More than 30,000 feet in the air, Stanley Liu is preparing his schedule for the next week and is reviewing some final details on a few upcoming projects. It is quite obvious that the newly appointed general manager of the Taipei office is just as at ease high up in the sky as he is at his desk—a notion he quickly confirms.

“Leading a team of PR professionals is very similar to leading a flight team in combat,” says Stanley. “Lots of background preparation, strategizing and communication go into the final product, and often the small details make all the difference—just like in PR!”

Stanley Liu, after hours!

Stanley speaks from experience. He has been in marketing and public relations for nearly 15 years and with the Taipei office since its inception six years ago. During that time he has overseen many award-winning campaigns, including the Asia-Pacific PR Awards Campaign of the Year in 2004 for 3M Aldara.

Similarly, Stanley speaks from experience when it comes to flying—the virtual way. In Taiwan, military service is mandatory, and Stanley spent two years serving his country in the navy. He quickly developed a love for aircraft, which has manifested itself through weekend sessions of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

“Playing online, I’m often helping to analyze different situations and communicating with a team of people from around the world. Not only is the event a lot of fun, but I can walk away and apply some of the lessons to situations in the marketing world as well,” explained Stanley.

“Background planning allows flight teams—and PR professionals—to develop a strategy. Understanding the challenges along the flight path, or within the client’s industry, allows one to overcome those difficulties. Communication is also vital to the success or failure of any mission. For the flight team, knowing each other’s job, status and observations at all times ensures success. It allows for other members of the flight team to assist or alter their current roles as necessary.”

In PR, communication is not only needed among all members of the team, but also between the agency and the client. Stanley likens this to airplanes, which are equipped with an Instrument Landing System and can use a computer to land the plane. Stanley explains, “No pilot, however, unless incapacitated, relies on the ILS to land the plane—there are too many small factors that could cause problems, and only with hands on the controls can the pilot compensate for these factors.”

Stanley continued, “Similarly, no PR professional can go through a campaign on auto control. Constant communication between the agency and client about client goals, campaign execution methods, and the milestones and measurements for success is needed to ensure mission accomplishment.”

Over the past 15 years, Stanley has seen the PR industry evolve in Taiwan as agencies have focused on better understanding the industries and clients they serve. This has led to an increasing trend of specialized agencies in the Taiwan market.

He points to his own history as an example. His degree in electrical engineering helped prepare Stanley for one of his first clients, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, also known as TAITRA. TAITRA’s mission is to promote trade with Taiwan. When Stanley joined the account in 1998, the island of Taiwan was taking off as the world’s IT hub. His background knowledge allowed him key access to industry insiders and the ability to educate international media on Taiwan.

Now Stanley is firmly engaged in the most important mission he has undertaken thus far: managing the Taipei office of GolinHarris. While challenges are to be expected, Stanley believes that following his own principles of preparation, strategy and communication will lead to success.

Expectations for his first few years in office are high. “I want to help build GH’s leading reputation in Taiwan and be the firm of choice as recommended by media, clients and companies. We will look to enrich our practice groups to become the category leader for those practices and to meet more demand from clients who are looking for a single-agency solution,” said Stanley.

With the right strategy in place backed by an award-winning team, Stanley can anticipate many years of flying in a victory formation.

Mei Sasaki Appointed Senior Advisor to Tokyo

Mei Sasaki (seated) with the GH team in Tokyo.

In September, the Tokyo office of GolinHarris welcomed Mei Sasaki, a former senior journalist at the Asahi Shimbun, newspaper to act as senior advisor. Mei will hold monthly training sessions covering a number of topics such as media relations, effective writing, understanding the Japanese media, successfully structuring messages and communicating with journalists.

Mr. Sasaki also holds a position at Dokkyo Medical University as a lecturer of media literacy and writing. He began his career at the Asahi Shimbun in 1965 as a general news reporter, and later focused on society and globalization issues both domestically and internationally, writing several books in the process.

“Mr. Sasaki’s series of insightful training sessions for GolinHarris have proved invaluable to both junior and senior staff members,” said Eiichi Onozawa, managing director of GH in Tokyo.

GH Exchange Offers Learning Experiences By Nicolaus Wilk, account supervisor, GolinHarris in Taipei

Nicolaus Wilk went to Shanghai China as part of the GH Exchange program.

In May of this year I had the opportunity to work from the Shanghai office as part of the Asia GH Exchange Program. The program fosters greater cross-office collaboration and trust, resulting in more business and better client service.

In addition to leveraging talent and specialties in new markets, the GH Exchange program also provides the experience to grow and learn as a PR practitioner. In my case, I learned quite a lot, and I was also glad to share some of my experiences with the team in China.

Most importantly, I learned that clients everywhere are searching for the same thing: innovative solutions that can help grow their business. While in Shanghai, I took part in the opening of a designer bedding goods store, for which the Shanghai team put together an innovative runway show featuring China’s top male model, Li Bing. It was a great opportunity to see best practices from another office.

Additionally, I learned that China is often portrayed inaccurately in Western media, at least in the realm of marketing. The general perception is that marketing and public relations in China is underdeveloped and that unsophisticated approaches are the norm. However, if anything, China is over-marketed, with product placements and advertisements everywhere. This market maturity and competitiveness also means that only the creative truly stand out and that there is a need for PR to cut through this noise.

I was also able to share my experience as a foreigner in Asia with the team there. Often, the needs of foreign media agencies differ from the domestic media, and insight-sharing was beneficial to the team.

The Asia GH Exchange program truly is a valuable experience, not only because it sharpens the PR skills of the participants, but also because it produces positive results for clients who benefit from an extra voice and fresh perspectives.