SALİM KADIBEŞEGİL

(*) Written for the 8th issue of PR ATÖLYE magazine published by Istanbul Aydın University.

 At the beginning of 1997, while I was browsing Yahoo, which performs the function of Google, in curiosity about what was going on in the PR world, I came across the ICO International Communication Consultancies Organization (it was written with a single ‘C’ at that time). My curiosity led me to wander through its pages. It was a professional organization that brought together associations providing consultancy services from 8 countries, headquartered in London. There were two basic conditions for membership; First, there was representation on the basis of countries, and for this, companies providing consultancy services had to come together under the roof of a legal entity and apply. The other condition was that in 1995 member states and their PR companies signed the Rome Declaration, which defined the rules of professional ethics to be followed  . [1] Member states included the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

From a distance, the organization, which looked like a “crony sergeant” association, held its meetings twice a year in hotels in one of the member countries, which could usually be considered three-star status.

The following month, I mentioned this to my colleague Ali Saydam and asked him if he would come with me to London. Without hesitation, he said, “I’ll come.” On a cold winter’s day in February, Chris McDowall, the general secretary, welcomed us at the head office of the Association of British Consulting Companies (PRCA), which represents the UK in this organization. He took quite a bit of quality time. He told me what they were doing. What excited us the most was that the member companies of the PRCA, which represents the UK, passed an independent audit and were in a pilot study on the certification process. Peter Hehir, who was the president of both the PRCA and ICO at that time  (Unfortunately, we received the news that we  lost him recently [2]) by a board chaired by him; It was mentioned that consultancy companies could be audited by DNV auditors, an independent organization, on topics such as customer satisfaction, contribution to the personal development of employees, financial transparency, business plans, policies and processes  . We returned to Turkey with presentations, brochures and documents related to this work, which is a revolution in terms of the development of our profession. Chris McDowell did not neglect to invite us as an “observer member”  to the board meeting to be held in Helsinki in May 1997.

The following month, I mentioned this to my colleague Ali Saydam and asked him if he would come with me to London. Without hesitation, he said, “I’ll come.” On a cold winter’s day in February, Chris McDowall, the general secretary, welcomed us at the head office of the Association of British Consulting Companies (PRCA), which represents the UK in this organization. He took quite a bit of quality time. He told me what they were doing. What excited us the most was that the member companies of the PRCA, which represents the UK, passed an independent audit and were in a pilot study on the certification process. Peter Hehir, who was the president of both the PRCA and ICO at that time  (Unfortunately, we received the news that we  lost him recently [2]) by a board chaired by him; It was mentioned that consultancy companies could be audited by DNV auditors, an independent organization, on topics such as customer satisfaction, contribution to the personal development of employees, financial transparency, business plans, policies and processes  . We returned to Turkey with presentations, brochures and documents related to this work, which is a revolution in terms of the development of our profession. Chris McDowell did not neglect to invite us as an “observer member”  to the board meeting to be held in Helsinki in May 1997.

On the other hand,  the “Helsinki”  meeting,  where we were invited as an observer member for  the ICO, again marked another breaking point for the PR profession. Because the three leading associations of the profession in the world  were meeting in Helsinki on the same dates in May 1997. Independent of the ICO meeting, which I will attend as an observer member representing Turkey  , IPRA, the International Public Relations Association and the CEP, which is the center of academic studies,  had a common output from the meetings of the European Confederation of Public Relations Associations: The presidents of the three associations signed  the  “Quality and Standards in Public Relations” Declaration of Helsinki.” they signed the declaration![3]

Without wasting any time, we started to knock on the doors of PR companies to start the formation of ICO in Turkey by conveying our observations from both our London contacts and Helsinki meetings to the entire PR community. However, as a result of these initiatives, no one showed interest in our excitement except for BERSAY, CAPITOL, MPR, ORSA, ZARAKOL  and GTC located in Ankara. Later, he joined this union at TRIBECA. A company agreement with the principle of equal shares and equal representation was prepared and in September 1997,  we signed the formation of Turkey under the name of PRCI (Public Relations Consultancies Institute).  Afterwards,  we invited Chris McDowell, the secretary general,  to Istanbul and we had the chance to listen to what the organizations in other countries were doing with a meeting open to everyone. At the beginning of 1998, we invited Peter Hehir, President of the ICO. Again, we had the chance to listen to his “new public relations vision” from his mouth in a public meeting. When the dates showed October 1998, at the board meeting in Paris, the 9th edition of the Turkish ICO was held. As a member, he became part of the international community.

