The PR Magician

People | November 24, 2006, Friday // 00:00
Bulgaria: The PR Magician Photo by Yuliana Toncheva

Tuesday morning. It is raining and the cars speed by on the Bulgaria boulevard in Sofia. I am having an appointment with Maxim Behar, owner and CEO of the biggest and most prestigious PR company in Bulgaria M3 Communications Group, Inc.

By Yana Tabakova, Club M magazine*

There are many people who talk just for the sake of talking. They stick to their one and only maxim - "Many words - no meaning!". They believe they are well-read in all issues and if you ask them where their confidence stems from, they would answer you something like this: "How can I know what I think before I hear myself saying it out loud!". And after that their self-confidence starts to grow indeed!

To be honest, I find these people really boring. They are predictable in their speech and intolerably stiff when faced with communication challenges.

Much more interesting I find to be those people who turn communication into a piece of art and hence into business. These people agree with Oscar Wilde that it is only conversation that truly inebriates and look magnificent in their inebriation.

Tuesday morning. It is raining and the cars speed by on the Bulgaria boulevard in Sofia. I am having an appointment with Maxim Behar, owner and CEO of the biggest and most prestigious PR company in Bulgaria M3 Communications Group, Inc. His room is small and cozy, on the walls hanging dozens of pictures of him together with outstanding personalities - presidents, businessmen, and sportsmen. It does not take me long to realize that this is just a negligible part of his photo collection. The room also has two doors both wide open. For anyone and anything. They are always open. We close them just while we are doing the interview so that we may not disturb the people who work in the corporation.

"Doors are like free speech here. Speech is free and people are free here. Basically, the PR business stands where dynamics and creativity meet making money. And that, at the end of the day, is the ultimate goal of any kind of business. That was one of the reasons why I said goodbye to journalism. I realized that all this creativity and freethinking could be put to work in doing business. This gives me the opportunity to make money and give just as interesting jobs to the people around me.

Q: We will talk about journalism later. Now let's talk about the essence of the PR business. What is it like?

A: We make the connection between our clients and their end-users. I very often compare the PR business to what a dentist does. He may have implants of the highest quality, the best medicines and anesthetics. The patient has only one obligation - to open his mouth. There is no other way in which a dentist may fix the teeth of a patient.

This is also how it works with us. There is no other way in which we can work for the image of a company, unless the boss of that company trusts us, takes our advice, cooperates with us. We teach him how to counteract with people, who are to receive his messages.

Q: Isn't this what advertising a company is like? In Bulgaria no clear difference is being made between advertising and PR. Where is the borderline?

A: Here is the main difference. Imagine a man enters a discotheque, pushes away the dj and declares, in the presence of all the women there, that he is the best lover they could ever meet. This is what advertising does. Now imagine a man enters a discotheque and all the women present there swoop down upon him because they already know him to be the best lover and would not like to miss their chance. This is PR and this is what we do in the public space.


Q: Doesn't this mean that PR companies are the finest of manipulators? Or that their work helps for the better understanding between companies and their clients?

A: I am a fervent opponent of the idea that the PR business is nothing but manipulation. It is nothing of this kind. This is business, which consists of two main words. The first one is "Public", that is we are transparent. Anyone can see what we are doing and this is what modern PR should be like. The other word is "Relations", that is we rely on our relations and communication with the media, the people, the government.

We do stick to the meanings of these two words, which makes meaningless the concept of manipulation.

Q: What is the secret to the success in PR business?

A: Our company has two formulas, on which we build our work. The first is: Skills x Efforts x Concentration. You should bear in mind that this is a multiplication. Should any of the three figures be zero, the result will also be zero.

You should have skills. You should have, for instance, read 10,000 books, seen a selection of movies, have the intelligence to succeed, be interested. You should have made the maximum efforts. Sometimes it may take 1 hour, sometimes 24 hours. And finally, you should be concentrated. You should know well what you are working on and be persistent in order to develop it and bring it to perfection.

