Monday Sep 23, 2024
Monday Sep 23, 2024
Tuesday, 13 January 2015 00:53 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Q: Tell us about the book, how did you come about publishing it?
A: Well, I sent it off to MPH which is a well-known publisher and they said, “Wow, we want to publish it, this is great.” That was in Singapore and Malaysia and we had a partner in Vietnam and they were shown the book and they showed it to a publisher there and they published it in Vietnamese and I went up there and launched it and it was fabulous.
And – one copy is in the National Library of Vietnam and in the first two weeks, it sold out and now it’s going to be published in Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia. And after that, hopefully, I am talking to a publisher here that might publish it next year.
In each country, I give all the money to a different local charity. I just thought it was a nice thing to do. So that was great fun.
Q: So why did it take you so long to write a book about your experiences in business?
A: Well, it wasn’t a case of taking so long to write one – I never thought about writing one. So I never planned to write a book. I planned to do a few things but then I was talking to my son Peter who works with me at GO – he’s a COO - he said, “You have a good story – why don’t you write a book?” and I said, “Ok”, and I just gave it a go and wrote it in longhand and I did it in a very short time, less than six months. I didn’t have to do any research and secondly, it was my story so I was telling the story of what I had done. So from that point of view, it flowed. And I had to be in a zone where it just flowed.
Q: Did you have an issue deciding what to make public and what to keep private?
A: Not only friends but colleagues and people I have worked with because I have a section in the book called ‘Heroes and Villains’ and when I finished the first draft, I gave it to the publisher and they said, “Wow. This is sizzling but we can’t publish it because there would be mighty big trouble.” So then I – because they said it was impossible to publish even though it was a very exciting read – said, “Why don’t I take the villains out?” So I did. But it’s still a good read. So I took those bits out and they said that that was much better.
Q: How many copies have you sold so far?
A: To be honest, I am not sure but it was a bestseller in Malaysia. But in Asia, business books, it’s not in the hundreds of thousands. That’s just the way it is – it’s not fiction. But when they say it’s a bestseller, it’s up against a few good people. And what was interesting was that I only thought it would be published in Singapore and Malaysia but in Vietnam and Cambodia they found it quite interesting. And hopefully the next country will be Sri Lanka.
And I was born here so that’s what I think will happen next. So it will have some relevance and secondly, part of the story is part of what happened to me while I was here. So I have been talking to a few publishers here.
It’s been quite fun and it’s really interesting. I have been in public relations all my life and when I travel people ask me what I do. When I say I am in public relations, they are not interested. Now when I say I am an author, they say “Wow!” and they look at me totally differently too. From that point of view it’s just nice, lovely and you feel special. And more women want to talk to me. Being in PR is boring but being an author, that gets a reaction. So that has been another exciting part that I didn’t realise would take place and if I knew that I would have written it earlier.
Q: How did the company GO get started?
A: I started my career as a journalist in Melbourne with the Melbourne Age and then the Herald Sun. Then I went with the Herald Sun to Canberra to cover politics. It was in the early ‘70s and that was a very exciting time. And I was only about 24, and then the Liberal Party of Australia, which is one of the main parties of Australia, were looking for a PR manager and they said, “Would you like to have a go for the job?” and I thought just for fun, why not? I just thought it would be a fun thing to do at that age because all my life I have been and am apolitical. And not even having any background in PR, I got the job. And that led me into the path of public relations and communications and then from there, after the Liberal Party, I worked for an airline, Ansett Airlines. They are no more. But that was great fun.
Then I went to England and did a pilgrimage like most Australians do and I had become one by then. And I went to London and I worked there for about four or five years and then I thought on the way back to Australia that I would have a short stint in Asia but it was harder there for PR and I got a job in Singapore.
And after about a year, they had a lot of changes and it was a big multinational and I was wondering would I go back and then a few clients said, “Why don’t you set up your own company?” and they backed me and I thought “What a learning curve.” So I started that PR company and it was called MDK under my initials. And that went for 23 years we went to about six or seven countries and then about ten years ago I sold it to a big multinational company. My son Peter - we are like brothers - we are great friends. He had just graduated and we were having a beer and I said, “What will I do - will I go to Bali and sit on a beach or come to Colombo and sit at the Galle Face Hotel and have another beer?” and he said “Why don’t we – together – start another PR agency together?” And we said, “Let’s do it.” And we called it GO.
Q: Why “GO”?
A: We tossed around hundreds of names and then we said we are going to start the company headquarters in Malaysia because we lived in Malaysia at the time and if we were going to go into other countries we would need a name that was very simple and that was in common use every day.
