International Accreditation for communication and marketing professionals

PodUniversal Edition 153

In the globalised competitive  era, the individuals and the companies have now started bench marking their knowledge, proficiency and quality to globally accepted standards.  Companies world over subject themselves to ISO or BS Standards, which are globally recognised. Unless the companies get ISO certification, they may not be able to participate in the tenders internally and globally.

In the same way, IT professionals have now started benching their individual talents through Microsoft Certification and ISACA certification.  These certifications enable the IT professionals to compete globally and succeed professionally.

In the same way, communication and marketing professionals also need to get themselves certified to the global standards, if they want to succeed in their career in future.  I have been impressing upon the need for such global accreditation for the past eight  years.  None of the professional bodies in India are able to come up with any globally accepted certification or accreditation process. We need to prepare our younger generation communication and marketing professionals to compete at global levels.  

Just like we have accepted globally recognised certification process in other areas, the communication and marketing industry also can adopt the globally recognised and accepted certification process to develop their career in future.

US, UK, Australia, South Africa, Singapore and few other countries have already started accrediting their communicaiton and marketing professionals.  The employers give priority only to such accredited professionals in the internal promotions.  Professionals can get accredited in their chosen field, only after few years of experience.

APR Accreditation by Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and FCIPR Accreditation by Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), London are highly popular in US and Europe.

International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is one of the respected International bodies operating in more than 100 countries.  They offer ABC Accreditation (Accredited Business Communicator). All the professionals who are connected with Business Communicaiton field like Public Relations, Corporate Communication, Marketing Communication, Journalism, etc are eligible for Accreditation process. Only working professionals can apply for Accreditation.

Accreditation process involves 3 stages.  (1) Application, (2) Submission of two Portfolios (work samples), based on the applicant's own experience and (3) written and oral examination.  Senior Accredited professionals will mentor and guide the candidates.

Recently, I recorded an interview with Mr Bish Mukherjee, President of IABC's India South Chapter.  Mr Bish was earlier the Accreditation Director for Asian countries and now the Asian coordinator for the prestigious Quill Awards of IABC.  He has mentored many professionals.

I have also recorded an interview with  Dr Rajiv Kumar. He is one of the top management officials in the Tata Group handling Corporate Communication.  He is presently the Director in the Accreditation Committee of IABC.  He supervises the Accreditation process of Asia Pacific, Europe, South America and Africa.

Please watch this interesting and informative podcast (12 minutes). If anybody wants to get more information and guidance, they can send mail to Mr Bish Mukherjee at bmiabc@hotmail.com.

This podcast can also be watched in YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHYSgH0jZEk

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Business Communication Course at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan sets the trend

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai launched an unique skill based Business Communication Course for the working professionals in July 2010.  This is a  week-end course spread over  120 hours (20 week ends - 40 days x 3 hours each) focussing only on skill development.  15 experts and 10 CEOs/achievers handled the sessions.  The course was launched by Dr Abdul Kalam in July 2010 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

L to R: K. Srinivasan, N Ravi, M Narendra,
T S Krishna Murthy. K N Ramaswamy and Vaidyanathan

The convocation to distribute the certificates was held on Sunday the 2nd Jan 2011 at Bhavan.  Mr T S Krishna Murthy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India and now the Chairman of Bhavan's Chennai Kendra), Mr N Ravi (Vice Chairman of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Editor of The Hindu), Mr M Narendra (Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank) participated and shared their valuable thoughts on communication trends. 

The photo stream of the event:

Mr K. Srinivasan, Chairman of Prime Point Foundation and the Course Director presented a brief report on the course.
PodUniversal Edition 125

Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Chairman of the Chennai Kendra delivered his special address.  In his address, Mr Krishna Murthy stressed the growing importance of   business communication in the competitive environment. 
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Mr N Ravi, Editor of The Hindu presided over the function and delivered his address. Mr Ravi emphasised the need for maintaining  long form of communication, which is now distorted due to SMS, Email, etc.   Mr Ravi will be the Chairman of the 'Board of Studies' for the Second batch, which will start in February, 2011.
PodUniversal Edition 123

Mr M Narendra, Chairman of Indian Overseas Bank was the Chief Guest and delivered his address focussing on the need of internal communication in organisations.  He said that only internal communication leads to external communication.
PodUniversal Edition 124

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai will be launching the second batch of the Business Communication Course in February 2011.  Interested may contact through email bizbvb@gmail.com

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Workshop on presentation and public speaking skills

In my earlier two postings,  I had mentioned about the TNSC Bank Staff Training College and their enthusiasm to train the district central cooperative bank officials on communication skills.  For the third time, I was invited to conduct an half a day workshop to their officials, drawn from different districts.

Workshop on presentation and
and public speaking skills 

I conducted a workshop tody (5th Jan 2011) on presentation and public speaking skills.  After an introductory presentation by myself on the various techniques and steps, we made some of the participants to make presentation on their topic of choice, for two minutes.  Their speeches were video recorded and then displayed for review and analysis.  

