The recent fire in Gujarat Refinery brought to fore something which many media houses have been ruminating for some time. There was a time when IOCL was in the front line of sharing information but of late this has changed. There is practically very less information sharing by the Fortune 500 Oil major.
The entire tenure of the last head saw no AGM with media attendance. Even after COVID being a thing of past and most Oil & Gas Companies having open AGMs with extensive question – answer sessions, IOCL chose to have Video Conferencing with minimal or practically no interaction with the media. Most recently when the Quarterly Results were shared most companies chose to have interactive sessions with a few even sending Press Releases of their Dir, Finance but again IOCL did not. This in fact speaks volumes about the role and functioning of Corporate Communication Dept. in the organization.
In the last regime in IOCL CC got involved in mostly events and personal brand building. Well, that is the prerogative of the company and the public need not get perturbed. But when one realises that most CC functionaries are engaged in trips to foreign countries, be it Texas USA, Paris France etc. or more recently Abu Dhabi and Azerbaijan the Public tends to take note. Also when certain specific CC functionaries repeatedly go abroad. In fact, they some times out do even Senior Bureaucrats of MoP& NG in travels abroad. This results in considerable drainage of Foreign Exchange and Public Exchequer. All this may still be good provided the vital function of CC of information sharing is also undertaken.
Many mainstream media have been flashing the news and commenting on the Gujarat Refinery fire. NewsIP did not carry it deliberately since Fire in any Oil & Gas Establishment is nothing new since such establishments deal with flammable and hazardous material. Also NewsIP, as a principle, waits for authentic information from primary sources. In fact the truth is that IOCL, under the current leadership did a great job in containing the fire.
It has become a trend that some CC Departments of PSU Companies do not carry out their primary responsibility of information sharing but get involved in peripheral activities.This could lead to severe communication gaps. In fact, Corporate Communication is one department where there is sufficient scope to run own agenda, rub shoulders with high & mighty, seek personal glory and blame the environment for any failure. Lack of domain training, professionalism, specific insights to business etc also comes in the way.
IOCL being a leading PSU, with an excellent legacy of information sharing & media relations needs to have a relook into its approach, lest it be labelled as an also been.