Spirit W | Clients no more treat us as second cousin of advertising: Perfect Relations' Valerie Pinto

Today, in "Spirit W' we get the readers of Adgully to know about a skillful public relations professional who has been in the business for over a decade. Valerie Pinto, Chief Executive officer, at Perfect Relations Pvt. Ltd. is the lady in spotlight today! Pinto joined Perfect Relations in 1997 as an Image Executive and rose to the rank of Perfect Relation Group's Chief Executive Officer in 2010.

With an experience of 12 years, she is an expert in handling crisis communications and planning strategies for clients. Today she provides cutting edge leadership at a pan India level and is actively involved in roles that cut across client servicing, relationship management, client acquisition, team development, handling crisis communications, providing strategy inputs to clients and direction to clients and business teams within the agency & thought leadership for the organization.

Speaking about the initial years of public relations (PR), Pinto re-collects, "At that time it was to be aware and speak out to the clients about what PR can do for you; then clients wanted to see a buzz in papers and today's scenario is where clients sit and discuss about the objective, communication plan etc. It's like the way you talk to business consultant to create a business plan, you consult communication consultant to create a communication plan. Today, the market has evolved quite successfully and now people understand the value of PR more than treating us as second cousin of advertising! Today, our domain is more involved with strategies and planning and providing directions to organizations on communication plans."

Further continuing she said, "With the evolution of media, we have different kinds of mediums to communicate - whether it's social media, television media or just purely the online space in different forms. All of these mediums are communication tools and here the role of PR is all about making the right conversation which should be authentic and that's what people today search for. So, we have evolved significantly over the last 15 years and today I don't in any way think that we are not respected as a profession."

Pinto leads a team of 350 professionals, where she guides, motivates and straddles functions that steer formalizing a training program for employees and work processes across the 16 branches of Perfect Relations.

According to Pinto, "The young PR professionals should understand that PR is not a career where one has to work regularly in a nine ' five time slot. PR industry is somewhat like journalism, where one should know everything that's happening around you, it's not about looking fabulous at work but about knowing your subject well and understanding it. Unlike in journalism you have Editors or Sub-editors who correct your write ' up's, in PR you have to face it by yourself. One has to face the journalists and even the clients other side. One should have the strong perspective to deal with pressures at various levels. Media is a growing profession and you need to equip yourself with special skills to get yourself indulged in it."

As a public relations professional, Pinto's is certain that her strengths have emerge from numerous successfully accomplished challenging assignments that include brand building, corporate reputation management, financial communication for mergers & acquisitions, managing & coordinating events involving celebrities and corporate stalwarts.

Pinto holds a belief that, "In any profession, adaptability is very important. If you are not able to adapt with different circumstances like playing different roles for your clients, providing different ideas to different clients, dealing with different set of people whom you are working with, you would get lost in it." Illustrating further, she said, "As PR industry is evolving, it's more about people we communicate with and the whole business is based on that. So, it's important to build good relations with people and communicate with them well. The more you develop people skills, more the profession will grow, the more you will grow, the more entire organization will grow. Skill developing is important as no one has time to train."

Pinto is also responsible for managing and achieving revenue and profit targets and putting the agency in a high growth trajectory. She believes that her cordial relationships with senior media personnel across the country give her unparalleled access to media networks across the country.

Under her able guidance and stewardship Perfect Relations has received national international accolades.

Talking about attrition rate, Pinto explained that, "Not just in PR, attrition rate is same across communication industry. Today the tolerance level to deal with stress is reduced and we can see people moving for smaller monetary gratifications or where they could get good pay cheques and at the same time would handle less clients. This is what we are observing everywhere and the way it can be addressed, is by re-looking at the moving skills and not by recruiting people who moves from one organization within one year, as one can't learn much things from one place in one year." Adding further, Pinto opines that, "So we as an industry, have to change the way we absorb people, to make them understand that neither they'll get good job nor the increment if they'll move in this way. Being in an organization one can pick up more tolerant and could learn better things from the organization. All these are important factors that industry should be taking care of."

Prior to her association with Perfect Relations, Pinto's professional career spans across premier organizations such as UTV, where she was responsible for Internal Communications and Public Relations. Subsequently, she joined Universal Public Relations where she managed clients like Graviera, and the Arvind Mills - Lee Youth project among others. Pinto is a topper in Economics from Mumbai University and followed it up with Post Graduation from Xavier Institute of Communication, Mumbai. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal(at)adgully.com] & Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]