C&F Porter Novelli: Symbol of PR for good

As seen in Mudit Aggarwal’s article titled, ‘’Purpose of Business: Solve Problems’’, the purpose of a business has been a topic extensively deliberated and explained by several opinion formers, economists and management experts.  Adam Smith, an 18^th-century philosopher, and Milton Friedman, a 20^th-century economist, suggested the lines of profit maximisation. Peter Drucker, a revered management thinker of the 20^th century, explained that the purpose of a business is to create customers. More recently, Michael Porter an American academic known for his theories on economics, business strategy, and social causes, built a case that a business should create shared values by connecting its success to social progress. C&F Porter Novelli, however, agrees that businesses exist to solve problems in various ways and one of such ways is through purpose-driven initiatives birthing its mantra – Public Relations for good.

Beyond the issues of perception and publicity lies the strategic vision that sets a brand apart and sustainably builds businesses. Herein lies the power of building reputational capital which continues to generate value. It is then safe to say that C&F Porter Novelli is a reputation capital consultancy, built on purpose to do business better!

C&F Porter Novelli is the trusted business advisor and leader in strategic communications in West Africa that combines an in-depth understanding of the Nigerian and other West African markets with 360° strategic communication skills and a commitment to standards of excellence to influence those that matter most to their clients. The result is a strong reputation capital that delivers measurable and competitive business results for its clients through transparent actions.

With over 25 years of experience and having drawn from the legacy Porter Novelli network of over 50 years, the company believes that a legacy is built through sustainable action that impacts lives and the value chain. In commemoration of its 25^th anniversary, it introduced some Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives to celebrate its various stakeholders and partners in progress – a personal & professional branding workshop for journalists; a give-back initiative to Mrs Rose Julius- the Nigerian pensioner who displayed patriotism by donating her monthly pension to the Buhari government and an Academy for Business Communication (ABC) West Africa, a platform for training young Nigerian undergraduates for free on Communication and Public Relations, are some of the events which marked the celebrations.

The personal & professional branding workshop for journalists was a virtual workshop organized to empower the media with the tools that they need to continuously seek innovative ways to scale their reporting skills and even after they exit the industry. At the training, media practitioners were urged to take cognisance of the six principles of marketing needed to effectively build their reputation capital and professional branding. The training was facilitated by industry experts across technology, broadcast media, brand strategy and reputation management.

Speaking at the training session, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, C&F Porter Novelli, Mr Tony Ajero, urged the media practitioners to continuously hone their reporting skills, and also seek innovative ways to carve a niche for themselves in the profession. According to him, it had become imperative for media practitioners to skill up and look for ways to distinguish themselves through personal branding and conscious reputation capital development. Defining a brand as what makes a product unique, such that the product is more successful than its peers or competitors, the much-sought-after speaker on marketing communications, therefore charged practitioners on the need to be ready to imbibe the 6 marketing Ps:  Production, Promotion, Pricing, Packaging, Placement and Positioning to further their personal and professional brand.

C&F Porter Novelli, a company very passionate about purpose, also saw the need to put Mrs Rose Arabameh Julius on a monthly allowance as a way of encouraging patriotism and rewarding actions such as that taken by Mrs Julius in 2016 to support the Buhari administration’s anti-corruption war.

Mrs Julius who retired as a cleaner from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, in 2016, reportedly donated her entire monthly pension of ten thousand Naira (N10,000) to support the administration’s war against corruption and pledged to contribute N1,000 every month towards the rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) as her way of encouraging the federal government to restore the lost glory of Nigeria and curb corruption in the country. Seeing the kind gesture of Mrs Julius rekindles the spirit of patriotism and hope for a better nation.

Mr Tony Ajero added: “The company has decided to remit the sum of ten thousand Naira (N10,000) every month to Mrs Julius for as long as she lives.”

C&F Porter Novelli also unveiled its Academy for Business Communication (ABC) for West Africa. “The Academy for Business Communication is borne out of two factors. First is the societal challenge arising from the falling educational system which results in fewer equipped graduates. Second is our corporate culture which is built on providing total marketing communications solutions. Hence, we deemed it apt to contribute solutions rather than moan about the situation,” Ajero enthused.

The training, which will be delivered online is in partnership with senior academia and professionals from its sister companies in the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) group. Furthermore, the best students will be mentored in their chosen career paths and encouraged to pay it forward to successive generations.

It is not surprising then that C&F Porter Novelli has over the years, been acknowledged as the “University of Public Relations” because its alumni are found across the communication industry in Nigeria and abroad. Additionally, it is a knowledge-driven organisation with year-round robust internship opportunities and the annual Public Relations Fundamentals programme which has produced Management Trainees since 2011.

Originally called Corporate & Financial Communications Limited, C&F was birthed in 1997 as a specialist consultancy focused on Corporate and Financial Communications. The company grew into a driving force in Public Relations and the corporate world. In 2007, it took a major step towards solidifying its global reach by joining the vast Porter Novelli network as an affiliate partner in West Africa, hence, it is rebranding to C&F Porter Novelli. Quickly, C&F became Porter Novelli’s West African hub. This new framing follows on the back of a series of strategic shifts the company has made in response to client needs, including aligning the business around four capability areas: Brand Growth, Corporate Counsel, Purpose, Impact, and Employee Experience. The PN (Porter Novelli) network is found in over 60 countries and 100 offices worldwide.

Nn’emeka Maduegbuna, Chairman of C&F Porter Novelli, in a statement said: “With global partnerships and in-depth local insights garnered over two and half decades in the Nigerian market, our partnership with Porter Novelli (PN) has strengthened our strategic communications offerings to ambitious clients in both the public and private sectors’’. This no doubt, contributed to C&F becoming PN’s hub for West/Central Africa, and strategic partners across the globe.

The firm has an advanced understanding of the trends, issues and sensitivities of operating in the Nigerian environment. This has come from extensive practice covering various aspects of public relations and a wide variety of sectors and industries having undertaken major campaigns within Nigeria, and African markets some of which include managing the passage of the bill to demutualise the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); supporting the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) in gaining stakeholder contribution to the draft of the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance; flotation marketing support for the Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc Initial Public Offer; ushering the telcos MTN and Etisalat into the country; managing the protracted Trovan clinical trials crisis for Pfizer; and supporting the joint efforts of the Federal Government, and the UK Department for International Development (DfID-UK) in securing passage of critical financial reform bills; and helping with the Stanbic-IBTC merger which was Nigeria’s first tender offer. Others include managing brand repositioning and perception campaigns for such major consumer brands as Coca-Cola, Maggi, Pampers, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, Malta Guinness and Oral B among others.