Maxim Behar for Fortunes Crown: Now is the best time to cook your success...

Self-confidence, knowledge, quick decisions and... a little luck are the ingredients of the recipe, M3 Communications Group, Inc. CEO says in exclusive interview for the prestigious American magazine Fortunes Crown.      

Mr. Behar, you are well known as a global PR visionary and concept creator. Your book The Global PR Revolution is still on the ranking of best PR Books of all time in Book Authority. Please brief us in detail about the current scenario of the media industry.
- There is no scenario at all. The whole world, communications business too, is currently watching the total change of everything – sales, communications, industrial production... everything. But for us something significant which I would like to mention. For a couple of years, we observe a very dynamic and fast merge of the three main elements of the public communications business – advertising, public relations, and digital. It is more than obvious that soon they will merge entirely into a new business and now it is a constant dispute which one of the three businesses will lead it. The advertising industry claim that they will be in front as they own the media shops and also are the creators of new graphic ideas, the digital experts claim their leadership abilities as they create application, tabs, and software, which drive modern communications. My strong opinion is that Public Relations experts and managers will be the leader of the future new big, merged business and the reason is quite simple – we are the “Kings” of the content we are the masters of words and visions and in the modern world, in fact, everything is about the properly done content in Social Media. In two words – interesting times... 

How have the customer preferences changed over the years?
- They are changing every single day already; nobody counts on years. Of course, clients emphasize now on Social Media and the reason is quite clear – this is the only fully measurable media since the very beginning of the Guttenberg press machine even. The fact that clients can optimize their messages to certain target groups and afterward in minutes to measure their effect is the main reason traditional media is dying and social media is succeeding. Also – clients are more and more sensitive on the speed of taking decisions and on the creative approach to the projects. This creates a huge boost for our business – the ones which can take fast decisions and can communicate successfully will win, the others will be out of business.      

Could you please walk us through your educational/professional journey?
- It is still ongoing to be precise... and will start from the very recent developments. After graduation from the Executive Program on Leadership Decision Making at Harvard Kennedy School for a month, I am doing Ph.D. in Global Public Relations Changes at Sofia University. My initial graduation is in Prague University on International economic Relations and throughout the years I’ve made many different degrees in Universities all over the world, including The Pacific Institute in Seattle, USA, and The University of London. Briefly – learning is my passion. But also… the best learning one can have is in the practice.  I started many years ago as a machinery worker in a plant in Sofia, then graduated my University degree and started to work as a journalist, where I spent some 15 years... launched one of the first private daily newspapers in Bulgaria – Standard News and one good day I resign my office of Managing editor remembering well what Sir Winston Churchill said many years ago: You can achieve a lot with the journalism, but you should know exactly when to quit. So... I did it 27 years ago, launched my one-man-show company n a small rented from a friend one-room apartment... Today I am managing a big leading Public Relations and Social Media company, a committed partner of one of the largest international US-based PR corporations Hill+Knowlton Strategies, and have hundreds of clients from all over the world... It is a great project with new challenges every single day and I love it from the bottom of my heart. This is the project of my life, indeed.      
 
What was the moment that triggered you to step into the media industry?
- It happened logically... Since I was in high school my dream was to be a good journalist…Not just a journalist, but a very good journalist. And when I decided to quit this job, then the next logical step was to upgrade my journalistic knowledge... and even then, I did not realize that Public Relations is nothing else than pure business... But now I know it probably better than anyone else on the Planet Earth... It is just a business, very creative, ethical, responsible, and unique... But business!
 
When was M3 Communications Group, Inc established? What are the prominent services/solutions offered by the company?
- In 1994 I decided to quit journalism. 6 years later I met a great person, then Executive Vice President of Hill+Knowlton Strategies late Terence Billing who became my teacher, mentor, partner, and in fact best friend... In the company we went through many different stages, battles, great successes, and small failures, and at the end of the day today we are a modern and very successful corporation, undoubtedly leading PR company in Central and Eastern Europe. Today we provide the full range of public communications services – public, governmental and media relations, social media management, event and conventions, graphic design, web creations, and project management. It is a unique package for each of our clients as we do everything in-house and this for sure guarantees a very high level of quality of service. Of course – in modern times we are developing social media services, content management and, we put a lot of emphasis on the creation of visuals and work hard every day on the new media, which literary appear almost every week. At that stage, we provide service to more than 35 clients on a retainer fee and at least double the number per project. Indeed, this requires 7/24 availability for the clients and I am more than sure that we are masters of crisis management, employers branding, and corporate communications.        

What are your primary responsibilities as the Founder/CEO of the company?
- The more market is developed the more corporations develop their marketing and PR needs, the biggest are responsibilities, of course. In my latest book The Morning After, written at the beginning of 2021, some 9 months after the COVID pandemic started, I am describing in detail the dramatic changes in the management style and the completely different obligations of the CEO of the company. In fact, in modern times CEO must be much more a leader than a manager. In my point of view now everyone is a leader in his or her working environment, with his or her projects, with the clients and vendors. The leadership structure must be much more horizontal and this is the only way for each employee, expert, or consultant to understand their responsibility and to act also as a leader.     

Please mention some notable achievements throughout your esteemed career.
- I am not sure whether we can even find enough space in the magazine for that. I was declared Best PR Consultant in the World by the US-based Stevie Awards a couple of times throughout the years, recently PR Week announced me as Best Global PR Consultant and altogether I guess I may have more than 100 international business or leadership awards. All of my books have extremely high rankings on Amazon and a couple of editions already, very recently I was elected Advisory Board Member of one of the largest European Universities – Engage.eu, based in Germany. Among the many “hats” I wear it is my privilege also to be on the Board of the only World PR Museum in New Your City. And – in 2017 I was inducted into the Global PR Hall of Fame in London as the first-ever East European expert there. Last, but not least – the greatest achievement I have in my life are my children, my family, and of course – the excellent team of M3 Communications Group, Inc., which I love a lot.

What measures do you undertake to ensure optimum customer satisfaction?
- With customers, these days is relatively easy. First of all, they expect concrete results – increasing of sales, better branding or positioning in the media. Nowadays it is accessible to make exact reports back to the clients even on a daily basis as all the information is fully transparent. On the other hand – social media can not only provide this information but also target properly the messages. And now… comes the most important part. Of course, the client cares about the results, and to reach those results the consultants must be absolutely creative, innovative, proactive, and very, very knowledgeable. In the company we put a very strong focus on advanced preparation and creativity so every single post, even word on social media must be result-oriented, every picture must be effective, catchy, and tell stories.      

How much impact does the customer feedback have on the company’s strategies?
- Not a lot, at the end of the day we are the experts, and we know better than anyone else how to make a successful strategy. Of course, the client’s opinion is crucial, but this is part of our job – to talk to the clients, to discuss and to prove our point of view of course. We like to meet clients and the Zoom Lockdown Times give us an excellent opportunity to talk to clients from all over the world on a daily basis without travels, waste of time and money, and to solve all issues immediately. But again – we do insist that we are the true experts and always do our best to convince clients that sooner or later their success with us will come. The sooner, the better, of course...

The concept of media bribery has emerged in recent years. How do you ensure transparency and authenticity amid the increasing skepticism around the media industry?
- This concept worried the whole world maybe a decade ago, but these days less and less. Social media won the battle with traditional media and traditional media are fading out. And this is one of the beauties of modern business. How can you bribe a social media account? Not possible, of course. Since the very beginning of M3 Communications Group, Inc. we adopted values of the company and if the first one is professionalism, the second is integrity. All our experts care very much about how they talk and contact the media, but I think that the whole world knows very well who we and I are will be really surprised if whether client or media can even think that we can pay bribes to any journalist. With the expansion of Social Media, this risk already is close to zero to anyone else also.  Of course – Social Media have the risk of fake news and distributing rumors and these facts can create even more than skepticism among the readers, but it has nothing to do with our business at all. Briefly – everything which is transparent is ethical and to be honest, social media on that stage are the most transparent media ever.

How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact you and your company? What was your response to the unprecedented situation?
- Pandemic changed the whole business entirely, I would say all over the world. The home office environment brought to us a completely different business environment, rules of leadership, and management styles. And this will be the future of business relations, both external and internal, we should not have any expectations that everything we had before 2020 will be back in the same position. Pandemic crisis for sure made us stronger and much better PR experts. We’ve learned our lessons, helped a lot our clients to accommodate better and faster in the new business environment, mainly – to talk successfully to their teams and their stakeholders in the new conditions and also to take their decisions properly and on time. Our advantage was that for decades we are the masters of crisis management, and this was the main reason we are – more or less – ready for the challenge. It took us a week or two to organize ourselves to analyze the current situation, to take the proper management decisions, and start advising our clients on how to proceed. Lessons have been learned and I am sure it was for good.
 
5G technology is the talk of the town in the media industry today. What is your take on 5G and its probable impacts on the industry in the future?
- A couple of decades ago when the asked late Konrad Hilton, the founder of the world-known hospitality chain, what is important for a hotel to be successful his answer was: “Just three important things: location, location, location...” Today I would answer in the same style if they ask me what is important for a business project or corporation to be successful: communications, communications, communications. 5G these days gives the unique opportunity to the whole world to develop not only much faster communications, but also to witness never seen before mobile services which are changing our life. And at the end of the day, they make Planet Earth a much better place for living and making business.  

What are the services/solutions we should anticipate from M3 Communications Group, Inc. soon?
- Hm... We are in the business of Public Relations, but all those services very soon will develop in a way that for sure this very business will have even another name. Public today is not enough, at the end of the day everything is public already. The most important is to be real-time, live, immediate, transparent, exact... So, what we are doing now in the company is to be ready for a completely new era in our business – the Era or Real-time Video Communications on all possible levels. It will require of course teams with totally updated skills and much better knowledge and advanced preparation and this is exactly what we are doing now in the company.

As a decorated leader, what would be your piece of advice for entrepreneurs seeking careers in the media industry?
- Just use the formula created by me years ago, the formula of 3S, more and more important for the business with every single day. Speed, Simplicity, Self Confidence. These are the three most important things for each person, who is doing business in modern times. Speed is crucial – speed of taking decisions, of answering emails, of learning the brand-new things, of keeping deadlines, of talking to the right people, raising salaries or firing people who do not fit the team, of motivating people or trying to explain the things which other do not understand. Simplicity is also crucial, how to make the priorities for your business, or even personal life, which are the most important things, what to read, what rules to follow, what are the most important things you must do today, this week, until the end of the month... And finally, but not last – Self Confidence. So important! I do not know even a single successful person making a great career or super business not being confident, not being brave, not taking risks... Very clear, I hope. Just keep these three important points and do your job properly. But do them every day.

And be sure that crisis periods are the best time to cook your success as you can easily overcome obstacles which you will never have during other times. And these obstacles are making us stronger and more successful.