SETTING new standards
Abdul-Amir bin Abdul-Hussein al Ajmi, External Affairs and Communication Manager, PDO, talks about how the oil and gas major’s communication strategy is continuously evolving to meet the changing demands of connecting with external and internal communities in a no-holds barred chat with Akshay Bhatnagar

What are your views on the current state of the “communications” industry in Oman?
The industry is still developing. Oman does not yet have the sophistication of, say Dubai, let alone of the western industrialised world. But because the industry is developing, there are plenty of opportunities for new publishers, design and advertising companies and public-relations agencies. PDO does what it can to support such fledgling companies. And when dealing with established Omani design and PR agencies, we try to raise their standards.

What is PDO’s budget for communication?
I could tell you what my department’s budget is, of course. But that would be terribly misleading, because it covers not only communications activities but also those related to social investment. Moreover, many communications activities – particularly those intended to keep our staff and contractors safe, well informed and motivated – are paid for from the budgets of other departments. Finally, as I hope your magazine’s readers will have noted, this has been an exceptional year for PDO. We have been running an unprecedented communications campaign – including print advertising and television commercials as well as the publication of a 246-page historical book – to let people know that 2007 represents the 40th year in a row that PDO has been exporting Omani crude oil on behalf of the nation.

Lord Leverhulme, founder of Unilever, once said: “Half the money on advertising I spend is wasted. The problem is, I don’t know which half.” Can the same be also said about PDO’s communication spend?
No, I don’t think so. Unlike Unilever, which sells consumer goods, PDO has no products to sell. The company was established right from the start purely as a means for finding and producing the crude oil that its shareholders could then sell as is or refine into saleable products. Because we are not trying to persuade consumers to buy things from us, all our advertising is of a strictly corporate nature. It includes advertising to recruit employees or announce tenders, of course. But a good share of it is basically corporate image building, which in this particular year has concentrated on the longevity of our nation-building enterprise.

How do you measure your returns on investment in communication?
You’ve put your finger on a tricky subject, but we do the best we can. We collect data that can give some indication as to the effectiveness of our communications. In particular, we conduct biannual surveys amongst our key stakeholders – both internal and external – to gauge their “favourability” towards PDO. Increasing favourability can be interpreted as evidence of a job well done; decreasing favourability means we have to work harder – and perhaps more cleverly – in our communications. The surveys also give me an idea of how we can boost our reputation. They reveal, for example, which modes of communication are most likely to reach the target stakeholders or which subjects seem to elicit the most negative or positive responses about the company.

I also get a good, qualitative idea for what key stakeholders think about PDO from the various face-to-face meetings that I personally have with them. I began this year with a plan to conduct a series of discussions with selected individuals in Government and in our partner companies, including contractors and shareholders. I also make a point to talk – and listen – to interior community leaders. In fact, my department organises two major engagement sessions every year with Government officials posted in interior areas and walis – one for the north and the other for the south of the country.

How is technology changing the communication landscape in your view? How easier or difficult has it made your task?
Without question, technology – particularly in IT and telecommunications – has transformed my work – as it has virtually all aspects of modern life. And, on balance, I will say that it is making it more challenging for me. Take the internet, for example. How do you deal “bloggers” who can upload slanderous accusations onto a webpage for everyone in the world to see? Well, you can’t really prevent them from uploading such things, but at least you can have your company’s website rather their blogs be listed in the top 10 results of a Google search. That way at least journalists and curious members of the public, both of whom rely on Google to get basic information about a company, will get your point of view first.

What are the challenges you face in developing and executing the communication plan to meet PDO’s overall business objectives?
Well, I just talked about the challenges posed by technology. But you have raised an interesting point: PDO’s fundamental business is not to communicate; it is to find and produce oil and gas in a safe and sustainable way for the benefit of its shareholders. My job is thus of a supporting nature, as far as the company is concerned. But it is vital nonetheless. The work that I and my departmental colleagues do secures from PDO’s stakeholders the company’s tacit license to operate.

To communicate effectively with our stakeholders, we must first determine what issues are foremost in their minds, then we must implement plans to adequately address the issues and finally we must let our stakeholders know that we are taking steps to address the issues. Communication is as crucial as the first and the last steps.

In answering your question I should also point out that last year, for the first time, we looked more than one year ahead in making our communication plan. We invited the company’s leaders, government officials and some external experts, and asked them how they saw the company’s business as well as its relations with the government, the media and the public in general in five years’ time. From those varied discussions, we culled out nine points that would have the greatest influence in shaping PDO’s business environment in 2011. We all agreed, for example, that the media–even local media–will become more critical. We then brainstormed as to how best to evolve the external affairs and communications department between now and the year 2011 so that it is well positioned to deal with these impending changes. Some of the communications initiatives that we’ve implemented this year came from the long-term strategy we formulated last year.

Generally, oil and gas companies are always under the magnifying glass. As a communication expert, how do you ensure that only the right kind of communication is passed on to the external community without suppressing information?
You are right to imply in your question that there is information that the public may want to know but that we simply cannot reveal. For one thing, some of the information may be commercially sensitive – oil and gas reserves, contract values and the like. I think most people would agree that any company – particularly a private-sector company – is entitled to keep that sort of information secret. But there is also information that may not be confidential per se but will reflect badly on the company, particularly if taken out of context. As a defender of the company’s reputation, I have to make sure that such information is always put in the proper context if it is inadvertently revealed to the public.

