All's well at RIL: Although the company comes out just ahead in terms of coverage (a quality of exposure of 108), the very fact that it boasts the highest image score should please Chairman Mukesh Ambani, especially after 2004 when it received more bad press than good

THE TOP 100

THE TOP PERSONALITIES

IN THE NEWSROOM

MASTERING THE YO-YO

TATA-BIRLA? NOT QUITE

GUEST COLUMN

This is a story about numbers, lots of them- suffice it to say that visibility scores merely refer to the amount of press that a company or CEO receives; image scores to the same, after taking into account the tonality of the article in question; and quality of exposure to the percentage value of the image score divided by the visibility score (more than 100 for CEOs and companies that receive more good press than bad and vice versa)-and it is a story about image, and image management. Yet, at another level, it is also a story about how India, as represented by its Fourth Estate, views Big Business. Going by the numbers, then, business, in India, is fast catching up with politics, Bollywood and cricket, the other obsessions of the media (and the people). In 2004, the company with the highest image score was Infosys Technologies (82,057); that with the highest visibility score Reliance Industries (75,576). In 2005, there were 25 companies whose image score exceeded 85,000 and 14 companies whose visibility score exceeded 76,000. What does this mean? Simply that the print media is writing more about business, and that much of the coverage is positive, even (and unfortunately so) laudatory and hagiographical at times. Indeed, that explains why only two of the top 100 companies (by image scores) boast quality of exposure (QoE) scores less than 100.

The Indian Hardware Story: Its performance in the booming domestic PC market and renewed interest by multinationals in the made-in-India tag ensured that HCL Infosystems (CEO Ajai Chowdhry seen here) ended up with a QoE of 172

While QoE is the measure of efficiency in this case, it makes sense to base the ranking on total image score. The company or CEO with the highest image score is, after all, the entity or individual that received the most coverage. Reliance Industries, #1 in this listing, has little reason to complain. Its QoE may be just over 100 (108, actually), but it still means the volume of good press the company received offset the volume of bad press it did (only just). That's a significant improvement over the last listing when the company ranked second and registered a QoE of 91.5 (implying that it received more bad press than good).

High & Low: Ashok Leyland (CEO R. Seshasayee, left) didn't receive much press, but almost all it did was positive (QoE: 168), while HMSI (CEO H. Takiguchi) received a lot, with most being negative (QoE: 37)

The best image managers aren't necessarily those companies and CEOs that boast QoE scores nearing 200 (a score of 200 would imply that all press they receive is good press). The best image managers are those companies and individuals who receive a lot of press, with most of it being positive. In number terms that would translate into a QoE in excess of 140. As the listing shows, that (a score in excess of 140) isn't all that rare.

Still, a QoE score close to 200 is a significant achievement. Cognizant Technology Solutions (see India it's New Billion Dollar Baby on page 70 to understand why the company keeps receiving good press) doesn't merely boast a QoE of 189, it does that on a visibility score of 36,085. The same applies to TVS Motor, which registered a QoE of 165 on a visibility score of 43,358.

Luck and Timing: Despite it being annus horribilis for Ranbaxy (MD Malvinder Singh, left), it was #1 in terms of image score in its industry, and a great year for retail and a successful IPO saw Shoppers' Stop (CEO B.S. Nagesh) earn the honours in its

Last year, 2005, was when sectors such as it (from the point of view of offshoring), auto, telecom, banking, retail, insurance (the booming domestic market), aviation (the entry of several low-cost airlines) and fast moving consumer goods (the great revival) made all the news (or much of it). The interesting thing about it (which is #1 in terms of sectors that made the most news) is that it has emerged the most global of businesses in India. At least five multinationals (which have operations in India that range from mid-sized to large) feature in the list of the top 10 companies in the sector (by image scores).

Now for HMSI (Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India): the company received lots of press last year (a visibility score of 53,763), but much of this was negative. This was because most coverage it received had to do with a strike that went horribly wrong (striking employees beat up some cops; the cops extracted a bloody vengeance; the company, caught in the middle, bore the brunt of the criticism). Still, such things are quickly forgotten. Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo India were not in the top 50 (by image scores) last year. This year, they figure at #46 and #32, respectively. QED.

