CHAPTER - VI APPLYING STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT TO PUBLIC RELATIONS STRATEGIC COUNSEL IS KEY The CEO is looking to public relations professionals

for strategic counsel, not in-house journalism." Paul. S. Forbes, Fellow, PRSA, president of The Forbes Group, counselors to senior management, Fairfax, Virginia. Strategic management is in the vanguard of current management thinking. It is a process that enables any organisation, company, association, non-profit or government agency to identify its long term opportunities and threats, mobilise its assets to address them and carry out a successful implementation strategy. In contrast, long range planning is what you plan to do later and strategic planning is what you do now to bring about a future result. In strategic management the entire process is goal-driven and when employed, you are driven towards accountability. It helps to provide management with measurable results in public relations programming. Strategic management of public relations works-best when the organisation is driven by process. If the CEO and the board know where they want to go and how to get there, the role of public relations will be clearly defined. A public relations strategy can then be based on the corporate plan. A well planned public relations strategy will help you to position yourself as an indispensable advisor to the CEO. During the next decade. the role of public relations will undergo radical changes. The traditional public relations department of old will gradually give way to purchased services. What will be left will be strategic counselors to the CEO. THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS - I Strategic Management can be summarised as a six step circular process in two parts. I. Scanning the Future To stay on top of change, an organisation should: anticipate and understand the future develop a formal process for looking at least a decade ahead for opportunities and threats posed by social economic, political, technological and environmental trends inventory its structural, cultural and resource assets and liabilities in addressing these challenges

II. Building Scenarios Since it is impossible to predict the future with certainty, the trends identified in the future scanning process should be translated into three scenarios : an optimistic outcome a more pessimistic outcome another outcome somewhere between the two This should serve as the basis of contingency planning for each of the three possible outcomes. III. Reviewing the Mission A mission statement should be drawn up for the organisation and the public relations department. The mission statement should not be immutable, but should be reviewed annually, to keep it relevant to the emerging future. The mission statement should define: what business the organisation and the department are in ? what line of business should he taken in view of dramatic changes THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS - II I. Setting Objectives, Strategies and Policies The mission statement should then be set into objectives: the direction where the organisation and/or- public relations department wants to go strategies on how to get there establishing a series of policies to serve as a frame work for the implementation of these strategies. II. Implementation Strategy Consists of the development and execution of detailed action plans and budgets that carry out the objectives and strategies set by senior management. These objectives and strategies should be developed with the input of the department heads involved. The strategically managed organisation manages by exception. It gives each person the freedom to develop a plan of action and report to management only when there is divergence from the plan. III. Evaluating and updating the Plan

 Strategic management includes a process for an annual review of assumptions and updating of strategies where necessary. This is a time to assess whether the agreed-upon goals and objectives for the year have been attained and to review the performance of those who were entrusted with achieving them. The annual evaluation completes the circular- process of strategic management. ADVANTAGES OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Strategically managed organisations have in-built system for managing change, because : they are rarely blindsided by events they stay ahead of the competition by anticipating events and finding the right competitive niche before others do. they spot emerging trends and take necessary corrective actions before being forced to do so by consumer or environmental activists. here senior public relations officers are part of the planning' process and use public relations strategies to build harmony between the organisation and all its external and internal publics. In contrast, in organizations that are crisis driven rather than strategy driven, the public relations department is generally forced to be reactive instead of proactive. Here the public relations executive should engage in his or her own future scanning. This helps to come up with crisis preventing solutions to emerging threats, and to identify emerging opportunities that can be exploited to the organisations benefit.

Edited & Extracted from the Public Relations Journal in 1992