Deciding what should and should not be said by PDO employees is indeed a tricky affair. To help me in this task, my department has recently introduced a disclosure protocol that has to be followed by PDO staff intending to make presentations at conferences. The protocol, for instance, stipulates that the Ministry of Oil & Gas, which represents our majority shareholder, has to approve the content of such presentations. We also have a media protocol that clearly stipulates who in PDO can act as an official company spokesperson.

Having said that, I must emphasise that the key thing for me is not the suppression but the provision of information: clamming up is not an option for us. That is why, for instance, we continually put new information on the company’s website, which we have recently redesigned.

Generally, we don’t get to see any negative coverage of PDO in the media – a rarity for any oil and gas company. Is it a result of smart PR or are publications scared of writing against the largest company with strong connections in the right places?
I would like to think it is the former. In any case, self-censorship of publications – if any – really pertains only to the local media. We certainly have not been immune from negative coverage in the Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, for instance. Still, we have been taking deliberate steps to bring the members of the media over to our way of thinking – what you call “smart PR”.

We have recently invited members of the media to learn about the complexities of the oil and gas business. Last year, we explained what enhanced oil recovery was all about; this year, we gave them a course on the basics of hydrocarbon exploration and production – including a field visit to Fahud, our largest oil field. We provide information about PDO to the invited journalists without any expectation that they will publish a complimentary article in return. In fact, we insist on them not writing anything for publication as a result of these courses. Our thinking is that if they better understand the nature of our business, then they will be able to put a story in the right context whenever PDO has some real news to be reported.

This year I have made a personal commitment to meet with the chief editors of all national and regional publications covering the oil and gas industry. Like the courses for journalists, these meetings are not intended for us to impose an agenda on anyone. They are intended merely to establish relations of mutual understanding and, yes, trust. Ultimately, all I ask these chief editors to do is to give us a fair chance to correct the details of any stories that they may have picked up from the rumour grapevine before they are published.

How often are you required to do crisis management from the communication perspective? Is there any process in place to keep you, your team and relevant people geared up for the crisis management?
Without question, we must be prepared for intense media scrutiny in the event of a crisis. And that means we must practice our processes. We normally have four major corporate crisis exercises every year in which we mobilise our press centre: a special room equipped with multiple telephone lines and a fax machine from which a trained team can handle the rapid-fire telephone calls we would get from journalists in the event of an emergency. We also arrange for our company directors to receive what we call “media training”: the exercising of the skills necessary to make a good impression to viewers when one conducts an on-camera interview in the midst of a crisis. Last year, for the first time, we expanded one of our crisis exercises to include Oman Liquefied Natural Gas and Qalhat Liquefied Natural Gas, which receive the bulk of the natural gas that PDO produces. And every two years, one of our crisis exercises is similarly expanded to include the Royal Oman Police and various other government authorities, enabling the national emergency response process to be tested.

This year, you may recall, we had a real national emergency: Cyclone Gonu. That particular crisis tested the ingenuity of the press-centre team, because the team could not use the press-centre room. Instead, it had to make do with makeshift offices outside of PDO’s headquarter buildings and Thureya telephones.

PDO is credited with many firsts in the country. What are the new communication practices that you are introducing in Oman?
Thank you for giving us credit for our pioneering ways. Let me give you a few examples of things that I have not mentioned so far and that, as far as I know, were first introduced into the country – and perhaps even the region – by PDO.

“Live” video call-in webcasts in which the Managing Director or Deputy Managing Director answers telephone calls from anyone in the company – including staff based in the interior – for everyone in the company to see and hear on their desktop computers.

An internal webpage, updated every month, in which a video message from the MD to all staff is streamed and answers to virtually any submitted questions are answered – by the MD himself.

Training staff – even at lower job levels – in the arts of persuasion, so that they can act as unofficial company “ambassadors”, spreading the good word about PDO to friends, relatives etc.

Annual media briefings at which national and international journalists can listen to the MD’s presentation on how PDO performed during the current year and its future plans, ask questions to him, and receive printed and digital copies of his entire presentation as well as supplement documents.

Celebratory SMS “texting” messages on the occasion of National Day or Accession Day (as opposed to announcements of upcoming sales).

On the internal communication front, how do you reach out to 5,000 strong PDO family drawn from 50 nationalities?
You’ve again put your finger on a very challenging area. In fact, this was an area highlighted during the long-term communications strategy workshop I mentioned earlier. One solution, which has proved to be very effective, I just listed: the live call-in video webcasts. My department also has the good fortune of publishing a newsletter – Al Fahal – that is popular within the company. Ironically, we’ve recently learned that sometimes the best way to have an impact on a wide variety of people is to narrow communications down by fine-tuning and targeting them to specific subgroups of people. But in any case there’s clearly a lot more that my colleagues and I can still do, not only to reach every staff member but also to make them take positive action on the basis of our communications.

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