The Top Personalities

Infosys' #1 and #2: Chairman Murthy (left) and CEO Nilekani were a study in contrasts as far as their image scores and QoE scores were concerned	Indian Number 1: L.N. Mittal's ambitious plans for an India-plant had everyone agog

It is difficult to keep N.R. Narayana Murthy out of the news. If the Chairman of Infosys Technologies isn't taking on the state government over its obvious neglect of Bangalore, he is busy clashing with politicians. Two years ago, it was Murli Manohar Joshi, the then HRD Minister, over the autonomy of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Last year, it was H.D. Deve Gowda, the former Prime Minister of India who made some uncharitable comments about Murthy's contribution to Bangalore International Airport Limited, of which he (Murthy) was Chairman at the time. Murthy was also in the news for other reasons. He wrote about how the death of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi moved him in a mainstream national daily, something that was seen by some people as an attempt to cosy up to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. And he reiterated a desire, first expressed a few years ago, about becoming India's Ambassador to the United States after he steps down as Chairman of Infosys in mid-2006. The interesting thing is, all these did make him very very visible in the pages of the print media, but not all the coverage was positive. Thus, he ended 2005 with a visibility score of 29,570, an image score of 34,055 and a quality of exposure (QoE) of 115.

St Bill of Microsoft: Gates made the headlines repeatedly during his business-cum-charity visit	Still up there: Wipro's Azim Premji can give some lessons on how to be low profile yet well thought of	Higher still: Vijaypat Singhania's hot-air balloon exploits made him a corporate hero

His colleague from Infosys, Nandan Nilekani, President, CEO and Managing Director, did much better. He did not get written about a lot (only eight other personalities in the top 25 list had visibility scores lower than his 5,756), yet his image score, 8,881, ensured that his QoE was 154 (which immediately puts him in the top five on the basis of that parameter).

The personality who ended up #1 on the list, L.N. Mittal, earned that position largely on the strength of a visit to India to announce that his company, Mittal Steel, would set up a plant in Jharkhand. And the personality at #3 on the list (who turns out to be the only non-Indian on the list), Bill Gates, on the strength of a week-long trip to India in early December.

Despite more women entering senior executive positions in India-as this magazine routinely reports in its special issues on the most powerful women in Indian business-there is just one woman in the top 25, Biocon Chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. And the fact that, a few days of concerted press coverage could propel one into the most-written-about category was proved by Vijaypat Singhania, the former chief of Raymond, whose successful attempt at breaking the record for the highest altitude registered in a hot-air balloon flight seems to have pushed him to #7 on the listing.

The real winner, though, would have to be Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi. His company beat the prevailing trend (of Indian pharma firms, especially those dependant on a generics-driven strategy, not doing too well) by continuing to do well. And the man himself ended the year with a QoE score of 198 (which means 99 per cent of the coverage he received was positive). HCL Technologies' reclusive-by-location Chairman, Shiv Nadar (he speaks to the press when he can, but is based in California for most part of the year), also did well for himself, with a QoE of 189. On a visibility score of 3,301, that isn't bad going.

In The Newsroom

IBM's Shankar Annaswamy (L) and UB's Vijay Mallya: The former's India-plans seem to have found favour with most people as have the latter's success at acquiring Shaw Wallace's spirits business and launching a low-cost airline, Kingfisher

Shankar Annaswamy, take a bow. There's a reason why the head of IBM's Indian operations should feel pretty chuffed with himself. The way a company is written about in the editorial pages of the newspaper-one where editors get to express their opinions, and show-off their depth of knowledge and acuity of analysis-is, more often than not, a reflection of public opinion (the way it is or the way it should be). From that point of view, IBM, which got written about a bit (visibility score of 494 on the edit pages), did very well for itself. It ended the year with a quality of exposure (QoE) score of 174. Just for the record, #2, Microsoft, did 138. And IBM wasn't helped by a high-profile CEO visit like Microsoft was (fine Bill Gates isn't CEO, but more people in India associate his name with Microsoft's than they do Steve Ballmer's). Although its CEO Sam Palmisano did make a trip to India, his visit was low profile (and he did not even meet the media). That would mean that much of the coverage IBM received had to do with its local operations and its India strategy. Which would, in turn, mean that CEO Shankar Annaswamy should feel chuffed. After all, being seen positively, very positively, by people at large is some achievement for a company that exited India in the late 70s because it didn't see eye-to-eye with the government of the day's policies.

Mastering The Yo-Yo

Down and Up: Reliance Infocomm's Anil Ambani has seen the company's perception improve from an all-time low QoE of 75

Spare a thought for Anil Ambani. He began the year an underdog in his fight with elder brother Mukesh Ambani over the control of the Reliance empire. He managed a reasonably fair settlement in the middle of the year, with the jewel in his empire being Reliance Infocomm, a company that had been mid-wifed and grown into a position of strength by Mukesh. However, it was also a company that had been in the news for much of the early part of the year over alleged corporate governance violations and an alleged shares-for-favours transaction with former Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan. Not surprisingly, the company's quality of exposure (QoE) score in March 2005 was 75, implying that a substantial portion of the significant coverage (visibility score of 12,749) it received that month was negative. Since the settlement, though, Reliance Info's QoE has improved (the company ended December with a QoE of 153 for the month and 119 for the entire year). It is likely that the phone-tapping controversy involving one of the company's junior executives may dent that some; still, it has to be labelled a comeback story.

