All rounder or a specialist PR professional?
View Comments Published by on 11/27/07 at 00:26.
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Are you an all-rounder or a specialist PR professional? As the Indian PR industry matures, we are seeing a number of specialist functions in PR agencies and specialist PR agencies coming up in the recent years.We have new business development teams, media relations teams, planning & teams, and creative writing teams apart from the client servicing teams in big agencies. In small agencies, all this would be bundled in the client servicing executive's profile.
We have specialist PR agencies servicing only specific industry verticals like IT (20:20 Media, Text 100), healthcare (Imprimis), Investor Relations and IPOs (Adfactors, Concept... though A has a number of other clients in other verticals as well), social media (Blogworks), in-house PR ad agencies (Rediffusion, LinOpinion, IPAN, etc). Then we have the generalist PR agencies that services multiple verticals (Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick, Genesis, Perfect Relations, etc).
Which one would you go for? Do you see yourself and groom yourself as an all-rounder or become a specialist in one function or service vertical? Which has better future and better prospects? Can we compare it to the medical fraternity - general treatment doctors and specialists?
What are the advantages of each?
An all rounder can handle any situation...for example give him/her an account and he can take care of it from start to finish.
On the other hand, a specialist can have in depth knowledge about a particular subject more than any all rounder would have.
The disadvantage of each are perhaps the reverse.
Share us your thoughts. It might be helpful for someone in the industry who wants to take a decision between these two.
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Dear HH:
As you mentioned, there are two sides to a coin. While, it make sense to be a specialist and can be a good career move - the field need to be chosen very carefully. After a while, you may develop a fatigue and you may become a deadman walking! On the other hand, an all-rounder or whatever term you want to use will have a benefit of multiple brands, multiple things to work and learn but may not get advantage from a career point of view (its a same thing as a specialist vs. GP in medical profession) - so its your choice, whether you want to become a specialist or all-rounder but one thing should be clear that whatever you do, you need to be best and continue to reinvent yourself or else!!
Not sure if such a differentiation exists any more, maybe a couple of years ago. Most generalists have set up tech or pharma or health or other domain practices; conversely all specialist have set up generalist practices to return the favour of the generalist trying to cut their lunch.
The only differentiation is what retainer an account pays and if its prima donna or marquee in its space! rest is all positioning hogwash that can get turned around 360 degrees depending on the need of the day (hour!).