This is an interactive training program, designed to introduce business professionals to the world and works of the real Public Relations. To accomplish this, the 5 sessions are filled with a mixture of lectures, group discussions, and in-class exercises. It is strongly advised to apply what is learned in the own working environment. It is recommended the participant brings along own case stories and observations. If any assistance is needed, the participant can ask the trainer.

The Real Public Relations

from press conference to social media

Prof. Loek Hopstaken

 Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences

Time: 08.30 – 12.00

Dates: September 12 – 16, 2011

  About the Lecturer:             

Prof. Loek Hopstaken is from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is a business trainer and management consultant, and Professor and Guest Lecturer at several international business schools in both his home country and in Vietnam.

His educational and experiential background covers Business Administration, Human Resource Management, Organizational Design & Development, Business Communications, Public Relations and Quality Management. For many years he worked as a Senior Manager of what later became the ING Bank. In 1991 Loek Hopstaken founded Hopstaken Bedrijfsadvies, an Amsterdam-based training & consultancy firm. Since then, to fill the demand for training and consultancy services, he has developed a wide range of training programs and seminars. Over the years, he has delivered his services to thousands of entrepreneurs and managers in The Netherlands and Belgium. He also lectured in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.

In 2003 he was invited to teach at two international management schools. This has earned him his Professor title. This also awakened his interest in Vietnam, which he frequently visited since early 2007. Since 2008 he lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, both as a management trainer / consultant, and freelance Professor at Vietnamese and foreign universities, such as Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (MBA program) and RMIT (Professional Communications program).

He retains his post as Guest Lecturer and Professor at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences in Apeldoorn (The Netherlands). In 2009 he was appointed by the Director of Wittenborg University to be its Resident Representative in Vietnam. In the seasons 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 he has represented Royal Business School as Judge in the VTV1 ‘Key to Success’ business game show (sofar, in 20 programs). He is Chairman of ERC Institute Vietnam’s Board of Advisors.

Public Relations: building understanding & trust among the organizations relations

One of the most misunderstood parts of modern business management is Public Relations (PR):

-  At worst, an organization denies its need for PR – until suddenly its reputation is at stake. Company leaders sometimes think PR is “just promotion, brochures and media, and therefore part of Marketing.”

-   Often PR is claimed by Marketing, borrowing its techniques to promote the company’s products and services. However, when for example, the competitor is spreading lies about your products, your marketeers will not be equipped to handle that situation. 

-    At best, PR is the unit dealing with media and organizing corporate events.

-  The PR profession is rapidly catching up with the changing times: from organizing press conferences to actively using the social media to make the company’s ‘good works well known’.

This course addresses, amongst other things:

-          what PR really is and isn’t   

-          its role in the formulation and execution of the corporate strategy

-          how PR helps the company build a positive image

-          how PR handles negagtive press, and last-but-not-least,

-          how PR can be used to effectively pave the way to sustained commercial success

-          corporate & personal branding.

Objectives of the course:

• to know the function of Public Relations in any organization – and what will predictably happen if an organization denies these functions, or puts them in ‘amateur hands’
• to know why and how to integrate Public Relations in the company strategy, and why a PR Department must have a direct communication line with the CEO / Chairman
• to know how to implement PR in the organization
• to learn about the various ways PR techniques are applied in companies around the world – from small and local to multinational – to create a favorable image

• to learn how to build and sustain constructive relationships with the organization’s publics, from media to financiers, from clients to employees, from suppliers to officials.
• to understand how the Public Relations department can facilitate the departments dealing with Marketing, Human Resources, and Finance.   

Training Method:

This is an interactive training program, designed to introduce business professionals to the world and works of the real Public Relations. To accomplish this, the 5 sessions are filled with a mixture of lectures, group discussions, and in-class exercises. It is strongly advised to apply what is learned in the own working environment. It is recommended the participant brings along own case stories and observations. If any assistance is needed, the participant can ask the trainer.

Course pack:

To each part of the program one or more articles will be referred to and/or used. These are part of the course pack each participant will receive. The course pack also contains the complete power point slides as used by the lecturer.