Still on top: The best-known Indian business group, Tata, is still the most written about and is well thought of

Tata-Birla? Not quite

In one of those language-plays the Tatas and the Birlas were the A and B of the Indian business alphabet for a long time. That position has since changed. There are now several Birla Groups, with the largest, the Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Aditya Birla Group, being large enough, diverse enough (in terms of businesses) and profitable enough to be compared with the Tata Group. However, in 2005, the group didn't get written about enough to figure in the listing of the top five groups (by image scores). The Tata Group did, as did Reliance (which will, from this year on, be seen as two groups, one, RIL and other companies headed by Mukesh Ambani and the other Anil Ambani's ADAE), Bharti, Sahara and Bajaj. It isn't hard to understand the reason for the Tata Group's high image score (512,847). Last year, 2005, saw the Tata Group increase its global footprint; the large companies in the group (including Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Consultancy Services) managed to do very well (in terms of financial performance); and even the small companies chipped in (retailer Trent, for instance, made the news by acquiring Landmark, arguably India's best bookstore chain).

GUEST COLUMN/SOURAV DE, HEAD, CIRRUS Need To Hike Pr Budgets

The media evaluation industry grew by 80 per cent in 2005 over 2004. More and more companies are presenting image assessment reports in meetings of the board. Competitive benchmarking and neutral third party analysis are becoming essential features of standard communication briefs. The PR (public relations) industry is getting used to being evaluated. The science of evaluation has also evolved. PR is all about messages: delivering the right message to the target audience, and influencing them to understand and react in a particular way. Any effort at evaluating the media effectiveness of corporate communications, then, must evaluate each of these steps. Today it is possible to assess if a message intended for women between the ages of 15 and 29, and from SEC A1 (the highest socio-economic classification) households has been delivered to the target audience. Interestingly, the biggest challenge in implementing such high standards of scrutiny is not the initial resistance from the PR fraternity, but its affordability given the budgets constraints. Not surprisingly, Indian PR budgets are abnormally low by international standards. A recent study (GAP III) conducted by the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center and sponsored by the Council of Public Relations Firms shows that PR budgets for Fortune 500 firms are around 40 per cent of their advertising budgets. In addition, these firms spend an average of more than Rs 2 crore on evaluation. The ratio is much higher if the sample is expanded (indicating that smaller firms often end up spending much higher proportions of their marketing spend on PR in an effort to build image, a surprise finding, but wholly logical). The corresponding number in India is 2 per cent (of the advertising budget being spent on PR) and that is for the large companies. For smaller firms, the proportion could be 0.5 per cent, even lower. It's difficult to explain this drought of funds because C-suites in most Indian organisations are extremely sensitive to media coverage. One big reason seems to be the lack of scientific data demonstrating effectiveness in the absence of which, senior managers are loath to spend on PR. In some ways, the annual BT-Cirrus review (this is the third edition of the exercise) is an evaluation of PR agencies and how well they have communicated the desired message. The best PR agencies are those that have maintained a balance between visibility, image and quality of exposure. Internationally, more and more companies are accepting the merits of evaluation. One survey, Harris Impulse 2004, discovered that 76 per cent of respondents believed it was important to measure the results (of PR campaigns). This (measuring results) ranked 10 among 28 parameters considered while evaluating the performance of a PR firm. The corresponding numbers in the 2001 edition of the survey were 35 per cent and 25, respectively. More importantly, it would appear that the responsibility for corporate communications is slowly coming to rest with C-suites. The GAP III survey finds that 57 per cent of the respondents (all PR professionals) reported to the CEO, COO or Chairman. In India too, the PR department is getting closer to the C-suite. As this phenomenon catches on, the importance assigned to PR will increase, as will the amount of money dedicated to it. That should help to reduce the gap between PR budgets (as a proportion of advertising budgets) in India and the US. And that would mean that PR budgets in India would have to grow faster than the 9 per cent a year rate at which they are growing internationally. Cirrus is a national corporate image monitor that pioneered media evaluation in India. Every year, Cirrus analyses roughly half-a-million news pieces in nine different languages on more than 920 corporate entities. It is part of agencyfaqs and not associated with any PR agency. The BT-Cirrus annual survey is the only cross industry report of its kind. Feedback to bt-cirrus@icirrus.com