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| Jack Leslie spoke at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) |
Jack discussed growth in China in an interview by PublicAffairsAsia. |
Jack discussed the effects of the US presidential election for webershandwick.asia. |
Weber Shandwick Chairman Jack Leslie recently travelled to four countries in the Asia Pacific region talking to media, clients and staff.
First on the schedule was Japan. Jack was greeted by the Tokyo office, and he delivered a rousing speech to the staff, praising the work of the office, discussing the current global financial crisis and recent U.S. elections and engaging with several members of the office in a hearty exchange of ideas. From there, he travelled to the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ), where he addressed a group of Japan’s leaders in the business, marketing and public relations fields about the critical steps needed to reestablish Brand America around the world. He then conducted interviews with correspondents from Wall Street Journal Asia, Advertising Times and answered questions for a pending piece with the Public Relations Society of Japan.
During Jack Leslie’s visit to Hong Kong, "Bloomberg Today" interviewed him about how companies should market during a downturn. Jack appeared on CNBC’s "Squawk Box Asia” to discuss the need for PR and communications during the downturn, He also met with the Wall Street Journal Asia and the South China Morning Post to discuss how recent political and economic developments have impacted Brand America and the path to brand recovery.
Jack also gave a presentation at a lunch hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, where the audience included Weber Shandwick clients, followed by a town hall meeting with IPG companies.
His third stop was Beijing, where he gave a speech addressing representatives from client companies and multinational corporations at the American Chamber of Commerce. After his speech, Jack was interviewed for the International News section in the December edition of Modern Weekly, a widely read Chinese broadsheet. Jack was also interviewed by PublicAffairsAsia. Later, he met with officials from the Department of American and Oceania Affairs at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, John Russell, Weber Shandwick EVP, interviewed Jack about the effective communication used during the campaign of US President-elect Barack Obama. You can watch the interview on webershandwick.asia.
Weber Shandwick’s Global Strategic Media Group (GSMG) secured a speaking opportunity for Jack at the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit in New Delhi from 16-18 November. The summit was attended by more than 500 international and Indian business leaders from over 35 countries, providing a high level forum for fostering new business relationships and strengthening the firm’s overall affiliation with the World Economic Forum. Jack participated as a panelist on the session "Challenges to National and Regional Security,” moderated by Nidhi Razdan, news anchor for New Delhi TV.
The GSMG worked closely with the Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick team in New Delhi to secure one-on-one meetings with the media (Financial Times, Hindu Business Line and afaqs.com), existing global clients, senior leadership and management officers of the World Economic Forum. Jack discussed a range of issues including the global financial crisis, national security and how the communications industry is evolving in India and globally.
The New Delhi team also hosted a special cocktail and dinner session for Jack, which was attended by the regional staff members, clients and select media. Before his trip, on Election Day—4 November, Jack appeared on FOX Business to discuss what kind of image the US presidential campaign built and how it will affect voters in the future.
Dujat Japan Update 2008: Global vs. Local
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With global business facing a variety of challenges—from finding routes to financing global projects in a volatile and tightening credit market to communicating effectively the way multinationals will fully understand and adeptly respond to local market needs—business leaders from both Japan and the Netherlands gathered to discuss these issues in Amsterdam in late October 2008.
The meeting, hosted by Dujat (Dutch and Japan Trade Federation), was entitled "Dujat Japan Update 2008: Global vs. Local”. Takeo Nishitani, president and CEO of Weber Shandwick Japan, engaged the other meeting attendees, delivering a critical presentation, "Local Branding in a Global World,” in which he highlighted the significant ways in which approaches to branding need to be tailored to a local media, business, government and consumer landscape. Drawing around 120 executives from Japanese and Dutch companies together, the conference opened with the following words: "Global companies have to deal with local conditions. This is of course also true for large Japanese corporations in the Netherlands and Dutch corporations in Japan. As global players they have to cope with cultural differences, local management styles, different HR approaches, localised branding and other financial reporting standards.”
Addressing these challenges with Nishitani, other speakers at the conference included Ryota Sakagami from Nomura International Plc; Rob Wagenaar, founder and partner of ASI Consulting Netherlands; Mitsuhiro Tabei, president and managing director of Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe) B.V.; and Marc Gotink, director of sales at ASML Japan K.K.
Strategic public relations: Examples from Russia
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With Russia continuing to emerge as one of the world’s most alluring markets for business opportunities, many Japanese business leaders are looking at the most effective and profitable way to conduct business there. Considering this reality, the Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro), hosted a business forum in late October in Moscow at which more than 30 Japanese business executives convened, and Takeo Nishitani, president and CEO of Weber Shandwick Japan, provided vital insights into how Japanese firms can strengthen their presence in the Russian market by fully leveraging the voices of Russian media experts while conducting a variety of strategic public relations activities.
Drawing on an extremely effective campaign carried out in Russia for a large Japanese auto manufacturer, Nishtani presented tried-and-tested public relations strategies that Japanese businesses looking to penetrate the Russian market can employ to future success. The response Nishitani received at the conference was tremendous and helped to further solidify Weber Shandwick’s reputation as the global leader in providing the most forward-looking, proven service in comprehensive and strategic public relations.
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| Shioya Hitoshi, senior vice president, Japan |
Hitoshi Shioya, senior vice president of Weber Shandwick Japan,
spoke with and contributed a newsletter article to the International Management Association this October. With his extensive experience
as a consultant particularly in the field of crisis communications in Japan,
he explored a recent series of deceptive food-labelling scandals, a topic de jeur in Japanese crisis communications, and provided insights into how Japanese executives can and should develop and implement effective compliance management to protect their companies from such crises.
