Shimon Cohen, chairman of The PR Office on the PRmoment podcast

This week on the PRmoment Podcast, in the latest of our life stories series, I interviewed chairman of The PR Office Shimon Cohen.

The PR Office was founded in 2004, has a fee income of about £2.5m and about 15 employees.

The business has clients across a broad range of sectors and Shimon has some interesting views on how he sees the scope of public relations.

Here is a summary of what Shimon and I discussed:

[00:01:05] How Shimon used to be executive director to the Chief Rabbi but ended up in PR.

[00:04:32] Shimon talks us through his “job interview” with Sir Tim Bell.

[00:06:49] Shimon describes what it was like working at Bell Pottinger in its heyday (Shimon left 14 years before the scandal that bought it down.)

[00:07:16] Why good public relations essentially comes down to three things: Where are you now, where do you want to be and how do you get there.

[00:09:46] How, Bell Pott Gate aside, Shimon believes that Sir Tim Bell's clarity of thought and wisdom was the most important factor in the development of public relations as a serious boardroom discipline.

[00:12:14] Why Shimon believes that in many large companies you get really really good at doing something and you get promoted into a job that you don't know anything about!

[00:12:45] Why Shimon didn't like being CEO of Bell Pottinger and resigned.

[00:14:23] Why Shimon "adores" PR.

[00:15:06] Why Shimon believes the PR sector hasn't really changed at all in the last 10 years.

[00:17:34] Why PR people need to sell something that somebody wants to buy!

[00:18:23] How the communications triangle between government and organisations and the public has been inverted.

[00:21:14] Why at The PR Office Shimon "outsources as much as possible".

[00:23:19] Why everyone who works for The PR Office is a fee earner.

[00:25:16] Why all of the PR Office's employees work from home on Fridays.

[00:27:06] Why Shimon believes we may see professional managers with no PR experience being appointed as the CEOs of PR firms - just like what happens in law firms.

[00:31:05] How the PR Office have maintained credentials across a broad range of work and not specialised in specific sectors.

[00:31:025] Why Shimon believes PR people should not specialise in a specific vertical sector but retain a broader knowledge of business.