Q: Working with media and people is a dynamic process and a great responsibility. How do they mix in the process of building an image?

A: The mixture of these two concepts happens thanks to the second formula we work with. We call it the "Three Ss": Speed, Simplicity and Self-Confidence.

In the modern world speed is crucial. Our company is based on a value system, made up of six values. One of them is the so-called "five-minute standard". Every employee at M3 Communications Group, Inc. is obliged to reply to each e-mail within five minutes after receiving it. That could be just one sentence, saying: "Thank you for your letter! I will get back t you in....two months." It is important to stay in touch.

Speed can be applied to the process of taking decisions, communications with clients, media, organizing an event, everything. The world is a very fast place! If ten years ago the world was a fast place, turning at a fast speed, five years ago speed was even faster and now in 2006 things happen real time.
This fact creates many complications. One may overlook something, repeat it, fail to pay attention to the details. The second "S" comes to the rescue here and it stands for "Simplicity." We try to make things as simple as possible. And to reduce them to simple values and truths that allow us to work efficiently.

The third "S" stands for "Self-confidence". It is impossible to achieve anything unless you believe in yourself, unless you are inspired and positive that you will achieve your final goal!

I could not agree more. Even more so as there are rules in business, which one cannot do without. Maxim Behar knows this best. Since 2001 he is chairman of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, associated with the Prince of Wales. He was also the first to prepare the Business Ethics Standard project. Now this document adorns the offices of more than 1000 companies across the country, which have signed it and adopted its principles.

Q: Let's talk about business ethics.

A: There is nothing but ethics in business. There is no other way. My idea is quite simple: we should make money in a transparent way! Everyone, who does business, does it to make money. Because the more we earn, the more society needs us: taxes are bigger, investments are bigger, and more jobs are created. The moment we start doing this in a transparent way, we are doing it ethically.

Q: This is the ideal scenario. There are however some "businessmen", who look for loopholes in legislation. Their goal is also making money. Where do these people stand in Bulgaria's business?

A: I find it difficult to imagine that in today's world somebody would want to do business, without having the will to do it transparently. Unless business is transparent, it is not ethical. Any non-ethical business is inevitably spat out of the market. There is no place for it.

Q: Transparency is something very important in journalism as well. Before embarking on doing PR, you started your career as a journalist.

A: Everything started in 1969. I was thirteen. Although a little boy, my father sent me to work in the summer in the carpenter unit in the then-milk producing factory Serdika- Sofia. I was putting crates together all day long.

One day a man came to me and said: "Who is Maxim Behar?". I said: "It's me." It turned out that he was the head of the factory. He asked me: "I have been told that you speak English. Is it true?" I answered positively and he took me to translate during his meeting with some Swiss guys. From this day on, I worked as translator to the head of the factory.

As I had nothing to do all day long, I started publishing a newspaper, which I typed on the typing machine at the office. That was a newspaper with local news. I sold it at 10 stotinkas (the price of "Rabotnichesko delo at that time, was 2 stotinkas!) The circulation of my newspaper was 10copies. This is how it all started. It was then that I realized how important language is. It opens doors.

After that Maxim Behar leaves for Prague to do his studies and there he gets a job in a magazine with a circulation of one million copies. The Czech language is the most difficult Slav language. That however does not stop Maxim from being one of the best writers in Czech for that time. He publishes a number of articles for the magazine until his skills get noticed by the editors at "Rabotnichesko delo".

I was attending an international meeting in Prague. There I met Vanya Hlebarova, a woman from "Rabotnichesko delo". She told me: "You should come to work for us as a journalist. We are opening a competition." At that time the average age of the journalists at "Rabotnichesko delo" was 55. I was about 25. And so I entered the competition and won. That was the first time a state-run media recruited staff through a competition.

This is how Maxim starts working on a Bulgarian newspaper. Later on he becomes the media correspondent in his hometown of Shumen. The next step is Poland.