Below is an excerpt from the article.
| Food-mislabeling scandals are a hot topic in Japanese crisis communications in 2008
In Japan, a series of deceptive labeling of food products has been in the news and on the minds of consumers since October 2007. Many companies including established Japanese restaurants, popular sweets shops, meat and fish wholesale companies have proven deceptive in the labeling of the origins and consume-by dates of their products. Japanese consumers have tired of watching the news and seeing the executives of these companies bowing in apology to reporters at press conferences. As such, in Weber Shandwick Tokyo, the number of enquiries about how to deal with media in such crises has been increasing of late.
Management can still be implicated by employee mislabeling
Some of the scandals have resulted from employee actions with no direction from or complicity by management. Japanese labor law, however, holds companies "dually liable" meaning both employees and management are held responsible for criminal acts even though the company itself may not willfully engage in the act. Thus the company can often be subject to punishment when an employee commits an infraction of the law. Hence, it is incumbent on management to improve internal compliance systems of the company to prevent employees from engaging in illegal and/or other reputation-damaging activities.
Japanese compliance management
It seems some Japanese management believe that compliance is just a matter of obeying the law as the word "compliance" in Japanese translates to "compliance with the regulation." However, it is important that companies consider carefully the true meaning of the word "compliance." Compliance means not only following the law but also showing accountability through appropriate management and sound corporate governance. In Japan, companies are expected to provide necessary goods and services in superior condition, and Japanese society seems more likely than possibly other societies to demand transparency from companies. In fact, one Japanese rice cracker manufacturer rapidly increased its sales by explaining its entire supply-chain process to customers. Japanese management should implement hands-on expertise and everyday checks and credibly explain their operations and business activities.
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| (Left to right) Mark Lee, director, Corporate Affairs, Temasek Holdings; Baxter Jolly, regional managing director, Southeast Asia, Weber Shandwick; Myrna Thomas, managing director, Corporate Affairs, Temasek Holdings; Ivan Tan, deputy managing director, Weber Shandwick Singapore; Serena Khoo; and Daliea Mohamad, director, Corporate Affairs, Temasek Holdings |
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Weber Shandwick received eight honours at the recent 2008 Asia Pacific PR Awards in Hong Kong.
Weber Shandwick Singapore jointly won Financial Communication Campaign of the Year for its work on behalf of Asian investment house Temasek Holdings. "Taking home the award in the financial communications category is a real honour for our client and us,” said Baxter Jolly, Weber Shandwick Singapore’s regional managing director of Southeast Asia. "This award reaffirms Weber Shandwick’s first-class financial communications expertise in a high-stakes business environment.”
The Singapore team—which earlier this year won the Stevie Award for Best PR Agency at the International Business Awards—was also recognised as runner-up for the highly competitive Consultancy of the Year Award for the second year in a row. Baxter Jolly was runner-up for Agency Head of the Year.
Weber Shandwick also received Certificates of Excellence for client campaigns in Product Brand Development Campaign of the Year (Bussells, Australia), Promotional Activity of the Year (Singapore Airlines, Australia), Healthcare Ethical Campaign of the Year (GlaxoSmithKline, Hong Kong) and an honourable mention for Business-to-Business Campaign of the Year (Microsoft, Taiwan). And Emma Jane Granleese, managing director for Weber Shandwick Australia, was a finalist for PR Agency Head of the Year.
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| (Left to right) Wei Hsiang, general manager of Weber Shandwick Taiwan, and Elsa Wen, account director, technology practice, Taiwan |
Weber Shandwick Australia Managing Director E-J Granleese accepts dual Certificates of Excellence |
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| (Left to right) Baxter Jolly, regional managing director Weber Shandwick, Southeast Asia; Yazzele Marie C. Abriza; Mark Khoo Boo Par; and Victor Randolph Reyes Cruz at the Asia Pacific PR Awards. |
The recent Asia Pacific PR Awards ceremony was the occasion for announcing the winner of this year’s PR Student of the Year Award, which Weber Shandwick has partnered with Media magazine to sponsor since 2006.
From the University of Asia and the Pacific in the Philippines, Victor Randolph Reyes Cruz and Yazzele Marie C. Abriza were both named runner-up. The top prize went to Mark Khoo Boo Par of Singapore Management University.
The award ceremony at this year’s Asia Pacific PR Awards was the culmination of months of preparation by students across Asia Pacific, who competed for an internship at Weber Shandwick and a cash prize. To learn more about the PR Student of the Year Award, please visit the programme website:
www.webershandwick.asia/prstudentoftheyear
Weber Shandwick Malaysia recently launched its inaugural healthcare practice newsletter, PULSE. The publication, which provides valuable context to the changing healthcare industry in the Southeast Asian nation, can be downloaded from webershandwick.asia.
Upon the debut of PULSE, Weber Shadwick’s Ian Rumsby, executive vice president, business and strategic development, interviewed Malaysia managing director Anne Gabriel about the new newsletter. You can watch the interview on webershandwick.asia.
Weber Shandwick Sydney recently received two awards at the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s (PRIA) 2008 NSW State Awards for Excellence.
The team received a Highly Commended award in the Special Event/Observance category for the Singapore Airlines "First to Fly” campaign and Commended in the Consumer Marketing category.
Weber Shandwick Sydney helped Singapore Airlines make aviation history with the launch of the first A380 commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney in October 2007. In a world’s first, all seats on board were auctioned on eBay for charity and more than 800 winning auction bidders and 120 international media descended on Sydney for seven separate events over two days. Operating within a functioning airport, Weber Shandwick navigated stringent security and the demands of multiple media markets to execute one of the largest launches in the travel industry to date.
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| Weber Shandwick’s Alex Kelly displays a winning plaque the PRIA Awards |
James Wright, Leela Gantman and Sophie Toskas of Weber Shandwick Sydney
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