Every time, such workshops are conducted, I always observe that the participants assume 'stage fear' and assume 'lack of confidence'.  Once they are given a chance, they do better.  I was very happy that the particpants enjoyed the workshop and got a self confidence to remove the stage fear.  

I always used to admire the commitment of the officials, who are all coming from various rural and semi-urban branches.  The enthusiasm and passion by the Principal Mr Manohar and his team is really worth admiring. This college is situated at Madhavaram and they have been silently doing great job in the nation building.  The urbanised high profile, IT Company managers should visit them once for drawing inspiration from these 'unsung heroes'.

Some of the pictures taken during the workshop:

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Domain knowledge should be supplemented with business communication skills

PodUniversal Edition 123

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai Kendra launched a skill based business communication course in July 2010.  This is an unique course in India, probably, the only of its kind  with 120 hours of teaching and working sessions (40 days x 3 hours).  This course contents were designed after an extensive research and understanding of the needs of working professionals and industry.  This course was formally launched by Former Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on 10th July 2010.

N Ravi

The course was completed in December 2010.  A function was organised by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai to award certificates to the participants who completed the course.  Mr M Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank and Mr N Ravi, Editor of The Hindu, one of the leading Indian National dailies delivered inspiring speeches.

In this edition, we publish an extract from the speech of Mr N Ravi, Editor, The Hindu on the importance of business communication.  During his speech, he focussed on the following points:

1.  Presently, though youngsters possess excellent domain knowledge, they do not have adequate business communication skills.

2.  Even educational institutions do not give importance to  develop communication skills of their students.  They remain satisfied with the text book knowledge.  On the other hand, developed nations like US provide enough importance on developing communication skills at schools and college level.

3.  The youngsters should get trained in business communication skills through such courses, to fill the gap in their communication skills.

4.  SMS / Emails have brought a new culture of short form communication.  Though such short form of communication is done for quick communication, only long form communication is accepted in the formal communication.  Youngsters should focus on the long form communication more.

Please listen to his speech by clicking 'play' button. (7 minutes).  We will separately publish the speech of Mr M Narendra. 

This video may also be listened from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYjs9qEGZUQ

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Lord Rama gives 7 rules for 'effective communication' in Valmiki Ramayana, citing Hanuman

B S Raghavan IAS (Retd)

PodUniversal Edition 120

A very interesting incident about the components of 'effective communication' is narrated in Valmiki Ramayana, the great Indian epic.

In the Ramayana, Hanuman meets Lord Rama and Lakshmana for the first time in the forests and introduces himself and his master Sugriva.   This is the first meeting of Hanuman with Lord Rama. 

Impressed with the way  Hanuman, communicated  Lord Rama admires the communication capabilities of Hanuman.

In the 7 or 8 slokas, Lord Rama explains the important aspects of communication skills of Hanuman, that impressed him most.  They are:

1.  Hanuman spoke very briefly.  Not too long or too short.  He spoke only for the required level;

2.  He also spoke with clarity and without ambiguity;

3.  He spoke without any grammatical errors;

4.  He used only appropriate words, that cannot be replaced with any other word;

5.  He spoke in a medium voice that is audible to the other person.  Not too loud or too feeble;

6. His pronunciation of words was correct.  The way he was pronouncing the words was like a music and it was pleasant;

7. All the words spoken by him, went to the heart straight. 

While addressing the Business Communication course students of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai, Mr B S Raghavan IAS (Retd) explained the seven aspects of communication skill of Hanuman, that impressed Lord Rama.  Mr B S Raghavan is one of the senior retired bureaucrats of India and he has served as the first Secretary of National Integration Council, when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Chairman.  Mr Raghavan is a well known columnist in Hindu Businessline.

The seven aspects explained earlier, summarises the components of effective communication, that are described in millions of pages in various text books.

Please listen to Mr B S Raghavan by clicking the 'play' button.  (5 minutes).

The video may also be watched from the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKPRqWsG-50

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Era Sezhiyan, a celebrated Parliamentarian gives tips for effective communication

Era. Sezhiyan

Mr Era. Sezhiyan (88) is  one of the well respected Parliamentarians and Statesmen of India.  He has served both the House of Parliament for more than 22 years continuously till 1984.  He is well known for his Parliamentary debates. Whenever he used to raise to speak in Parliament, even the Prime Ministers used to listen to him carefully.  Many a times, due to his debate, even the Budgets were modified.  

He is still considered an authority on Financial matters of the Governance.   Even at his 88th age, he is keeping updated with the global Parliamentary practices.  He is also one of the Founders of Janata Party and then Janata Dal along with Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai and few others.  For many constitutional matters, even today, many of the National and International media used to take his views.  Due to his poor health, he has restricted his public meetings.

On 24th October 2010, he interacted with the participants of Business Communication Course at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai.  As one of the celebrated Parliament debater, he shared his views on effective communication.  According to him, whether it is a political communication or corporate communication, the concept remains the same.  In an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, we asked him what was his secret of communication, which made everybody to turn to him.  Some of the views are:

1.  Communication should come from the heart; Communication in flowery languages to please the auidence and without any purpose is not an effective communication'

2.  Clarity of theme is needed for communication'

3.  People with good knowledge should come out openly with their views;

4.  Keep in mind that the people listening to you are not inferior to you;

5.  Communication should be to share your knowledge and to improve others;

6.  Morality and value should be embedded in the communication.

Please watch his interview in this video, by clicking 'play' button.  (4 minutes).  Since this was recorded in the class room, external noises could not be avoided.