And then boom! The word ‘Go’ came and we thought it was just a very positive word and it translates well into any language and so GO Communications was born. And touch wood, it’s been a very exciting, fabulous journey. That was the whole purpose of doing it. When you look at Virgin, they have done the same thing – piggybacked onto another very common word to become part of its meaning. We used that as a model, so we wanted a word that everyone knew and used and that you say every day a hundred times. And ‘Go’ is positive – it’s going forward and whatever you want to say.
So we celebrated our tenth anniversary this year (2014), for GO Communications and then we said why don’t we go into other countries so we formed the GO Group and now we have got GO partners in 12 Asian countries: Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, India, Japan and Sri Lanka. So in the entire group there are about 350 people but in each country the strategy was not to have the GO name. We would seek an agency, a PR agency, which already existed and had its own brand name, had its own reputation at different levels that fitted into our culture and our philosophy where we liked the people and if that all came together, they could keep their name but they come under the GO Group.
So that was very different to how multinationals usually operate. Here we have got a company called Niche. It’s a boutique PR agency, a rather small one – some are very big in other countries but because they don’t have very many PR agencies in Colombo compared to say Thailand or Indonesia hopefully it will blossom and grow with the group. So these are exciting times.
Q: So are you going to stay in Asia or are you going to expand, say into Europe?
A: No. The grand plan was to be the communication and PR experts in Asia. Asia is our background, our backyard. Rather than trying to be all things to everybody, we want to be where we know the business and how it is done.
Q: Why is it important in your view to have good PR and corporate communications in Asia?
A:Firstly, when I first came to PR in Asia it was a very new industry. Clients didn’t really understand the benefits of it but today it is growing rapidly but also whether it be for companies, local or multinational, PR and communications will always be, and in the future even more so, a fundamental marketing tool. And I am convinced that communications is one of the most potent weapons we have in the 21st century. When you consider traditional media, the new media that is online and 
social media, the power is frightening and very exciting. I mean today you can talk to hundreds of thousands of people in a second and you can talk to individuals. I mean, that’s just dynamite.
We had the agricultural revolution, we had the industrial revolution and now we are in the communications revolution and it’s just going to go up like a bushfire. So it’s going to be very, very critical for every company to have great communication abilities to reach out to their audience and also everything is becoming more competitive.
Q: What about the issue of finding new business models for these various parts of communications and media to replace what isn’t working or is clearly broken?
A: Oh well that is true in Asia too
but it is growing faster in comparison to the West. In Asia, it’s still a new industry so a lot of people in the industry are not say great experts in the field but that’s going to change and it is changing.
There was an old model and that had great success as well so it’s not throwing out the old model, it’s refining the old model and taking on the new world of communications. And you have got to marry both.
If you look at service industries today, communications is one of the fastest growing. I mean, ten years ago in Asia no university had a Mass Communications degree course. Today every university has a Mass Communications degree course, every university in every country. So they are churning out these people with Mass Communication degrees whereas ten years ago they weren’t.
Companies are also realising exactly what PR can do for their business. It’s not only a cocktail party and blowing up a few balloons, you know? It’s a lot more sophisticated than that. It’s a new industry and I think people in the PR industry will be in a very short time paid fees like doctors and lawyers because they are getting valued that much.
That’s the power and influence that they can have. Like a doctor or a lawyer. You go to a doctor, you don’t ask him how much. You just want to get better.
Q: So you think that the perception within the community at large is also changing the people working in the industry and that’s why the value in what they are doing is increasing?
A: Exactly because also in every country, Sri Lanka as well, it’s the same. More and more people are being better educated, they are thinking for themselves, whereas in a short space of time going backwards, they didn’t have that power so now they are travelling more so therefore you have to talk to them in a different way. And reach them in a different way. Because you cannot fool them anymore. Or you can’t fool most of them anymore. They will be thinking for themselves whereas 15 years ago, you did what your mother said.
And if you look at families, Sri Lanka is a classic example, no one left the village. Everyone you knew lived two or three streets down the road. Today, they are in London, New York, Paris, they are all over, which has happened in a very short space of time. Why? They have gone to school, to university, and this change is happening dramatically and hopefully it’s going to be for the better because people are seeing the world in a new and exciting way.
Q: How is the end of the war impacting the use of PR here in Sri Lanka? Especially since investors and customers and so on feel safer in doing business here?
