Grant Common, Managing Director
Grant Common, Managing Director, is the founder of Network Communications.
There’s not much Grant hasn’t experienced during nearly 30 years in public relations - making him one of Australia’s most experienced PR consultants.
He’s done it all. Worked in the financial sector on M&A’s and investor relations. Handled marketing campaigns for brands and industries. Directed Government public information campaigns. Advised on a whole range of corporate communications matters - crises, issues, restructurings, mergers, plant closures and redundancies.
This has given him a deep practical understanding of the commercial environment. This is complemented by him being a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, having completed the Company Director Course Diploma in 2002.
He started his public relations career in New Zealand. But he’s worked in Australia for many years. He’s also directed campaigns for clients in the UK and the USA. And he’s been a long-term member of professional Public Relations Bodies in Australia, New Zealand and the US.
He was an early adopter of the new internet environment. In 2001 he launched a free web site and email newsletter - www.prinfluences.com.au - for marketing and corporate communicators. It is now firmly established as Australia’s most comprehensive PR reference source with over 4000 subscribers - including many from competitive PR agencies.
Partly as a consequence of his experience with online publishing Grant has led the agency’s drive into the online and social media space. In 2007 he formally moved the agency out of traditional consumer PR, and decided that in future Network would specialise in B2B PR (an existing service) and Online B2C (a new service).
“When you’ve been a communications professional as long as I have, and seen media and communications’ trends come and go, you learn to pick what’s real and what’s a fad. Online represents a fundamental change in consumer habits and behaviour. This is as obvious to me, as it must have been to advertisers when television came along. It was and still is an area crying out for the communication skills that people with a PR background can offer”, he says.
While Grant is the driving force behind the agency’s online and social media business strategy he unashamedly admits he is not personally ‘into’ the modern online and social media tools. You won’t find him on Facebook, Linked-in, or Twitter.
“I am a voracious reader about the sector, and I ‘get off’ on the strategies, tools and principles. But I deliberately try to keep a ‘helicopter’ view.
“I also believe in hiring people brighter than myself and with skills that I don’t have. As a result we are building a great team of people. This includes what I call geeks who know all there to know in this online area. The combination of the 30 years of communications and PR skills that I bring with this genuine on-the-ground expertise is enabling us to build an agency - and service - which I believe is unique in the Australian marketplace”.
Grant still undertakes specialist corporate pr consulting for a small range of clients - and is always available to do more. But taking the agency on the journey to become the Australian leader in what he sees as the ‘new frontier’ for PR and communications is the mission he is on.
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