Clarke, who is also ex-chairperson of the UK Institute of Public Relations Evaluation Taskforce and the President Elect of International Public Relations for the Millennium, spoke to Mukta Magazine on the increasing focus on reputation management in the face of fierce competition. Excerpts:How would you define your operations as distinct from plain vanilla public relations (PR)?

We are essentially a consultancy not an agency, because what we offer is strategic counselling. We are basically driven by the importance of strategic reputation management for corporations wanting to understand and manage their reputations. Our key practice areas are financial, consumer, technology, healthcare and public affairs, but ultimately we function as a consultancy which advises on reputation.

How relevant is PR in the modern scenario where the Net has led to the breaking of barriers and facilitated direct communications?The Net does not make PR less, but more relevant than ever before. Organisations realise that they can no longer be the only conduit for dissemination of information. Dialogues are going on outside their control with information making its way faster around the world. We have seen many major corporations caught out in that in the last 12-24 months.

Opinions are shared by a much larger number of people than was the case earlier. People's ability to question and challenge what you do aggressively before a world audience is much greater. So there was never a time when understanding the relationship with the public was of more paramount importance, making it all the more challenging and necessary to manage reputations for corporations.

Companies are increasingly setting up their in-house corporate communications divisions. Is that a threat to specialised PR agencies?Once an organisation reaches a certain size there's merit in having an in-house set-up. This is the norm in US and West Asia, where many companies have a Chief Reputation Officer or senior person handling it. Yet companies still need external objective counsel for which they seek professional agencies. This is a new phenomenon which is good news and reflects that more corporations are acknowledging the importance of having an explicit strategy to build reputation, both internally and externally.

You keep emphasising Reputation Management. Isn't it the same as relationship management, which is what agencies like yours are in any case all about?
Relationship and reputation management are inextricably linked. The difference is that you don't necessarily change what you do but building reputation becomes more focussed, it changes the upfront analysis and strategic mapping of what needs to be done. We have conducted research that shows that reputation may be a company's most important and least understood asset. Even more important is to find out how to leverage reputation to add velocity to business success.

The critical thing is for corporations to understand the difference between image perception and reputation. The two may be interlinked but are fundamentally different. Many corporations make the mistake of thinking the two can be interchanged. Image is very much shaped by what you perceive and so leads to awareness. Reputation is everything and it not only helps sustain business but is self perpetuating, helping diminish impact crises and weather financial storms.

Drawing on your global experience, what emerging trends have you observed in the field of public relations?
There are a number of developments in Asia: PR is now very high on the agenda. It is also becoming much more sophisticated. From being limited to grassroot media relations it is becoming a much wider operation backed by technology.

How is India positioned on Weber Shandwik's global radar?
India is increasingly a top requirement for most of our clients. Almost 20 per cent of our regional and MNC clients have a requirement in India. That is why our working relationship here is getting stronger.