strategy

I think one of the key points to remember from the reading of Chapter 7's "Strategy, Planning and Scheduling" is the importance of having a strategy. This strategy is of great importance not only to the public relations practitioner alone but to the entire company.

"Strategy is a pattern or plan that integrates an organisation's major goals, policies and action sequences into a cohesive whole."

As it has been mentioned that most companies do not fully comprehend the role of the public relations practitioner, it is thus the responsibility of the public relations practitioner to ensure that the mission statement is carried out. The success of the mission statement can only occur when the organisation agrees to this vision, "knows where it is going and how to get there". As such, the public relations practitioner can then go ahead with the strategic planning. It is also worth noticing that "the results of public relations work can be intangible in nature and are not often repeated on a regular basis" thus it is difficult to "treat them statistically" and should be "measured using qualitative methodologies".

Another key point would be the importance of planning the organisation's budget as a public relations practitioner. It can be seen how budgeting is of crucial from the start of the year as organisations need to have estimated financial budgets, operating budgets, administrative costs, program costs, overheads and profits.

"A budget is a plan for coordinating rescources and expenses over a period of time by assigning costs (either estimates or actual costs) to goals and objectives for specific activities."

From this definition, we can thus see how planning is the second step after having a strategy for the organisation. The planning of expenses would certainly help in ensuring that there will not be fair allocation and that nothing will be left unaccounted for.

The last important key point would be the usage of lists, flowcharts and calendars in scheduling. The flowchart helps in assisting the public relations practitioner when things do not go as expected. The flowchart will serve as a backup plan. Lists help a public relations practitioner keep in check of the things to do. Anything (such as preparation for media conferences) left out may be detrimental to the reputation of the organisation.

This reading has shown me how the public relations practice requires so much more than social skills. I have come to realise that very often, we need to do a lot of organising and planning. The strategy (vision and mission statement) would be the first and most important step in helping the organisation succeed. As such, being able to communicate with all the departments of an organisation is crucial.