The Public Relations (PR) sector has emerged as a crucial success element for businesses. For years, it has been a great communicative medium between the audience and companies, by providing a voice to the organizational goals. In the present scenario, the benefits of PR are no longer confined to advertisements and company exposure. Through effective PR strategies, several companies are developing meaningful relationships with their clients and prospects, while promoting a positive outlook on their business reputation.
With numerous opportunities to offer, the PR market requires leaders that are aware of the evolving clientele requirements. It is also essential for these leaders to possess an idea of the significance of PR in promoting businesses and building credibility. An instance of such proficient leadership is demonstrated by Tetsuya Tani. Tetsuya not only understands the value of PR in the business landscape but also its significance in building trust among companies and their stakeholders.
After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo with a bachelor’s degree in History, Tetsuya started his career at an ad agency—I&S. He later switched to two other ad agencies BBDO and Shinto Tsushin, before joining a PR agency. In the end, Tetsuya finally chose Kyodo PR because he believes that public relations will surely and increasingly play an important role in the local as well as global communication industry. Currently, he spearheads Kyodo PR as the CEO and profoundly contributes to its growth.
Mirror Review recently had the opportunity to participate in a conversation with Tetsuya where he elaborated about the current scenario of the media industry while talking about his leadership aspects and the company. Following are some of the snippets from the insightful conversation:
When was Kyodo PR established? What are the various services and solutions offered by the company?
Kyodo PR was established in 1964—during the year of the first Tokyo Olympics. We provide marketing support to our domestic as well as our multinational clients, with a focus on PR consulting. Our job is to discover, polish, distribute, and spread valuable information content that the world has yet to see through relevant traditional and social media channels.
Being at the company’s forefront, what are your primary responsibilities?
I aim to make Kyodo PR a new breed of PR agency beyond its conventional realm. After presiding over the current head office, I led the agency into profitability within six months, while it had been suffering from a financial crisis in its two previous fiscal years in the red. Kyodo PR has been steadily growing ever since.
How do you ensure optimum customer satisfaction?
People are the most important resource for any PR agency. Based on feedback, Kyodo PR underlines professionalism for each employee, creates working guidelines, sets fair goals, and evaluates them to further improve their performances. The agency has also created a system to quantitatively measure the effectiveness of PR activities in our efforts to pursue digital transformation.
How did you respond to the rampant and abrupt adoption of digitalization induced during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The COVID-19 pandemic created a communication breakdown, suppressing minor and major events for people to meet in person and opportunities to promote such events. On the contrary, it also accelerated online press conferences and virtual communication tools.
Along with the trend, Kyodo PR is currently pursuing full digitization. It has started developing a new tool that can host online press conferences, coupled with other new digital services.
Being a part of an industry where information flows readily and at a great pace, how do you ensure authenticity and transparency?
As the leader of a PR company, I think that it is important to first confirm whether any information that affects the public is true, is not one-sided, and does not have a biased perspective from our clients. That is why I firmly believe that it is very important to first confirm that our information comes from various directions/angles.
That being told, I am conscious of moving forward while changing perspectives and verifying with multiple sources and experts. It is also a problem for the media since they are the ones who provide the baptized information to readers and viewers and guide them in the wrong direction. I think we need to be strongly aware of it. I firmly believe that “Cheating, stealing, lying, bribing and accepting bribes are a matter of the morality of each individual, family, and educational institution, not of a company.”
The 5G technology has vastly emerged as the latest technology and networking trend. Do you think it will prove beneficial for the media industry? If yes, then how?
5G technology has three main features, namely—high-speed with large-capacity, high-reliability with low-latency, and multiple simultaneous connections. If 4G has been a mobile network technology for smartphones—at least here in Japan—5G will be a mobile network technology to support the whole society. With 5G, video content will take center stage in any media news report and consumers will receive larger amounts of information at faster speeds.
What services or solutions are you planning to launch in the near future?
Kyodo PR plans to launch a wide range of new services in the future. These include a system that enables more accurate media analysis and predictions, features an expanded media database, a video content service, an influencer marketing tool, and much more.
What would you like to convey to those entrepreneurs seeking careers in the media industry?
I would like to remain humble when speaking highly of a career in the media industry, but one sure thing is when consumers change, media changes as well. Keeping this in mind, I would like to quote, “Create your own chances, and let those opportunities change you,” a quote from the founder of Recruit, Mr. Ezoe.
Token of Leadership:
