Murphy's PR law: globetrotting can produce results

IT WAS just over 20 years ago when Michael Murphy sold his Glasgow public relations agency to Shandwick and declared that he was likely to spend the rest of his working life in Scotland.

As it turned out, he found himself working in London and Hong Kong and he moved swiftly through a number of senior roles at Shandwick, Hatch and Trimedia.

Now he's back in Scotland. At least he's back for the party this week to mark the latest twist in his career. He has been appointed chief executive of a newly formulated Grayling, created from the merger of the agency with Trimedia and Mmd, each of them subsidiaries of the Huntsworth Group, headed by Lord Peter Chadlington, who has reduced the group's 26 agencies to four: Grayling, Red, Huntsworth Health and Citigate.

Murphy has big plans for Grayling, which accounts for 44 per cent of group revenue, and it is his job to turn the agency, already a $150m business, into a world player, competing with the likes of Edelman and Weber Shandwick.

"This (the merger] is not about cutting costs – we've made only two redundancies out of 900 staff – it's about giving us one brand globally to service international clients," says Murphy.

The plan now is to invest in Grayling – "put some muscle into it" – by giving it a marketing push. Murphy's view of the industry is that clients now want a combination of services and those that can provide this all-round package will be the winners.

"Clients want public affairs and public relations brought together to give them a joined-up strategy. Even in this market, PR is fairly resilient. Companies need PR to help them to manage change."

He began his career as a reporter on the Highland News in Inverness and later the Cumbernauld News, before moving into PR with Glasgow Transport. At the age of 24 he took on a similar role with the Alloa Brewing Company and then came what he considered his big break when he joined Scottish advertising agency Grant Forrest as head of PR. He found himself running the business and built it into the biggest agency in Scotland.

In 1983, he branched out on his own, launching PR Consultants Scotland and selling it in 1989 to Chadlington's Shandwick agency. Murphy headed off to the Far East to run the Hong Kong office, rising to chief executive of the Asia division. By 1994 he was back as head of Europe and in 1999 was appointed deputy chief executive of Shandwick International.

He left in 2001 to launch Hatch, again returning to Peter Chadlington, to whom he sold the business two years later. The Chadlington link has clearly been influential and Murphy's role in the partnership has been described variously as steering the ship to hatchet man. Whatever the case, they have formed a bond that has lasted a working lifetime.

"Peter is a PR man who still works closely with his clients. He understands the business," says Murphy.

He was 56 last week, and these days home is in Richmond, Surrey. He was an early convert to the benefits of working away from home. "They say Scots travel well," he says.

He will certainly embark on numerous trips abroad to fulfil his plan to double or treble Grayling's revenues. "We have big ambitions in America and things are changing with the growing influence of Latin America and Asia.

"We're trying to encourage our staff to move from office to office. It's good experience. I worked in Asia before I worked in London and it told me that the best ideas don't always come from London or New York."