The video can also be viewed from the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS8ioqykhVI

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How to improve the rapid reading skills?

PodUniversal Edition 114

Many students and business professionals find difficulty in reading the materials, holding in the mind and to comprehend the contents.  Even, if they read several times, they may not be able to comprehend the contents.  Just like writing skills, reading skills is also important in business communication.

Prof. S Krishnamurthy, a well known management professor of South India gives few tips for improving effective reading skills. Please click to play to watch this podcast (3 minutes 50 sec).

This podcast may also be watched from the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v34gcQJebxg

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Miscommunication

PodUniversal Edition 112
Sep 2010 issue of ezine PreSense deals with the concept of Miscommunication. In the communication process between the sender and the receiver (oral, written and body language), the receiver may not perceive the message, in the same manner the sender had thought of. Such miscommunication happens due to various factors.

In this edition, we have explained the many factors contributing to such miscommunication along with some examples. We have also given the tips to avoid such miscommunication.

This issue is guest edited by the students of Business Communication Course of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai as part of their project. Please also watch the podcast produced by them sharing their interesting personal experiences of miscommunication.

The ezine in pdf format (690 k) may be downloaded from the following link

http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0910.pdf 

Please watch the podcast produced by the guest editors.

Preview of the ezine

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India will be the education capital of the world in 20 years

PodUniversal Edition 107

Prof. Bala Balachandran, Founder of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai and a well known International Management Guru interacted with the participants of Business Communication Course at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai on 21st August 2010.  After the interaction session, Mr Narayanan, one of the participants of the course interviewed Prof. Bala for PodUniversal and to get a hands-on experience for podcast making.

Prof. Bala (left) being interviewed
by Mr Narayanan

During his brief interview, Prof. Bala said that India was an education capital of the world 2000 years back and we had great Universities like Dakshaseela, Pushpagiri and Nalanda in India guiding the world.  He was optimistic that India will again be the education capital for the world in 20 years.  We will have Dakshaseela, Pushpagiri and Nalanda in United States too.

Please listen to his interesting  interview (5 minutes) by clicking 'play' button.  This audio streaming will be smooth in broadband connections.  If you find any difficulty, you may right click this link and download the mp3 format of this audio and save to your desktop.

The photo stream of the event:

The audio may also be listened from the following link:

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857508

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e-Governance enables citizens to feel the Government, without seeing it

PodUniversal Edition 106

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai has recently started an executive diploma course on "Business Communication" for working professionals.  The programme was launched by Dr Abdul Kalam last month.  As part of this programme, successful CEOs are being invited every alternate week, to share their views with the participants.  Accordingly, Dr Santhosh Babu IAS, Managing Director, ELCOT and Director of e-Governance, Government of Tamilnadu was invited to share his views on Saturday the 14th August 2010.

Dr Santhosh Babu IAS (left) being
interviewed by Rajadurai

After the session, one of the participants Mr Rajadurai interviewed Dr Santhosh Babu as a  project and this interview was edited in the next session by the participants, to get a hands-on experience on making of podcast. Since this interview contains lot of useful information for the public, we share this podcast here.  (Since this was recorded in the class room, we could not avoid external disturbances during initial part of the interview).

During this interview, Dr Santhosh Babu explained how e-Governance can help to improve the efficiency of the Government system and to reduce the corruption.

Please listen to his interesting and informative interview by clicking 'play' button.  (7 m 28s).  The streaming of audio will be smooth in broadband connections.  If you find any streaming difficulty, you may download the audio in mp3 format, by right clicking this link and saving to your desktop. (6 mb)

Please see the photos taken during that occassion.

This podcast may also be listened from the following site.
http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857506

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Presentation skills in 5 steps - special module

PodUniversal Edition 98

Feb 2010 issue of Corporate ezine PR-e-Sense will focus on 'Business Communication'.  For this purpose, the ezine conducted an online survey to find out as to how people working in the corporates perceive about the 'Presentation Skills'.   The respondents across the globe had only the following challenging factors:

1. Stage fear;

2. Lack of Self Confidence;

3. Lack of fluency; and

4. Lack of organising the talk

Also the survey revealed that in the past few years, even the technical person were required to make presentations internally and externally and they do not get adequate training inputs to improve their presentation skills.

With this in mind, the experts in Prime Point Foundation, have devised a special module for one day workshop to give sufficient knowledge and skills to the participants on the art of presentation skills.Foundation presently offers this module to benefit small and medium companies at a nominal cost as an In-Company programme.  Please watch this video for more details.

The brochure may also be downloaded from:

http://www.prpoint.com/presentation-skils-in-5-steps.pdf

The video may also be watched from:

Youtube

Blip TV
The Audio may be listened from
PodBazzar
Odeo

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