A: Just in the tourism industry, in which PR plays a pivotal role. That’s just a fact. There has to be a huge role for PR in the industry. But there are just so many hotels coming up now. There is a big, main chain hotel opening up every six months. So the competition is becoming fierce. So what they are doing is that the hotels are having to train their staff better to make the service better and then you have got to tell the story on why you are better than your competitor whereas before there was very little competition so no one did anything. They just lived by osmosis. But now it’s all changed. They are not only training and using communications but also attracting apart from foreign investment, foreign capital and top gun professionals to head these various organisations and train the local people, which is fantastic.
Several of the hotels have general managers from other countries with a wealth of experience because they have got to be on the ball.
And you know they are attracting more tourists which means foreign income for the country. So I mean that potential is huge within the tourist industry.
When I lived in Singapore, I was a great fan of the former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and on May Day every year he gave this speech for about three hours and it was on television but it was electrifying. It was just riveting and for many years he used the example of Sri Lanka and he said, “Sri Lanka, because of its geographic position, its natural resources, could have been a powerhouse and leader in Asia and look where they are today. And we don’t want to make that same mistake.” Because there were a lot of parallels between them – you know, two small islands and so on. He always used it to show his people what could have been and what wasn’t.
But I think now Sri Lanka is starting on that road that Lee Kuan Yew was talking about 15 years ago to really become an exciting country. And I am not saying that because I am Sri Lankan. But the potential here is massive.
Q: What are your plans for the Niche Agency, your partner here? Would you ever relocate here?
A: I have got a small stake here now. Well they will be part of all the things we have talked about and by being part of the group, we exchange ideas, we exchange - from creativity to our expertise and they are part of a big group so they have an opportunity to play a really big role in the PR industry in Asia.
They are small but it is just how anyone starts. You start small and then you grow step by step. And a lot of the companies in GO Group started like that – in Thailand, we had a company which started with ten people and today it’s number one there with 60 people. When I started GO in Malaysia with my son Peter we had four people, today we are the number one PR agency with nearly 55 people and we won the Best PR Agency Award five years running so you grow step by step. And that’s the whole plan.
Will I come back to Sri Lanka? I was just saying to some friends the other day – one thing you can say about the Sri Lankans is that they like to work hard and play hard which is a great philosophy and right up my alley and I like going to what I call emerging markets and countries in my field. It’s an adventure but you can do exciting things. Sri Lanka is like one of them, like when we went to Vietnam or Cambodia. I mean, it’s exciting and the growth can be really dynamic and you have got to have fun working. So it’s a great adventure and people are excited. Compared to ten years ago, they were a bit down in the mouth but now you can see the excitement. They see that there is a future and that they can do things? And that’s a fact so you have got to forgive and forget with the politics whereas before it was a bit debilitating. They were going one step forward, three steps back.
Now they can do things. So who knows?
Q: Name some of your clients?
A: That are known internationally? Well, in no order, Nikon, we have Zurich Insurance, TNT, we have a whole range of hotels that are pretty big, just in Malaysia we have about 40 clients and they are from the medical field, the retail field, we have tourism clients like Tourism Victoria – so we have a great set of clients in all different industries which is pretty good and they are pretty well known.
Also there are some that are just within Malaysia and then we have some that we share amongst the Group.
Q: So Malaysia and Singapore seem to support quite heavily the business and entrepreneurs so do you think they are building that sort of community here?
A: Without a doubt, definitely. Before I left, the human capital in Sri Lanka, when compared to Asia was always very high in the standards. Everyone spoke English apart from Sinhala and they were really talented. And that was just shown for example when I migrated when I was twelve with my parents to Australia and had this huge Sri Lankan tsunami going to Australia, in every university, fifty per cent or more of the deans and professors there were ex-Sri Lankans. My cousin was the first migrant to be a governor of Victoria so you can see the talent that they have and if they can hold on to that talent and develop it, this would be a dynamic, powerful country.
Q: So what do you think needs to be done here further to help speed things up?
A: I just think in Asian country and some do it better, bring about transparency in the way things are handled and operated. Continue to build the infrastructure which is supporting the education base – I mean these are all basic things. Through transparency, attract more foreign capital and investment – every country needs foreign investment. And appoint some great communication people because I think and I am being a little bit funny because Sri Lanka has a great story to tell but the world doesn’t know it. And when you say Sri Lanka to anyone, they always have a negative comment but if you got them to come and see and touch and feel, they would have a different idea so we have to change their negative perception.
And the only thing they know about, that they talk positively about is the cricket. But they know about the cricket and that we have some good players. But when you think of the tourism potential when within 70 miles you can go from beaches to hill country, to game parks – you cannot get that in many countries. Seriously. It’s got all the five star hotels so they can just tell that story in a very positive way and change the mindset. And you should be able to do it easier today because you have got so many avenues to put it out on and it doesn’t cost very much money. You just need the will and some expertise. Simple.
