictionary that's out there for all of us who feel in not so sync with the world out there. It's this really cool place to go to for all those people who are like me and trying to figure these not so everyday used words.If you haven't had a chance yet, please do go to this link http://www.urbandictionary.com/
It's a one-stop place for all the not so cool dudes out there who want to get cool.

Communication and PR

I was sitting home and doing my usual chores and I got this sudden urge to speak to my parents back home. The first thing that came to my mind was SKYPE, the fantastically cheap and inexpensive way to communicate in this world and age, especially if you need to make international calls like I do everyday. All one needs to do download Skype to their machine and you can chat with your family for hours on end without being affected by how expensive it is or the fact that it is an international call. This was so unheard of a few years back. If anybody wanted to make an international call that person had to think twice before making that call and talkathons were completely unheard of in that day and age. It was so very expensive that it would hurt your pocket real bad if you wanted to talk to your folks everyday. But now with technology being so advanced, calling anywhere is very cheap and it feels like you are talking to your friends/family who are sitting at an arms length. Almost makes me wonder what would the next phase of Skype? Hmm...maybe a tool where one can not only virtually see someone but also follow their every movement. It's amazing to know, what more can one do through this cool tool. Not just make international calls, but also do international teleconferencing in all just a matter of seconds. It's all just a click away , making businesses save lots of money and thereby making the world an even smaller place.To follow the progress on this great tool you can go to google(www.goggle.co.uk).

Computers and IT

Lets talk about the world of technology. In a day how many hours does a person spend on the computer or his laptop? It is amazing to know sometimes more than even seven hours in a day. Now a days people who do not have knowledge of computers or are not computer savvy are kind of left behind. No matter whatever the persons age, those without internet consider themselves completely lost. In the world of Facebook, Twitter and My Space, it is imminent to be on one of those networking sites to be able to connect with people. One hears about these websites almost all the time and someone not on these are considered not so social. We are so dependent on computers right from creating our shopping lists, to googling the reviews on one of our favorite products that might be on our shopping lists. Most of the stuff can be purchased online by just the click of a button.

In fact even my course involves a lot of research, for which I spend a lot of time being online, definitely more than a few hours everyday.

It often crosses my mind, so in today's world are we puppets of Information technology? It almost seems like for anything and everything we use the internet and computers....