Workshop program

Important note: The trainer will stimulate interaction by engaging them in short discussions or impromptu interviews to share their experiences. At the end of a session the participants receive a practical assignment. He/she can contact the trainer at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

Session 1: The World of Public Relations

Purpose: to know the functions of PR, its role in corporate strategy planning and execution  

• It’s a PR World: your credibility counts
• Your organization’s many Publics
• Your image, your identity, your credibility
• Why PR & Marketing are two different professional fields
• What happens when CEO & Top Managers don’t know PR (or worse: think they know)
• Your reputation determines your opportunities
• With the advent of social media, PR Strategy has become a MUST
• The ROI of PR
• Each employee wears the PR hat: PR policy

Session 2: Typical PR projects

Purpose: to become familiar with the many activities of PR

• Communication planning
• Corporate branding & advertising 
• Corporate house style: recognizing the company’s face
• Corporate brochures and other publications
• Press Conferences and other corporate events
• PR on the lookout for reputational opportunities & threats
• PR Campaigns – corporate, multi-disciplinary projects
• Directing cross-cultural close encounters; representing the company abroad
• Research: image, credibility, impact, public opinion

Session 3: Internal Public Relations

Purpose: to learn about the internal support roles of PR

• The company’s most underestimated public
• The why, how and when of corporate information
• PR & Human Resource Management
• Power Distance, expats & other cross-cultural issues
• Facilitating Marketing
• Crisis & internal PR
• To blog or not to blog – employees & social media, or staying out of trouble
• Media Training for Top Managers – being the spokes(wo)man
• Internal Opinion Leaders

Session 4: The PR Department

Purpose: to become familiar with PR tools

• PR budgeting
• Preparing for ‘Black Swans’
• Dealing with negative press
• The PR – CEO hotline
• Up-to-date corporate information
• Communicating with reporters 
• Social Media do’s & don’t’s
• Communicating with Government officials (Public Affairs)
• Working with PR agencies
• Working with suppliers (designers, printers, event organizers)

Session 5: PR as a Strategic Partner

Purpose: to know why and how to embed PR at top management level

• Reputation Management
• PR Essentials for Board Members and Top Managers
• The many ways of networking
• How to use PR when you are selling tobacco, beer or liquor
• Corporate Social Responsibility & PR
• Financial PR: Communicating with investors and stockholders
• Role of PR in ethics matters
• PR Code of Ethics
• Corporate calamities & PR: when a Black Swan appears
• Development of corporate PR in Vietnam
• Your personal PR strategy: Personal Branding

PR in Vietnam

“In Vietnam Public Relations is a relatively new professional field. This has resulted in some confusion as to what it is, and how to use it. Many Vietnamese consider PR to be a branch of Marketing. It is not. Marketing deals with finding, creating and filling a demand for products and services. Marketing focuses on markets.

PR helps to create, maintain and expand the organization’s credibility, by working on improving the mutual understanding between the organization and its many stakeholders. PR focuses on the organization’s positive reputation, by making its good works well known, and creating a favourable environment where it can grow and prosper. PR’s primary goal is to build mutual understanding between the organization and its publics. The real PR forms a bridge between society and the company, from Board Room to Customer Service, from HR Department to Production.

Without PR, Marketing has a very hard time achieving its commercial goals. I mean, would you buy something from a company that is unknown? Or from one that has a bad reputation? I really don’t think you would.

PR manages the company’s reputation. But it can only do so when Top Management realizes the role of PR and fully understands its functions. I’m sorry to see that in Vietnam many Top managers rarely listen to the lower ranks. In most American and European MNC’s they do. This is one reason why they became a successful MNC in the first place.

As long as Vietnamese Top Managers ignore professional advice from their own professionals and think they know better, they will never be able to meet the international challenge and remain local. But when they learn about the real PR, and start to listen to the professionals in their lower ranks, they will be able to successfully internationalize, and push Vietnam’s economy towards stability, to further growth and prosperity for all.”