You need governments and leaders to start from the top. And I know because I lived there for five years – look at Singapore. They are just an island. They have no resources. They don’t even have water. They have to get it imported from Malaysia. They don’t grow a thing. And today, everybody knows it, it’s rated in the top of half a dozen countries around the world on every different scale. If Singapore can do it why can’t Sri Lanka when it has got so much more? So much more? It’s just the will and all you need is people to lead that. Let’s hope that new generation comes along.
See, actions are needed not words. But what you need are the leaders to come in and start things, and you can start small and then grow. And now that everything is back to normal, they are just going to look over the fence at countries, just in Asia alone, that are doing it. You take Cambodia and Vietnam – I mean they are just leapfrogging. A country like Cambodia is in with 4G – they have leapfrogged Malaysia. They have gone from 2G to 4G – I mean Malaysia are still struggling with 3G. They are just into development because they wanted to do it and the people were making sure that the government and companies gave it to them.
We are in the computer world but I don’t use a computer – I have never sent an email or an SMS in my life. I mean that’s me. It is a good thing but people sit in front of their computers for hours and hours and hours and I wonder what they are doing. You have got to bring the creative spirit out where you have got to think for yourself and you can’t google everything. They should have a month a year where you don’t turn your computer on. And I don’t know how many SMSes people can send. You don’t know that many people. A lot of it is junk but who makes the money? The telecoms. So it’s about using all these good things but in a correct way.
Q: So are you going to write another book?
A: All the people have asked me. This is why the book sells. Because it has information on how to start for SMEs, how to start for a larger company, how to start a company on a dollar and make it work, not knowing anything. And then there were some great classic case studies that I created for companies.
For example there was one I did for Singapore Airlines and it was the 21st anniversary. And every company has one and it’s usually a press conference and the CEO says something and then you have a nice dinner and then you get a few paragraphs in the paper. That is it.
So I came up with the idea of why don’t we try and get the Singapore Girl, the air hostess, into Madame Tussauds’ in London? That’s where you invite the most famous people in the world. But technically the Singapore Girl is a nobody and Singapore Airlines said “Well if you could do that, we’ll pay for it. Go to London and make a presentation but you need a bit of luck.”
But it’s in the book and there have been studies written about it and they debated it and discussed it and then they said yes and she became the first commercial figure to go into Tussauds’ in over 200 years. And then the publicity was just mega. You didn’t have to ring the journalists up, the journalists were ringing you up from all around the world because it had never happened. And it can only happen once.
So rather than it being a one day event, the whole thing of her being made into a wax model etc and if you go to Tussauds’ she will still be there today. And what that did was establish the airline with some magnitude. So there just again, it’s a great idea but you just have to go do it. British Airways didn’t come to the idea first. And you can’t do it again. So there are quite a few of those case studies to explain how you can do anything and Asians can come with brilliant ideas – it doesn’t have to come from America or London.
A lot of the times, opportunities are missed. Or times when people didn’t see the vision, whether it’s the people communicating, the company or the government? I remember one of the classic case studies – I mean there are some in there that didn’t get off the ground or failed as well – but there is one in there again for Singapore Airlines and recently, not that long ago, they had an aircraft and it was the best in the world and it was going to fly from Singapore to London nonstop for the first time.
And the brief was to communicate this to the world – that they could fly the longest distance in the shortest amount of time. So I had to come up with a campaign. Now you can write a story saying yes it can fly a long distance but the brief was brilliant in the sense of that one sentence – the longest distance in the shortest time out of all the airlines in the world. And then I got the idea and I spoke to a guy called David Copperfield.
And I said, “Mr Copperfield,” I tracked him down. “Can you get a plane from Changi Airport, make it disappear, this is a Megatop, and make it arrive at Heathrow?” He said: “Yes I can.” And he had never done it before.
The BBC wanted to televise it live and then the airline said no. And that would have told the story around the world, say no more but the Singapore Airlines knocked the idea. The reason being that he needed two MegaTops – one in Singapore and one in London for a week – and the cost of taking them off flying they believed was too great. Having said that, six months later, Northwest flew the longest distance in the shortest time so they missed the opportunity and then over a beer a few of the directors said, “We should have done it.”
So some fail. Maybe it was the fault of myself for not pushing it hard enough but they didn’t see the vision. So they get beaten and then they go back and say, “Awww.” No one likes to come second.
Pix by Lasantha Kumara
