This week, on the PRmoment Podcast, I’m interviewing Chris Talago, VP PR & communications, JAPAC & EMEA at Oracle.

Chris started his career in the British Army before moving, fairly randomly it has to be said, into PR. He started his career in-house before moving agency side with jobs at Text 100 and Hill and Knowlton. He then moved in-house to AMD before tacking back agency side to become general manager EMEA at Waggener Edstrom (now WE) before taking the Oracle job in 2016.

 Here is a flavour of what Chris and I discuss:

  Why Chris always wanted to be a soldier in the British Army 1.30 mins

• Why he chose to become an infantry soldier 2.02min
• How his father’s time in the Polish parachute regiment during The Second World War shaped Chris’s career in the Army 2.25 mins
• Whether Chris saw action during his time in the Army 3.25 mins
• Why Chris spent the first Iraq War in the North of Scotland! 4.30 mins
• Why Chris left the British Army 5.30 mins
• How Chris got his first job in PR when he left the Army 7.00 mins
• What it’s like being a veteran coming out into civvy street 8.00 mins
• What can be done to help veterans coming out of the services find employment 11.10 mins
• Which two jobs had a huge influence the rest of his PR career 15.30 mins
• Why Text 100 gave Chris a GM role in South Africa when he had no previous agency experience, had only worked in PR for four years and had never been to Africa before 17.30 mins
• How Chris became an expert in change management 18.45 mins
• Why Chris moved to the US just after the dot-com boom in 2001 19.50 mins
• How during the dot-com crash there were multiple firms going into Chapter 11 each month
• How the Text 100 Boston office halved within six months of the dot-com crash
• Why the IBM pitch meant that Text 100 suddenly became ‘the only hirer in town’ in 2000 24 mins
• Why Chris left New York and came back to the UK 26.40 mins
• We discuss Chris’s time as EMEA head at WE (Waggener Edstrom) 26.50 mins
• The challenges of taking a PR agency from a media-relations shop to a new world of social, digital and SEO. 28.30 mins
• The challenges of getting different internal buyers to buy from the same agency 29.40 mins
• As a buyer of PR what is Chris looking for when he purchases PR services? 31.02 mins
• Why Chris believes it is a difficult difficult time for PR agencies 33 mins
• Why Oracle is now buying services from a broader range of agencies 33.33 mins
• The difficulties of plugging the specialist agencies workflow into your retained firm 34.15 mins
• Why there is now more than ever an emphasis on in-house teams to be an intelligent buyer of marketing services 35.33 mins
• What advice does Chris give to young leaders on public relations? 37.15 mins
• Chris’s top three challenges for PR and communications people right now 41.48 mins
• If you can't sell an idea you are going to have a limited life span in PR 42.12 mins
• Why as an in-house PR person Chris is only as good as the impact he is able to demonstrate his team is having on the business  45.45 mins
• Why Chris always wants to separate the “church from the state” when it comes to the agency doing the measurement 46.15 mins