One day I was asked to come to Sofia and was told: "We are very happy with your work. You can choose a place to work as our foreign correspondent." I was offered three options: Czechoslovakia, Bonne, and Warsaw. It did not take me a moment to decide and I said: "Warsaw." The then-Editor-in-Chief called me and said: "You must be out of your mind! There is nothing in Warsaw but misery and hunger!" It was November 1988. Many things were happening in Poland at that time. It was already clear that communism will soon be a thing of the past and interesting times were ahead. I spent three years in Poland.

At that time Maxim Behar visits Lithuania to cover the invasion of the Russian troops. There he shoots a film as well. He is already working for Duma newspaper.

I had the chance to interview many interesting people at that time - the Presidents of Poland Lech Walesa and Alexander Kwasniewski, of the Czech Republic - Vaclav Havel, of Bulgaria - Zhelyu Zhelev, Spain's Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, the national security adviser to US President Jimmy Carter Zbigniew Brezinski, Bulgaria's king in exile Simeon II and many others. I met many extremely interesting people who helped me "ride the wave."

Most memorable however remains his interview with the head of the Yugoslav central bank in 1992-1993 Dragoslav Avramovic.

When Yugoslavia was gripped by the biggest crisis in its history Dragoslav Avramovic managed to stabilize the country by pegging the dinar to the deutsche mark. Just for one year he did miracles with his country. After that the war broke out and everything broke down. The comparison with Bulgaria was shattering. At the beginning of the 90s our country was making its first efforts to leave the hard times behind. At the same time everything in Yugoslavia was changing - the shops were full, the wages increased, it was like a fairy tale. And all that thanks to one person Dragoslav Avramovic.

Maxim Behar's work at the Duma daily comes to an end after his interview with Simeon II. After that he co-founds the Standard daily.

Q: What did you learn from your work as a journalist?

A: Even today I know very well what is going on in a media. This is very important for my PR business where media are my partners. Practically we are here to make their job easier and more efficient. I know the way it works.

Probably because of his easy-going attitude, charisma and professionalism, Maxim Behar was appointed General Consul of the Seychelles by the islands' president.

The smaller the country, the more difficult the job of the honorary consul. Because the big country thrives on its popularity and money, it is well-known. The small country, in my case the Seychelles, which consists of 115 islands, is a big challenge. My goal is to promote the country. With islands as exotic as the Seychelles, my job is pure pleasure.

Q: You are a very busy man. Do you ever find time to relax?

A: Fitness, massage, good music and photography is how I relax best. I have staged so far two photo exhibitions with pictures from the Seychelles and Finland. To me, doing a photo exhibition is like writing a good article. It should have a nice title and an introduction, a few sentences that will make the reader read it to the end. After that a conclusion, which will make the reader say: "The author is right" or "He is not right". This is how I take pictures - with an introduction, presentation and conclusion.

Q: You seem to be a very romantic man...

A: We live in hard times. We should be practical in order to survive. I am still a romantic man mainly because I follow one principle - never do business, for the sake of business itself. I keep telling my colleagues: "The moment you feel your work is dull and you don't make the best of your time, this is not the right business for you. What I want is that my colleagues find their work interesting. There is a big dose of romanticism in that.


Along with doing business, Maxim Behar has another passion: men's toys.

Many people know me for investing in men's toys. For example buying the latest ipod, so that I can watch movies while flying. Or buy the latest model of a cell phone or a computer. It is a pity that three months later these gadgets get outdated and I have to replace them...

Maxim Behar's biggest love however remains his family. He has a 19-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter.

I owe to them many of my success stories. They are the people who support in the hardest of times. My daughter waits for me to come home every night. In the morning she leaves me notes wishing me a nice day! Recently however more and more often the notes read: "Daddy, I love you very much! You are my most treasured thing! Could you give me some pocket money?"


* The article was made available to Sofia News Agency for publishing by Club M magazine

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