In our Headliners series of conversations, we get under the skin of PR and communications leaders around the world who have made PRovoke Media headlines recently, uncovering the risks they have taken in their career, the people, brands and work they admire, their advice for industry newbies, and their guilty pleasures.

In this week's Q&A, we speak to  Richard Fogg, who recently became the new co-managing director of Hoffman UK after selling technology specialist CCGroup to The Hoffman Agency. 

What’s the biggest career risk you’ve ever taken? How did it work out?

Hindsight is, of course, 20/20. But leading the management buyout of CCGroup, with my long-suffering business partner Paul Nolan, back in 2013 felt like a huge career risk. My dad had run his own business. I’d seen the highs and the lows. But the lows significantly outnumbered the highs. It went bust while I was at University and despite some incredible support, I wasn’t sure we could own a business or bear the stress of it all. I was wrong. It was far from plain sailing, but it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience. We closed that chapter by selling CCGroup to The Hoffman Agency last month. I honestly don’t think it could have turned out better and I’m ridiculously excited to be part of the Hoffman team.

What’s the biggest creative risk you’ve ever taken?

I’m not sure it’s the biggest creative risk I’ve taken (some would argue my jackets are), but it’s certainly the most memorable. In 2003 we were working for the GSMA, the mobile industry trade association. At the time, there was a technology standards schism in mobile, roughly split along US vs. the rest of the world lines. The GSMA represented the ‘rest of the world’.

I’d somehow discovered a blog post (remember: this was 2003, these things were ‘new’ and Google Alerts were not yet available!) from a US Congressman pushing for the rollout of the US technology standard in post-war Iraq. It felt like an amazing opportunity to re-assert the importance of using the common standard to integrate Iraq back into the world order once the war was over.

I took the idea to my boss, we pitched it to the lovely, if somewhat risk-averse, client CEO, got the green light and was told I had two days to make it fly. I drafted a pretty punchy statement decrying the intervention as ‘as ill-timed as it was misinformed’ and hit the phones, bringing the blog post to the attention of the international media.

It caused an uproar. The news broke out of the telecoms industry into the mainstream press. Investigative reporters started looking into the Congressman’s campaign contributions and discovered the company behind the US standard had been splashing the cash. Cue an embarrassing climb-down and a quick decision to use the ‘rest of the world’ standard in Iraq.

The best bit? The campaign was on a shortlist of one for the PRCA Issues and Crisis Management award. I borrowed a tux and went with my bosses to my first ever PR awards ceremony. It was going to be a great night…until it got a ‘Highly Commended’. In a one-horse race, we’d somehow come second (apparently our evaluation wasn’t up to snuff and ‘achieving our stated objective’ wasn’t enough)!

What do you think are the most important character traits for a great PR person?

Curiosity, resilience and a sense of humour.

Which company or organization do you most admire in terms of PR, branding or reputation management?

The Ukrainian government has certainly experienced some ups and downs, but overall, has done an outstanding job of managing its reputation in the most challenging of circumstances imaginable.

Which individual, in any field, do you think exemplifies outstanding leadership or communication skills?

Professor Scott Galloway. He’s an outstanding leader and communicator. I consume more than five hours of his audio content every week. He’s cynical but kind, successful but self-effacing and aggressively progressive but with a sense of humour. I met him earlier this year (see pic, he’s the one on the right!) and was embarrassingly starstruck.

What’s the best campaign you’ve seen recently?

I absolutely loved ‘The Meal’, by Ready10, with support from Broadcast Revolution. I’ve judged a couple of awards programmes in the last year and it just blew everything else away. To be able to persuade an organisation the size of McDonalds to be that brave, and to reward that trust with the results they did, is simply brilliant.

Is there an industry trend or discussion you think is over-rated or exaggerated or just plain stupid?

Absolutely not! Everything PR people worry about or think might be the future is done with a calmness and clarity that most other industries could learn from (*coughs*).

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone entering the PR industry today?

I’m going to borrow a phrase from Prof G that I think all PR people should hang on to: “Things are never as good, or as bad, as they seem”.

What’s your guilty pleasure when you need to unwind from the high pressure of PR?

Wow…I’ve grown up. It’s not even a pleasure to be guilty about. I absolutely love listening to my daughter play the guitar and sing. I’m obviously biased, but she’s got an amazing voice and it both calms me and creates little blossoms of pride.