In May 1999, the first ICO congress was held in Lucern, Switzerland. As PRCI members, we all attended this congress and watched the presentations of the top executives of giant PR companies, which account for 83% of consultancy services in the world. Prof. Dr. Charles Fombrun, whose name we will hear very often about reputation in the coming years,  also shared his research titled “reputation capital”  at this congress. In 1999, the first consultancy companies to undergo independent audits and receive certificates after the UK were in Turkey They became members of the PRCI.( The ICO hadn’t made it a necessity yet!)

In May 2000, Turkey hosted the ICO board meeting held in the private halls of the Conrad hotel in Istanbul. Until that day, we had raised the bar of the board of directors meetings, the quality of which was not very assertive until that day. With the contribution of the new President David Drobis (USA) with the Istanbul meeting, the name of the ICO  was changed to ICCO (International Communication Consultancies Organization) and the new ICCO logo was introduced.

In October 2001, when the dust of September 11’s attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon had not yet cleared, ICCO held its 2nd Annual Meeting in San Francisco. He held his congress. We returned from this meeting  with the knowledge of “triple reporting”. In other words, we listened to presentations on the evaluations of PR companies not only with financial reporting, but also on the responsibilities of companies towards society and their ecological environmental sensitivity. After the congress, we shared our impressions of the congress with our colleagues, whom we invited to the large meeting hall of Hürriyet newspaper. Corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues were starting to sprout!

In 2001, with the recommendation of Turkey in the ICCO board of directors, independent auditing was defined as a necessity for ICCO membership.

With the Stockholm Declaration in 2003, an important step was taken in the ICCO  to  transform different views into a single voice,  especially  on “ethical” issues.[4] In the same year, with the suggestion of Turkey, the ICCO bylaws were rewritten.

By 2004, the Law on Associations had changed in Turkey and the way for companies to become members of associations had been opened. Taking advantage of this, there  was no obstacle to  the closure of PRCI, which was in the structure of a Joint Stock Company, and the establishment of the new formation IDA, Communication Consultancy Association .

It is necessary to include some innovative practices that I consider important in the 6-year work program of PRCI.

1. There was an obligation to change the president every year. (Each member company served as its chairman, in turn). 1999 ORSA Salim Kadıbeşegil, 2000 Bersay Ali Saydam, 2001 Capitol Leyla Bozkurt, 2002 Zarakol Necla Zarakol, 2003 MPR Meral Saçkan 2004, Tribeca Cem İlhan, and the establishment of IDA
2. On the first Tuesday of every month, a board meeting was held between 08.00-10.00 in the morning.
3. The PRCI had its own office and training halls and a professional general secretary.
4. In the first week of each month, the trial balance was issued by the accounting department and distributed to the members.
5. The accounts were subject to independent auditing.
6. With the contributions of member companies and academics, a 52-hour certified training program was regularly implemented for our professional young colleagues. For this program, LSPR London School of Public Relations collaborated.
7. A 12-week internship program was held for our young friends at the university. The 12 weeks were individually defined. (Customer relationship management, reporting, internal communication, etc.) Interns were paid minimum wage, travel and food expenses. Their grievances, if any, were conveyed to the general secretary of the PRCI at their weekly meetings. In order to receive an internship certificate, they had to make a presentation at the end of the semester in an environment where everyone was present.
8. Employees of member companies come together three times a year in Feriye’s meeting rooms. They were holding “benchmark” meetings. (For example, how customer reporting is done, measurement and evaluation methods)
9. GfK Strategy company was commissioned to conduct regular surveys and monitor the attitudes and behaviors of clients, potential customers, members of the media and opinion leaders towards the PR profession.

With the enactment of the regulations in the Law on Associations in 2004, the PRCI book was closed and  the IDA page was opened, and professional solidarity with new members increased to an even higher level. In the IDA statute, it was adopted as a basic rule for membership to pass an independent professional standards audit, which the ICCO defined as a necessity.

Today, IDA is a professional organization with more than 25 corporate members. ICCO has evolved into an international professional organization covering more than 3,000 PR consulting companies from 81 countries.

[1] ROME Charter: https://datenbanken.pr-journal.de/images/stories/downloads/icco-rome-charter-englisch.pdf

[2] PETER HEHIR: https://senateshj.com/perspective/remembering-peter-hehir/

[3] HELSINKI Declaration: https://www.tuhid.org/pdf/helsinki-bildirgesi_1381389882.pdf

[4] STOCKHOLM Charter: https://iccopr.com/members/stockholm-charter/