As a client of a PR agency, would you prefer to buy time or services?

According to me, the answer is a no brainer. Therefore, when I was in charge of coordinating five PR agencies scattered around Europe and the US, I’ve always looked for PR services (which, in my opinion, are a combination of brain + experience + execution) and I’ve always rejected the concept of time (which is a mere combination of minutes).

I’m probably narrow minded, but it was perfectly clear to me - even if at that time I was young and very unexperienced - that accepting a remuneration based on time was equivalent to admit that the slower and less efficient the PR agency the higher the invoice. Absolutely brilliant for the agency, not brilliant at all for the client.

I’ve probably been a very difficult guy to deal with, but looking for objectives - both as a PR agency client and as a PR agency executive - I’ve always gone beyond the targets.

In 1987, when I was at Honeywell, we won the RITA (Recognition of IT Achievement) Award - a UK prize - with an Italian product. The agency was A+, the account director was John Aeberhard and the account manager was Chris Hewitt. Quite an achievement.

In 2000 and 2001, when I was at Fleishman-Hillard, my group managed to obtain an average gross profit in excess of 21% (against an objective of 17%). Again, quite an achievement (and this was entirely due to the “time sheet free” business model that I’ve developed in 1992 for Qwerty PR).

I’ve always bought services. I’ve always sold services. And you?

Alberico Tremigliozzi is a brilliant young individual with a deep knowledge of the retail environment, especially of the Italian one. He is working in the role of project leader in a well known multinational company providing solutions to retailers, and can therefore be considered a stakeholder - according to the traditional meaning of the term - for a company like Symbol, which develops products also for the retail environment.

Last year, Alberico has started blogging about the retail environment. Because of his deep understanding of the business, his blog has quickly developed into a “daily must read” for the Italian retail industry. Today, he has over 800 daily readers, and is growing quickly. On October 25, Alberico has published an interview to Ugo Mastracchio of Symbol Italy, about the company strategies and technologies.

I have a question. When I’ve talked with Alberico about the interview, was I speaking with a stakeholder or a citizen journalist? Or both? I can’t find a suitable definition for my timesheet.

I’m joking, of course. But if I had to fill in my timesheet with a “proper” definition, I’d probably had to choose between giving up the opportunity or starting an endless discussion with my boss.